Short film
Chloé
A girl in occupied Normandy becomes convinced her grandmother is a witch. Shot in a grainy, overcast register on location in France; cinematography by Vivien Deleuze, colour by Jeremy Collins. A sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.
Filmmakers · selected 2017
Madeline
Stephenson
Writer / Director · Los Angeles
Madeline Stephenson is a writer-director from the outskirts of Boston, now working out of Los Angeles. She studied film production at NYU Tisch, where she shot more than ten short films, and has screened work at festivals from Coney Island to Bali.
She became a filmmaker at ten, after seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark and being struck by the adrenaline rush it gave her; almost two decades on she still treats each project as an adventure.
Her mentor, director Chris Goutman, describes her as “a filmmaker who will not settle for the easy answer, who will tirelessly investigate and dig into the material until she discovers the inevitable.”
Alongside her own shorts she directs pilots and commissioned work, and continues training through Filmshop's Sandbox and Jon Shear's directing workshop.
Short film
Terry: The Serious Actor
A self-perceived serious actor meets the hardest obstacle of his career: a co-star with a case of the giggles. Best Silent Film, Rockland Youth Film Festival 2019; Best Narrative, Screaming Ostrich Film Festival 2019. Screened at Coney Island Film Festival, New Filmmakers NY and LA, Roxy Underground and Bali's Minikino Film Week.
Short film
Dream Lover
Recipient of the Arkush Family Production Award.
Short film · 2018
We're All Alright
Written by Stefanie Galler, produced by Stefanie Galler, Stephanie Salgado and Katrina Atienza. A dark comedy about two roommates crossing one night in Brooklyn and the lesser-known signs of depression.
Short film
Quarantine Express
A noir miniature and a murder mystery built inside a single apartment — a tribute to the genre and to the lost privilege of travel.
TV pilot
Sheridan
Written by James Farley; Stephenson was chosen to direct. A half-hour high-school ghost story about how death surrounds us whether we like it or not.
Staten & Whiskey
Short film
Staten & Whiskey
A short about living quickly and departing, like the moth, with a bang.
Someday
First short film
Someday
Made in high school. Primitive on a technical level, and still the charm she tries to recapture.
Unrequited
Music video
Unrequited
A single-song film.
More filmmakers
Alumni and award-winning selections
Kevin Stirling, Michael Dürr and Mathias Fellner, Charles Dillon Ward, and others, screened here before winning elsewhere. The alumni page lists each film with its source.
See the alumni →Film details and stills are published courtesy of the filmmakers and the festivals that list them. Titles, credits and festival results are as the filmmakers list them.