Biography

Thomas Selim Wallner is a German/Canadian filmmaker.Wallner was a co-founder of Xenophile Media in 2001. He has worked with Rhombus Media since 1995. Thomas Wallner is a producer, writer, director and game designer working in feature film, television, games and interactive media. In addition to producing innovative cross-media properties for television, he has written and directed eight award-winning feature documentaries that have been broadcast in more than 30 countries.A leading figure in the creation of participatory narratives he brought the underground genre of Alternate Reality Gaming into the Television mainstream, culminating in Xenophile Media's Emmy Award-winning Fallen and Regenesis.In 2007 Wallner developed the story concept for Late Fragment, Canada's first interactive feature drama produced by the NFB and the Canadian Film Centre.

Thomas is a recipient of numerous honours including two Emmy Awards with a total of five nominations, three Geminis, a Rose d’Or, two SXSW Interactive Awards, two Webbys and two CNMA's.He was nominated for Interactive Producer of the Year at the 2011 CNMA awards.His documentary, The Guantanamo Trap won the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Hot Docs film festival.Wallner described being put on the "no-fly list" in 2005, after declining to submit to an iris-scan when he tried to travel to the USA.

He stated this was his inspiration for The Guantanamo Trap.