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Talkhouse

Born in Texas and raised in New Mexico, Sheridan O’Donnell is a Korean-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His directorial debut, <a href="http://www.sheridanodonnell.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Little Brother</a>, which stars JK Simmons, Daniel Diemer (The Half of It) and Philip Ettinger (First Reformed) and took home the Audience Award at the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival, is out now in theaters through Gravitas Ventures. O’Donnell is currently directing a feature-length documentary as a follow-up to the Emmy Award-winning film Rising Phoenix. The new film, working titled Rising Phoenix: A New Revolution, will chronicle his own story as a disabled filmmaker and profile an international cast of entertainers, athletes, activists, and world leaders—in hopes of igniting a global conversation surrounding the disability movement. (Photo by Ryan Booth.)

Sheridan O’Donnell

Film

My First (and Last) Film

Northern Ireland-born filmmaker Rodger Griffiths&#8216; new film, the taut family thriller Betrayal, is now available on VOD Saban Films. His short film directing credits include Peter’s Room, Wiped and Drinkypoos,and his proof-of-concept short Take the Shot screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Having finished his first feature film, Griffiths is seeking collaborators and investment in his next feature, Skimmer, a crime thriller in the vein of Uncut Gems and Animal Kingdom.

Rodger Griffiths

Storyboarding Stick Men to the Finished Product

Emily Packer is the director/producer of the new documentary, <a href="https://www.holdingbackthetidefilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Holding Back the Tide</a>, opens September 6 at DCTV&#8217;s Firehouse Cinema in New York City and October 4 at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles, via Grasshopper Film. Emily’s directorial work has been screened at film festivals and theaters across the country, including at Anthology Film Archives, BlackStar, DOCNYC, and others. Emily’s short most recent film By Way of Canarsie, which she co-directed with Lesley Steele, is streaming on the Criterion Channel and was a part of POV Shorts Season 6. As an editor, Emily’s work has been featured in the New Yorker, PBS, and on Vimeo Staff Picks. Emily also serves on programming committees for film festivals in New York City, was a fellow in the 2018 Collaborative Studio at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, and is a proud alumna of the anomalous Hampshire College. Emily collects voicemails for future use; consider yourself notified.

Emily Packer

My Serendipitous Stint as Fishmonger-Filmmaker

Zia Anger is a filmmaker and music video director. Her debut feature, <a href="https://mubi.com/en/us/films/my-first-film" target="_blank" rel="noopener">My First Film</a>, is streaming globally on MUBI from September 6. In 2018 she began touring a new solo performance that traces the last ten years of her lost and abandoned work, titled My First Film. The performance was named by The New Yorker as one of the “Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking.” Her most recent short, My Last Film, premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival. She has made music videos for various independent artists, including Angel Olsen, Mitski, Julianna Barwick, Maggie Rogers, and Jenny Hval; the latter of whom she also tours with as a performer. In 2016, Zia participated in the Sundance Institute&#8217;s Screenwriter&#8217;s Intensive, and in 2015 she was included in Filmmaker magazine&#8217;s &#8220;25 New Faces of Independent Film.&#8221; Find out more at her <a href="http://www.ziaanger.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">official site</a>. (Picture by Theo Anthony.)

Zia Anger

The Process

Nicole Riegel’s latest feature, <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/dandelion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dandelion</a>, starring KiKi Layne and Thomas Doherty, is out now in theaters and on VOD. Her debut feature, Holler starring Jessica Barden, was a Film Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best First Feature and was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of 2021 by National Board of Review. She was named one of Variety&#8216;s 10 Directors to Watch in 2020. She served in the military prior to filmmaking and graduated from UCLA’s MFA writing program. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 Faces of Independent Film. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Nicole served as a co-writer on many of Dandelion’s songs in collaboration with Aaron and Bryce Dessner, including “The Ghost of Cincinnati,” an original song for Dandelion, which was released as a single from Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Big Red Machine album on August 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Ana Lucia Espinosa.)

Nicole Riegel

Inside the Sound of Dandelion

Bradley Rust Gray (born 1971) is an American independent filmmaker. His feature Salt (2003), shot in Iceland, won the Calgary Film Prize at Berlin. The Exploding Girl (2009) won the Best Actress prize at the Tribeca Film Festival for Zoe Kazan’s performance and was released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. Jack &amp; Diane (2012) was released by Magnolia Pictures. <a href="https://strandreleasing.com/films/ill-be-your-mirror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I’ll Be Your Mirror</a> (aka Blood), his most recent feature, was awarded an award for Uncompromising Artistic Vision in 2022 at The Sundance Film Festival and opens at the <a href="https://www.ifccenter.com/films/ill-be-your-mirror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IFC Center</a> on August 23 and the <a href="https://www.laemmle.com/film/ill-be-your-mirror" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laemmle Glendale</a> on August 30. Additionally, Gray has produced four films by So Yong Kim: In Between Days (2006), Treeless Mountain (2008), For Ellen (2012) and Lovesong (2016). He is a Fulbright scholar who has received graduate degrees from both USC and the British Film Institute in London.

Bradley Rust Gray

Plywood and Filmmaking

Corey Sherman is a 30 year-old filmmaker living in Los Angeles whose new feature, the LGBTQ coming-of-age dramedy<a href="https://www.bigboysfilm.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Big Boys</a>, is now available on demand. Born and raised in the Bronx, Corey started making comedy short films when he was eight years old, and continues making them to this day. A long-time lover of animation, Corey branched out from live action when he studied film at USC and created the acclaimed animated web series titled Billiams with Matt Maiellaro, the creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Corey achieved a life-long dream when he wrote, directed, edited, and voiced a character on several episodes of Matt Maiellaro&#8217;s animated Adult Swim show, 12 Oz. Mouse. Corey is also passionate about nonfiction filmmaking, and edited Lawrence Kasdan’s 2019 documentary short Last Week at Ed’s. (Photo courtesy Perfect Dog Pictures.)

Corey Sherman

The Little Things in Big Boys

Antonia Bogdanovich is a film director. In 2014, she expanded her short, the critically acclaimed My Left Hand Man into a full-length feature, Phantom Halo, which she co-wrote. It was a New York Times Critic Pick and was released in theaters and VOD in June 2015. A Director’s Cut of that film, newly retitled <a href="https://www.irisindie.com/about-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sleep No More</a>, is now out in theaters and on digital. She was a co-executive producer on She&#8217;s Funny That Way (2015) starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and produced The Phenom (2016), starring Paul Giamatti and Ethan Hawke, and Six L.A. Love Stories (2018). She is set to direct the dramedy The Spectacular Brink of Life, about a Catholic boarding school for geniuses who build a series of rockets to in an attempt to reach heaven just outside earth’s atmosphere, which is currently in pre-production.

Antonia Bogdanovich

May I Sit Here?

Ryan Martin Brown is a filmmaker from North Florida residing in Brooklyn. He produced the films Yelling Fire In An Empty Theater and The Scout, and wrote and directed <a href="https://www.cartilagefilms.com/free-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Free Time</a>, a comedy starring Colin Burgess, which is now available <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/free-time-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on digital</a>.

Ryan Martin Brown

A Movie is a Yearbook

Shaina Feinberg (she/her) is an award-winning American filmmaker and writer. She spent her twenties making a stoner, punk sketch show called The Spew. She has been on This American Life, was a resident at Space on Ryder Farms (2018) and Twenty Summers (2021), a Reel Families for Change grantee (2022) and a recipient of the Reboot Studios grant (2023). Her film My Mom&#8217;s Eggplant Sauce (2022) played festivals around the world, including Hot Docs, Rotterdam International Film Festival and Palm Springs, won her a Best Director award and is featured on Short of the Week. Her short doc A Brief History of Hating My Face (2023), was commissioned by the New York Times. Her film Cleo From 8:20 to 2:35 premiered at the Aspen Film Festival (2024). Shaina is the author of three books, has written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post and Tablet and writes regularly for the New York Times. Her films and books have been written about in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bust, Broadly, Logo, THEM, Indiewire and more. She is currently working on a film about Joan Darling, the first woman to be nominated for an Emmy in directing. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their two children.

Shaina Feinberg

Cutting and Pasting My Way Through the Western Cannon

Niclas Larsson’s first feature-length film, Mother, Couch, starring Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell, Lara Flynn Boyle, Lake Bell, F. Murray Abraham, and Ellen Burstyn, is out now in theaters. Born in Malmö, Sweden in 1990, Larsson began his creative journey as an actor before venturing into directing short films and music videos. Awarded globally for his creative endeavors, he gained worldwide attention for his short film series Magic Diner (2015, 2018) starring Alicia Vikander, and his commercial work which earned him top honor at the DGA Award, Cannes Lions, and Clios amongst others. (Photo by Jac Martinez.)

Niclas Larsson

“All You Need in Life is a Sharp Knife”

Jake Allyn&#8216;s debut feature as directror, <a href="https://wellgousa.com/films/ride" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ride</a>, which he also stars in and wrote, is now in theaters and on demand. The film, a crime drama set in the world of rodeos, also stars C. Thomas Howell, Annabeth Gish. Allyn is also the writer of 2021 film No Man’s Land and starred in it alongside Frank Grillo, Jorge Jimenez, Andie MacDowell and George Lopez. After graduating from Cornell and deciding to pursue acting full time, Allyn landed his first series regular on BET’s one-hour drama The Quad, where he played BoJohn Folsom, a star quarterback forced to attend a historically black college who had to overcome a checkered past and race issues to win over his teammates. Jake’s performance was praised by The Hollywood Reporter and The Quad made The New York Times’ “Top Shows to Watch.” (Picture by Maarten de Boer.)

Directing