Katy McCarthy (she/her) is an artist, filmmaker and educator based in Austin, Texas. She holds a BFA from UC Santa Barbara and an MFA from the Interdisciplinary Studio Arts program at Hunter College in New York. Her short films weave narratives that tell human stories backgrounded by social and environmental themes and have been screened at the Dallas International Film Festival’s Short Film Fest, Cindependent Film Festival (where her films have been awarded best U.S short and Founders Award), Carrboro Film Fest, San Antonio Film Festival, Waco Independent Film Festival, and more. Her video works have been included in group shows at Tiger Strike Asteroid Gallery Los Angeles, Flux Factory, and the Santa Barbara Contemporary Art Museum among other venues. She has been an artist-in-residence at Lighthouse Works, LMCC Governors Island, SOHO20 Residency Lab, Grin City and The Wassaic Project. In 2018 Katy was the inaugural and sole recipient of the St. Elmo Fellowship at UT Austin. In 2021 she received the Austin Film Society short film grant for her short film “The Violinist.” She is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“On February 20th, 2025, I gave birth to my first child, thus joining the New Mom Club. As a mom and an artist, I feel passionately about bringing this story to the big screen so that other moms and caregivers can enjoy a piece of media that I think speaks closely to the push/pull experience of early parenthood. In each scene, the visual language of the film serves to emphasize the emotional experience of the main character, "MOM." The opening scene, when Mom is trying to get out of the apartment and feeling thwarted at every turn, is shot in a series of handheld and hectic close-ups with a deep depth of field to increase the sense of chaos. Later in the film, when mom is transported to the New Mom Club, the camera slows down and the light is warm and soft. Conceptually and visually, my influences are my day-to-day experience and the “aesthetics” of new parenthood, the essay “Moms Have a Secret: They Want Cigarettes for Mother’s Day” by Liz Berman, and the intimate photography of Nan Goldin.”