Lara Jean Gallagher is a writer and director originally from rural Pennsylvania. She studied film production and English as an undergraduate at Penn State and went on to earn her MFA in film directing from Columbia University. Her work spans from large commercial campaigns for global brands like Nike, Google, and EA Games, to narrative, character-driven films and music videos. Her award-winning shorts and music videos have screened at film festivals worldwide and online via Short Of The Week, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and NPR, and have been included in year end ‘best of’ lists by Paste Magazine and Buzzfeed.
Lara’s debut narrative feature film, Clementine, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for best narrative feature film. Clementine was supported by Tribeca Institute, the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, and IFP, and was the only US based project invited to the 2016 Venice Biennale College-Cinema Development Lab. The film was awarded best cinematography and best narrative feature film at the Bend Film Festival and received favorable reviews from Variety and Rogerebert.com, amongst others. Clementine is distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Most recently, Lara was awarded the SFFILM Westridge Grant from the San Francisco Film Society. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon.