Joanna Priestley

Director - USA

Joanna Priestley produced, directed and animated the abstract feature, North of Blue, 27 short films and Clam Bake, an iOS app.

Her work maintains a high level of porosity between serious exploration of boundaries and intuitive whimsy and she is dedicated to experimentation in technique, theme and content.

Retrospectives of Priestley’s films have been held at the British Film Institute, National Film Theatre (2017, London, UK), Stuttgart International Animation Festival (2016, Stuttgart, Germany), Tricky Women Animation Festival (2016, Vienna, Austria), Hiroshima Animation Festival (2014, Hiroshima, Japan), REDCAT (2009, Los Angeles, CA), American Cinematheque (2005, Los Angeles, CA), Jeonju International Film Festival (2005, Jeonju, South Korea), Walker Art Center (2005, Minneapolis, MN), Museum of Modern Art (2000, New York, NY), Masters of Animation (2000, Thiruvananthapuram, India) and the Center for Contemporary Art (1990, Warsaw, Poland).

Priestley has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Film Institute, Ford Family Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Fundación Valparaíso, Millay Colony and Creative Capital. She was founding president of ASIFA Northwest and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Priestley graduated with a Masters in Film and Video from California Institute of the Arts and she lives in Portland, Oregon with director and production designer Paul Harrod.