Elisabeth Fies

The prolific, funny, and fearless writer/director/producer of feature thriller "The Commune", awarded Best International Picture at Bram Stoker Festival. Despite the terrible timing of winning "Best Action Screenplay" by Fade In Magazine and "Best Thriller Screenplay" by Creative Screenwriting Magazine days before the 2007 Writers's Strike, Elisabeth's unproduced spaghetti western script "Pistoleras" took the blogosphere by storm and remains her most requested screenplay. Her forte is thriller/horror and superhero actioners. Fies cites Star Wars and Twin Peaks as influences ingested at a cellular level, and most wishes she had directed "Terminator 2". Elisabeth's undergraduate UCLA years included interning at Debra Hill Productions and doing stunts as monsters on the The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. With a prestigious grant from Do Something, she created and starred in the indie TV show "Kids Know it All!" After earning her first Masters degree from New School University in Media Studies, she returned to UCLA to study screenwriting in the renowned Professional Program, where co-chair Hal Ackerman declared her a brilliant writer. Before embarking on her own filmmaking career, Fies was an associate producer on acclaimed no-budget triumph "Conventioneers", a political Romeo & Juliet tale that overcame industry powerhouses "Brick" and "Puffy Chair" to claim the 2006 Independent Spirit Award in the John Cassavettes category. Lis comes from a family of accomplished artists she refers to as the Tennebaums or "West Coast Sedaris clan." She learned how to read on her cartoonist brother's Avengers comic books. In 2005, Brian Fies won the first digital Eisner Award for Mom's Cancer, an intimate graphic novel starring Elisabeth, sister Brenda, himself, and their deceased mom Barbara. Fies collaborates with her sister Brenda on film shorts. In 2010, the diabolical Fies Sisters founded BleedFest. The mission grew out of their experience taking The Commune on the festival circuit and finally meeting other women with similar taste. The BleedFest Film Festival has screened over 100 films; celebrated the works of Anna Biller, Stacey Title, and mentor Katt Shea; and presented Partnership Awards to male genre luminaries like Ryan Levin, Lucky McKee and Drew Daywalt who create multidimensional female characters. Many alums state BleedFest has given them more press and opportunities than any other festival. Lis is an accomplished academic whose published work includes a graduate thesis on Catwoman's feminist influence on twentieth century pop culture. She is the rare auteur who is as comfortable onset as she is in the classrooms of her alma maters New School and UCLA. A founding member of the Scribosphere, Lis is a supportive and accessible mentor to screenwriters and DIY filmmakers and loves speaking on panels. Her work has been extensively profiled everywhere from the L.A. Times, NY Times, Huffington Post, FEARnet to Cinematical. Voted a top 10 movie reviewer by millions of Netflix subscribers three years running, Lis Fies above all remains passionate about storytelling.