Candice Carella
Director
Candice Carella studied fine art, photography and cinema at UCLA. Her first professional experience came as a wardrobe stylist and costume designer for music videos; working with Grammy Award winning artists (Eminem, Moby, Gwen Stefani) and styling large scale commercials (British Telecom, Coors, McDonalds).
Candice’s desire to work on more narrative projects led her to work in costume departments on several high profile TV shows (Sons of Anarchy, Revenge, Underground, Crossbones) and feature films (50 First Dates, Haywire, Prom)
Branching out on her own, Candice wrote, produced and directed a 30-minute short “PONY,” starring Xander Berkeley (Air Force One, Terminator 2, The Walking Dead) and Suzy Nakamura (Dodgeball, Togetherness, Dr. Ken, Avenue 5) which premiered on the festival circuit in 2015, screening in over 50 film festivals, winning 32 festival awards and gaining a worldwide distribution deal with Shorts International.
In 2017, as a recipient of the prestigious Panavision New Filmmaker Grant, Candice wrote, produced and directed a 20-minute film “THREE DAYS IN THE HOLE,” based on a true story about a young Yezidi girl’s struggle to survive her ISIS capture after the Iraq genocide of 2014.
“Three Days in the Hole” was accepted as part of the 2018 Festival De Cannes Short Film Corner, recently won a Remi Award at the 52nd Annual WorldFest Houston Film Festival, and was also nominated for the 2018 Hollywood Film Festival Silver Screen Jury Prize, the 2018 Rome International Film Festival Best Narrative Short Film award, the 2019 Julien Dubuque International Film Festival Best Short Film Award, and the Cordillera International Film Festival Best Social Justice film.
In 2019, Candice Carella directed “UNICORNS”, a modern fresh take on a serious subject, surviving depression. Unorthodox, and at times jarring, the film, starring Malik Yoba (Cool Runnings, New York Undercover, Designated Survivor, Empire), Markees Christmas (Morris From America, Black-ish), and Hilary Curwen (Bad Nannies, Happyland, I’m Dying up Here) ultimately shows us that we are not alone. This film will premiere on the festival circuit in fall of 2019.