Annette Reilly

Annette Reilly is an award-winning filmmaker, health advocate, and mom living in East Vancouver.

As a working mother and renter, Annette is keenly aware of the struggles of raising a family in Vancouver, and worries about the environment and the future of the planet for her kids. As a community leader and volunteer with the Green Party, she understands that evidence-based decisions, transparency, and integrity are desperately needed at CIty Hall, and wants to protect what makes Vancouver amazing – our people, culture, and environment.

With a fine arts degree from the University of Victoria, Annette Reilly honed her skills and distinction both behind and in front of the camera as an actor, director, 1st AD, and producer. Annette earned accolades playing the title character’s mom in the popular Netflix series “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”. She went on to direct, produce, and act in her own film, “A Typical Fairytale”, winning multiple awards including Best Picture Awards at both the Burbank International Film Festival and the Seattle Children’s Film Festival. The film has consistently been included in the curriculum for BC’s 2SLGBTQIA+ education program, Out in Schools, since its release.

At the age of 30, Annette was diagnosed with life-threatening Stage 3b colon cancer, going through treatment and surgeries while raising her first child. Since 2011, she has served as an advocate for programs like YACC (Young Adult Cancer Canada); supporting young adults with cancer, through media appearances, public speaking, fundraising, and peer support programs. After losing her elder sister to pancreatic cancer in 2023 and discovering that both their cancers were caused by environmental factors, Annette was driven to become even more politically active, joining the Green Party.

Reilly serves on the board of the Gender Equity in Film Society (formerly Women in Film and TV Vancouver) where she co-chairs the Advocacy Committee. She is a UBCP/ACTRA member and permittee with IATSE 891, ACFC, and the DGC.

Annette grew up in hard-working, small town Alberta, she comes from a long line of farmers and one of Canada’s oldest continuously owned family farms, first homesteaded in 1892 in the Pine Lake area, traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Blackfoot, Dene, Nakota Sioux, and Métis. Since 1995, Annette has lived here on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.