As an Indian American girl raised in small-town Colorado, writer-director Shilpa Sunthankar learned everything she knows from a diet of eighties Hollywood, Hindi musicals, and a hefty side of world cinema. She’d like to say she never lets the truth get in the way of a good story, but she actually thinks the truth is the juiciest part.
After years of acting as a youth, she recognized the lack of roles for diverse talent like her. So, she attended N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of Arts to dive into the craft of making them.
Shilpa enjoys embedding relevant social issues in dynamic, compelling formats. Her award-winning screenplay “Continental Divide,” a thriller about Indian American backpackers taken captive by drug traffickers on the U.S.- Mexico border, also discusses the urgent question of today about who gets to be American and live in the safety of our borders. Her short film “Working Lunch,” a snackable dramatic comedy, addresses the proliferation of hate directly after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
She was awarded a Playa Residency in Summer Lake, Oregon for “Generation Loss,” as well as a scholarship for the 2025 Stowe Producers’ Lab, a 2025 Fellowship to attend BendFilm Basecamp, and a Regional Arts & Culture Council Grant. “Continental Divide,” earned her a SAGIndie Fellowship at the Stowe Story Lab. Her screenplay, “Seeta’s Demon,” was showcased at the C3 Conference at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival.
Her newest short film, “A Day In Color,” was selected to play at the Hollywood Theatre in the Portland International Airport. Her other short films, “Working Lunch,” “The Company of Thieves,” and “Biography of an American Hostess,” have won several awards across U.S. and Canadian film festivals, and have been licensed by the ShortsHD Channel, IndieFlix, and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.
Additionally, with over twenty years’ experience creating a variety of content, including live action, animation, commercial, and independent, she is ready to make her first feature, and is teaming with fellow women and non-binary filmmakers to produce packages of films, also with relevant themes.
Residing in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Shilpa is the owner of PushStart Productions.
When not creating award-winning work, Shilpa is also a powerhouse on her bicycle.