Jenni Olson’s (she/her) 16mm urban landscape essay films have been acclaimed for their unique approach to cinematic storytelling. Her feature films The Joy of Life (2005) and The Royal Road (2015) both premiered at Sundance and, along with her many shorts, have screened internationally to awards and acclaim. Jenni was honored with a retrospective on the Criterion Channel in 2021; for that occasion, Filmmaker Magazine described her as “a director who understands the restorative power of nostalgia and reflection better than any other,” proclaiming that “encountering her engaging and moving essay films is about as pleasurable an experience as one can have watching cinema.” Her work has been supported by Field of Vision, Catapult, Frameline, MacDowell, Chicken & Egg Films, and others. She’s now in development on her third feature-length essay film, Tell Me Everything Will Be Okay, and an essayistic memoir of the same name.

In Jenni’s nearly forty-year career in the queer indie film world, she’s worked as a film programmer, distributor, consulting producer, archival researcher, film critic, film historian and archivist, and more. Among many achievements, she was honored with the prestigious Special TEDDY Award at the Berlinale for her decades of work championing LGBTQ+ films and filmmakers.

Jenni's CEA project is Tell Me Everything Will Be Okay.