Thomas_Wallner
Thomas Wallner
German/Canadian filmmaker
Thomas Selim Wallner is a German/Canadian filmmaker.[1][2]
Wallner was a co-founder of Xenophile Media in 2001. He has worked with Rhombus Media since 1995.[3] Thomas Wallner is a producer, writer, director and game designer working in feature film, television, games and interactive media. In addition to producing innovative cross-media properties for television, he has written and directed eight award-winning feature documentaries that have been broadcast in more than 30 countries.[3]
A leading figure in the creation of participatory narratives he brought the underground genre of Alternate Reality Gaming into the Television mainstream, culminating in Xenophile Media's Emmy Award-winning Fallen[4][5] and Regenesis.[6][7]
In 2007 Wallner developed the story concept for Late Fragment,[8] Canada's first interactive feature drama produced by the NFB and the Canadian Film Centre.
Thomas is a recipient of numerous honours including two Emmy Awards[5] with a total of five nominations, three Geminis, a Rose d’Or, two SXSW Interactive Awards, two Webbys and two CNMA's.[9][10]
He was nominated for Interactive Producer of the Year at the 2011 CNMA awards.[11][12][13]
His documentary, The Guantanamo Trap won the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Hot Docs film festival.[14][15][16]
Wallner described being put on the "no-fly list" in 2005, after declining to submit to an iris-scan when he tried to travel to the USA.[2] He stated this was his inspiration for The Guantanamo Trap.