Leah Loftin is a filmmaker, actor, and visual artist whose work was named “fearless” by The New York Times. Her films integrate physical and vocal performance with archival media and installations, offering a highly rhythmic and stylized visual language drawn from a background in international avant-garde theatre. Loftin was named an “emerging director to discover” by SHOOT Magazine and was recently awarded the UK’s Silver Medal in Nonfiction at the 1.4 Awards for Brilliant Filmmaking for her experimental documentary on the war in Ukraine. She was named among the world’s “new contemporary artists on the rise” (Future Now) and her experimental film work was a finalist for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2022.

Loftin’s films have premiered at OSCAR-and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals including DOC NYC, Ann Arbor Film Festival (opening night selection), Aesthetica Film Festival, Istanbul Experimental Film Festival, Revolutions Per Minute (Best of RPM), Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival, Edmonton International Film Festival and Shorts on Tap London, among others. Her work has screened at repertory cinemas and art institutions including The Brattle (Cambridge), The Nuart (Los Angeles), SALT Galata (Istanbul), York Art Gallery (UK), and Harvard CAMLab. Her work has received funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and the LearningTimes Foundation.

Loftin is also an actress working in film, television, and theatre. She has guest-starred on The Blacklist and New Amsterdam, and was recently cast in Richard Linklater’s upcoming film, a decades-spanning Sondheim adaptation. Formally trained with the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT), she was selected for an extended performance residency in Moscow with the acclaimed SounDrama theatre company, and was an original cast member of the world premiere of the previously unpublished play by Tennessee Williams, Mister Paradise. With a deep history creating and performing avant-garde and movement-based theatre, Loftin has performed Off-Broadway and throughout the US, Canada, and Eastern Europe.

A proud native Texan, she was born and raised in the small town of Crosby, Texas.