Stella Velon

Stella Velon is an award-winning actress/filmmaker. Her directorial debut The Critic (2018) was among the five winners of Amazon Studios' inaugural All Voices Film Festival for U.S. filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds and also earned Stella a 2020 Webby Award nomination for Best Individual Performance. Other notable wins include the UK Film Review Award for Best Director, the Annual Grand Jury Prize and Best Actress at the Queen Palm International Film Festival, the Best Short Film Award at the Method Fest Independent Film Festival and the Best Breakout Performance Award at Festival Angaelica at Catalyst Content. Velon garnered critical acclaim for her work on the 'The Critic' as both a performer and a filmmaker. UK Film Review called her portrayal of the main character of the Actress "one of the best leading performances of the year so far" and her dialogues "exceptional". Indie Shorts Mag wrote: "From her writing & direction to acting, she has done it with such finesse, that it's a pity that we can't rate her any higher." The film even broke a record by becoming the first short to receive a full five-star rating on the latter, and was later elected their Editor's Pick - "The Best Of All, From 2018!". Stella has trained at some of the most prestigious drama schools in Paris, New York, and Los Angeles and is bilingual (English/French), among other things. She grew up obsessively watching Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), and her latest work as a filmmaker has been influenced by the likes of Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky.