Emily Carmichael (born January 27, 1982) is an American film director, screenwriter, and animator. Her short films have screened in competition at
Sundance,
Tribeca
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...
,
SXSW,
Slamdance, and other US and International film festivals. Carmichael co-wrote the screenplay for the 2018 science fiction sequel ''
Pacific Rim: Uprising'' and the 2022 film ''
Jurassic World: Dominion''.
Early life
Carmichael was born in New York City and is a 2000 graduate of
Stuyvesant High School. In 1999 she published two essays, "Fight Girl Power" and "Acid Torches of Doom", in the book ''
Ophelia Speaks'', an anthology of works by adolescent girls which spent eighteen weeks on
''The New York Times'' Best Seller List. ''
Salon's'' review singled out "Fight Girl Power" as the best of the collection praising fifteen-year-old Carmichael's essay as a "sophisticated, painful, and amusing meditation on girl power."
She graduated from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 2004 with a dual BA degree in Literature and Visual and Environmental Studies.
During her time at Harvard she wrote and directed two full-length plays and three short plays at the Loeb Experimental Theater and the Adams House Pool Theater. Her comic strip ''Whiz Kids'', which originated in her
high school newspaper, ran in ''
The Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
'' over two years.
Seth MacFarlane, reviewing student comics for ''Noise'' magazine, commended its execution, structure, and "
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, ...
rhythm". The citation for Carmichael's David McCord Prize—an undergraduate honor awarded by Harvard houses for excellence in the arts—referred to her as "...an artistic phenomenon. Or perhaps more accurately...a bizarre frightening mutant artistic freak."
She graduated from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's
Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
with an
MFA in Film in 2012. In her final year she was a finalist for Tisch's
Wasserman Award
The Wasserman Award is NYU Film School’s top honor in recognition for outstanding achievement in film. The award honors the late Lew Wasserman and his wife Edie, major benefactors of the Tisch School of the Arts. Past winners include Spike Lee, A ...
.
Career
The first season of Carmichael's animated web series ''The Adventures of Ledo and Ix'' premiered on
Penny Arcade on February 18, 2011 and ran for eight episodes. The first and then second episodes initially premiered as stand alone short films at the 2009 and 2010 Slamdance Film Festival. The first episode was also included in a 2009 online issue of the
''Wholphin''. The series won a Rooftop Filmmaker's Fund Short Film Grant in 2010 and the first three episodes played as part of the
Rooftop Film Festival's Summer Series. After a successful
Kickstarter campaign on January 28, 2013, production began on the series' second season.
In a review of the series for ''Gamemoir'', Sara Clemens writes "Ledo and Ix are the best game characters you’ve never played, and while it’s true viewing them on the small screen strips away the interactivity that propelled my early adventures on the NES and SNES, watching them interact with each other and various villagers gets to the heart of what made early RPGs so special."
Her spin-off animated short, ''RPG OKC'', premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival where it was nominated for Best Narrative Short. ''RPG OKC'' won Best Short at the 22nd
Philadelphia Film Festival
The Philadelphia Film Festival is a film festival founded by the Philadelphia Film Society held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The annual festival is held at various theater venues throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area.
Overview
The annual ...
and Audience Favorite at the 2014
Science Fiction Fantasy Short Film Festival. ''
Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
'' called it one of the top ten unsung films of 2013 and film critic Eric Kohn touted it as deserving of Oscar consideration in the
animated short film category. It was subsequently distributed by the online film showcase MADATOMS.COM.
Carmichael's short film ''The Ghost and Us'', starring
Maria Dizzia
Maria Teresa Dizzia (born December 29, 1974) is an American actress. Dizzia was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in ''In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)''.
Early lif ...
, premiered at the 2009
Cinevegas CineVegas was a film festival held annually at the Palms Casino Resort in Paradise, Nevada that ran from 1999 to 2009, typically in early June. CineVegas was originally held at Bally's. The first Festival featured “The Best of the Fests”, showc ...
Film Festival and won Best Short at
Project Twenty1's Philadelphia Film-A-Thon. It screened throughout North America and Europe in 2011 as part of the
Viscera Film Festival, a touring horror film festival for women filmmakers. During the tour Carmichael won Best Screenplay and Best Comedic Horror Short.
Her short film ''The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting'' premiered at the
2011 Sundance Film Festival and was aired in the first episode of the
KQED television series ''Film School Shorts''. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Science Fiction Fantasy Short Film Festival, third prize at the 2012
First Run Film Festival
The First Run Festival is an annual event showcasing over 120 intermediate and advanced projects in film, video, and animation. It is presented by the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television. and held in New York City. The event first ran in 1986. ...
, and a Student Grant from the
National Board of Review
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
. ''Filmmaker'', in a review of Sundance shorts, called the film "sweet, beautiful, clever, and fun" and "magic and original".
Her short films have played commercial theatrical runs in venues including the
Brooklyn Academy of Music (''The Adventures of Ledo and Ix''/''The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting''),
Avery Fisher Hall
David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic.
The facility, desi ...
at
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
(''That's My Majesty''),
IFC Center
IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...
(''The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting''/''RPG OKC''), and the
Anthology Film Archives (''The Ghost and Us'').
Carmichael's
feature-length
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
screenplay, ''Arrow'', was named to NYU's 2013 Purple List of best production-ready screenplays by a panel of judges that included
Peter Dinklage
Peter Hayden Dinklage (; born June 11, 1969) is an American film, television and stage actor. He received international recognition for portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which he ...
,
Karyn Kusama
Karyn Kiyoko Kusama (born March 21, 1968) is an American filmmaker. She made her directorial and writing feature film debut with the sports drama film '' Girlfight'' (2000) for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for ...
, and
James Belfer. ''Arrow'' was also selected by
IFP as one of its twenty-five Emerging Narratives for the 34th Edition of Independent Film Week in 2012. In March 2014, Carmichael reported having completed the filming of a short, ''Stryka'', based on characters in her ''Arrow'' screenplay starring
Rupert Friend
Rupert William Anthony Friend (born 9 October 1981) is an English actor. He first gained recognition for his roles in '' The Libertine'' (2004) and '' Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont'' (2005), both of which won him awards for best newcomer. He port ...
and
Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress, and public speaker. She was born with a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her legs beneath the knee. She is the first amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in N ...
. ''Stryka'' premiered at the 2015
Aspen Shortsfest
The Aspen Shortsfest is an annual Oscar® qualifying short film festival held in Aspen, Colorado. The internationally-recognized festival began in 1979.
In 2003, director Lionel Bailliu was given the Shortfest Award for the 2002 French short fil ...
.
''
Filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
'' called her one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film in its 2013 Summer issue. That same year
Fox Digital Studio optioned
In the film industry, an option is a contractual agreement pertaining to film rights between a potential film producer (such as a movie studio, a production company, or an individual) and the author of source material, such as a book, play, or s ...
Carmichael's screenplay ''The Licking County Giants''.
In 2015, she joined
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
's artist incubator, OneFifty, to create content for
HBO,
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, and
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
.
In May 2016,
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marsha ...
announced it had signed Carmichael to write and direct the film ''Powerhouse'', based on an original story by
Colin Trevorrow
Colin Trevorrow (;) is an American filmmaker. He made his feature directorial debut with the science fiction comedy '' Safety Not Guaranteed'' (2012) to critical and commercial success. Trevorrow achieved mainstream recognition for his work on th ...
, to be produced by Trevorrow,
Steven Spielberg, and
Simon Kinberg
Simon David Kinberg (born August 2, 1973) is a British-born American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film franchise, and has also written such films as '' Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' and '' Sherlock Holmes''. He ...
.
Carmichael was set to direct the film adaptation of ''
Lumberjanes
''Lumberjanes'' is a comic book series created by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Gus Allen, and ND Stevenson and published via the ''Boom Box!'' imprint of Boom! Studios. The story follows a group of girls named Mal, Ripley, Molly, April, and Jo s ...
'' at
20th Century Studios, prior to that project's cancellation by Disney in August 2019
after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
Filmography
References
External links
*
Official WebsiteYoutube Channel''Filmmaker'' "25 New Faces of Independent Film" Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmichael, Emily
American animated film directors
1982 births
Living people
Stuyvesant High School alumni
Harvard University alumni
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
American women film directors
Film directors from New York City
Animators from New York (state)
American women screenwriters
Artists from New York City
21st-century American artists
21st-century American writers
Screenwriters from New York (state)
21st-century American women