VFS Writing alum Jody Wilson premieres debut feature ‘The Bearded Girl’

For any filmmaker, a first feature marks a career-defining milestone, especially when it’s a personal project they’ve developed, co-written, and directed. With The Bearded Girl, Jody Wilson delivers a visually and emotionally grounded story that blends drama with fantasy, offering a fresh perspective on modern beauty standards.

This week, we spoke with Jody – an alum of Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film, Television & Games program – to discuss the journey behind her first feature, her experience as a VFS student, and advice for aspiring filmmakers.

ABOUT JODY WILSON AND THE BEARDED GIRL

Though Jody is currently focused on the theatrical run of her debut feature, she built her impressive 15+ year career in VFX, reflecting a multi-disciplinary approach that continues to shape her work as a filmmaker. Her career has taken her across the globe for Netflix, HBO, Paramount, and other major studios for both film and TV, on top industry projects like The Avengers, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and The Last of Us.

As a writer/director, Jody loves blending natural world elements with sophisticated technology, both visually and in her technique. Thematically, she creates work that she calls contemplative sci-fi with dramatic and fantastical elements that drive subcultural themes into the mainstream.

However, with The Bearded Girl Jody wanted to create something different from her usual approach.

The story of a bearded girl who is tired of being a freak, the film takes a unique approach to the ‘bearded lady’ archetype by having its main character, Cleo, run away from circus life instead of towards it, leaning into the film’s themes of identity and belonging.

After making its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival in July 2025, The Bearded Girl continued its festival run with a Canadian screening at Toronto’s Canadian Film Fest in March 2026. The film has since moved into a curated theatrical rollout, including special event screenings with filmmaker Q&As, including a Vancouver showing on April 25 at the Rio Theatre.

Watch the full trailer below:

ABOUT VFS’S WRITING FOR FILM, TV & GAMES PROGRAM

VFS’s Writing program trains multi-disciplinary writers to create for film, television, and games. Students learn hands-on in our Production Centre, working with an acclaimed industry faculty and collaborating with other VFS programs (Film, Acting, and more) to gain a mastery of the writing process within modern studio production pipelines.

Midway through the program, students choose one of three specializations and create their final capstone project – either two feature films, a TV pilot & second episode, or two original video game design docs (including a mocap scene), depending on their specialization.

Regardless of which path you choose, all Writing students graduate with a studio-ready portfolio (enough material to seek representation) that prepares them to apply for jobs in global film, TV, and game marketplaces.

If you’re an aspiring writer looking to start your training, book an appointment with a VFS Advisor to discuss start dates, prerequisites, tuition, and more.

OUR INTERVIEW WITH VFS WRITING ALUMNI JODY WILSON

We chatted with Jody to discuss the genesis of her debut feature, her approach to storytelling, and much more.

Tell us how The Bearded Girl came to life! What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?

The Bearded Girl has been a long and winding road to get to the Canadian release and still has more ground to cover. The initial story was created by my friends Blake and Thiago, and I started my own version of the script back in 2017. From there, it was years of development, rewriting, financing, shooting, and post-production to finally bring it to life.

The biggest production challenge was definitely financing. As my first feature, with a budget in the low millions, the real challenge was convincing the people with the purse strings that I could pull it off – that I was capable of stepping up to direct something at that scale.

Creatively, it was always about protecting the heart, humour, and weirdness that made the story special in the first place while navigating the realities of indie filmmaking. Directing has always felt like home to me, so for me it was less about finding my footing and more about staying true to my vision along the way.

Your work blends natural world elements with advanced tech and often explores contemplative, genre-driven themes. What drew you to this story?

While that definitely aligns more closely with some of my other work, The Bearded Girl is quite different stylistically. There’s no advanced technology in the film at all – in fact, there’s really no tech whatsoever. Everything from the props to costumes to vehicles was intentionally rooted in a pre-90s world, which was very important to me in creating its timeless, isolated, almost storybook-like atmosphere.

What drew me most to The Bearded Girl was its exploration of otherness, belonging, identity, and the deeply human desire to be loved and accepted in a world that often fears what it doesn’t understand. At its core, it’s a story about self-acceptance, resilience, and the tension between societal expectation and personal truth. Those themes have always resonated with me, and I was especially interested in exploring them through a lens that felt grounded, whimsical, darkly funny, and honest.

You’ve built an extensive career in VFX on major productions. How has that experience shaped your approach as a writer and director on your own projects?

My background in VFX shaped me massively as a writer and director. It taught me how to balance creativity with practicality, while also giving me the rare opportunity to spend hundreds of hours sitting in dailies with established directors – taking notes, studying their process. Trying to guess their feedback.

That experience was far more valuable than I realized at the time. It gave me an incredible education in storytelling, leadership, and problem solving that has deeply informed how I approach my own work.

Can you share your experience as a student at Vancouver Film School? In what ways did the Writing program prepare you for the realities of working in the industry?

My time at VFS gave me the technical foundation I needed to really understand screenwriting, which ultimately allowed me to stop overthinking the mechanics and focus more fully on story, character, and voice. Learning structure, formatting, and craft upfront was incredibly valuable because it gave me the tools to write more instinctively afterward.

One of the most valuable parts of the program was simply leaving with a completed feature script. Even if it’s not the best screenplay you’ll ever write, that experience is priceless. Everyone has to write a bad script before they write a good one, and film school gives you the space to make those mistakes, learn from them, and get that necessary first step out of the way.

For aspiring writers and filmmakers who want to direct their own work, what’s the most important thing they should focus on early in their careers?

Keep going. Keep honing your craft, keep making things, stay stubborn, and help your friends along the way. Make sure you actually love it (although there will be many times you aren’t so sure you do). Don’t worry too much about knowing exactly where you’re headed early on. Take different jobs, learn from every angle, even if it’s not your end goal. Everyone’s journey is different… the most important thing is believing in your own. Even when you find yourself somewhere you don’t want to be, there is important information [to be learned] in the undesirable parts of life. It’s a long road. Stick with it.

Back to THE BLOG homepage