Shaftesbury Films

Shaftesbury Films is a film and television production company founded by Christina Jennings and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1987, Shaftesbury is a creator and producer of original content for television and multiple platforms, with programming available in more than 120 countries worldwide.

Recent productions include Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures for HBO Canada, based on the Giller-prize winning book by Dr. Vincent Lam; three seasons of The Listener for CTV and Fox International Channels; and seven seasons of Murdoch Mysteries for Citytv/CBC and UKTV’s Alibi. Shaftesbury also produced a variety of award-winning programming, including the global hit series Life with Derek and the movie follow-up to the series, Vacation with Derek. Shaftesbury’s newest series, Good Dog, is a half-hour comedy created, written and directed by Ken Finkleman that premiered on HBO Canada in 2011.

Shaftesbury’s divisions include Shaftesbury Factual, which is focused on non-fiction storytelling across a broad spectrum of genres; Smokebomb Entertainment, the company’s digital media division responsible for the development and production of original online series and companion web experiences for Shaftesbury’s slate of properties; Shaftesbury Kids, their division responsible for several children's TV shows and movies, and Shaftesbury Sales Company, which manages international sales and distribution for the company’s content.

Television

The company's television series projects have included:

• 11 Cameras
• Aaron Stone
• The Atwood Stories
• Backpackers
• Baxter
• Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
• Connor Undercover
• Dark Oracle
• From Spain with Love with Annie Sibonney
• Good Dog
• Good God
• The Jane Show
• Life with Derek
• The Listener
• Murdoch Mysteries
• Overruled!
• ReGenesis
• The Shields Stories

Film

Television films produced by Shaftesbury have included:

• External Affairs, an adaptation of Timothy Findley's play The Stillborn Lover
• Michael Ignatieff's novel Scar Tissue
• Hemingway vs. Callaghan, an adaptation of Morley Callaghan's That Summer in Paris
• Except the Dying, Poor Tom Is Cold and Under the Dragon's Tail, the first three novels in Maureen Jennings' Murdoch Mysteries franchise which was later adapted by the company into a weekly series
• Torso, a dramatization of the murder trial of Evelyn Dick
• Terry, a biopic of Terry Fox
• six Joanne Kilbourn mysteries, based on the novels by Gail Bowen
• Eight Days To Live
• In God's Country
• Mount Pleasant
• The Good Times Are Killing Me
• Skyrunners

Cinema films have included:

• Swann, based on the novel by Carol Shields,
• Conquest
• Painted Angels
• Camilla
• Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity

Digital

The company's digital series projects, produced by digital arm Smokebomb Entertainment, have included:

• Backpackers
• State of Syn
• Unlikely Heroes
• Murdoch Mysteries: The Curse of the Lost Pharaohs
• Murdoch Mysteries: The Murdoch Effect
• Murdoch Mysteries: Nightmare on Queen Street
• Inhuman Condition
• Carmilla the Series

External links

• Shaftesbury Films
• Shaftesbury Films About Us
• Shaftesbury Films at imdb
• Shaftesbury Films Inc. archives at the Unversity of Toronto Media Commons