Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer and director who won the AT&T Tribeca Untold Stories award for her debut feature, Honeyjoon, which had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. She was selected for the 2025 SFFILM Rainin Grant, TorinoFilmLab 2024 ComedyLab, Cine Qua Non 2024 Storylines Lab, Warner Media TFI Co/Lab, and a Marcie Bloom Fellowship. Her films have premiered at Tribeca, Clermont-Ferrand, and the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. She earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Grad Film, and her BA from Dartmouth with a Senior Fellowship. A mixed daughter of immigrants, Lilian also authored and illustrated a family memoir and is a PD Soros Fellow. She also enjoys hip hop dance. You can follow her @lilianfilm.
The creative process is mysterious and unique.
Sometimes you need the right workspace.
Time in nature.
Travel.
Inspiring quotes.
Images.
But sometimes the creative process involves conversations on dating apps.
Texting men I don’t know about the story I was working on.
Finding words for what it’s really about.
Checking the audience response.
Getting encouraged.
(Important for creatives.)
Telling them: “When this movie gets made one day…”
Maybe they’ll tell their friends they heard about it first — from the filmmaker on a dating app.
And then this happened.
Trust the process.
