User:Cosmickslop/Jane Schoenbrun

Jane Schoenbrun
Jane Schoenbrun is a non-binary American film director, writer and producer who began working in the film industry in the late 2010s. Prior to their directorial debut in 2018, Schoenbrun produced feature-length fiction films, documentaries, and short films.

Career
Schoenbrun made their directorial debut in 2018 with the documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination. The film centers the narrative of the fictional horror character and internet phenomenon Slender Man as told through a found footage compilation of existing YouTube videos. Though it used to be available to view on Vimeo, the film has since been removed. Schoenbrun has stated that they do not wish to profit from A Self-Induced Hallucination: "I have no desire to profit from it, or to commodify it in a traditional sense."

Their film We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) was premiered during the online 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows the story of a teenage girl named Casey (Anna Cobb) that joins an "occult online game". The film is inspired and informed by internet aesthetics and trans perspectives: "Steeped in the aesthetics and lore of internet 'creepypasta' horror, World's Fair accurately evokes the eeriness of the deep web, while paying homage to low-budget horror films, most notably Paranormal Activity (2007)... Schoenbrun, themself non-binary, told bitchmedia.org, 'I really did come out to myself in the years I was working on this movie… I'm really proud of the fact that the film is speaking from a trans voice in the middle of that process.'" Schoenbrun's sophomore feature-length film has a major focus on the ways in which humans interact with the internet: "Through Cobb, we take an alarming and up-to-date look into the life of any average contemporary teenager that grows up and establishes a voice mostly online, struggling to close the gap between the real and virtual." The majority of We're All Going to the World's Fair consists of original footage, with the exception of some online videos posted by content creators previously unrelated to the film.

Awards and Nominations
Schoenbrun was nominated for several awards from different film festivals and film awards associations for We're All Going to the World's Fair. They won the 2021 Montclair Film Festival's Special Jury Prize for Visionary Filmmaking.

Nominations for We're All Going to the World's Fair

 * 2021 Nominee for Best Feature Film - Denver International Film Festival


 * 2021 Nominee for Camera Lucida AQCC Award - Fantasia Film Festival


 * 2021 Nominee for Best Film - Gijón International Film Festival
 * 2021 Nominee for Best Narrative Feature - Indie Memphis Film Festival
 * 2021 Winner of the Future/Now Special Jury Prize for Visionary Filmmaking - Montclair Film Festival


 * 2021 Nominee for the Grand Jury Prize of Best Graveyard Shift Feature - Nashville Film Festival


 * 2021 Nominee for the German Independence Award/Audience Award for Best Film - Oldenburg Film Festival


 * 2021 Nominee for the NEXT Innovator Award - Sundance Film Festival


 * 2021 Nominee for the Free Spirit Award - Warsaw International Film Festival


 * 2022 Nominee for the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award - Gotham Awards


 * 2022 Nominee for Breakout of the Year - Indiana Film Journalists Association, US


 * 2022 Nominee for Most Promising Filmmaker - Chicago Film Critics Association Awards


 * 2022 Nominee for Audience Award - Americana Film Fest

Upcoming Projects
Announced in 2021, I Saw the TV Glow is an upcoming horror film directed by Jane Schoenbrun starring Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine. "The film follows two teenage outcasts who bond over their shared love of a scary television show, but the boundary between TV and reality begins to blur after it is mysteriously canceled." Production for I Saw the TV Glow has reportedly been completed.

It has also been announced that Schoenbrun will lead a film adaptation of Nevada: "Schoenbrun is set to write and direct an adaptation of Imogen Binnie’s cult classic Nevada with production scheduled to begin in the eponymous state between March 15 and May 15 of this year. Released in 2013, Nevada is considered a landmark of the trans literary canon..."

Television shows

 * The Eyeslicer, 2017 (ongoing) - co-creator

Music videos

 * Lucy Dacus: Night Shift, 2023 - director