Among numerous other accolades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987).

[1] Born and raised in Toronto, Jewison began his career at CBC Television in the 1950s, moving to the United States later in the decade to work at NBC.

In 2003, he received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his multiple contributions to the film industry in Canada.

[6] He served in the Royal Canadian Navy (1944–1945) during World War II, and after being discharged travelled in the American South, where he encountered segregation, an experience that influenced his later work.

Following graduation, he moved to London, where he worked sporadically as a script writer for a children's television program and bit part actor for the BBC, while supporting himself with odd jobs.

[8] During the next seven years he wrote, directed, and produced a wide variety of musicals, comedy-variety shows, dramas, and specials, including The Big Revue, Showtime, and The Barris Beat.

[19] As a follow-up he directed and produced another film with McQueen, using innovative multiple screen images in the crime caper The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).

[20] At Pinewood Studios northwest of London, and on location in Yugoslavia, he worked on the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971, re-issued 1979), which won three Oscars and was nominated for five others, including Best Picture and Director.

[22] In 1978 Jewison returned to Canada, settling in the Caledon area in Ontario and establishing a farm that produced prizewinning cattle, as well as maple syrup.

[11][23] Operating from a base in Toronto, as well as one maintained in California, he directed high-profile actors Al Pacino in ...And Justice for All (1979), and Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn in the romantic comedy Best Friends (1982), and he produced The Dogs of War (1981) and Iceman (1984).

During this period Jewison also produced the 53rd Annual Academy Awards (1981), which was slated to air the day President Ronald Reagan was shot and had to be rescheduled.

Revisiting the theme of racial tension that had characterised In the Heat of the Night, Jewison's A Soldier's Story (1984), based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play, was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Agnes of God (1985), set in a Quebec convent, starred Jane Fonda, Meg Tilly, and Anne Bancroft; it received three Academy Award nominations.

[20] In 1986, he then discontinued the agreement with film producer Columbia Pictures, citing the behaviour of British filmmaker and head of production David Puttnam.

[24] After the falling out with Columbia, his Yorktown Productions company was moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a three-year agreement to direct, produce, and develop pictures from the studio, and gave MGM the right of first refusal on films he wished to make.

In 1999, Jewison's work was recognised by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when he was given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement.

Jewison continued directing and producing up until his last film to be released, the 2003 thriller The Statement, based on a novel by Brian Moore starring Michael Caine.

[27] In 1999, he directed the HBO television movie Dinner with Friends starring Andie MacDowell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Dennis Quaid.

[30] The centre has helped incubate and/or develop groundbreaking original content, including hit television series Orphan Black (from creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett,[31] CFC alumni), the award-winning first feature Closet Monster (from writer/director alumnus Stephen Dunn),[32][33] and internationally award-winning documentary feature Stories We Tell (from director and CFC alumna Sarah Polley).

Jewison presented the inaugural award to CFC alumna Semi Chellas (Mad Men) in 2014, to Graeme Manson and John Fawcett (Orphan Black) in 2015, and to Don McKellar (The Red Violin, Highway 61) in 2016.