After a body-altering accident, a woman must find a way forward to her new reality.

MARY PAT BENTEL is a filmmaker focused on socially relevant stories that drive audiences to laughter and tears while challenging them to reconsider their convictions.

The projects she is proudest of producing include Peabody-nominated and PGA award-winning THIS CLOSE, a television series about a friendship between two Angelenos who happen to be deaf; and feature films DARK WAS THE NIGHT, a family drama about loss; ANIMALS, a romantic drama about heroin addiction; and BOLD NATIVE, an action thriller about animal liberation.

Right before the pandemic, an accident shattered Mary Pat’s arm and changed her life. She took notes between surgeries as a survival tactic, and the script for her directorial debut, THE COCKROACH, emerged. Since its premiere this summer, the short film has been nominated for a Grand Jury Prize and won the Audience Award at Austin Film Festival, as well as Best Drama at LA Shorts and Best Editing at HollyShorts.

Mary Pat developed a series based on THE COCKROACH through The Orchard Project’s Episodic Lab, and the pilot was a Second Rounder at Austin Film Festival, as well as a semi-finalist for The Writer’s Lab and Almanack’s Screenwriters Episodic Colony.

After supporting emerging directors for over a decade, Mary Pat is excited to be in the chair herself.