Shilpa Sunthankar

Shilpa Sunthankar is a screenwriter, director, and producer with an affinity for stories about different cultures in coexistence, thanks to her background as an Indian-American woman raised in the "cowboy country" of Colorado. Her experience has spanned the worlds of independent film, animation, and commercials, as well as creative agencies like Wieden + Kennedy. She was awarded Best Director at the Los Angeles FirstGlance Film Festival for her short thriller, "The Company of Thieves," which was licensed by the ShortsHD Channel and launched on IndieFlix after its successful festival run. Her award-winning short, "Biography of an American Hostess," was licensed by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. Shilpa graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts after interning for BBC London, and attending the 35mm Filmmaking Master Class at FAMU in Prague. She now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, and is working to direct her feature, "Continental Divide," an outdoor thriller taking place on the U.S.- Mexico border.