The Team
winterhouse is led by Mike MacMillan and Karen Harnisch, with more than 25 years of experience across 20 features. Our work has screened at Sundance, TIFF, Cannes, Venice, and the Berlinale. We have each helped shape a generation of Canadian independent cinema.
Mike is a creator. Karen is a builder. The line isn’t absolute. Our skills overlap, and we know each other’s work well enough to step in, challenge the thinking, or lead when a film demands it.
Together, we write, develop, package, finance, and lead productions—and handle the work below the surface: budgets, schedules, deal structures, hard calls, unexpected problems, quick pivots, and the thousand decisions between a good idea and a good film.
![still / karen-harnisch [from client PSD]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9d38bc_55b7dd9767ff407a8a22f47c71503c1a~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_603,h_603,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/9d38bc_55b7dd9767ff407a8a22f47c71503c1a~mv2.png)
KAREN HARNISCH
Founder + Producer
Karen is an acclaimed producer, line producer, and lead creative on more than a dozen feature films and series. Her feature career began with Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week and won Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF. While co-leading Film Forge, she produced White Lie, Shook, and Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth. The film premiered at Sundance, screened at the Berlinale, and was released by NEON and Focus Features.
She has also led large-scale studio productions, line producing Firestarter for Blumhouse and Universal and the forthcoming Paranormal Activity reboot, on which she also serves as executive producer.
Named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Most Influential Women in International Film, Karen is a leading expert in international co-production and serves as Canada’s National Coordinator for EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs).
Karen is the builder at winterhouse. She moves from story, financing, and international co-production through prep, production, post, and delivery, staying with a film throughout. She gives ambitious work the structure it needs while protecting the creative vision at its core.
![still / mike-macmillan [from client PSD]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9d38bc_333fcc449da84822a3183bfe2c4eed56~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_603,h_603,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/9d38bc_333fcc449da84822a3183bfe2c4eed56~mv2.png)
MIKE MACMILLAN
Founder + Producer
Mike MacMillan is a writer and producer with more than a decade of experience developing, financing, and making independent films across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Under his previous banner, Lithium Studios, his credits include In Cold Light, acquired by Universal Studios and starring Maika Monroe, Troy Kotsur, and Helen Hunt, and Any Other Night, a romantic comedy starring Tatiana Maslany and Marwan Kenzari, set for release in 2027. He also produced Mobile Homes, starring Callum Turner and Imogen Poots, which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and Weirdos, which screened at the Berlinale and TIFF.
Screen International named Mike to its Future Leaders list. Writing now sits at the centre of his work. The Ultra Runner, his first feature writing credit, premiered at TIFF. He is building a slate of original and true-story features while continuing to finance and produce films originated by others. Announcements about I Will Not Go Quietly and The Farm will follow in 2027.
Mike has a passion for assembling teams around great material—bringing together writers, directors, producers, and creative partners. Wherever the project originates, he brings everything winterhouse can offer to getting it made.
Fluent across borders.
Our home is Hamilton, Ontario—connected to Los Angeles and New York by language, culture, and working day, and to Europe through many seasons of collaboration.
Canada is firm ground for international filmmaking. We know its financing landscape from the inside—from soft financing and tax credits to treaty co-production and private financing. We make here; we also make from here.
We originate films primarily in English, but also in other languages when the story dictates. Authenticity rules the day.
winterhouse assembles talent and partners from around the world, structures financing creatively, and leads every film from development through delivery—staying close at every stage.