Sara Seligman

Seligman's early directing work came through short films. *Diego* in 2014 and *Kosnin* in 2016 were the kinds of projects that don't make headlines but do make reels — proof-of-concept work that let her develop a visual language before taking on something bigger. Hard to say if either film circulated widely on the festival circuit, but they clearly served their purpose. The breakthrough came with *Coyote Lake* (2019), a feature thriller she directed and co-wrote, set on the Texas-Mexico border and built around two powerhouse performances from Adriana Barraza and Camila Mendes. The film won the Tribeca Film Institute All Access Grant and eventually premiered on HBO Max, reaching an audience far beyond the arthouse. That 83% Rotten Tomatoes score (per Rotten Tomatoes) isn't something you can manufacture — the film earned it with a lean, suspenseful structure that keeps the tension coiled tight from the first scene. Between the feature and her television work, she also directed the TV movie *Safe Word* in 2023. The NYFA alumni network noted in April 2024 that Seligman had made her episodic television debut on MGM+'s *Hotel Cocaine*, directing episodes 105 and 106 of the period crime series. That's a meaningful step — episodic TV operates on a different clock than features, with larger crews, tighter schedules, and a showrunner's vision to serve rather than your own. She navigated it. Most recently, her name appears attached to *Las Azules* Season 2 (2025), a Mexican crime drama, which suggests she's building a real foothold in Spanish-language prestige television — a space that's genuinely expanding right now and one where her background gives her an edge that a lot of American directors simply don't have.