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 |