MEET DIRECTOR SARAH PHILLIPS

Sarah Phillips is a director and writer located in Los Angeles. She is originally from Columbia, MO, where she earned her Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri Journalism School. She was passionately involved in musical theatre from an early age and always knew she would continue in storytelling through her life, using her curiosity and accumulated tech-obsessed skills to continue making films.

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Her short sci-fi film "Supplements"won the 2020 Visionary Award, a special jury prize, at SeriesFest 2020, Best Short Form Series Pilot at SOHO International Film Festival, a Founder's Circle Award at the Louisiana Film Prize 2019, and is on the festival circuit for television scripted series consideration. Her short film "Lilac Ocean Pumpkin Pine" won a Founder's Circle Award as well as placed in the Top Five at the Louisiana Film Prize in October 2018. It screened in competition at the Oxford Film Festival, Houston Int'l Film Festival (where it won a Gold Remi Award), Female Eye Film Festival, Kansas City Film Festival, Circle City Film Festival (where it won Best Cinematography and Best Score), Vero Beach Film Festival, and JellyFest Film Festival. Her short science fiction film "Separation of Church and Livia" won second place at the highly-competitive AT&T Shape Competition in 2017 in Los Angeles, and subsequently won a Silver Remi Award for Best Science Fiction short film at Houston WorldFest 2018. Her short musical "Smile: A Musical" (writer, director, editor) screened in 2017 at two Academy-Qualifying festivals - Dances With Films and Hollyshorts Annual Festival - as well as placing as a finalist at Moondance Int'l Film Festival. It will screen at Oxford Film Festival in 2019. The screenplay for"Smile: A Musical," won Best Short Drama Screenplay at the Nashville Film Festival in 2016, her feature musical Grimm adaptation was recently optioned, and her original musical pilot was featured on Scriptd.com as the June 2017 staff pick. Also, she won the grand prize at the New York Screenplay Contest 2017 for her Doctor Who spec script, and her original musical pilot script placed as a finalist. 

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She received her MFA in TV and Film Screenwriting from Stephen's College, as part of the program's inaugural class of 2017, and her Bachelor of Journalism from the much-lauded University of Missouri Reynolds School of Journalism. 

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Her current favorite lyrics are "Why do you write like you're running out of time?" from Hamilton, and "Look, I made a hat where there never was a hat," from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George.

She is passionate about musicals, scifi, diversity in film, and alternate forms of distribution. Her biggest directorial influences are Rob Marshall, Baz Luhrmann, Nancy Meyers, Joe Wright, Penny Marshall, and Busby Berkeley.

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Proud member of:

Alliance of Women Directors, Women in Film LA, The Dramatist's Guild of America, Film Independent, and Women In Media.

"I think that Story is the thing, at the end of the day, that makes all the difference. Light, music, acting, cameras, lenses, editing... It's my job as the director to make sure those things all help the STORY, not distract from it."

- Sarah Phillips -

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