Saverio "Sam" Grana is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

television and film producer and screenwriter,"Producer finds a new act in front of the cameras". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', October 8, 1987. most noted for the film ''

Train of Dreams ''Train of Dreams'' is a 1987 Canadian film directed by John N. Smith and starring Jason St. Amour, Christopher Neil and Frederick Eugene Ward as a popular teacher. In this documentary-style drama, a delinquent teenager tries to put his life on ...

'' and the television miniseries '' The Boys of St. Vincent''.

Career

For much of his career he was associated with the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

, for whom he was one of the originators alongside directors

Giles Walker Giles Walker (January 17, 1946 – March 23, 2020) was a Scottish-born Canadian film director. Biography Giles Walker, born in 1946 in Dundee, Scotland, received a B.A. from the University of New Brunswick and an M.A. from Stanford University ...

and

John N. Smith John N. Smith Order of Canada, OC (born July 31, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. Career Smith graduated with a B.A. in political science from McGill University in 1964. He joined the Canadian Broadcasting ...

of the studio's 1980s foray into "alternative drama"

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary film, documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or ciné ...

filmmaking. He was also a producer of Smith's

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-nominated short film '' First Winter''. He left the NFB in the 1990s and was briefly executive director of Film NB, the provincial filmmaking agency in

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, from March 1997 until resigning in August 1998. He then formed his own production firm, Grana Productions, for which his projects included the documentary television series ''Eastern Tide'', and the films ''

Geraldine's Fortune ''Geraldine's Fortune'' is a 2004 Canadian comedy-drama film. It was directed by John N. Smith, written by Tim Burns and based on the play ''Les Belles-sœurs'' by Michel Tremblay. Plot Geraldine Liddle (Curtin) is a small town woman from New B ...

'' and '' Black Eyed Dog''. At the

9th Genie Awards The 9th annual Genie Awards were held March 22, 1988, and honoured Canadian films released in 1987.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . The ceremony, which w ...

in 1988, ''Train of Dreams'' was a nominee for

Best Picture The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Bes ...

, and Grana was a nominee alongside Smith and Sally Bochner for

Best Screenplay This list of screenwriting awards for film is an index to articles on notable awards given for film screenwriting. The list is organized by region and country of the awards venue or sponsor, but winners are not necessarily restricted to people fro ...

. At the

8th Gemini Awards The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 9th Gemini Awards were held on March 6, 1994, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was hosted by Albert Schultz and Valerie Pringle, took place at the Metro Toronto C ...

in 1994, Grana, Smith and Des Walsh won the Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries for ''The Boys of St. Vincent''. He has also had a small number of acting roles, most notably as Alex Rossi in Walker's docufiction trilogy ''

The Masculine Mystique ''The Masculine Mystique'' is a Canadian docufiction film directed by Giles Walker and John N. Smith and released in 1984. The film centres on Alex ( Sam Grana), Blue ( Stefan Wodoslawsky), Mort (Mort Ransen) and Ashley (Ashley Murray), four me ...

'', ''

90 Days ''90 Days'' was a video news magazine produced by McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, MO and distributed at the end of every business quarter (hence the show's title) through the mail to employees and shareholders of the company in VHS format. From ...

'' and '' The Last Straw''."90 Days sequel set for Cannes". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

'', July 12, 1986. He also appeared in '' The Boys of St. Vincent'', in the minor role of Monsignor Forucco.

Nominations

He was a Genie Award nominee for Best Supporting Actor at the

7th Genie Awards The 7th Genie Awards were held on March 20, 1986, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to honour achievements in Canadian film in 1985. The ceremony was co-hosted by actors Leslie Nielsen and Catherine Mary Stewart. After years of excluding for ...

in 1986 for ''90 Days''."Genie films are coming on strong". ''

'', February 14, 1986.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grana, Sam Canadian male film actors Canadian male television actors Canadian film producers Canadian television producers Canadian male screenwriters Canadian people of Italian descent Living people National Film Board of Canada people Cinema of New Brunswick Canadian male television writers Canadian television writers Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian Screen Award winning writers