Tess Elliot (USA)

Tess Harrison is an award-winning filmmaker and actress whose work delicately explores the uneasy spaces between familiar things. She wrote, directed and starred in her debut short film, It’s Perfect Here, which received the Best Narrative Short Award at the Napa Valley Film Festival in 2015. Her short films It’s Perfect Here and Take Me Out with the Stars were produced by The Lake Shorts, a co-production between herself and actors/directors Maria Wilson and Hannah Whitney. Together they’ve produced six short films, which have been programmed at over fifty festivals internationally. Tess co-created the short film Happy Vacation, which premiered on Brokelyn, and her music video for Minke, Maybe 25, premiered on Harper’s Bazaar. Tess can be seen in Noor Gharzeddine’s feature film Are You Glad I’m Here, which premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival, won the Audience Award at the Brooklyn Film Festival, and is currently on the festival circuit and playing in theaters in Lebanon. Tess is in development on a series adaptation of her short film Things Break In and in development of Max & Eve and the Light Upstate, a feature adaptation of her short film Take Me Out with the Stars.

Max & Eve and the Light Upstate — In the stark upstate New York winter, siblings Eve and Max prepare for their mother’s final book release and retrospective art show. When their mother’s body disappears from the hospital where she is being treated for cancer, the town springs to action searching for her. A ghost-like light appears to Eve and Max, leading them forward as they navigate this loss and manage to keep the legend of their mother’s disappearance alive.