SNOWFALL FILMS, Inc and WINDCHILL FILMS, Inc
SUZANNE LYONS has over 25 years experience in television and film. She was VP of Marketing and Promotions for a Canadian Network and Affiliate where she created, produced and directed news and series programming and has won numerous awards for her work. Suzanne moved to Philadelphia in the early 90’s and worked in sales and distribution selling both film and television internationally. Ms. Lyons then established herself in Los Angeles in the mid 90’s and co-founded the Flash Forward Institute. She has led hundreds of entertainment industry seminars to thousands of participants in both the U.S. and Canada.
In 1999 Ms. Lyons co-founded Snowfall Films and to date she has produced or executive produced nine movies: A British comedy UNDERTAKING BETTY (aka “PLOTS WITH A VIEW”) with actors Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina, Naomi Watts, Lee Evans and Christopher Walken and British director Nick Hurran. Miramax is the domestic distributor. UNDERTAKING BETTY has won a BAFTA award and is now being turned into a musical stage play in German, Austria and Switzerland. Snowfall Films produced a British/Canadian co-production thriller titled JERICHO MANSIONS staring James Caan, Genevieve Bujold, Maribel Verdu and Jennifer Tilly with Spanish director Alberto Sciamma. JERICHO MANSIONS was an official selection at the 2003 Montreal Film Festival and at the 2004 Hollywood Film Festival.
Snowfall Films Executive Produced the British/Canadian family comedy BAILEY’S BILLION$ which stars Dean Cain, Laurie Holden, Tim Curry, Jennifer Tilly and Jon Lovitz as the talking dog. Snowfall is an Executive Producer on writer/director Asia Argento’s THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS which is based on the novel by J.T. LeRoy staring Asia Argento, Marilyn Manson, Winona Ryder and Peter Fonda. The film premiered during the Directors Fortnight at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and screened to high acclaim at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival.
In 2010 Suzanne co-produced a family film titled THE CHAPERONE with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) which Stephen Herek (“Mr. Holland’s Opus”, “101 Dalmatians”) directed. The film premiered in February 2011 and featured Ariel Winter (“Modern Family”) and wrestling super star Paul Levesque (Triple H). THE CHAPERONE is distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Snowfall Films is in the process of developing and producing a slate of family films. Ms. Lyons has partnered with Producer Michel Shane at Hand Picked Films (“Catch Me If You Can,” “I Robot”) to produce a World War I family drama titled SCOUTS HONOR. Ms. Lyons is currently raising the funding for an animated Christmas feature film titled OMARR THE CAMEL with Randy Travis and Amy Grant interested in staring in the project and Ariel Winter (“Modern Family”) has written songs for the film. In 2011 Suzanne won the Toronto Women in Film-Television and Telefilm competition to develop a Canadian film based on the manuscript, MISTY’S MISADVENTURES.
In addition, Ms. Lyons has partnered with Breaking Ball Films and Manis Films (“Ides of March” “Margin Call”) to produce a suspense thriller based on the Canadian best-selling novel THE CALLING. She is in development on a courtroom thriller, HARDCOURT, by writer Mark L. Smith (“Vacancy”) and an action suspense project by U.K. writer Leslie Rogers titled GETHSEMANE with Canadian Director, Roger Spottiswoode (“Tomorrow Never Dies” “Turner and Hooch”) interested in directing. Suzanne has just partnered with Canadian based company Buffalo Gal Pictures (“The Stone Angle”) to produce a suspense thriller “THE WOUND.”
WindChill Films, Inc., a genre division, was launched in 2005 and CANDY STRIPERS, the first film in the slate of thriller/horror movies sold to ScreenGems for U.S. DVD distribution. The second picture in this slate, produced in the spring of 2006, is titled SÉANCE with writer/director Mark L. Smith (VACANCY) and actor Adrian Paul (“Highlander” TV Series). LionsGate is distributing SÉANCE which won Best Picture at the Shockerfest Film Festival. The third WindChill film, completed in 2007, is titled PORTAL, and stars Kevin Dobson and Chris Conrad. It is being distributed by LionsGate. The next project on the WindChill slate is titled MOST LIKELY TO…
Suzanne has just published a book through Focal Press called Indie film Producing… The Craft of Low Budget Filmmaking, that is now available at www.amazon.com and at Industry books worldwide.
