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Jessica Aquila Cymerman

The Stairs

2024 Short Film Contest - Finalist

Jessica is a film and theatre director, producer, and writer from Los Angeles. She splits her time between California, Ireland, and Canada, and holds EU, American, and Canadian citizenship.

Film credits include the shorts One More LineThe StairsKing KillerThe Mad Ones, and The Den

The Den (2022): Winner “Best Director” Vesuvius Int’l Film Festival; Official selection: Seattle Film Festival, Austin FF, Sarasota FF, Tall Grass FF, Albuquerque FF, and many more. The Stairs finished its festival circuit in 2024: Winner of the  “Humanitarian Award,” “Best Child Actor,” and “Best Costume Design” at the Idyllwild Film Festival, “Best Female Director” Stockholm Short Fest; Jury Award Nominee for Best Narrative Short at the Rome International FF; Official selection Dances with Films, Poppy Jasper Int. FF, Garden State FF, Irish Film Fest, SOHO International FF, Albuquerque FF, Mallorca Evolution FF, Queens World FF, and Manhattan FF.

In 2017, she co-founded the Theatre company, Untold Wants in Dublin (now world-traveling), where she continues to direct and produce contemporary theatre.

Theatre directing credits include TH IR DS (world premiere, LEP), Hedda Gabler (Hollywood Fringe), Julie: After Strindberg (North American premiere), The Pillowman, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Cock, The Human Ear (North American premiere), Reasons to be Pretty (all for Untold Wants Theatre, co-artistic director); The Gift, Strange Relations (staged readings, IAMA Theatre, LA), Ted and the Right to Die (RCS, Glasgow); Il Cambiale di Matrimonio (Raucous Rossini, Glasgow); The Seagull: A Musical Adaptation (co-writer, Original Production, RCS); Urinetown The Musical; Reefer Madness! The Musical and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Sarah Lawrence).

She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in Directing from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, with training from Shakespeare’s Globe, UK.

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