Fort Worth, TX James Johnston

JAMES M. JOHNSTON is an award-winning filmmaker from Fort Worth, TX. He is part of the filmmaking collective known as Sailor Bear where he produced the films PIONEER, AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS,PIT STOP, and LISTEN UP PHILIP. Johnston recently won an Indie Spirit award for his work as an Independent Film Producer. He was a 2011 Creative Producing Fellow at the Sundance Institute and named to Variety’s 10 Producer’s To Watch list in 2012 with his producing partner Toby Halbrooks. Johnston is a director in his own right and his short films including KNIFE, RECEIVE BACON, andMERRILY, MERRILY have played to great acclaim at festivals around the world.

Johnston also co-owns two successful vegan restaurants with his wife Amy McNutt called Spiral Diner & Bakery and they are in the process of opening Fort Worth’s first art house cinema called The Citizen Theater. Currently Johnston is in development on his feature directorial debut titled SEIZE THE BODY which was workshopped in the Austin Film Society’s Artist Intensive Narrative Feature Workshop. His latest work, the short film MELVILLE, will be hitting the festival circuit in 2015.