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Sarah Ballard HEADSHOT

Sarah Ballard

  • Lecturer, Film, Video, Animation and New Genres

Education

  • MFA, Cinematic Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • BFA, Film Production, University of Central Florida

Biography

Sarah Ballard is an artist and educator whose work fuses personal narratives with historical accounts to address structural inequalities shaped by gender and class through experimental nonfiction filmmaking. Her research examines how systems of power are internalized within bodies, architectures, and landscapes, with a particular focus on embodied knowledge and experiences of mental illness that extend beyond the individual as collective symptoms of capitalist structures.

Sarah's work has been exhibited at venues and festivals such as the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, Berwick Film and Media Arts, the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London, Images, Crossroads, Alchemy, Kasseler Dokfest, Antimatter [Media Art], Arab Image Foundation in Beirut, Kunstnernes Hus Cinema in Oslo, and Beijing International Short Film Festival, among others. Her recent film, Full Out, received the New Cinema Arts Award at BFMAF, the Critical Mass Award at the RPM Film Festival in Boston, the Best Use of Sound award at Athens International Film and Video Festival, and an Honorable Mention at Onion City Experimental Film Festival in Chicago. Sarah is a 2025-2026 Mary L. Nohl Fund Emerging Artist Fellow and a recipient of the 2023 Princess Grace Award in Film.

sarah-ballard.com

Recent & Selected Works

image looking down a staircase all in red
Full Out (2025)
Black white and pink speckled image resembling fish scales
to be with you (grotto) (2023)
dark studio with single umbrella light illuminating a clothing rack and set flat
There, Where She is Not (2022)
legs from the thigh down flying through the air with three sets of hands waiting to catch
Full Out (2025)

Full Out (2025) – Trailer

Artistic Works & Performances

  • Full Out. Directed by Sarah Ballard, 2025
  • to be with you (grotto). Directed by Sarah Ballard, 2023
  • Heat Spells. Directed by Sarah Ballard, 2023
  • There, Where She is Not. Directed by Sarah Ballard, 2022

Awards

  • Mary L. Nohl Fund for Individual Artists Fellowship - Emerging (2025-2026)
  • Princess Grace Foundation - USA Award Winner in Film (2023)
  • New Cinema Arts Award - Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, UK (2025)
  • Critical Mass Award - Revolutions Per Minute Film Festival, Boston (2025)
  • Best Use of Sound - Athens International Film and Video Festival, Ohio (2025)
  • Honorable Mention - Onion City Experimental Film Festival, Chicago (2025)
  • Honorable Mention - Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (2024)
  • Honorable Mention - Ribalta Experimental Film Festival, Italy (2023)