Favorite New Indie Directors
Some favorite new indie directors who have been hitting the indie and underground scene the past 3 years.
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Debra Granik (born February 6, 1963) is an American New York City-based independent film and documentary film director and screenwriter. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and for which Granik was nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2018's Leave No Trace, a film based on the book My Abandonment by Peter Rock.
Granik was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to father William R. Granik, who was an attorney with H.U.D. who litigated fair housing, and mother Marian Gay. She grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. Granik is the granddaughter of broadcast pioneer Ted Granik (1907-1970), founder and moderator of the long-run public affairs panel discussion program, The American Forum of the Air, on from 1934 to 1956, first on the radio and later on television. Granik is from a Jewish family.
In 1985, Granik received her B.A. in political science from Brandeis University. As an undergraduate at Brandeis, Granik also took classes at the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art. In 2001, Granik received an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
While at Brandeis, Granik took Henry Felt's film and media workshop production class and volunteered with the Boston grassroots filmmaking organization Women's Video Collective. She also took film classes at the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art. During this time, Granik made educational films for trade unions on subjects like workplace health and safety, one of which was made for the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety. Granik worked in production on educational media projects, eventually working on long form documentaries by Boston-area filmmakers before deciding to go to graduate school for filmmaking at New York University.
In 1997, Granik directed her first short film, Snake Feed, as her senior thesis with the mentorship of NYU film professor Boris Frumin, who was instrumental in sharing his love of post-World War II European neorealist films. Snake Feed, which began its life as a 7-minute documentary portrait exercise, was accepted into Sundance Institute's Lab Program for screenwriting and directing. Granik workshopped and developed the short film into a feature film at the Sundance Lab. Granik has said that Snake Feed was a work of narrative fiction, with the main characters, recovering addict Irene and her boyfriend Rick, playing dramatized versions of themselves.
In 2004, the short film of Snake Feed and the story of Irene and Rick became the basis of Granik's first feature-length film, Down to the Bone, which was a fictionalized depiction of their struggles. Down to the Bone is the story of an upstate New York mother who goes to rehab to kick her cocaine addiction and ends up falling in love with a nurse and descending back into her old drug habits. Down to the Bone was based on an original screenplay written by Granik and her creative partner, Anne Rosellini. The role of the main character Irene, played by Vera Farmiga, significantly raised Farmiga's profile as an actor. Down to the Bone was shot in Ulster County in upstate New York.
Granik's second feature, 2010's Winter's Bone, was an adaptation by Granik and Rosellini of the 2006 novel by Daniel Woodrell. It is the story of Ree Dolly, a teenager living in the Missouri's Ozark Mountains who is the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings and her catatonic mother. She is forced to hunt down her missing drug-dealing father in order to save her family from eviction.
The film starred a then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes and won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, which led to a distribution deal with Roadside Attractions. Winter's Bone won the Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Director and Best Actress award for Jennifer Lawrence. In 2011, Winter's Bone was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence and Best Supporting Actor for John Hawkes. The film featured a soundtrack made up of old time gospel, bluegrass, and traditional music found in the Ozarks and was produced by Steve Peters. It features the singing of Marideth Sisco, who worked as a music and folklore consultant for the region, and also appeared in the Winter's Bone. The actor John Hawkes sings one track on the soundtrack.
Winter's Bone was shot on location in the Ozark area of southern Missouri. Granik cast many of the supporting roles with first-time actors from the surrounding area and all of the homes on screen were established Ozark homes-no sets were built for this film. For the look of the film, Granik kept most of the established aesthetics of the homes in which they were shooting and many of the few mementos that were added to the homes were contributed by Ozark people in the community.
Granik produced and directed an HBO television pilot called American High Life. The show was a family drama that "follows a young career woman to her economically depressed small home town in the midwest."The show was not picked up.
Granik developed a film adaption of Rule of the Bone, the 1995 novel by Russell Banks, but the project is still in development.
In 2014, Granik's film, Stray Dog, was released. The film is a documentary about a man named Ron Hall, whose nickname is "Stray Dog," and portrays his life as an avid biker and Vietnam Veteran who sometimes struggles with PTSD. The film documents Hall's participation in an annual pilgrimage motorcycle ride called "Ride to the Wall" with fellow biker Vietnam vets from all over the country where they ride to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Granik had met Hall, who had a small role on Winter's Bone, during filming.
Granik directed the drama Leave No Trace, starring Ben Foster and newcomer Thomasin McKenzie, which was released in 2018, domestically by Bleecker Street and internationally by Sony Worldwide Acquisitions. The film tells the story of a father and daughter who illegally live on government land and are forced to adapt to more traditional living in mainstream life. It examines ideas of self-reliance and community, and was a critics' pick of The New York Times. Leave No Trace premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and played at the Cannes Film Festival, and was shot in the forested areas of Oregon, including Forest Park near Portland, Oregon, over the course of 30 days. In addition to Oregon, Washington state was used for locations, with some scenes shot at a Christmas tree farm. Leave No Trace took approximately three and a half years to develop, from the first time Granik read Peter Rock's novel, My Abandonment, on which the film was based.
Other projects Granik has in development include a documentary about life after being released from jail and the subject of recidivism in East Baltimore - that was to feature Felicia "Snoop" Pearson from The Wire and elements of her memoir, Grace After Midnight - but is now a documentary about four former inmates in New York City.
Another project is a film based on Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which focuses on poverty and the working poor in AmericaWinter's Bone, her second film, was just, wow. Sneaks up on you. Then you have to watch it again.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Shane Ryan-Reid began making films at the age of 7 after his father introduced him to video editing at the age of 5. He made action films in hopes to be like and appear in Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, but at the age of 14 he decided to delve into dramas and movies about troubled kids. Shane directed his own films simply as a means for being able to act and write. He never wanted to direct.
When Shane was 19 he saw Tim Roth's The War Zone (1999) and the explicit and confrontational Baise-moi (2000). After viewing such films he realized that he could have an impact with film-making in regards to issues like child abuse and sexual assault, in an effort to bring awareness and understanding to important topics through cinema. This caused Shane to become a controversial figure in his hometown when he began making violent films involving stories of sexual abuse. Soon followed underground and indie appeal via the internet before Shane debuted his first theatrical release in 2007. Academy Award nominated actress Lesley Ann Warren was so outraged by the promotional materials the Laemmle Theatres displayed of Shane's film that she successfully argued that his promotions be banned. In 2009 the mainstream news attacked Shane after he announced plans to make a movie about human trafficking and the Stockholm Syndrome, loosely inspired by the current real-life rescue of Jaycee Dugard, with Lia Marie Johnson set to star. Shane dropped the project to make My Name Is 'A' by Anonymous (2012), a film about convicted (then accused) killer Alyssa Bustamante. Shane called the media's treatment of Alyssa a "monstrous witch-hunt" (similar to what he had just gone through with the media), that focused more on sensationalizing the loss of two children than on trying to understand the reasons behind why it happened. He also made claims that he believed Alyssa "did not act alone" and/or might not have even committed the murder. Shane and Alyssa spoke briefly with each other, years after the murder and her conviction.
In 2014, director Albert Pyun (Cyborg (1989)) cast Shane in The Interrogation of Cheryl Cooper (2014) (his first leading role), which then landed him a role in Gregory Hatanaka's Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (2015). In 2015 Shane directed and co-starred in American Virus (2015), co-writing the film with his lead actress, Miss Golden Globe Kathryn Eastwood (daughter of Clint Eastwood). In 2019 he starred in Choke (2020), a continuation of his character, Brandon, from his controversial debut feature film (this time with Hatanaka writing and directing the project). Since then Shane has gone on to land leading and supporting roles in over 35 films.
Around 2020 Shane began co-producing projects by other filmmakers, totaling more than 150 films by 2024. He's produced films with actors such as Shelley Duvall (in her return to cinema after a 21-year absence), 4-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris, Mindhunter (2017) star Holt McCallany, Uncharted (2022) star Sophia Ali, the final films of the late Tom Sizemore, the return of controversial 2-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, 2024 Golden Globe nominee Alan Ruck (in his first performance since the end of the acclaimed HBO show, Succession (2018)), Oscar winners Richard Dreyfuss and Louis Gossett Jr., Oscar nominees Bruce Dern, Sally Kirkland, Peter Weller and Eric Roberts, Golden Globe nominees Malcolm McDowell, Lance Henriksen, Nancy Allen and Nikki Blonsky, the final film of Lance Kerwin, National Board of Review winner Bai Ling, Critics Choice Awards winner Jonathan Lipnicki, Screen Actors Guild Awards winner Eli Roth and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Lorelei Linklater, MTV Movie Awards nominee Tom Arnold, horror icons Lin Shaye (Insidious (2010)), Bonnie Aarons (The Nun (2018)) and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)), 90's icons Devon Sawa (Eminem: E (2000)), Tara Reid (American Pie (1999)), Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs (1992)), Richard Grieco (21 Jump Street (1987)) and Jason Scott Lee (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)), 80's superstar Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy (1984), Short Circuit (1986)), Grammy Award winners 'Weird Al' Yankovic and Coolio, and many more. He's produced films alongside Academy Award-winning producer Jonathan Sanger (The Elephant Man (1980), Vanilla Sky (2001)), Dale Armin Johnson (Pawn Sacrifice (2014), The Lost City of Z (2016)), writer/producer John Fusco (Young Guns (1988), The Highwaymen (2019)), executive producer and showrunner Peter M. Lenkov (Magnum P.I. (2018), 24 (2001)), and Slipknot lead singer and Grammy Award winner Corey Taylor.From Amateur Porn Star Killer to Warning!!! Pedophile Released, his artsy, character driven, often minimal dialogue films disguised as sexploitation movies are a real odd look into the human mind.- Special Effects
- Director
- Producer
I still can't figure out how I felt about Bellflower but one thing is clear; there is tremendous talent there. Let's see if it happens again. The film has such a slow start you are left scratching your head, but then bam! What a final act.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Nik Fackler is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker that was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his directorial debut "Lovely, Still" (starring Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn, Adam Scott and Elizabeth Banks). The LA Times called the film "an impressive debut" and Fackler as "sensitively attuned to his actors". Fackler then pivoted into the documentary space with his follow-up film, "Sick Birds Die Easy", winning Best Picture at the Poland International Film Festival. Throughout the past 15 years he has produced and directed over 20 music videos for various artists including Sia, Bright Eyes, The Faint, and his own band, Icky Blossoms. His upcoming projects include "Bey0nd Us" with 20th Century Studios, "Codetta" with Lars Knudsen attached as EP, and "Uncle Gabby" based on Tony Millionaire's iconic Sock Monkey series of books and comics.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
American film director and screenwriter best known for the films The Vicious Kind (2009), Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012) and The Age of Adaline (2015).
Krieger was born and raised in Los Angeles. He became "hooked" on filmmaking at the age of 13 when his neighbor, film producer Steve Perry, brought him to the set of the 1996 film Executive Decision. Krieger later interned for Perry during high school, and in college he worked for Neil LaBute and his producing partner Gail Mutrux. He graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema and Television in 2005.
Krieger founded a production company, Autumn Entertainment, in 2004, under which his first project was December Ends, a feature film shot on a US$75,000 budget. The film premiered at the 2006 Method Fest, two years after it was shot, where it won the festival's Best Picture award.
In 2009, Krieger wrote and directed The Vicious Kind, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and earned him numerous accolades including the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Denver Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay. He was later asked by producer Jennifer Todd to direct Celeste and Jesse Forever, based on a script written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, which would also premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. After the success of Celeste and Jesse Forever, he received offers to direct similar scripts, but turned them down in lieu of writing his own material for future projects.
He has also directed many commercials with clients such as Joseph Abboud and AG Jeans, and music videos for Universal Music Group and the Island Def Jam Music Group.
He directed The Age of Adaline, starring Blake Lively and Michiel Huisman. Production started in March 2014, and the film was released in April 2015.
In September 19, 2012, Lionsgate acquired the rights to the script Vanish Man written by Denison Hatch. Later in February 2015, Krieger was set to rewrite and direct the film, which 21 Laps Entertainment would produce.
On February 29, 2016, it was announced that Krieger would direct The Divergent Series: Ascendant, the final film in The Divergent Series.[10] On July 20, 2016, it was announced that the project was put on hold due to Lionsgate's decision to release the final film as a TV movie, mainly because of the third film in the series, Allegiant, under performing. In December 2018, it was announced that the television movie has been canceled due to the lack of interest of the cast and network executives.
On May 27, 2021, it was announced that Krieger would direct the first two episodes of the show Green Lantern for HBO Max.Just the first shot in The Vicious Kind leaves you gasping for breath. What emotion he drives right into with an actor you didn't know could capture it, and right of the flippin' bat.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Canadian filmmaker Jason Eisener directed, co-wrote and edited the sci-fi horror adventure "Kids vs. Aliens," his second feature film, inspired by his own childhood and shot on location near his hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He made his directorial debut with the 2011 Canuxploitation vigilante epic "Hobo with a Shotgun," starring Rutger Hauer. The cult hit was adapted from his fake trailer of the same name, which won South by Southwest and Robert Rodriguez's international "Grindhouse" trailer contest in 2007.
Eisener is the co-creator, executive producer and director of the groundbreaking hit Vice TV documentary franchise "Dark Side of the Ring," now in its third season. Launched in 2019, the critically-acclaimed flagship series explores untold and controversial stories of professional wrestling and quickly became the #1 rated program in the network's history, spawning spinoff series "Dark Side of the '90s," "Dark Side of Football," and "Dark Side of Comedy."
He also co-created and serves as director and executive producer on the forthcoming Vice TV docuseries "Tales from the Territories," executive produced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Dany Garcia, premiering in Fall 2022.
Genre-obsessed since birth, Eisener's films include the segment "Y is For Youngbuck" for the horror anthology "The ABCs of Death," "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" for "V/H/S/2," the viral underwater horror short "One Last Dive," which was dubbed "The Scariest 1 Minute Movie Ever" and optioned by 20th Century Fox, and the Sundance award-winning Christmas horror short "Treevenge."- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Ti West is most notable for directing horror films, as well as being an actor, writer, producer, and editor. Ti broke out, after directing various projects, in 2009, when he directed two feature films - 2009's The House Of The Devil and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. Ti later directed, with his production company Glass Eye Pix, the widely popular 2011 horror film The Innkeepers, which starred actors Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis. Ti also starred as "Tariq" in Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett's horror film, You're Next (2011). More recently he has been a director for MTV's Scream and Fox's The Exorcist. His acting roles include him portraying "Dave" in Joe Swanberg's rom-com, Drinking Buddies (2013) and a cameo as "Favorite Teacher" in The House Of The Devil.House of the Devil. Best horror film of the past several years...period- Producer
- Writer
- Director
One of the founding partners of Raven Banner, Andrew Thomas Hunt is a Producer/Director/Writer/Editor. Andrew's feature-length debut Sweet Karma premiered at the 2009 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal and was the catalyst for the formation of Raven Banner Entertainment - a worldwide sales company specializing in genre films. In 2012 Raven Banner Releasing was formed as the Canadian distribution arm for RBE, releasing such titles as Autopsy of Jane Doe, Turbo Kid, Baskin, Deathgasm, Come True, Bloodthirsty, and Gaspar Noe's Climax. In 2015 Northern Banner Releasing was formed to focus on non-genre films, such as Academy Award Nominated Embrace of the Serpent, The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Maki, How To Plan An Orgy In A Small Town, Hello Destroyer, The Painted Bird, and Bruce La Bruce's Saint Narcisse. Additionally, Andrew has produced over two dozen films including V/H/S 94, Nail in the Coffin - The Fall & Rise of Vampiro, The Breach, Stakelander, Avenged, SXSW favourite Psycho Goreman, and Slamdance Audience Award winner Shoot To Marry. In 2018 Andrew got behind the camera again as director for his sophomore feature Spare Parts which had its World Premiere at Korea's prestigious BIFAN Film Festival and its European Premiere at Sitges. Andrew's third film as director The Fight Machine, based on acclaimed author Craig Davidson's novel The Fighter, had its World Premiere at Fantasia Festival in Montreal where it won the Gold Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature.- Visual Effects
- Editor
- Director
Mike Cahill was born on 5 July 1979 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He is an editor and director, known for Another Earth (2011), I Origins (2014) and Boxers and Ballerinas (2004).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Kelly Reichardt was born and raised in Miami-Dade Country, Florida, to a family of police officers. She had an interest in photography from a very young age. She started by using her father's camera, which he used for photographing crime scenes. She went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. In the summer of 2005, Reichardt directed Old Joy (2006), which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was the first American film to win the Tiger award at the Rotterdam Film Festival and opened at the Film Forum in New York City. Reichardt's first feature, River of Grass (1994), a sun-drenched noir that was shot in her home town of Dade County, was cited as one of the best films of 1995 by the Boston Globe, Village Voice, Film Comment, the New York Daily News, Paper Magazine, and the San Francisco Guardian.- Director
- Writer
Samuel Maoz was born on 23 May 1962 in Herzliya, Israel. He is a director and writer, known for Lebanon (2009), Foxtrot (2017) and It's Good to Die for Your Country.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
David Michôd is known for The King (2019), Animal Kingdom (2010) and The Rover (2014). He is married to Mirrah Foulkes.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Rodrigo Cortés was born in 1973 in Pazos Hermos, Ourense, Galicia, Spain. He is a director and editor, known for Buried (2010), Love Gets a Room (2021) and Red Lights (2012).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Clio Barnard was born in Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK. She is known for The Selfish Giant (2013), Ali & Ava (2021) and The Arbor (2010).- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Ryan Craig was born on 28 November 1974 in La Mesa, California, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Small Town Saturday Night (2010), Untitled Harstad Project and Piano Man in a Guitar Town (2006).- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Identical twins, writers, directors, actors even stunt players, the Soska sisters have always loved twisted film. Even at an early age, they devoured Stephen King novels, one after another as fast as they could read - and snuck into the over 18 sections at video stores, to critique the bloody images on the backs VHS horror movies and in gore magazines.
They both entered the film industry, acting and doing background work - and were soon unsatisfied with stereotypical roles that were commonly offered to identical twins. To expand their horizons, they trained in martial arts in hopes to pick-up stunt roles and briefly attended a film school that included an intensive stunt program. For one of the school's final film projects, their prepared short film had it's funding misappropriated and their short was pulled from the program. Undeterred, they decided to go ahead with it anyway, getting a new cast and crew and paying for it out of their own pockets. The title of that project was 'Dead Hooker In A Trunk'.
'Dead Hooker In A Trunk' - their debut film, which the twins wrote, directed, produced, starred in, and performed the stunts. Using Robert Rodriguez's book, Rebel Without A Crew - a bible for how film-making could be done on a modest budget, armed only with creativity and ambition. Even following the spirit of El Mariachi, the twins' story reached the original El Mariachi, actor Carlos Gallardo - who not only gave the ladies advice, but appeared in the film - as God. The completed film - embraced by horror fans, film festivals, and critics - became an underground sensation, called "a hidden gem in indie film-making" and "a cult classic in the waiting", and won multiple awards: Pollygrind's Favorite Feature, Best Screenplay, City of Death's Best Director Award, and Cinefantasy's Audience Favorite Prize.
In 2008 the twins incorporated, Twisted Twins Productions -- to create their own label for many future projects to come, including their highly anticipated second feature, American Mary, an analogy of their own struggles in the film industry. American Mary has gone on to win numerous praise and awards. The film has gone on to become a cult classic and the various costumes of the lead character Mary Mason a Halloween and horror convention favorite for cos-players.
The Soska Sisters have gone on to be very outspoken about equal rights across the board including but not limited to gender equality and equal rights for the LGBT community. They're actively involved in promoting blood donation and create a new PSA for it every February. And they are only just getting started.
2014 was a big year with the Soska Sisters bringing a new life to See No Evil 2 where they resurrect the WWE Studios franchise with WWE Superstar Glenn "Kane" Jacobs reprising his role as Jacob Goodnight and scream queens Danielle Harris and Katharine Isabelle appear together for the first time. As well, the Twins will be one of the all star director line up for ABCs of Death 2 in a segment that will shock and be destined for cult status. Their segment, T is for Torture Porn, has since been banned in Germany.
In 2015, the twins did a genre jump, teaming again with Lionsgate and WWE Studios, with a action revenge thriller called Vendetta to star, Dean Cain, Paul 'Big Show' Wight, and Michael Eklund. The high action, ultra gory nature of the film proved that the sisters are not one trick ponies as they expand their sensibilities to this Justin Shady written, men's prison revenge flick.
Avid comic book fans, the Soska Sisters have teamed up with Daniel Way (Deadpool, Daken) to create their own very graphic novel entitled Kill-Crazy Nymphos Attack! with artist Rob Dumo & cover artist Dave Johnson which is a pitch black satire on patriarchal society and women's roles within it. The very graphic novel is set with a 2017 release date.
September 16th, 2015, also marks the release of Jen & Sylvia Soska's first collaboration with Marvel comics with their Night Nurse story line 'The Risk of Infection' featured in Secret Wars Journal #5. The Soska twins have been long time fans of Marvel Comics and been quite vocal in their interests to tackle the adaptation of one of their stories for the big screen with them at the helm as directors. In April it was announced that the twins would be teaming with Marvel again, this time writing 'The Ripley' as a Guardians of the Galaxy story featured in Guardians of Infinity #8.
The mediums that the twins take on ever expanding, the Soska Sisters are the hosts of the survival horror game-show called Hellevator that premiered October 21 2015 on GSN. The show is a creation from Blumhouse, GSN, Matador, and Lionsgate. The show just enjoyed it's second season and received even more attention when it was made available on VOD through Netflix and Hulu proving that evil twins continue to have a rich history with elevators and scaring people.
In February 2016, the directing duo of Jen and Sylvia Soska came on board to direct a remake of David Cronenberg's 1977 zombie thriller Rabid. John Vidette's Somerville House Releasing entered into a joint venture with Paul Lalonde and Michael Walker to produce a feature film and original TV series based on the 1977 Canadian horror film.
December 11, 2016 will mark the twins' company, Twisted Twins Productions' 8 year anniversary which will have them with 4 feature films, 2 graphic novels, a series of blood donation PSAs, and a television show. Not too shabby for a pair of twins from Canada who set their sites on shaking up the entertainment industry playing by their own rules and leaving a hefty cinematic body count in their wake.- Director
- Actress
- Writer
Identical twins, writers, directors, actors, and even stunt players, the Soska sisters have always loved twisted film. Even at an early age, they devoured Stephen King novels, one after another as fast as they could read - and would sneak into the over 18 sections at video stores, to critique the bloody images on the backs VHS horror movies and in gore magazines.
They both entered the film industry, acting and doing background work - and were soon unsatisfied with stereotypical roles that were commonly offered to identical twins. To expand their horizons, they trained in martial arts in hopes of picking up stunt roles and briefly attended a film school that included an intensive stunt program. For one of the school's final film projects, their prepared short film had its funding misappropriated and their short was pulled from the program. Undeterred, they decided to go ahead with it anyway, getting a new cast and crew and paying for it out of their own pockets. The title of that project was 'Dead Hooker In A Trunk'.
'Dead Hooker In A Trunk' is their debut film, which the twins wrote, directed, produced, starred in, and performed the stunts. Using Robert Rodriguez's book, Rebel Without A Crew - a bible for how film-making could be done on a modest budget, armed only with creativity and ambition. Even following the spirit of El Mariachi, the twins' story reached the original El Mariachi, actor Carlos Gallardo - who not only gave the ladies advice, but appeared in the film - as God. The completed film - embraced by horror fans, film festivals, and critics - became an underground sensation, called "a hidden gem in indie film-making" and "a cult classic in the waiting", and won multiple awards: Pollygrind's Favorite Feature, Best Screenplay, City of Death's Best Director Award, and Cinefantasy's Audience Favorite Prize.
In 2008 the twins incorporated, Twisted Twins Productions -- to create their own label for many future projects to come, including their highly anticipated second feature, American Mary, an analogy of their own struggles in the film industry. American Mary has gone on to win numerous praise and awards. The film has gone on to become a cult classic and the various costumes of the lead character Mary Mason a Halloween and horror convention favorite for cos-players.
The Soska Sisters have gone on to be very outspoken about equal rights across the board including but not limited to gender equality and equal rights for the LGBT community. They're actively involved in promoting blood donation and create a new PSA for it every February. And they are only just getting started.
2014 was a big year with the Soska Sisters bringing a new life to See No Evil 2 where they resurrect the WWE Studios franchise with WWE Superstar Glenn "Kane" Jacobs reprising his role as Jacob Goodnight and scream queens Danielle Harris and Katharine Isabelle appear together for the first time. As well, the Twins will be one of the all star director lined up for ABCs of Death 2 in a segment that will shock and be destined for cult status. Their segment, T is for Torture Porn, has since been banned in Germany.
In 2015, the twins did a genre jump, teaming again with Lionsgate and WWE Studios, with a action revenge thriller called Vendetta to star, Dean Cain, Paul 'Big Show' Wight, and Michael Eklund. The high action, ultra gory nature of the film proved that the sisters are not one trick ponies as they expand their sensibilities to this Justin Shady written, men's prison revenge flick.
Avid comic book fans, the Soska Sisters have teamed up with Daniel Way (Deadpool, Daken) to create their own very graphic novel entitled Kill-Crazy Nymphos Attack! with artist Rob Dumo & cover artist Dave Johnson which is a pitch black satire on patriarchal society and women's roles within it. The very graphic novel is set with a 2017 release date.
September 16th, 2015, also marks the release of Jen & Sylvia Soska's first collaboration with Marvel comics with their Night Nurse story line 'The Risk of Infection' featured in Secret Wars Journal #5. The Soska twins have been long time fans of Marvel Comics and been quite vocal in their interests to tackle the adaptation of one of their stories for the big screen with them at the helm as directors. In April it was announced that the twins would be teaming with Marvel again, this time writing 'The Ripley' as a Guardians of the Galaxy story featured in Guardians of Infinity #8.
The media that the twins take on ever expanding, the Soska Sisters are the hosts of the survival horror game-show called Hellevator that premiered October 21 2015 on GSN. The show is a creation from Blumhouse, GSN, Matador, and Lionsgate. The show just enjoyed its second season and received even more attention when it was made available on VOD through Netflix and Hulu proving that evil twins continue to have a rich history with elevators and scaring people.
In February 2016, the directing duo of Jen and Sylvia Soska came on board to direct a remake of David Cronenberg's 1977 zombie thriller Rabid. John Vidette's Somerville House Releasing entered into a joint venture with Paul Lalonde and Michael Walker to produce a feature film and original TV series based on the 1977 Canadian horror film.
December 11, 2016 will mark the twins' company, Twisted Twins Productions' 8 year anniversary which will have them with 4 feature films, 2 graphic novels, a series of blood donation PSAs, and a television show. Not too shabby for a pair of twins from Canada who set their sites on shaking up the entertainment industry playing by their own rules and leaving a hefty cinematic body count in their wake.