A Beachcombers’ Christmas is a coming home of sorts for
Anne Wheeler. The Beachcombers TV series and now TV movies have garnered world-wide appeal because they capture the character of Canada’s west coast. During the early 1970s Wheeler made a career as a documentary film-maker telling stories of Western Canada. Her early work was award-winning and led to projects with the National Film Board making documentaries and short dramas such as Great Grand Mother, Augusta, Happily Unmarried, Teach Me to Dance, A Change of Heart and a feature docu-drama, A War Story (narrated by Donald Sutherland), exploring her father's experiences as a doctor in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War.

Encouraged by her success in terms of international awards and audience response, she entered the world of feature films. Wheeler’s film Loyalties, a hard-hitting story set in the far north about an unlikely friendship between a Metis and an English woman, was a hit at festivals, winning awards in Houston, San Francisco, Toronto, Portugal, South Africa, Montreal, and Alberta. This was quickly followed by Cowboys Don't Cry, which she also wrote, about a bull rider at odds with his son and his declining career.

Wheeler’s career as an established force in film-making came with the making of Bye Bye Blues, inspired by her mother's war years as a musician in a small dance band. The film achieved international success and continues to win new audience. After moving west to B.C. in 1990, she directed the adaptation of The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence, a two-hour movie for television (C.B.C./Atlantis). The book is much revered and the movie won a Genie for Best M.O.W. that year.

The War Between Us, another Anne Wheeler film, about the Japanese internment in Canada during W.W.II was shot in the B.C. interior and aired in 1995. It garnered several international awards including the Special Jury Prize from the Houston Film Festival, the Red Cross Award for Humanity, the Critic's Choice Award at both Monte Carlo and the Charleston Festival in West Virginia, and a Cable Ace Award for Best Foreign Programming in the U.S.
Wheeler’s film Better Than Chocolate was an international hit and returned Wheeler to her first love of comedy. The success was followed by Marine Life, starring Cybill Shepherd and Peter Outerbridge, and Suddenly Naked, a romantic adventure starring Wendy Crewson and Peter Coyote.

Wheeler's stories are built on gentle humor and strong characters living extraordinary lives. She excels in exploring the human spirit, relationships, a sense of place and a oneness amongst people. Drawing from her own wide range of experiences, she usually writes or involves herself early in the development of a project. Now established in Vancouver, she passes on this enthusiasm to young and old alike. Her films have touched the hearts of her audience, earning her six honourary doctorates and The Order of Canada.

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