Writer & Director · New York

Stories with a
pulse, told frame by frame.

Arabella Sharkey is an NYU Tisch graduate writing and directing films that move between intimate live-action drama and the frontier of AI-driven cinema. Her shorts have played at Academy Award-qualifying and international festivals.

25+Festival selections
8Award wins
2Screenings in Times Square
SAG-AFTRAProduction experience

Selected Work

Writer · Director

2024 · Short

Mirror Stacy

Writer & Director

Nominated for Best Student Film at Big Apple Film Festival 2024. Official selection at New York Shorts, Femme Filmmakers Festival and MY HERO International.

Reviewed by Filmotomy

2024 · Short

Plant Baby

Writer & Director

Bronze Award, Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards 2023. Screened at the TCL Chinese Theatre, Beverly Hills Film Festival 2024.

Award Winner, Good Vibes IFF

2023 · Short

Last Shot

Writer & Director

Award Winner at Global Shorts 2023. Made in collaboration with a Deaf actress, with an ASL interpreter and acting coach on set.

Tokyo & Seoul Int'l Short FF

2026 · AI Animation

The Kiss of Death

Director

An AI-animated short selected for Neu Wave AI Film Festival 2026, featured in a filmmaker interview with AI studio Martini.

AI filmmaking

2024 · Virtual Production

Knots

Director

A dance film built in Unreal Engine, made with WLab and NYU Tandon at The Yard, Brooklyn Navy Yard.

WLab First-Time VP Grant

2020 · Short

The Girl Who Could Not See Faces

Writer & Director

Best Director at Shanghai Student Film Festival 2020. The film that earned her a place at NYU Tisch.

Qingdao Int'l Youth FF winner

Recognition

Awards

  • Best Student Film Montreal Independent FF2026
  • Best Cinematography Lake Oswego FF2026
  • Bronze Award Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards2023
  • Award Winner Global Shorts2023
  • Award Winner Good Vibes IFF2023
  • Best Director Shanghai Student FF2020
  • Virtual Production Grant WLab2024

Festival Selections

  • Flickers' Rhode Island IFF Semi-finalist, Oscar-qualifying2026
  • Beverly Hills FF TCL Chinese Theatre2024 & 2026
  • SOHO International FF New York premiere2026
  • Catalina & Big Apple FF2026
  • New York Shorts IFF2024 & 2026
  • Tokyo & Seoul Int'l Short FF2024
  • Neu Wave AI FF2026
Two of her short films have screened at AMC Empire 25 in Times Square - including at the All American High School Film Festival.

Commercial & AI

Selected client work

Press

Filmotomy

"Mirror Stacy" - Short Film Review

Film criticism · Femme Filmmakers Festival 2024

Babel Film Workshop

How to Get Into Film School - Interview

Profile · 2021

South China Morning Post

Featured for student filmmaking

Feature · 2020

China Daily HK

"Views from My Home" featured

Screened at K11 Art Mall via Babel Film Stylo

Martini

Filmmaker interview - "The Kiss of Death"

On AI animation · 2026

About

Arabella Sharkey is a writer-director based in New York, telling stories that sit between classic cinema and emerging technology.

A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts (BFA, Film & Television Production), she has written and directed a body of short films that have played at more than twenty-five festivals worldwide - from the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to AMC Empire 25 in Times Square.

Her work spans intimate live-action drama, documentary-leaning portraiture and AI-driven filmmaking. Alongside her festival work she directs commercials and branded films, and is a co-founder of Mona, a director-first AI tool for film pre-production.

Contact

Let's make
something honest.

For narrative, commercial and AI-driven projects, representation, or festival inquiries.

aqsharkey@gmail.com
Instagram