---
name: "Barbara Willis Sweete"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/barbara-willis-sweete"
fi1m_id: "barbara-willis-sweete"
imdb_id: "nm0842318"
tmdb_id: 1361529
wikidata_id: "Q22106693"
roles: ["Producer"]
born: "6 January 1953"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-26T02:22:33.981756+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Barbara Willis Sweete

## Identity

Barbara Willis Sweete

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/barbara-willis-sweete
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** barbara-willis-sweete
- **IMDb ID:** nm0842318
- **TMDB ID:** 1361529
- **Wikidata ID:** Q22106693
- **Same entity:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22106693, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0842318/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1361529

Producer. Born 6 January 1953 in Kamloops, Canada.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer
- **Born:** 6 January 1953, Kamloops, Canada
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22106693, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0842318/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1361529

## Biography

Barbara Willis Sweete is a Canadian director and producer. Born on 6 January 1953 in Kamloops, she studied music at the University of Western Ontario and film at York University. In 1979 she co-founded the production company that became Rhombus Media with Niv Fichman; Larry Weinstein joined soon after.

She produced *Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould* (1993) and has directed music documentaries, theatre adaptations and opera films. Notable credits include episodes of *Great Performances*, *Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach* (1997), *Perfect Pie* (2002) and more than thirty Metropolitan Opera HD Live transmissions from 2008 onwards. She received an Academy Award nomination for producing the short documentary *Making Overtures: The Story of a Community Orchestra* (1986).

Sweete left Rhombus Media in 2015 and later co-founded Willis Sweete Productions and Artemis Pictures in Toronto.

*Sources: de.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, playbackonline.ca.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould* (1993), Fi1m 85, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/thirty-two-short-films-about-glenn-gould.md)

## Complete filmography (47)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Rossini: Semiramide* (2018), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Semiramide* (2018), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Idomeneo* (2017), Director
- *Verdi: Nabucco* (2017), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Tannhäuser* (2015), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: The Tales of Hoffmann* (2015), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: La Cenerentola* (2014), Director
- *Objevování Dvořáka* (2014), Director
- *Parsifal* (2013), Director
- *Berlioz: Les Troyens* (2013), Director
- *The Enchanted Island, a Baroque pastiche* (2012), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: La Clemenza di Tito* (2012), Director
- *Verdi: Ernani* (2012), Director
- *Gounod: Faust* (2011), Director
- *Philip Glass: Satyagraha* (2011), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Don Giovanni* (2011), Director
- *Howard Shore: A Composer's Dream* (2011), Director, Writer
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Il Trovatore* (2011), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor* (2011), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Iphigénie en Tauride* (2011), Director
- *Puccini: La Fanciulla del West* (2011), Director
- *Billy Bishop Goes to War* (2010), Director
- *Gunless* (2010), Associate Producer
- *The Met — Der Rosenkavalier* (2010), Director
- *The Whirlwind of Your Passion: A Philanthropist's Dream* (2009), Director
- *La Sonnambula - Metropolitan Opera* (2009), Director
- *Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice* (2009), Director
- *La Damnation de Faust - Metropolitan Opera* (2008), Director
- *Strauss: Salome* (2008), Director
- *The Young Romantic* (2008), Director, Producer
- *Blindness* (2008), Associate Producer
- *The Met - Tristan und Isolde* (2008), Director
- *The Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel* (2008), Director
- *Five Days in September: The Rebirth of an Orchestra* (2005), Director
- *The Saddest Music in the World* (2003), Associate Producer
- *The Firebird* (2003), Director
- *Perfect Pie* (2002), Director
- *Roméo et Juliette* (2002), Director
- *Sarabande* (1997), Associate Producer
- *Falling Down Stairs* (1997), Director
- *Dido & Aeneas* (1995), Director
- *Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould* (1993), Producer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/thirty-two-short-films-about-glenn-gould.md)
- *Fanfares* (1993), Director, Producer
- *Guitar* (1988), Director
- *Making Overtures: The Story of a Community Orchestra* (1984), Producer
- *Zivjeli! To Life!* (1982), Director
- *John Wyre: Drawing on Sound*, Associate Producer

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1986: Best Documentary (Short Subject) (nominated), for *Making Overtures: The Story of a Community Orchestra*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/barbara-willis-sweete