NYWIFT Blog

By Katie Chambers

NYWIFT Member Jamie Kiernan O’Brien is celebrating a remarkable achievement: still a student at NYU, her narrative short film Gender Studies is premiering at 2026 Sundance Film Festival…with screenings at SXSW to follow!

In Gender Studies, a trans college student learns the girl she idolizes is sleeping with their teaching assistant and takes drastic steps to emulate her.

Jamie was also Production Sound Mixer for Crisis Actor, directed by fellow NYU student Lily Platt. The narrative short follows an impulsive actress – recently fired from her day job – as she crashes a support group and spirals into a chaotic night that forces her to face her addiction to drama. 

Jamie a filmmaker based in New York City and a current M.F.A. candidate at New York University’s Graduate Film program. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., she began her career as a theatre actress before shifting her focus behind the camera. She loves highly stylized work that plays with and subverts genre, having made films inspired by horror, screwball comedy, erotic thriller, and melodrama. 

Her previous shorts have played at Inside Out LGTBQ+, Maryland Film Festival, World Pride DC and many other queer film festivals across North America.

She received her B.A. in English Literature from New York University. Jamie is an openly trans woman.

Jamie spoke to us about this exciting milestone in her career. 

NYWIFT member Jamie Kiernan O’Brien

You’re premiering Gender Studies, a film you wrote and directed, at Sundance while still completing your M.F.A.—an extraordinary milestone at any age. What does it mean to have your work recognized at this level so early in your career, and how are you processing this moment?

It’s hard to fully process big things when they happen to you, and I’ve been distracted with getting everything together for the festival, so I don’t think I’ve let it sink in.

While I’m still in my M.F.A. program, this is my third short overall, and I’ve experienced the usual growing pains of finding my voice over the past few years. I’m very grateful that I felt I’ve found my voice through this project, and it’s validating to receive this kind of external recognition once the internal pieces lined up in that way.

Jake Junkins appears in Gender Studies by Jamie Kiernan O’Brien, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Sophie Seyd.

Gender Studies blends sharp social observation with heightened, almost provocative choices as it explores power, desire, and identity within academia. What drew you to this story, and how did your love of stylized, genre-subverting work shape the film’s tone and visual language?

It started as a very different script at first, but I was always interested in a naive girl who finds gender affirmation through a bad sexual experience. Once I added the character of Rachel, it became much more about envy and wanting what other women have.

I don’t think it’s possible for me to make a fully realistic film, and I think my brain is sometimes as heightened as the tone of this film would suggest. I was very inspired by erotic thrillers, but I was also thinking about the movies Maisie has probably loved. She’s learned about sex and relationships through her observations of other people and films, so what movie does she think she’s in before actually being confronted with the awkwardness of sex? The whole time on set, I said “she thinks she’s in The Piano Teacher or Basic Instinct,” hence the imposing tone in the first half.

I’m also a big Showgirls fan, so the doggy chow scene was a big influence.

Sarah Steele appears in Crisis Actor by Lily Platt, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Leo Zhang.

In addition to directing and writing, you’re also at Sundance this year as the production sound mixer on Crisis Actor. How does working so closely with sound and supporting another director’s vision inform the way you approach storytelling in your own films?

I’ll be honest, I’m not a great sound mixer. On that set, our lead actress Sarah once heard a siren I fully couldn’t hear until midway through a take. I think I’m hard of hearing, which I kept warning people about, but I ended up doing sound on four films. We made these films within our M.F.A. program, and Lily (the director of Crisis Actor) is one of my closest friends in my year, so I wanted to be on her set supporting in any way she would have me.

Sound is a great job though, because you’re right there when the director is working with the actors, and one of few jobs that’s hyper aware of what changes between takes. I’m over the moon that Lily and I both have our films there, and that so many people from NYU will be at the festival with some of the coolest work.

Jake Junkins appears in Gender Studies by Jamie Kiernan O’Brien, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Sophie Seyd.

Having started your career as a theatre actress, your films often feel deeply attuned to character and performance. How has your background as a performer influenced the way you direct actors, especially in emotionally volatile or darkly comedic material?

I was a pretty unsuccessful actor, but I did a lot of different kinds of training. The most effective training I did was in Shakespeare, and it was very embodied. I would spend nearly two weeks at a time in a studio just trying to release my shoulder tension before I could even begin to work on a monologue. I was also an understudy, where I had to immerse myself into a cast that had been rehearsing together for weeks, and being extremely vulnerable with little to no direction. All I got was the assistant director telling me to do it faster. Through this, I learned how humiliating it can truly be, but I also gained a massive reverence for actresses particularly.

I still worship at the altar of great actresses, and I hope to make the kind of work that can serve them. It’s also very important to consider what movie each character is in. Normally, you modulate it so that they’re all in the same film, but sometimes each character thinking they’re in a different movie can be used for amazing comedic effect. I tried to strike that with these three characters, as they’re all mentally having very different days.

Jake Junkins appears in Gender Studies by Jamie Kiernan O’Brien, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Sophie Seyd.

With Gender Studies heading from Sundance to SXSW and a clear interest in pushing genre and form, what kinds of stories are you most excited to tell next?

I’m hoping to make some great diva films, so I’m working on a feature that plays with trans representation in the film industry in the vein of great showbiz dramas like All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard. I’m also working on another screenplay for a sexploitation comedy.

I just want to create vehicles for fabulous actresses, and make the kind of films that can play at both Sundance and in the basement of a gay bar. If a drag queen doesn’t dress like one of my characters someday, I will have failed.

Gender Studies and Crisis Actor are playing at the Sundance Film Festival in-person and online through February 2, 2026.

Check out all the NYWIFT members at Sundance 2026. 

Learn more about NYWIFT Member Jamie Kiernan O’Brien at jamiekiernanobrien.com. 

(Headshot courtesy of Jamie Kiernan O’Brien; all other images courtesy of Sundance Institute)