Nolen Sternkopf (he/him) is a Portland, OR based independent filmmaker who is is constantly feeding his passion for storytelling and cinema with exciting new projects, many of which deal with the supernatural and twisting genre elements in creative ways. Nolen has been making films since he was 14, initially collaborating with Nessie and teaming up with Drew soon after. In 2021 he graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor's degree in Cinema.

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Recently Nolen has written, directed and produced several films, including Fire Hill, an SFSU senior thesis film inspired by bloody, shlocky horror films of the 80s/90s and Austin Powers-esque character comedy. Fire Hill won a best acting award at Oregon Screams Horror Film Festival 2022 for Drew Crosby's performance as the lead character. Following Fire Hill, Nolen also completed a 45 minute crowdfunded horror/noir feature film, Rotten Shadows, which premiered at a private screening in July 2022 and is now available to watch on YouTube. His most recent projects include a short film adaptation of The War of the Worlds set in the 1930s, The Battle of Grovers Mill,  which has gone on to screen at a myriad of festivals and local theaters, and a pulp Halloween horror throwback, Bad Crop, winner of 'Best Oregon Film" at Oregon Screams Horror Film Festival 2024. Pre-production for Nolen's first full length feature film is planned to begin in the near future.

 

Nolen's biggest inspiration is Sam Raimi, who he refuses to shut up about, and some of his all time favorite movies include The Evil Dead, Ghostbusters, Dawn of the Dead and Spider-Man 2. Other influences include George Romero, John Carpenter, Mike Myers, Orson Welles and many others. His favorite TV series has been Better Call Saul since 2015, and his favorite band is The Beach Boys.