A.V. Rockwell’s feature film debut, A THOUSAND AND ONE, produced by Sight Unseen, Makeready, and Hillman Grad, won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released theatrically by Focus Features in March 2023. Rockwell previously directed an episode of Lena Waithe’s show BOOMERANG, and her award winning short film FEATHERS was released by Searchlight Pictures. Rockwell was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” as her distinctive voice has been celebrated for slyly addressing issues of race, identity, and systemic oppression.
Rockwell’s commercial endeavors have been celebrated throughout the industry for its brutal yet poetically humanized depictions of urban life. She has been honored by ADC with the Young Guns 16 award and the Inaugural Diageo-Young Guns Diversity & Inclusion Award, in addition to the Clio Music Award for her short film THE GOSPEL, starring Alicia Keys. Rockwell was included in the Cannes Lions’ Saatchi & Saatchi New Director’s Showcase in 2017 and has been featured in SHOOT Magazine’s New Director’s Showcase and the inaugural NOWNESS awards, where she won for Breakthrough Cultural Excellence.
