Bronwen Hughes

Bronwen Hughes was born and grew up in Toronto and originally wanted to be a journalist. An avid photographer, when it was time for her to go to university she decided that rather than study journalism for four years she would instead study film and photography. She is a graduate of the Department of Film at York University. She began her career directing commercials, but easily transitioned to feature films and her success with Harriett the Spy resulted in a surprise call from Steven Spielberg who invited her to meet him on the set of The Lost World Jurassic Park. After receiving an offer to make a movie for his company Hughes passed on 7 different scripts until one day she read the screenplay for the romantic comedy Forces of Nature. She shot Stander in South Africa, which debuted at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival then went on to screen at the Sundance Film Festival. Hughes was nominated for Best Director for her work on that film at the 25th Genie Awards. Her film The Journey is the Destination had its premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Working primarily in television, Hughes directed 4 of the episodes in the 2024 8-part series So Long Marianne.