Julia Solomonoff
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Julia Solomonoff is an Argentine filmmaker based in New York. She has written and directed shorts and features that garnered awards at festivals worldwide. Her debut feature, "Hermanas" participated at the Sundance Lab, Berlinale Talent Campus and premiered in Toronto Film Festival. "The Last Summer of la Boyita", co-produced by Almodovar, won over 20 international awards, including Prix de la Jeunesse, from ACID at Cannes. "Nobody's Watching" won Best Actor at Tribeca Film Festival and Condor Award for Best Screenplay and was a New York Times, Village Voice and The Guardian Critic's Pick.
For TV, she directed the documentary series "Aerocene Pacha", "Parana, biography of a river" and the fiction "The Suitor" based on a story by Julia Alvarez for PBS. Most recently, she was executive producer, showrunner and director of "15 an hour" a 10 episode series for Paramount+-
She often deals with issues of immigration, identity and belonging and has a realistic, humanistic and subtle touch. Her films are praised for compelling performances, authenticity and a compassionate and curious gaze. Some quotes from the press:
"Smart and engaging... "Nobody's Watching addresses immigration issues head on but it is more about being set existentially adrift." says New York Times critic Glenn Kenny "Solomonoff has crafted an arresting tale of privilege and displacement"
"The Last Summer of the Boyita" is lavishly shot and beautifully acted. The film manages to pack a punch. Its central motif of the empowering nature of childhood friendship is unexpectedly moving." Lucy Popescu, WordPress
"Hermanas" ... "a perceptive and beautifully acted drama" Jeannette Catsoulis, NYT
Her work as a producer spans over a decade, collaborating on films including Lucrecia Martel's "Zama" (Venice, Toronto, NYFF 2017), "Everybody has a Plan" (Toronto 2012, starring Viggo Mortensen), Celina Murga's "The Third Side of the River" (Berlin 2014, executive produced by Martin Scorsese), Lucia Murat's "A memoria que me contan" (FIPRESCI award, Moscow FF 2015), Julia Murat's "Pendular"(FIPRESCI Winner at Berlin Panorama 2017) and "Found Memories" (Venice 2011, winner of over 30 international awards), Clara Cullen's "Manuela" and Alejandro Landes' "Cocalero" (Sundance 2007).
She is producing Alessandra Sanguinetti's "The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer" (Sundance Doc Lab Grant Winner 2020). Solomonoff was 1st Assistant Director on Walter Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries and has also worked for Isabel Coixet, Martin Rejtman and Carlos Sorin.
Solomonoff serves as Chair of the NYU Tisch Graduate Film Department where she teaches Directing. Prior to that, she was the Head of Directing at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College and taught at Columbia University. She is a MacDowell Residency Fellow.
She earned a Cinematography degree from the Argentine National School of Film (ENERC), and an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University where she graduated with honors. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, she won a DGA Best Latinx Student Filmmaker Award for "Siesta" that was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards.
"Hermanas" was nominated for the Library of Congress as part of the Latino Heritage and it is in the Harvard Archives.
Brazilian director Walter Salles was co-producer.