World premiere at the 2018 Boston Film Festival, First Prize at Amazon’s inaugural 2019 All Voices Film Festival, Winner Best Director at the 2018 UK Film Review Awards and Best Short Film at the 2019 Method Fest, as well as Indie Shorts Mag’s Editor’s Pick – “The Best Of All, From 2018!“. The Critic offers a glimpse into the darker side of fame, as a starry-eyed actress, fresh off a major win embarks on an interview that proves to be a lot more than just that.
The cast are actress Stella Velon, the interviewer Alan Smyth, and director Todd Karner. The Critic written and directed by Stella Velon, producer/executive producer Jean Gabriel Kauss, director of photography Akis Konstantakopoulos, editor Ivan Andrijanic and music composed by Asaf Sagiv.
▶︎ Watch THE CRITIC on Amazon Prime Video (free with Prime): amazon.com/dp/B07SH3HDXV
▶︎ And on the UK Film Channel (VOD): ukfilmchannel.co.uk/the-critic
The Critic is a short film about facing one’s inner demons, with which I wanted to explore the psychology of what it is like to be confronted with one’s harshest, most merciless critic: one’s own self, and how destructive that little voice in our heads can be.
“As an actress myself, I also wanted to weave in elements of what is happening at the moment within the entertainment industry and explore the perils and pressures of the profession while leaving the message of the film open to individual interpretation as I am a firm believer that how we perceive the world is how we experience it“, says Stella Velon
“Moreover, in film and actors’ minds, the boundaries between reality and fiction are often blurred to the point of not being able to tell one from the other, and I wanted the viewer to feel and experience the confusion and unease of walking that fine line. Jean-Paul Sartre famously said, “Acting is happy agony.” There is a lot of truth to that statement, but this is not—or it is not only—what the film is about. It has multiple layers and realities playing simultaneously within it, and there is no right or wrong way to interpret it. My intention with this piece is to fire up people’s imagination, make them think and not spoon-feed the audience the answers like a lot of movies do.” says Stella Velon
Writer/Director
The Critic’ marks Stella Velon’s directorial debut. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles, CA. Coming from an acting background, Stella’s passion for the seventh art naturally evolved into her writing and directing her first short film.
Producer/Executive Producer
Jean Gabriel Kauss is a renowned agent and the former president of JGK Inc., a top photography agency with offices in New York, Paris, and London, representing some of the biggest names in fashion and film such as Ruven Afanador, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Gilles Bensimon, Michel Comte, François Halard, James Houston, Dominique Issermann, Alix Malka, Thierry Mugler, Mickey Rourke, Lance Staedler, and Antoine Verglas among many others.
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