Leah Loftin is a filmmaker, performer, and lens-based visual artist whose films integrate physical and vocal performance with archival media and studio art installations. Rooted in women-centric histories, her work offers a highly rhythmic and stylized visual language drawn from a background in international avant-garde theatre. Loftin was recently named an “emerging director to discover” by SHOOT Magazine, as part of the New Directors Showcase. She was recently awarded the silver medal in Nonfiction at the 1.4 Awards for Brilliant Filmmaking, and her experimental film work was a recent finalist for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2022.

Loftin’s films have premiered at OSCAR-and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals including DOC NYC, the Ann Arbor Film Festival (opening night selection), Aesthetica Film Festival, Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival, and Shorts on Tap London, among others, and have screened at Anthology Film Archives (NYC), and The Nuart (Los Angeles), winning awards in Berlin, Toronto, Austin, and Bucharest.

Loftin is also an actress working in film, television, and theatre. Formally trained with the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT), she was selected for an extended performance residency in Moscow with the acclaimed SounDrama theatre company. On television, Loftin recently guest-starred on THE BLACKLIST (NBC) and NEW AMSTERDAM (NBC), and will be seen next in THE GREEN VEIL (TRIBECA), starring opposite John Leguizamo. Her film roles began in the Oscar-winning Monster’s Ball, and she has appeared in award-winning independent films that have screened across the globe. With a deep history creating and performing avant-garde and movement-based theatre, Loftin has performed Off-Broadway and throughout the US, Canada, and Russia.

A proud native Texan, she was born and raised in the small town of Crosby, Texas, and currently lives in New York with her husband and children.