Jill has directed multiple short films including the award-winning With Wings which was broadcast on CBC television, as well as the festival hit, The hard facts of a rock n roll crush (Parts I, II & III), an early ’60s romp called The Princess Of Selkirk Avenue (which garnered the Toronto Filmmaker Award at the Female Eye Film Festival), and Golden Boys, written by Andrew Musselman.
Jill has several projects in the works including a web series, The Maidstones, the short films The Pamster, So You Think You Can Parent, Girl You’ll Be A Woman, Soon; as well as an Alice Neel biopic and the indie feature The Document. Jill lives with her fella, their brilliant, budding novelist Ruby B., and Tillie & Wicket – their two cats who fight like cats & dogs. Jill is also a working actor (Gail Singer’s True Confections) and a producer (William Phillips’ Milkman and Mark Wihak’s Ecstasy and autoerotica).
Awards & Nominations
Golden Boys
Runner-up Best Short Film MiFo LGBT Film Festival
The Princess of Selkirk Ave
Winner Toronto Filmmaker Award, Female Eye Film Festival, Toronto
With Wings
Winner CBC Audience Choice Award, Sugar & Splice Film Festival, Winnipeg
Nomination Best Short Film, Female Eye Film Festival, Toronto
Praise for Jill Riley’s film work:
With Wings:
“Funny and cringe-producing comedy”
– Larrissa Fan, Liason of Independent Filmmakers – Toronto
“Especially intriguing”, MSN/Sympatico.ca
The hard facts of a rock n roll crush:
“Chic”, Wendy Banks Toronto’s NOW Magazine
“an amusing, pithy, and poignant short film…sure sense of the local and of (the) intimate“, Robert Wheaton, PopMatters.com, June 2005
The Princess of Selkirk Avenue:
“Lovingly crafted…gorgeous, saturated colour in every frame”, Winnipeg Free Press