Olivia Szpirt

BIOGRAPHIE

My name is Olivia Szpirt and I am a Danish film director and screenwriter based in London, where I have just graduated with my Master of Arts Degree in Screen Directing, from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. In 2018 I also graduated with my Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Science & Cultural Communication, from University of Copenhagen. I have furthermore also attended filmmaking courses in Los Angeles, New York City and London at film schools and drama schools such as Cynthia Bain's Young Actor Studio, SOCAPA and London College of Communication. I am applying for film festivals because I wish to inspire and empower other people, by using my films to help audiences with understanding life, discovering who they are and developing their identity. My favorite part of being a filmmaker is thus also that I get to develop myself, and grow as a person and enlighten myself by being an artist, and that I get to understand my own life and identity, through my storytelling. "I'M FINE" is my debut film which I made as my graduation film, while studying for my Master of Arts Degree in film directing, at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London. The purpose and goal of making the film was to tell a story that is entertaining, but also simultaneously tell a story that could potentially help other people overcome real issues and real problems, that are happening in the real world. In my film, I thus wanted to represent real issues and problems that are happening in the real world, because it can actually help audiences overcome real issues that they might struggle with in their real life, by representing their life struggles in my film and thereby empowering the audience and making them feel less alone, about what they are going through. I therefore chose to make my film about relevant social issues like loneliness, social pressure, anxiety and mental health, which in my opinion are very significant and relevant issues in our world, and I hope that my film can contribute to comforting and empowering audiences who are struggling with these issues, and also raise awareness around these issues. I have furthermore also added a twist of comedy to my film, and made my film a combination of emotional drama and comedy, because I wanted to tell a story that would make people smile, laugh and feel good particularly people who might struggle with anxiety, since I have found research which shows that comedy, particularly self-deprecating humor, is a useful tool for overcoming anxiety in real life, so I wanted to communicate that in my film, in order to accomplish my goal of wanting to try and empower my audience. I also made the film because I believe that there is a big audience for the film, and that there are a lot of people in our world, who would be eager to watch a film like mine. Firstly I have used a lot of research about real people and social interaction in order to write my film, so that I could make sure that the story in my film is relatable, and to make sure that my film resonates with real audiences. I have found a lot of scientific research, for example research made by the Mental Health Foundation in the UK, whose studies show that many real people in our world suffer from some of the issues that are portrayed in my film. According to the Mental Health Foundation, people say “I’m fine'' 14 times a week on average, but unfortunately they only mean it a fifth of times, which is what I wanted to show in my film. I have also learned a lot of social theories while studying at university, for example Erving Goffmann theories, and I have used many of those social theories about social interaction to write my film. I thus believe that my use of scientific research and social theories to write my story, will ensure that there are real audiences in our world who would be eager to watch my film, since the research and theories I have used show that real people behave the way they do in my film, which hopefully makes my film relatable and appealing to audiences. I have also tried to add diversity in my film, by representing different perspectives and experiences from different types of people, and I also think that the sense of diversity in my film, could attract a big audience at film festivals.

FILMOGRAPHIE