Jonelle Belcourt is an award winning Cree filmmaker, director, and screenwriter based in Calgary, Alberta. A NAIT and UCLA alumna, she is passionate about telling powerful, nuanced stories that celebrate Indigenous voices and bridge the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, one frame at a time.
Jonelle was a producer for the inaugural Telus Storyhive Indigenous Storytellers Edition, with her short documentary Kohkum & the Quest, which went on to win the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Short at the Alberta International Women’s Film Festival. She is also the writer, director, and co-producer of the short film My Roommate Makayla, which premiered at imagineNATIVE and was developed through the Whistler Film Festival Indigenous Filmmaker Fellowship.
Currently part of the imagineNATIVE Screenwriting Features Lab, Jonelle continues to develop bold, character-driven work for the screen. With a growing body of festival-recognized projects and a distinct voice as a director, she is a filmmaker to watch.
A graduate of UCLA’s TV & Film Directing Summer Session and a lover of all thing’s cinema, Jonelle uses her art to create meaningful, resonant stories that reflect lived experience, celebrate Indigenous joy, and challenge dominant narratives. Directing stories that make a difference is not only her passion, but also her purpose.
