Producer, Editor

(b. March 16, 1948 Ottawa, Ontario)

One of Canada’s most successful and prolific producers of animated films, David Verrall followed in his father Robert Verrall’s footsteps and joined the NFB in 1977. He was one of the producers of the ubiquitous Canada Vignettes series in the late seventies and also edited and co-produced the enormously popular NFB classic The Sweater (1980). He worked with Norman McLaren on the award-winning Narcissus (1983) and produced Creative Process: Norman McLaren (1990), Don McWilliams’s feature documentary about the legendary animator.

 
Verrall has served as executive producer of the NFB’s English animation studio since 1996 and has produced or executive produced more than one hundred films in his distinguished career. His many productions include: David Fine and Alison Snowden’s Academy Award®-winning Bob’s Birthday (1993), as well as Wendy Tilby’s Strings (1991) and Tilby and Amanda Forbis’s When the Day Breaks (1998), which were both nominated for Academy Awards. He was executive producer on Chris Landreth’s Academy Award-winning Ryan (2004), as well as Torill Kove’s My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts (1999) and Shui-Bo Wang’s short documentary Sunrise over Tiananmen Square (1998), which both earned Academy Award nominations.

He has won Best Animated Short Film Genie Awards for When the Day Breaks and Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove’s Village of Idiots (1999). He has also produced a number of films with Academy Award-winning NFB animator John Weldon, including Of Dice and Men (1988), To Be (1989) and Vignette: Para Sight (1991). Verrall and Weldon also co-directed and co-produced the 1984 short Real Inside, which combined live action and animation.

Film and video work includes

The Pearson Building, 1977 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: The Horse, 1978 (executive producer with Derek Lamb)
Canada Vignettes: Land Bridge, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Newfoundland, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: News Canada, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Port Royal, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Sodbusters, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Trading Post, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Trees, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Voyageurs, 1978 (executive producer)
Canada Vignettes: Alouette, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Dance, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Delta Plane, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: The Egg, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Instant French, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz, a.k.a. Log Driver's Waltz, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Riverdale Lion, 1979 (producer)
Interview, 1979 (producer)
Laugh Lines: A Profile of Kaj Pindal, 1979 (co-producer, with Derek Lamb)
This is Your Museum Speaking, 1979 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Klondike Gold, 1980 (co-producer, with Derek Lamb)
The National Scream, 1980 (co-director with Robert Awad; producer)
Canada Vignettes: Countdown, 1981 (producer)
Five Billion Years, 1981 (producer)
Canada Vignettes: Ice, 1982 (executive producer)
Friends of the Family, 1982 (co-producer with Bernard Gérin)
Ottawa 82 Logo, 1982 (co-director with John Weldon, Yossi Abolafia; co-producer with John Weldon, Yossi Abolafia)
The Sound Collector, 1982 (co-producer with Ishu Patel, Lynn Smith)
Aloud, 1983 (producer)
The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones, 1983 (producer)
The Man Who Loved Machines, 1983 (executive producer)
Narcissus, 1983 (producer)
The Old Lady's Camping Trip, 1983 (co-producer with Les Drew)
Pies, 1983 (executive producer with Douglas MacDonald)
Real Inside, 1984 (co-director with John Weldon; co-producer with John Weldon)
Elephantrio, 1985 (co-producer with Hubert Tison)
Giordano, 1985 (producer)
The Solar House, 1985 (co-executive producer with Derek Lamb, Douglas MacDonald)
Future Block, 1987 (producer)
Victoria Bridge: The 8th Wonder, 1987 (producer)
Of Dice and Men, 1988 (producer)
Reznikoff's Revenge, 1988 (producer)
Anniversary Vignette, 1989 (producer)
The Magical Eye, 1989 (co-producer with Terence Macartney-Filgate)
Creative Process: Norman McLaren, 1990 (producer)
To Be, 1990 (producer)
Vignette: Para Sight, 1990 (producer)
Alchemists, 1991 (producer)
The Lump, 1991 (producer)
Strings, 1991 (producer)
La Bastringue Madame Bolduc, 1992 (producer)
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life, 1994(co-producer with Atsunori Kawamura, Barrie McLean)
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation, 1994 (co-producer with Atsunori Kawamura, Barrie McLean, Naoyuki Kibe)
How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly, 1995 (co-producer Isobel Marks)
Plumbum Conundrum, 1996 (producer)
Scant Sanity, 1996 (producer)
Shyness, 1996 (co-producer with William Pettigrew)
Crazy, Quilt, 1997 (co-producer with Barrie McLean, Marcy Page)
Curious Cosmologies, 1997 (co-producer with Barrie McLean, Marcy Page)
Legend & Language, 1997 (co-producer with Barrie McLean, Marcy Page)
On Avoiding Extinction, 1997 (co-producer with Barrie McLean, Marcy Page)
On Being Human, 1997 (co-producer with Barrie McLean, Marcy Page)
What's Your Pleasure, 1997 (co-producer with Barrie McLean, Marcy Page)
Frank the Wrabbit, 1998 (executive producer)
M.C. Escher: Sky and Water 1, 1998 (executive producer)
Snow Cat, 1998 (executive producer)
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square, 1998 (executive producer)
A Mind of Your Own, 1999 (co-executive producer with Isobel Marks)
Canada 3-D, 1999 (executive producer)
Death Rained Down from the Sky, 1999 (executive producer)
Linked by a Wavelength, 1999 (executive producer)
My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, 1999 (executive producer)
Understanding the Law: The Coat, 1999 (executive producer)
Village of Idiots, 1999 (co-producer with Michael Scott)
With Grandma, 1999 (co-executive producer with Barrie McLean)
A Crack in the Pavement: Digging In, 2000 (executive producer)
A Crack in the Pavement: Growing Dreams, 2000 (executive producer)
Air: Climate, 2000 (executive producer)
The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg, 2000 (executive producer)
Bully Dance, 2000 (executive producer)
Christopher Changes his Name, 2000 (executive producer)
Fire: Energy, 2000 (executive producer)
From Far Away, 2000 (executive producer)
Land: Territory and Resources, 2000 (executive producer)
Life: People, Fauna and Flora, 2000 (executive producer)
Water: Reserves and Networks, 2000 (executive producer)
A Monster's Calling, 2001 (executive producer)
Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room!, 2001 (executive producer)
Glasses, 2001 (executive producer)
Lights for Gita, 2001 (executive producer)
The Magic of Anansi, 2001 (executive producer)
Roses Sing on New Snow, 2002 (executive producer)
Stiltwalkers, 2002 (executive producer)
I Want a Dog, 2003 (executive producer)
Noël Noël, 2003 (executive producer; TV)
Alter Egos, 2004 (executive producer)