Maggie Budzyna is a rising directorial voice. Her past films have played festivals including Mill Valley and Sacramento FF and earned her accolades across a variety of emerging filmmaker competitions. She recently finished filming short film "Rapt", a concept piece for her feature script by the same name which was recently named a quarter-finalist for the Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship. "Rapt" will be funded with support from Film Independent's fiscal sponsorship program.
Maggie's directorial influences include Tarkovsky for his meditative nature, Chan-wook for his allegorical approach, and Ducournau for her ability to portray dynamic humanity through striking imagery. Maggie’s work aims to explore the crossroads of realism and the surreal and bring to light boundary pushing, queer/femme focused narratives. Her past work on stage and in front of the camera (projects for Netflix, CBS, HBO, TIFF, Cannes and beyond) enlightens her ability to communicate with and understand actors, and informs her directorial vision as a whole.
In addition to directing on screen, Maggie has written and directed a number of stage plays and recently was selected to participate in a directing fellowship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Her stage work includes plays in collaboration with "The Performing Project", a nonprofit she started in 2010 to bring arts opportunities to underserved communities in Massachusetts.