STÉPHANIE JOALLAND

Originally from France, Stéphanie began her career at TF1 International and Canal Plus, worked as a story editor on Emmy-nominated PET ALIENS, wrote live-action TV scripts, created a Sci-Fi animated series for Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp: VALERIAN & LAURELINE. 

She then moved to Los Angeles to study filmmaking at UCLA where she graduated in 2008. With fellow UCLA alum Sean McConville (DEADLINE ) she now runs her own production company Frenzy Films specialised in elevated genre films. In 2014, she wrote, directed and produced her first micro-budget feature film THE QUIET HOUR, a sci-fi thriller starring Dakota Blue Richards and Karl Davies. 

Her film premiered at Galway Film Fleadh, was nominated Best British Film at Raindance Film Festival, Best International Film at Sofia International Film Festival, won Best Film at Kansas City Film Fest, showcased at Newport Beach Festival, sold to Sky Cinema in the UK, Amazon Prime in the U.S., and was sold by LA-based international sales agent Vision Films around the world. 

She's currently producing THE LAST MOON, a low budget supernatural suspense/horror and then will follow that up by directing her contained sci-fi thriller ICE. 

Currently she works as an advisor on the Raindance MA Film Program with Staffordshire University in England. She's also a special lecturer at UAL. Stéphanie’s an alumna of Berlinale Talents and IFP Emerging Narrative Lab in NYC. She lives in London.

​Q: Who’s your favourite director?

A: Peter Weir, because he directed one of my favourite films ever, the haunting "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and because he's so versatile yet so consistently brillant at what he does. 


Q: What’s the best opening in your opinion?

A: I am still under the spell of "Angel Heart"'s opening with the soul-stirring neo-noir atmosphere, probably because it was one of the first supernatural thrillers I ever watched and I had no idea what had just hit me when I saw it. 


Q: What’s the fictional journey you’d most like to take?

A: I'd like to be onboard of the spaceship of  Dan Simmons's  "Hyperion" towards a mysterious planet which reverses time. The spaceship of "2001: A Space Odyssey" would do as well.


Q: What’s the most memorable line of dialogue?

A: The dying replicant Roy Batty reflecting on his mortality, the tragedy of human experience beautifully encapsulated in a few lines.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die".


Q: What’s your most romantic encounter in a film?

A: Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the 1978 version of course). There is so much chemistry between them it's utterly devastating when she falls asleep and her body crumbles after he tries to wake her.