Anastasia Starova

Writer
Filmmaker
Story & VFX Consultant

Born and raised in a small, provincial town in post-soviet Ukraine, I grew up in cultural and geographical isolation and saw fiction as a means of escape: literature and cinema allowed me to live lives I couldn’t dream of, meet fascinating people, experience foreign cultures, and visit places like Paris, New York, London, Prague.

In my early twenties, I started traveling around the world. The more I discovered, the more I wanted to capture, remember, and share. The humour, heartbreaks, and the beautiful human connections I had found on the way are the inspiration for the stories I tell now.

Today, I live and work in Canada. When I am unable to travel and collect new experiences, I always turn to books, films, and tv series for my obligatory dose of adventure.

In development

The Last Snow
feature, drama

The J-1 Project
pilot, comedy, drama

Project 29
multimedia, biographical

Radio Kolo
podcast

In my work, I am interested in exploring and highlighting connections - between humans, cultures, memory, environment (whether nature or city), and art.

Lately, I have been focused on developing stories about the challenges, both exciting and tragic, of fitting into foreign cultures. I am writing a short film and a TV pilot based on my experience of living in NYC and Toronto and immigrating to Canada.

I am also interested in creative approaches to communicate client science and in climate change adaptation narratives.

Most often, I work in the genres of dramedy, drama, and magical realism.

Past works

Visitor (2015)
short drama, sci-fi
Director

Psychedelic Soldiers (2015)
short documentary
Producer

Dreams (2014)
short drama
Director

The Portrait (2013)
short drama
Writer, Director

In 2013, I made my filmmaking debut with a short drama The Portrait that was filmed guerilla-style in Odesa and premiered at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. The film’s cast consists almost entirely of non-actors - a group of emerging Ukrainian artists who at the time were students of the Grekov Odesa Art School - and features original artworks.

After graduating with a BA in Cinema Studies from the New Sorbonne University in Paris in 2014, I moved to Canada. In 2015, I graduated with high honors from Sheridan College where I majored in producing and directing for film and television and produced an acclaimed short documentary Psychedelic Soldiers.

For the past four years, I have been working in production of visual effects for film and television. My feature film and TV credits include Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water and John Logan’s Penny Dreadful among others. In 2017, I became a member of the Producer’s Guild of America.

Story consulting

I offer cultural story consultancy for projects featuring Slavic, Eastern European, and certain European cultures and characters.

After leaving Ukraine at the age of 21, I studied and worked in France and the Czech Republic and I speak French, Ukrainian, and Russian.

I also offer script reading and coverage services with a strong emphasis on character development.

VFX consulting

I have worked at two global VFX studios on renowned film and television productions.

I offer general VFX production consultancy to independent filmmakers who don’t necessarily have access to the big players or experience working with visual effects. I read scripts and provide breakdowns of potential CG work required, answer any questions about the process, as well as offer advice and approaches to crewing depending on the budget.

Interested filmmakers can also benefit from my connections to the VFX industry veterans - producers, supervisors, artists - available for freelance work.

I can be reached at anastarova@gmail.com.

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