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Matt Johnson — news, coverage & facts — IJR

2007–2021: Early work

One of Johnson's earliest directorial works was the independent docufiction sitcom web series Nirvana the Band the Show (2007–2009), which he co-created with McCarrol. Johnson and McCarrol star as fictionalised versions of themselves in a musical duo who attempt to book a gig at the Rivoli in Toronto.

Johnson achieved widespread critical acclaim in Canada with his feature directorial debut The Dirties (2013), a low-budget independent film starring Johnson as a bullied high school student. The Dirties won the Grand Jury Sparky Award for Feature Narrative at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Johnson was nominated for Best Editing at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards.

Following The Dirties's release, Johnson and producer Matthew Miller established the production company Zapruder Films. The company's debut feature, Operation Avalanche (2016), was directed by Johnson and starred him alongside Owen Williams as CIA agents who become embroiled in a conspiracy to fake the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Operation Avalanche premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Johnson had received an offer to premiere the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, but he declined, reasoning that the film would be lost in the large number of films shown there. Lionsgate released Operation Avalanche in the United States on September 16, 2016. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Johnson was nominated for Best Director at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017.

Johnson and McCarrol adapted Nirvana the Band the Show into a television series, Nirvanna the Band the Show, which premiered on Viceland in 2017. Several episodes of the first season screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. Two seasons aired across 2017 and 2018. A third season was partially produced but not released due to Viceland's discontinuation. Johnson and McCarrol co-created and starred in the animated children's show Matt & Bird Break Loose (2021), a spiritual successor to Nirvanna the Band the Show.

In addition to his own productions, Johnson has acted in the film Diamond Tongues (2015), and Kazik Radwanski's films How Heavy This Hammer (2015), Anne at 13,000 Ft. (2019) and Matt and Mara (2024). Between 2018 and 2021, Johnson taught film at York University.

2022–present: Career expansion

Johnson directed the 2022 biographical film BlackBerry, which dramatises the rise and fall of the BlackBerry line of mobile phones produced by Canadian tech company Research in Motion. Co-written by Johnson and Miller, it stars Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis, and Johnson as Douglas Fregin. BlackBerry premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023, and attracted widespread critical acclaim. The film won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. It also became the most nominated film in the history of the Canadian Screen Awards, with 17 nominations, and won 14 awards including Best Motion Picture and Best Director, making it the most awarded title in the organisation's history. In 2024, Johnson served as jury president of the Compétition Cheval Noir at the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival.

Following the success of BlackBerry, Johnson and McCarrol received funding from Telefilm Canada to develop a feature film adaptation of Nirvanna the Band the Show—a project they had been workshopping as early as 2009. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie premiered on March 9, 2025 at South by Southwest. The film won critical acclaim and was nominated for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2025. It earned eight nominations at the 14th Canadian Screen Awards, winning Best Motion Picture. Johnson won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Comedy Film. Additionally, Johnson and McCarrol won Best Original Song for "The Alphabet Song". Johnson and McCarrol reprised their roles in Joel Haver's short film Nirvanna the Band Tries to Get an Animation Made.

After BlackBerry, Johnson was "inundated" with pitches for various biopics, including for a film focusing on celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Following a meeting with actor Dominic Sessa, Johnson and Miller conceived that the biopic would focus on Bourdain's early career. The film, titled Tony, released in August 2026. It is Johnson's first American film as well as his first feature that he does not star in. It received positive reviews. In July 2026, Johnson directed Tony actor Stavros Halkias' stand-up special, titled Uncle Stav. Filmed over four shows in Baltimore, the special is set to premiere on Netflix on September 8.

Johnson will direct a film based on the card game Magic: The Gathering, which he plans to make as the first part of a trilogy. He will also direct a film inspired by Slava Pastuk's 2010s cocaine smuggling operation, starring Finn Wolfhard and distributed by Neon. As early as 2023, he was developing a "TSA comedy" with Josh Safdie.