Pat Mills (director)

Kevin Patrick Mills is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor, whose feature film debut Guidance was released in 2015.[1]

Pat Mills
CFC Annual BBQ Fundraiser 2014
Born
Kevin Patrick Mills

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter, actor
Known forGuidance, Don't Talk to Irene

Early life and education

A former child actor who appeared on the television series You Can't Do That on Television,[2] Mills later studied filmmaking at Ryerson University and studied at the Canadian Film Centre.[2]

Career

Mills has directed several short films, including 5 Dysfunctional People in a Car, Marjorie, Pat's First Kiss, Babysitting Andy, The Affected Turtleneck Trio and I'm Not Martin!, and won the Toronto International Film Festival's annual Pitch This! competition for emerging film directors in 2008 for his pitch for Don't Talk to Irene.[3] Don't Talk to Irene later won the award for Best Comedy Screenplay at the 2013 Austin Film Festival.[4] He also has a teen drama television series, Amnesia Girl, in development.[5]

Mills, who is gay,[2] wrote Guidance as a satirical spin on his own history as a child actor,[2] centering the screenplay on a character whose backstory is similar to his own but who has much more dysfunctional ways of dealing with his insecurities.[2] Having not taken an acting role since 1994, he had to pay almost ten years worth of back ACTRA dues in order to act in his own film.[6] His performance was nominated for a 2015 ACTRA Award.[7]

Don't Talk to Irene went into production in 2016 as Mills' second film,[8] premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released in Canada and the USA. It went on to win both the Comedy Vanguard Award and Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival,[9] the Audience Choice at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival[10] and the Galet d'Or at the 5th Canadian film festival of Dieppe, France.[11] Mills was also listed as one of MovieMaker Magazine's 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2018.[12] In June 2018, Don't Talk to Irene won two Canadian Comedy Awards: Best Feature and Best Writing in a Feature.[13]

In 2020 he directed the digital series Queens for CBC Gem, which won Best Canadian Web Series by Now Magazine.[14]

In October 2020, he directed Lifetime's first LGBTQ+ Christmas movie, The Christmas Setup.[15]

References
  1. "Search Engine takes Canadian rights to Guidance". Playback, September 8, 2014.
  2. "High school confidential". Xtra!, September 4, 2014.
  3. "Offbeat coming-of-age tale wins $10K movie-pitch competition". CBC News, September 9, 2008.
  4. Screenplay and Teleplay Competition Winners Archived 2014-09-15 at the Wayback Machine. Austin Film Festival.
  5. "The Mark of Cain and Amnesia Girl in development at CTV". Playback, February 23, 2012
  6. "Starring in own film costly for director". Brampton Guardian, September 9, 2014.
  7. "Alumnus Pat Mills Nominated for a 2015 ACTRA Award". Canadian Film Centre, January 8, 2015.
  8. "Geena Davis to Star in Indie Comedy 'Don't Talk to Irene'". The Hollywood Reporter, June 23, 2016.
  9. "2017 Winners" Austin Film Festival, December 18, 2017
  10. "KCFF'18 Award Winners" Kingston Canadian Film Festival, March 8, 2018
  11. "Les lauréats du 5e festival du film canadien de Dieppe...". Paris-Normandie, March 26, 2018.
  12. "Austin Film Festival 25 Screenwriter's to Watch". Moviemaker Magazine, April 30, 2018.
  13. "Recipients of the 2018 Canadian Comedy Awards". Canadian Comedy Awards, June 3, 2018.
  14. "Readers' Choice 2020". Now Magazine, November 19, 2020.
  15. "Lifetime Sets Cast For Holiday Movies ‘The Christmas Setup’ & ‘Sugar & Spice Holiday’: Fran Drescher, Ben Lewis, Jackie Lai, More". Deadline, September 14, 2020.
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