Carmela is a Chicago-based filmmaker, animator, and screenwriter. They adore telling stories about lesbians, birds, and bugs. “A Bird Hit My Window and Now I’m a Lesbian” will be Carmela Murphy and AJ Dubler’s debut short film and will be circulating the 2025 festival circuit. After graduation, Carmela plans to continue to write and direct weird and wonderful stories.

Outside of their studio practice, Carmela enjoys rock climbing and founded the SAIC Climbing Club—they dream of traveling the world, writing films, and climbing rocks.

Carmela is the recipient of the SAIC Artist and Leadership Award, the SAIC Creative Honors Scholarship, The National Association of Women Artists Scholarship, the Michael Colby Scholarship, and the World Less Traveled Award. Their work has been featured in ExFest, Time Warp Weekend, and CANTV.

Carmela’s CV can be found here: https://www.carmelamurphy.com/bio