writer. director. editor.

Christa Haley is a filmmaker from rural northern New York where her grandfather’s love for making home movies inspired her dream of directing at age ten. She studied in the inaugural Cinema and Screen Studies cohort at SUNY Oswego, and she is currently a thesis candidate at the NYU Graduate Film Program.

In her work, Christa explores femininity with unsettling intimacy. Her short, Swim Captain, received Best Student Short at the Woodstock Film Festival. Her follow-up, Tragedy Babes, earned a faculty commendation in filmmaking, premiered at Palm Springs ShortFest, and was released by Short of the Week.

Christa began her career as a production intern on The Place Beyond the Pines while working weekends at Blockbuster, later becoming Derek Cianfrance’s assistant in post-production. She has worked as an Assistant Editor for projects like Harriet, Mary Poppins Returns, and HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage. These experiences ground her directorial voice in lived, on-the-ground experience.