ABIGAIL ZEALEY BESS, DRECTOR/HEAD of Weird Sister Films - FIRST TIME GUEST!

Abigail Zealey Bess is an award-winning filmmaker and theatre director with a résumé that features work with the legendary Sidney Lumet, John Leguizamo, Kevin Smith, Matt LeBlanc, Frank Whaley, Bruce Beresford and many others. Her work has crossed boundaries and platforms for many years as an independent director and producer in film and theatre.

She has been directing theatre and film, specializing in new work since she arrived on these shores and established her company, Weird Sisters, as a theatrical entity in 1997. Under the auspices of her company she has developed numerous projects in collaboration with many writers both established and newly emerging on the New York scene. She subsequently directed and produced her debut film, the award-winning baseball trilogy: Play Ball! (Fanfare for A Common Man, Random Acts of Intimacy, Caught in Time) that screened throughout the globe including the Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Director Fortnight, and at over 40 USA festivals including New York, Newport, Seattle and Savannah.

In addition to garnering Best Film at seven USA festivals, she was awarded 1st Prize for Best Short Film by woman director at the LA Women In Film Competition.

As a long-standing member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre based in New York, one of the leading developmental theatres of new plays in the USA, she has directed and produced numerous new works. NY Theatres where she has worked include The Foundry Theatre, Ohio Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Here, Cort Theatre Broadway, and internationally the Edinburgh Festival, the Young Vic, the Strand Theatre, London. Recent Credits: the award-winning NY Fringe Winner The Radicalization of Rolfe by Andy Burgh at the Players Theatre and the Soho Playhouse 2016, Paper Doll by Susan Eve Haar at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017, Leviticus, Edinburgh Fringe 2018 with Sawyer Spielberg’s Theatre Company, WATG. Most recent credit: Saugerties with Chad L. Coleman and Beau Garret at Hudson Guild Th in LA.

She continues to head Weird Sisters developing feature film projects and theatrical ventures in NY, Regionally and in Europe devoted to the promotion of prolific women artists and writers giving voice to new thought-provoking work.

Film Projects include award-winning Mary and Louise, (Awards: Best Short film screenplay LA FF, Accolade Award Competition Special Merit, Best Composer Score, Brit Penrod Best Trailer, WIF Finalist), and Icarus Stops For Breakfast currently on the 2019 festival circuit, (Jerome Grant Finalist) Awards: Best Women Film, Calcutta Int Cult FF, Best Dark Comedy, Hollywood Blood Horror Festival, Audience Award Winner, Director Circle Festival of Shorts.

 

Full Length Features currently in development include Walking Shadows, the story of two unlikely Vets finding friendship and rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of Vietnam by Chris Ceraso and The Beacon, a psychological thriller by Bryant Martin.
She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, Cinefemme, SDC, Actors Studio PDU, NYWIFT, LPTW and Board Member of Dell Arte Opera.

She is on the Faculty for the Graduate Film Program at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, Columbia University, NYCDA and is represented by Linda Weaver at Access Talent.