A.V. Rockwell was born and raised in Queens, New York. Hailed as a “rising indie filmmaker” by Entertainment Weekly, her work is celebrated for its brutal yet poetically humanized depictions of urban life. Her distinct voice dominates her work slyly addressing issues of race, family, identity and systematic oppression. 

Shortly after she directed The Gospel, a music-driven short film commissioned by Alicia Keys; A.V.’s work gained traction leading to several accolades including the Guggenheim Fellowship for the Arts and a Sundance Institute Feature Film Fellowship. More recently, A.V. was announced as one of the finalists in the 2018 Young Guns Competition. 

She was the grand-prize winner of the Tribeca Film Institute and CHANEL’s Through Her Lens grant, for her film Feathers, that made its Worldwide Premiere at this year’s 43rd Toronto Film Festival. Feathers was recently acquired by Fox Searchlight – a largely unprecedented move for a studio to venture into the shorts world — the film will now share the same house as Oscar winners Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017), The Shape of Water (2017), 12 Years a Slave (2013), just to name a few. Feathers was also recently selected as part of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

 A.V. was recently presented with the inaugural Diageo-Young Guns Diversity and Inclusion Award. The honor recognizes an outstanding body of work from a Young Guns 16 finalist who is a woman or person of color.