Jessica M. Thompson is an Australian film and television writer, director, editor and producer, who resides in Los Angeles. [1]
Jessica M. Thompson is an Australian film and television writer, director, editor and producer, who resides in Los Angeles. [1]
Thompson grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, Australia and is of partial Maltese heritage. Thompson studied at the Sydney Theatre Company [2] [3] and University of Technology Sydney, where she received a B.A. in Media Arts and Production. [4]
Thompson worked as a film editor in Sydney, before moving to New York City in 2010, where she founded Stedfast Productions. [2] She edited Cheryl Furjanic's documentary, Back on Board, which premiered on HBO in August 2015 [5] and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2016. [6] Thompson has also worked as a film editor with filmmakers Liz Garbus and Edet Belzberg. [7]
Thompson made her feature writing and directorial debut with The Light of the Moon (2017), starring Stephanie Beatriz, Michael Stahl-David, and Conrad Ricamora. It had its premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival [8] in March 2017, where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Film. [9] Critics called the film "harrowingly effective" (Variety), [10] "honest and complex" (The Hollywood Reporter), [11] and Film Inquiry stated that, “For any filmmaker this would be an unmitigated triumph, but for a first time filmmaker this is revelatory.” [12] The Light of the Moon had a limited North American theatrical release in November–December 2017. [13] The film has a 97% score on review-aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. [14]
Thompson was the lead director on Showtime's ten-part television series The End (2020), starring Harriet Walter and Frances O'Connor, [15] produced by the Academy-Award-winning, See-Saw Films. [16]
In 2022, Thompson directed her second feature film, The Invitation , a Sony Pictures horror-thriller starring Nathalie Emmanuel, and written by Blair Butler. [17] It was released in cinemas worldwide on August 26, 2022 and was the top grossing film at the box office that weekend. [18] The film debuted at #2 on the Netflix charts on December 24, 2022 [19] [20] with over 664 million minutes viewed on the platform in one week [21] .
In 2010, Thompson moved from Sydney, Australia to Brooklyn, New York. She lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood [22] for more than eight years before moving to Los Angeles, California.
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Hike | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Percepio | Yes | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2012 | Three | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2013 | Across the Pond | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Feature film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | The Light of the Moon | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Role: Waitress |
| 2022 | The Invitation | Yes | No | No | No |
Television
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | The End | 6 episodes |
Other credits
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 419 | Associate Producer | |
| Love, Marilyn | Associate editor and production manager | Documentary film | |
| 2013 | The Abominable Crime | Additional editor | |
| 2014 | Watchers of the Sky | ||
| Back on Board: Greg Louganis | Editor | ||
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