Lisanne Skyler

B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley; M.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University

At the University of Arizona School of Theatre, FIlm & Television, Lisanne Skyler directs Production and the Film & Television BFA degree and Film & Television Los Angeles (FTV LA) a new mentorship initiative for emerging alumni in partnership with Film Independent. She teaches Screenwriting, Directing and the Senior BFA Thesis Film Capstone course. She formerly taught at American Film Institute.

Lisanne began her three decades long career with her debut short Oldtimers which was invited to represent new voices in American Documentary in the 1993 Cinema du Reel in Paris. In fiction, she is an independent Spiirt Award nominated and FIPRESCI award-winning, internationally distributed screenwriter/director of critically acclaimed documentary, feature, branded and short films for HBO, PBS, Sundance Channel and international platforms all over the word. Exploring complex social systems through a personal lens, her films have been selected for the world's leading film festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Sundance, AFI Fest, South x Southwest, the San Francisco International and the Venice Film Festival.

For her feature film debut,  the critically acclaimed Sundance competition and Venice Film Festival selected dramatic feature Getting To Know You, adapted from stories by Joyce Carol Oates and starrring Heather Matarazzo, Zach Braff and Bebe Neuwirth, Skyler received a FIPRESCI SPECIAL JURY AWARD at the Stockholm International Film Festival and a Film Independent INDEPENDENT SPIRIT SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD nomination.  Getting To Know You was recently released on streaming after being lost for many years.

Skyler wrote and directed the Oscar-Shortlisted and globally released HBO Documentary Film Brillo Box (3¢ off), which debuted on all HBO platforms and ran on HBO/MAX for 8 years, was released in over 300 countries and is now distributed by Cinema Guild. In 2021, her searing, historic South Central Los Angeles documentary No Loans Today (Sundance FIlm Festival) was acquired and preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archives.

For her 1970s period drama Capture the Flag Skyler received the Showtime Tony Cox Award for Best Short at the Nantucket Film Festival.  As a screenwriter, Skyler has written screenplays on assignment for producers such as Mike Figgis, John Penotti, Nellie Bellflower, Radical Media and Ramfis Myrthil.

Born and raised in New York City, Skyler is currently in postproduction on Snapshots from the Underground, a documentary film about Club 57, and its ephemeral community of artists who transformed New York nightlife into a youth culture movement.  Skyler has served on juries and selection committees for Sundance AFI, Aspen Film Fest, Provincetown and Film Independent, and currently serve on The Loft Cinema Board of Directors.

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