Sandy Wilson (director)

In 1992, Wilson premiered Harmony Cats, which was different from all her films that came before. After American Boyfriends, Wilson didn't want to direct any more semi-autobiographical pieces.

Four years later, Wilson directed the sequel to My American Cousin, American Boyfriends (1989). The film follows Sandy Wilcox on a trip to Santa Cruz to see her cousin get married. During production in California, the local union limited the number of Canadian crew members to seven. They were given the label “privileged aliens” while working in the United States. The American crew members working on the film were all familiar with the original film, and happy to be working on its sequel.

Wilson has received critical acclaim for her films. At the 1986 Genie Awards, My American Cousin won six awards including Best Achievement in Direction, Best Original Screenplay and Best Motion Picture. Harmony Cats was nominated for Genie Awards in 1993.

My American Cousin won six Genie Awards at the 1986 ceremony, including Best Achievement in Direction and Best Original Screenplay for Wilson. Shortly after, My American Cousin opened in New York. There was debate on whether to label the film as Canadian for its American premiere. They settled on “winner of six Canadian Academy Awards.”

She has a brother named Brian, who has a physical disability. He was the subject and inspiration for Wilson's 1972 documentary He’s Not the Walking Kind.

The success of her early personal documentaries inspired Wilson to begin work on her first feature film. In 1972, during work on He’s Not the Walking Kind, she began an outline of My American Cousin.

Wilson started her career in filmmaking in 1969. She began writing, producing and directing films in Vancouver. Much of Wilson's early work consists of short personal documentaries. For The Bridal Shower (1972), Growing Up in Paradise (1977) and He’s Not the Walking Kind Wilson incorporated home video footage that her father shot on 16mm film.

My American Cousin is Wilson's first feature film. It is a semi-autobiographical film, inspired by her childhood memories. It follows a twelve-year-old girl's coming-of-age during a summer in the late 1950s in Okanagan, B.C.

Sandra “Sandy” Wilson (born 1947) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is best known for her films My American Cousin (1985) and Harmony Cats (1992). Most of her films take place in the same areas she grew up: Penticton and Okanagan.

Sandra “Sandy” Wilson was born in 1947 in Penticton, B.C. and is of English descent. She grew up in Paradise Ranch just outside of Penticton.