FRANK MOSLEY is an actor and filmmaker from Texas now living in Los Angeles. He is an alumnus of the 2015 Berlinale Talents, the 2017 NYFF Artist Academy at Lincoln Center, and Black Factory Cinema’s 2016 Auteur Workshop led by Abbas Kiarostami in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba. He also participated as an actor in the 2016 Austin Film Society Artist Intensive under the direction of Charles Burnett.
ACTING
His starring work opposite Lily Gladstone and Krisha Fairchild in Freeland (SXSW, SFFILM 2020, MUBI) was called "excellent... compellingly slippery" (The Hollywood Reporter) and that he’s “a dependably fantastic American indie mainstay" (Filmmaker Magazine). Other starring work includes Collective:Unconscious (SXSW, BAMCinemaFest 2016, The Criterion Channel), opposite Kelli Garner and Jack Davenport in Americana (SIFF, Fantasia 2016), The Ghost Who Walks (Champs-Elysees winner 2018, Netflix Top Ten 2020), and alongside David Arquette in Quantum Cowboys (Fantastic Fest, VIFF 2022, Factory 25), for which they were called “a divinely sinister duo” (Variety). His leading role in Some Beasts (Oldenburg IFF 2016) won him a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance at the 2016 Sarasota Film Festival and he was named "one of the best performances of 2017" (Film Pulse). For his breakout role in The Other Side of Paradise (AFI Dallas 2009), he was declared “a potent dose of sexual chutzpah” (Variety) and “an appealing performance with intriguing elements of depth” (The Hollywood Reporter).
Supporting roles include Rent Free (Tribeca 2024), Love and Work (Slamdance, FilmFort 2024), Don’t Die (Panic Fest 2024, Sidewalk 2023), The Carnivores (SXSW, OutFest 2020), Chained for Life (BAMCinemaFest, BFI London 2018, NYTimes Critics Pick, Kino Lorber), Thunder Road (SXSW Grand Prize, ACID Cannes 2018), Shoot the Moon Right Between the Eyes (DIFF Jury Prize, Indie Memphis 2018), Person to Person (Sundance, SXSW 2017, Magnolia Pictures), They Had It Coming (Jeonju, New Horizons FF 2015), Upstream Color (Sundance Jury Prize, Berlinale, New Directors/New Films 2013), and Wuss (AFI jury prize, SXSW 2011). Short films include the Vimeo Staff Picks, The Event (Fantastic Fest, Slamdance 2022), Don't Ever Change (Fantasia 2017, ALTER), The Procedure (Sundance Jury Prize 2016, Adult Swim), and Cork's Cattlebaron (Hamptons, Austin FF 2012); and others such as Puncher’s Chance (SeriesFest winner 2023, Tubi), Kin (PIFF, Brooklyn FF 2021), Innards (BAMCinemaFest, Chicago IFF 2017), and The Bulb (Slamdance 2016, NightFlight Plus). He starred in the Toadies music video “Rattler’s Revival”; guest starred on Rooster Teeth’s Day 5 (El Rey Network, Streamy Award); acted in Keith Maitland’s documentary Dear Mr. Brody (Tribeca, Telluride 2021, Discovery Plus) and in Rachel Maclean’s installation It’s What’s Inside That Counts (TATE Britain 2016); and performed on two Audible Original podcasts, We Are As Gods and the 2023 Peabody-nominated Stories of the Stalked.
DIRECTING
Mosley’s recent work includes the short films Good Condition (Fantasia, Aspen ShortsFest, NÖT Film 2023) and The Event (Slamdance, Fantastic Fest, Palm Springs ShortsFest 2022), which debuted online as a Vimeo Staff Pick and was named a “Top 12 Film of 2023” on NoBudge. His Perception Trilogy, which includes Parthenon (Slamdance, Aesthetica Short FF 2018), Casa De Mi Madre (Champs-Elysees, Marfa FF 2017), and Spider Veins (Sidewalk, Eastern Oregon FF 2016), has been called “a miracle of economy… by a major cinematic voice” (Vague Visages). Other work includes his looped gallery installation Two Story (Dallas Museum of Art 2013, Edinburgh Art Festival 2014); his debut feature Hold (DIFF 2010, Fandor); and Her Wilderness, his 2014 interactive, multi-platform feature which has been called "a beguiling experience" (The Playlist) and “a mesmerizing film by a superb actor and filmmaker" (RogerEbert.com).
In summer 2018, The Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, NYC presented a retrospective of his writing/directing work entitled, A Fortnight With Frank Mosley. In their program notes on his work, Spectacle wrote: "His fascination with matters of identity, memory, and temporality bleed through every frame of his films – few directors working today can touch Mosley’s narrative and media savvy." Kinoscope acquired the entirety of Mosley’s directorial efforts in 2020. As part of their online retrospective called Frank Mosley: Actor, Director, Adventurer, Kenji Fujishima wrote: “Chances are, if you closely follow the American independent filmmaking scene, you’ve seen Frank Mosley. But while he has amassed a considerable body of work as an actor, he is also a filmmaker, one whose directorial work evinces the same restless adventurousness that dictates his choice of roles as an onscreen performer. Though his films vary wildly in subject matter and style, they all display an artist who is constantly testing himself, willing to try new things, often attempting to reach for effects and emotions that are not easy to describe or pin down.”
ADVISING
With his partner, filmmaker Joslyn Jensen, Frank is the founder of Script Eater, a screenplay coverage and feedback company for writers at any level of experience. Frank also offers independent coaching for actors and directors via Sidetime. He was a reader for the Slamdance Screenplay Competition (2020-2022), in addition to serving on juries and panels for the Flies Collective Film Grant, Dallas Video Festival, Lone Star International Film Festival, Oak Cliff Film Festival, The Sparrow Film Project, and the Sidewalk Film Festival. Frank has lectured and mentored at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, Dallas Museum of Art, Northwest Film Forum, Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, Kansas University, KD Studio and Conservatory, Austin Community College, Austin High School, Volcano Vista High School, and has contributed to publications such as Anthem Magazine, This Long Century, The Talkhouse, Filmmaker Magazine, The Seventh Row, KERA’s Art N Seek, and Langdon Review of the Arts. Frank also holds a B.A. in English literature from the University of Texas at Arlington.