Sonja Kelly

Narrative filmmaker Sonja Kelly graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts with a degree in Cinema-TV production in 2011. Two years later, her debut feature, a no-budget Shakespeare adaptation set in San Francisco, screened at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Seattle True Independent Film Festival, the Indie Gathering International Film Festival, and the Fort Myers Beach Film Festival. At IGIFF, LOVE: As You Like It won Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for Best Feature Film (Romantic Comedy). In 2017, Sonja directed a female-driven proof-of-concept short film that screened at the Festival de Cannes: Court Métrage (Short Film Corner) and received several nominations including Best Action Short of the Year at a stunts-focused film festival in Las Vegas. Most recently, Sonja shot a micro-budget short film by herself with one actor and one crew member. This experimental film which explores the psychological impact of sexual abuse was filmed during a six-hour shoot in the Mojave Desert, four days before lockdown began in Los Angeles. Sonja began her career in high school as a Saturday morning intern to film critic Jan Wahl at San Francisco's KRON 4 News. A few years later, she joined the production teams of the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors as a video production intern before working her way up to camera utility, assistant, and operator. Her time with the Giants and Warriors led to camera and production assistant gigs in commercial and sports production throughout the Bay Area including a few jobs with Emmy award-winning cinematographer Scott Duncan. She worked these jobs while studying full-time as a video production student at College of Marin (before transferring to USC). Sonja is proud to be the granddaughter of a Finnish poet as well as a dual citizen of Ireland and the United States. As a neurodivergent queer woman with a dense trauma history, she brings authenticity and a wealth of life experience to her writing, and aims to bring stories to the screen that reflect her fluid and unconventional worldview. She has studied with Mardik Martin of Mean Streets, Dr. Rob Clare of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Evgeniy Lazarev of the Moscow Art Theatre, and many others.