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Lauren Wolkstein is a NYC-based filmmaker originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Her award-winning short films include Social Butterfly (2013 Sundance Film Festival), Cigarette Candy (2010 SXSW Grand Jury Prize) and The Strange Ones co-directed with Christopher Radcliff (2011 Sundance Film Festival). Lauren and Christopher adapted The Strange Ones into their first feature film of the same name, starring James Freedson-Jackson and Alex Pettyfer; it world premiered to critical acclaim at the SXSW Film Festival in 2017 and will be released theatrically in January 2018. Lauren also recently completed Collective:Unconscious, a collaborative feature spearheaded by Dan Schoenbrun (with directors Josephine Decker, Lily Baldwin, Daniel Carbone, and Frances Bodomo), which was the first omnibus to premiere in the Narrative Feature Competition at SXSW in 2016. Lauren received her MFA in film directing from Columbia University and is an assistant professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University. (Photo by Shah Zaman Baloch)

Lauren Wolkstein

Film

A Letter to My 14-Year-Old Self

Natalia Leite is a writer-director-actor, born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her 2015 feature film debut, Bare, starred Dianna Agron, Paz De La Huerta and Chris Zylka and was released by IFC Films and Paramount Pictures. She often deals with sexuality in her work, which has been described as having “a bracing, assertive style” (Variety), “emotional intelligence and sensitivity” (Los Angeles Times), and as “cementing the reign over highly stylized and sexually progressive dramas” (Slant). Her second feature, M.F.A., a psychological thriller centered around rape crimes in a university, stars Francesca Eastwood and was released by Dark Sky Films this fall. She also directs music videos and commercials, and is a frequent contributor to Vice Media. She created the provocative Vice show Every Woman, which has garnered over 8 million views, and co-created and starred in the series Be Here Nowish on Vimeo. Her work has been featured in The Sunday Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Vogue, among other publications.

Natalia Leite

Why Women Need to Tell Rape Stories

Victoria Negri is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and actor. Her directorial debut, <a href="http://goldstar-film.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gold Star</a>, which she also wrote and stars in, world premiered at the Buffalo International Film Festival in October 2016, where it won the Audience Award, was released theatrically in fall 2017, and is currently available through Amazon Prime. Negri is currently in development on her second feature as writer-director, Ultra.

Victoria Negri

Uncovering My Real Self in My Debut Feature

Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak are the writer-directors of Maya Dardel, starring Lena Olin, which is on release theatrically through Samuel Goldwyn Films. A graduate of Cornell and the Iowa Writers&#8217; Workshop, Cotler is the author of a novel, Ghost at the Loom (2014), a critical monograph, Elegies for Humanism (2015), and three books of poetry, Supplice (2014), Sonnets to the Humans (2013) and House with a Dark Sky Roof (2011). A native of Poland, Zyzak moved to the U.S. In 2002, where she produced Asiel Norton&#8217;s films Redland (2009) and Orion (2015), also co-writing the latter. Her first novel, The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel, was published to widespread critical acclaim in 2014. In 2014, Cotler and Zyzak became a filmmaking team; their forthcoming feature, When I&#8217;m a Moth, is currently in postproduction.

Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak

Sober Sunrises, and Other Tales of Making Maya Dardel

Lena Dunham is an award-winning writer, director, producer and actor living in New York City. She made her directorial debut with the 2009 feature Creative Nonfiction and broke through with her second film, Tiny Furniture. She created, wrote, directed, produced and starred in the HBO show Girls, making six hugely successful seasons of the show between 2012 and 2017. Dunham won Golden Globe and Directors Guild of America awards for her contributions to the show. In 2014, her memoir Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She&#8217;s &#8220;Learned&#8221; was published, and the following year she founded the website <a href="http://www.lennyletter.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lenny Letter</a> with her creative partner and fellow Girls show runner Jenni Konner.

Lena Dunham

Danny Strong&#8216;s debut film as writer-director, Rebel in the Rye, which stars Nicholas Hoult as the young J.D. Salinger, is currently in theaters and on VOD through IFC Films. Strong is the co-creator and executive producer of the hit drama Empire; he conceived the show with Lee Daniels, who also directed Strong&#8217;s script for the sleeper hit The Butler. Strong, who was also a co-writer of the Lionsgate franchise films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part I and II), began his screenwriting career by both penning and producing the HBO films Recount and Game Change about the 2000 and 2008 elections. Strong is also an actor with extensive credits in film and television and theatre, and has appeared in many of the most famous television shows of the last two decades, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, Mad Men, Justified, Girls and Billions. He lives in New York City.

Danny Strong

Your favorite musicians, filmmakers, and other creative minds one-on-one. No moderator, no script, no typical questions. The Talkhouse Podcast offers unique insights into creative work from all genres and generations. <a href="https://pod.link/Talkhouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe now</a>, and explore more illuminating shows on the <a href="https://talkhouse.com/category/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talkhouse Podcast Network.</a>

Talkhouse Podcast

Podcast

Lena Dunham Talks with Danny Strong (Rebel in the Rye) for the Talkhouse Podcast

Born in Queens, New York, Los Angeles-based artist, writer and director Vincent Sabella is not a product of art or film school or formal training of any kind, which speaks directly to the expansive and ambitious nature of his self-learned approach as an artist and now, as a filmmaker. His paintings caught the attention of the L.A. art world after debuting his very first and wildly popular collection in 2011, Bear on A Hot Tin Roof, and over the following two years Sabella created four collections comprised of nearly 60 paintings, many of which have been on exhibit in some of Los Angeles&#8217;s most respected galleries. He made his directorial debut with the short film Note, and followed it up with two further short films, Anonymous and Imagination of Young. Sabella&#8217;s feature debut, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethBlueMovie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elizabeth Blue</a>, about a young woman recently released from a mental hospital, who is coping with ongoing episodes of schizophrenia, is released theatrically on September 22.

Vincent Sabella

No Label Required

Jake Mahaffy&#8216;s self-produced, micro-budget shorts and features were made single-handedly, featuring untrained actors in rural settings. His work has played multiple times at Sundance, Venice and SXSW. He founded two new filmmaking programs at two universities as an Associate Professor of Film and Art in the United States and currently coordinates the Screen Production program at Auckland University in New Zealand. His latest feature, Free in Deed (based on the actual events of a man who tried to perform a miracle), won the Orizzonti Best Film prize at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards in 2017. It is now playing theaters on limited release from Gravitas Ventures.

Jake Mahaffy

The True Cost of Making Free in Deed

Barry Jenkins was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He studied film at Florida State University. His first feature film, <a href="http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/medicine-for-melancholy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Medicine For Melancholy</a>, was acquired and released by IFC Films and nominated for four Gotham and Independent Spirit Awards. Moonlight, his second feature, won countless awards, including the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (for Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney) and Best Supporting Actor (for Mahershala Ali).

Barry Jenkins

Eliza Hittman is an award-winning filmmaker, born and based in New York City. Her critically acclaimed debut feature film, It Felt Like Love,&nbsp;premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 and was released in 2014 by Variance Films.&nbsp;She received an MFA from CalArts, School of Film / Video (2010) and&nbsp;teaches graduate level film directing at Columbia University, School of the Arts.

Eliza Hittman

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) Talks with Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats) for the Talkhouse Podcast

Four-time Emmy award-winning actor, producer and comedian Rob Corddry is currently co-starring opposite Malin Åkerman, Erinn Hayes, Bria Samoné Henderson, Ryan Hansen and Jerry O’Connell in the comedy <a href="https://www.vert-ent.com/films-3/the-donor-party-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Donor Party</a>. He is best known for his work on Adult Swim’s satirical comedy series Childrens Hospital, which he created, executive produced, and starred in. In 2016, Corddry won his first-ever acting Emmy award for his role as the misfit-clown Dr. Blake Downs in the series. Between 2015 and 2019, Corddry starred as Joe Krutel in the hit HBO series Ballers, opposite Dwayne Johnson, and in 2019 he played Forrest on the CBS sitcom The Unicorn. From 2002 to 2006, Corddry was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Corddry&#8217;s numerous film credits including Hot Tub Time Machine and Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Office Christmas Party, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Sex Tape, Warm Bodies and The Heartbreak Kid. Originally from Weymouth, Massachusetts, Corddry studied and taught improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters. (Image by Federico Vargas.)

Rob Corddry

Lake Bell serves as co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star opposite Dax Shepard in ABC’s Bless This Mess, a new single-camera comedy that centers on a newlywed couple that gives up their drab and unfulfilling lives in New York and moves to Nebraska for a simpler life. Bell also directed the pilot, and the series will return for its second season this upcoming Fall. Bell can currently be seen reprising her role as the lackadaisical cat Chloe in the second installment of Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 opposite Patton Oswalt, Bobby Moynihan, Jenny Slate, Dana Carvey, Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart. This fall, Bell will be voicing Poison Ivy in the upcoming DC Universe animated series Harley Quinn. Bell made her debut as writer-director-star with the acclaimed 2013 comedy In a World, and in 2016 followed it up with I Do … Until I Don’t, a romantic comedy about marriage in which she co-starred with Ed Helms, Mary Steenburgen, Paul Reiser, Amber Heard, Wyatt Cenac and Dolly Wells.

Lake Bell

Rob Corddry Talks with Lake Bell (I Do … Until I Don’t) for the Talkhouse Podcast

Director, producer and writer Terry Sanders is a two-time Oscar winner who has produced and/or directed more than 70 award-winning dramatic features, theatrical documentaries, television specials and portrait films of major American artists, writers and musicians. His latest film, <a href="http://www.9thCircuitCowboy.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span id="m_5709408443307871980m_-4260808657384927645m_17185021265065243m_-3956060566792784719m_-6883864623346689856m_-5817304636208031751m_2677551824111601205m_-28178790772395011m_2296423990611358341m_111985517381989941m_8981357065227285811gmail-docs-internal-guid-c6f9c466-7fff-3c34-287b-dc4ae8a2eb63">9th Circuit Cowboy, The Long Good Fight of Harry Pregerson</a>, is out now on VOD through Vimeo on Demand and Amazon. While at UCLA Film School, he produced and shot the Oscar-winning dramatic short film A Time Out of War, the first student film to win an Academy Award. After 10 years writing and directing narrative films with his brother Denis (including War Hunt, which introduced Robert Redford in his first movie role), Sanders joined forces with documentary film producer David Wolper and wrote, produced and directed five films including The Legend of Marilyn Monroe, narrated by John Huston. He subsequently made documentaries through the Terry Sanders Company, and in 1976 formed with his partner Freida Lee Mock the American Film Foundation, and over the next decades produced and/or directed dozens of award-winning films including Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which won the feature documentary Oscar. Among many other awards, Sanders also won the Primetime Emmy for Lillian Gish: An Actor’s Life For Me.

Terry Sanders

What I Learned Working on The Night of the Hunter

Patrick Brice was born in Grass Valley, Ca. He holds a BFA in Film/Video from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). His first film, Creep, premiered at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival and released in 2015 by Netflix. His second film as writer/director, The Overnight, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by The Orchard. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Patrick Brice

Miguel Arteta is a Puerto Rican filmmaker currently living in Los Angeles. His latest film, Beatriz at Dinner, written by regular collaborator Mike White and starring Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton and Jay Duplass, was released by Roadside Attractions earlier this summer . He won an Independent Spirit Award for his first feature, Chuck &amp; Buck (2000), written by Mike White. It premiered and found distribution at the Sundance Film Festival, as did Star Maps (1997) and The Good Girl (2002). Has also directed Youth in Revolt (2009), with Michael Cera; Cedar Rapids (2011), with Ed Helms and John C. Reilly; and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014), with Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner. Arteta’s TV work includes Freaks and Geeks, The Office, Six Feet Under, Enlightened, New Girl, Nurse Jackie, The Big C, American Horror Story and Getting On. He studied film with Jeanine Basinger at the Wesleyan Film Program and has taught at the Sundance Institute’s Directors Labs and at the Middle Eastern Film Lab in Jordan. (Picture by Lacey Terrell.)

Miguel Arteta

Patrick Brice (The Overnight) Talks with Miguel Arteta (Beatriz at Dinner) for the Talkhouse Podcast

Pollyanna McIntosh is an actor, writer and director who currently plays Jadis on The Walking Dead. Her feature debut as writer-director, Darlin&#8216;, had its world premiere at SXSW 2019, has subsequently played at festivals such as What the Fest!?, and is forthcoming in theaters later this summer. Her recent work in film has included The Woman, Filth, Let Us Prey, Burke and Hare and Tales of Halloween, while on TV she appeared in Sundance Channel&#8217;s Hap and Leonard and was the female lead in the BBC political comedy, Bob Servant Independent, starring alongside Brian Cox. Born in Scotland, she grew up in Portugal and Colombia and now lives in Los Angeles. (Picture by Lexus Gallegos.)

Pollyanna McIntosh

Nacho Vigalondo is a Spanish writer-director and producer whose latest film, Colossal, starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis, was released theatrically by Neon in 2017. Vigalondo burst onto the American film scene with his riveting directorial debut Timecrimes, which premiered at Austin&#8217;s Fantastic Fest in 2008. Vigalondo went on to write, direct and produce Extraterrestrial, which was released in U.S. theaters by Focus Features. In 2014, he premiered Open Windows, starring Elijah Wood and Sasha Grey. Vigalondo has won more than 80 awards in national and international film festivals. In 2005, his short 7:35 in the Morning was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film in addition to a European Film Award. (Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.tiff.net/the-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TIFF</a>.)

Directing