Jennifer Holness

Jennifer Holness is a Jamaican-born Canadian film and television director, producer and screenwriter. She operates Hungry Eyes Media Inc., along with her business partner and husband Sudz Sutherland. Her production and writing credits include the film Subjects of Desire, Love, Sex and Eating the Bones and the television series Guns, She's the Mayor She attended York University, where she studied political science. This is also where she met her husband David "Sudz" Sutherland. The two were married after finishing their degrees at York University and have three daughters.

Career Holness has mentioned that growing up in a housing project helped shape her view of the city and how she crafts her work. The aim of her work has been a steady understanding of the stories that most people do not want to direct; touching subjects about gun violence, homophobia and deportation of immigrants in the city of Toronto. Her largest work to date with husband David Sutherland with a production value of over 4 million.

She produced and co-wrote the TV crime drama, Shoot the Messenger (2016), a drama that follows a journalist who gets tied up with various third-parties (such as gangs and politicians) while she uncovers her first murder case. The idea was loosely based on the controversies of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

She was named the recipient of the Don Haig Award at the 2026 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. In the same year she premiered #WhileBlack, a documentary film codirected with Sidney Fussell.

Awards and nominations HBO Award for Best Short Film (My Father’s Hands), Acapulco International Black Film Festival

Best Drama (My Father’s Hands), Yorkton Film Festival, Golden Sheaf Award

Best Feature (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival

Audience Award (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival

Filmography