Matthew Rankin

Matthew Rankin is a Canadian experimental filmmaker and actor. His feature-length debut, The Twentieth Century, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for eight Canadian Screen Awards, winning three.

He has also received accolades for his 2014 film Mynarski Death Plummet, which was a shortlisted Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards and a shortlisted Jutra Award nominee for Best Short Film at the 17th Jutra Awards, and his 2017 film The Tesla World Light, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards and received an Honourable Mention for the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

His second feature film, Universal Language (Une langue universelle), premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, The film was longlisted for the 2024 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award, and was selected as the Canadian entry for the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.

Universal Language received 13 Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 13th Canadian Screen Awards in 2025, and won six awards including Best Director.

Life

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, he was associated with the Winnipeg Film Group as a teenager, and later studied history at McGill University, at Université Laval and at the Institut national de l'image et du son.

His father, Laird Rankin, was longtime executive director of Canada's National History Society and publisher of the history magazine The Beaver.

He has also appeared as an actor in films by other directors, including This House (Cette maison) and Before I Change My Mind, and portrayed one of the lead characters in his own film Universal Language.

Filmography As filmmaker Short films 2005 - Le facteur poulpe 2006 - Où est Maurice? 2008 - I Dream of Driftwood 2008 - Sharhé-Halé Shakhsi: M. Rankin 2008 - Cattle Call 2008 - Hydro-Lévesque 2010 - Negativipeg 2012 - Tabula Rasa 2014 - Mynarski Death Plummet 2015 - The Radical Expeditions of Walter Boudreau 2017 - The Tesla World Light 2022 - Municipal Relaxation Module Feature-length films 2019 - The Twentieth Century 2024 - Universal Language 2026 - Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney (Mesdames et Messieurs, Brian Mulroney)

Acting roles 2022 - Before I Change My Mind, as Daniel - directed by Trevor Anderson 2022 - This House (Cette maison), as Dr. Densmore - directed by Miryam Charles 2024 - Universal Language, as Matthew - directed by himself 2024 - Blue Heron, as the psychologist - directed by Sophy Romvari