Matt Johnson (director)

Matt Johnson (born October 5, 1985) is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. He first attracted accolades for his low-budget independent feature films, including The Dirties (2013), which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Operation Avalanche (2016), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Johnson achieved widespread critical and commercial acclaim for his third feature film, BlackBerry (2023), which documented the rise and fall of the BlackBerry phone. The film premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, and went on to win several accolades including the $50,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.

2007–2009: Early work
Johnson is known for co-creating, writing and starring in the low-budget web series Nirvanna the Band the Show from 2007 to 2009.

2013–2014: The Dirties
Johnson achieved widespread critical acclaim in Canada with his first feature film The Dirties. which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival. He was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Editing at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards in 2014 for The Dirties.

The film had a production budget of $10,000. After finishing production, an additional $45,000 was needed to secure licensing rights for the music used in the film. All the film's financing came "out of pocket."

There was almost no scripted dialogue and several scenes were shot without some of the participants' awareness.

2016: Operation Avalanche
Operation Avalanche premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Johnson had received an offer to premiere the film at the Toronto International Film Festival but declined, reasoning that the film would be lost in the large number of films shown there. Lionsgate released it in the US on September 16, 2016. He was nominated for Best Director at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017 for his work on Operation Avalanche.

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Peter Debruge of Variety wrote, "Matt Johnson and Owen Williams' wild, borderline-illegal stunt delivers big time on its crazy premise." John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "likeable if not always convincing fantasy that gets much mileage from its period feel". Anthony Kaufman of Screen Daily wrote that the film "comes across more as a rambling lark than a tightly conceived film".

2016–2018: Nirvanna the Band the Show
Nirvanna the Band the Show was re-mastered and re-launched at the Toronto International Film Festival and subsequently as a television series on Viceland in fall 2016. The show stars Johnson and Jay McCarrol as "Nirvanna the Band," two hapless lifelong best friends and roommates, who engage in a series of complex publicity stunts around their home city of Toronto in the hopes of landing a gig at The Rivoli, despite the fact that they have never actually written or recorded a single song, nor taken any other steps to get their band ready.

2023: BlackBerry
In 2022, Johnson directed and co-wrote, with Matthew Miller, the film BlackBerry, about the rise and fall of Canadian tech company Research in Motion. The film stars Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, and Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis. BlackBerry premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023, and attracted widespread critical acclaim.

The film won several accolades, including the $50,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.

The film broke the record for the most nominations for a film at the Canadian Screen Awards, with 17 nominations at the 2024 ceremony.

Other work
In addition to his own productions, he has had acting roles in feature films such as Diamond Tongues, and the Kazik Radwanski projects How Heavy This Hammer, Anne at 13,000 Ft. and Matt and Mara.

Johnson made an animated spiritual successor to Nirvanna the Band the Show called Matt & Bird Break Loose in 2021.

Johnson and Miller founded their own production house, Zapruder Films, in 2013. Three years later, in 2016, the company released its first project, Operation Avalanche. The company is still active today.

Johnson and Miller won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Johnson won the award for Best Director, at the 12th Canadian Screen Awards in 2024 for BlackBerry.