Shawney started his career in computer animation and his work has appeared in dozens of major motion pictures. In 2009, Shawney shot and directed the award-nominated short documentary "Tagged" which he produced with the National Film Board of Canada and TVO. �The Manor� is Shawney's feature directing debut and was selected as the official opening night film at the 20th anniversary edition of Hot Docs, North America�s largest documentary film festival. In July 2013, Shawney was awarded the documentary special mention jury prize at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.