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 Film page

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 Film page

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 Film page

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