Josalynn Smith is a queer black American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. They were honored with the Sundance Uprise Grant in 2021, awarded a residency at SFFILM as Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellow for their feature screenplay “Something in the Water,” and most recently, Josalynn was part of the 2022 Athena Film Festival Writers Lab for their pilot script “L’Amazone.” A graduate of Columbia University’s Film MFA program, their thesis short, “Something in the Water,” received the Sloan Foundation’s Production Grant. Additionally, Josalynn is the recipient of the Jesse Thompkins III Screenwriting Award from Columbia and spent time as an artist-in-residence at the Catwalk Institute. Their shorts, and a feature documentary on which they served as a narrator and videographer, have screened at St. Louis International Film Festival, Inside Out Toronto Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival and others. Josalynn is currently in development on their first feature, “Ride or Die.”
