Born in Wellington, New Zealand and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Dylan Rhys Howard is an independent filmmaker whose work has been described by the National Screen Institute as “fresh, nuanced storytelling and imagery that is evocative in its simplicity and intimacy.” In 2018, his short film Peak Oil was selected to be a part of Telefilm Canada’s Not Short On Talent program and screened at the Marché Du Film Court at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France. Peak Oil also received an Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association award for Best Narrative Short and the A&E Short Filmmakers Award for Best Film at the National Screen Institute. His debut broadcast documentary, Digging In The Dirt, a one-hour documentary about depression and suicide in Alberta’s oil and gas sector, co-directed with Omar Mouallem, premiered on CBC Television in September 2019 and was featured in Hot Docs’ Spotlight Alberta series in early 2021. His latest documentary as writer/producer/director, Boys Will Be...Themselves, premiered on CBC Gem in October 2022. The Lebanese Burger Mafia, a feature-length documentary produced by Rhys Howard and directed by Mouallem, had its world premiere at Hot Docs in 2023 where it was immediately picked up for distribution by levelFilm, subsequently played in theatres across Canada, and is now streaming on Paramount+. Concurrently, the slow-burn independent drama Hands That Bind, directed by Kyle Armstrong, associate produced by Rhys Howard, and starring Paul Sparks, Susan Kent, and Bruce Dern, also landed in Canadian theatres via Mongrel Media. Rhys Howard's debut feature film as writer/director, Eudaimonia, has been picked up for distribution by IndieCan Entertainment’s brand new subsidiary Pride Pictures, and is set to start its festival run in the spring of 2024.
