Vic Sarin

Vic Sarin is a Canadian filmmaker whose 60 year career has earned him a place among Canada's most celebrated visual storytellers. Honored with numerous accolades, including the Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kodak Lifetime Achievement Award, Sarin was recently appointed to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour - recognizing his profound contributions to Canadian culture as a visual artist of extraordinary talent.

Born in Kashmir, India, Sarin is a multifaceted director, writer, and cinematographer renowned for his poetic style and an insightful, empathetic lens. His films artfully blend cinematic grandeur with emotional depth, exploring themes of belonging, unconventional family dynamics, and resilience in the face of loss. By juxtaposing the inner lives of his characters with the broader landscapes they inhabit, Sarin crafts narratives that resonate universally. His global perspective and unyielding optimism, cultivated through a lifetime of storytelling across continents, imbue his work with a rare authenticity.

With a prolific portfolio spanning over 150 feature films, documentaries, and television productions across genres, Sarin's projects have garnered prestigious nominations and awards, including Emmys, Genies, Geminis, Canadian Screen Awards, and numerous festival honors.

His work has graced major film festivals worldwide, including TIFF, Cannes, Berlin, Tribeca, London, Shanghai, San Sebastian, Sydney, and Goa, with retrospectives celebrating his exceptional contributions to the cinematic arts.

Sarin's feature films showcase a remarkable diversity. Cold Comfort, a dark comedy, premiered at TIFF and won multiple accolades. Partition-a poignant love story set against the backdrop of India's partition-featured performances by Irrfan Khan, Kristin Kruek, and Neve Campbell. The internationally acclaimed A Shine of Rainbows, starring Connie Nielsen and Aidan Quinn, touched audiences at over 40 international festivals, earning numerous awards. His latest work, The Lighthouse Keeper, is a richly textured Irish period drama starring Dominic Cooper, Sarah Bolger, and Sarah Gadon.

Sarin's documentary work remains equally compelling. Highlights include the Emmy-winning Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World; The Boy from Geita, a powerful exposé on the plight of individuals with albinism in Tanzania, which was screened at the United Nations; Desert Riders, about the trafficking of young boys from Bangladesh and Pakistan to race camels in the Middle East; and Keepers of the Magic, a tribute to cinematographic legends such as Roger Deakins, Vittorio Storaro, and Gordon Willis, featuring Willis's final interview.

In 2003, Sarin co-founded Sepia Films to produce socially conscious documentaries and internationally focused feature films that align with his enduring passions. His works have been distributed by major platforms and studios, including Disney, Fox, NBC Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

Sarin's journey is chronicled in his bestselling 2020 memoir, Eyepiece: Adventures in Canadian Film and Television. He is now revisiting his documentary roots with an adaptation of the memoir, celebrating the pivotal role of the National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in shaping the country's cinematic legacy-both behind and in front of the camera.