A Journey to Sundance with Director Giselle Bonilla

Giselle Bonilla received her MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Her thesis film, THE BULLFIGHTER, won the Student Director's Guild of America Grand Prize Award, and received Special Mention for Best Comedy at Palm Springs' Shortsfest. Giselle is a Latino Film Institute x Netflix Inclusion Fellow, Telluride FilmLAB Fellow, and an alum of the Sundance Institute as an Ignite x Adobe Fellow. Her feature directorial debut, THE MUSICAL, premiered in U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is based on a short of the same title she and her crew made while at AFI. The feature was executive produced by her mentors: director, Jonathan Levine, and producer, Gillian Bohrer. THE MUSICAL stars Tony-award winner: Will Brill, Gillian Jacobs, and is produced by and starring Rob Lowe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices