SARAH POLLEY is the Academy® Award–winning screenwriter of Women Talking (2022), an Academy Award-nominated director, and actor. 

After making short films, Polley made her feature-length directorial debut with the drama film Away from Her in 2006. Polley received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay, which she adapted from the Alice Munro story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” Her other projects include the documentary film Stories We Tell (2012), which won the New York Film Critics Circle prize and the National Board of Review award for best documentary; the miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace (2017); and the romantic comedy Take This Waltz (2011).

Polley’s film adaptation of Women Talking by Miriam Toews received her first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2023. Polley began her acting career as a child, starring in many productions for film and television.

The Host

ELEANOR WACHTEL has earned a reputation as one of the world's best literary 
interviewers during her more than 30 years as host of  Writers & Company on CBC 
Radio. Five books of her interviews have been published, including Random Illuminations, a 
collection of reflections, correspondence and conversations with Carol Shields which 
won the Independent Publisher Book Award; Original Minds; and most recently, The Best of Writers & Company.

She also co-founded and hosted CBC's Wachtel on the Arts, featuring conversations with 
filmmakers, composers, architects, artists, etc., as well as the Toronto International Film 
Festival's (TIFF) popular Books on Film series for more than a decade.  She has received numerous accolades for her contributions to Canadian cultural life: nine honorary 
degrees and Officer of the Order of Canada.  Eleanor was recently named chair of the 
jury for the International Booker Prize 2024.

Photo credit: CBC