About Zoë: Writer/Director, Visual Artist, Singer/Songwriter, & Photographer
Zoe Greenbaum wears many, many, MANY hats. After getting her BFA in Gag Manga from Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Seika Universtiy and attending London Film School, she is an up-and-coming Paris and London-based writer-director and singer/songwriter. Her feature-length screenplay, Hanging Gardens of the Sea and Sky, a magical-realist, musical comedy-drama has had more than 14 nominations and awards including Top 10 screenplays in Coppola's American Zoetrope competition as well as in Nantucket’s prestigious Tony Cox Awards.
"Reminiscent of a young Todd Haynes,” Ms. Greenbaum's 23 minute short, We Are Bleach (2022), is a vibrant, music-driven film about two pansexual punk rockers. Bleach quickly won Best Indie Short and Best LGBT+ awards in Amsterdam and London on the same day, and has gone on to be shown in festivals throughout the US and Europe. Zoë’s latest short film, Feel Nothing Inc. (2025), quickly garnered her a win for Best Director and is currently on the festival circuit.
The Weather Just Got Sexy, now in late development, is a rollicking, coming-of-age, rock-n-roll comedy. In My world At Night, another feature in development,a brilliant, young art specialist comes to London to curate her beloved mentor’s first post-mortem retrospective, she quickly finds herself in a distressing love triangle, inextricably bound by a mysterious painting and a cafe that is open only in the middle of the night. Zoe is also co-directing a documentary on The Time In Children’s Arts Initiative, a radical New York City arts intervention for children living in chronic poverty.
When she is not making films, Zoe is a singer/songwriter, visual artist, photographer, and graphic novelist. She looks forward to releasing her first album, penned with Grammy-nominee Ian Dench, and is busy gigging with her band, Zoë Greenbaum & Paradise. As a photographer, Zoë has worked for clients as diverse as the glam rock band Sweet Unrest and The Royal College of Defense Studies, specializing in events, gigs, galas, and portraits.
Filmmaking and Screenwriting
93-page screenplay “Hanging Gardens of the Sea and Sky,” 2021
A London therapist and his cosmetics executive wife, bound by their shared musical dreams, face their marriage’s greatest challenge: lies invading their private world.
Top 10 Feature Screenplays, Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope, 2023
Top 10 Feature Length Screenplays, Nantucket Film Festival Tony Cox Award, 2022
Finalist, Catalina Film Festival, 2024
Finalist, Flickers Road Island, 2022
Finalist, Cordillera International Film Festival, 2022
Honorable Mention: The Art of Brooklyn, 2021
Quarter-finalist: Sedona International Film Festival, 2021
Nominee: Maverick Movie Awards, 2021
Official Selection: International Film Festival of Wales Daffodil List, 2021
Official Selection: UK Film Festival, 2021
Semi-Finalist: Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, 2021
Official Selection: Beyond the Curve Film Festival, Paris, 2021
Official Selection: Georgia Shorts Film Festival, USA, 2021
91-page screenplay “The Weather Just Got Sexy,” 2023
An insecure poetry major bumbles ass backwards into a journey of self-discovery when he takes a summer job at a rock band's seaside hotel -- and is then forced to compete in synchronized swimming.
Winner, Best Comedy Screenplay: Berlin Independent Film Festival, 2024
Winner, Best International Screenplay: New Renaissance Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2023
Finalist: Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2023
2nd Place: Visionfest Screenwriting Competition, 2023
Semi-Finalist: BlueCat Screenplay Competition, 2023
Quarter-Finalist: Cordillera International Film Festival, 2024
Quarter-Finalist: Sedona International Film Festival, 2023
88-page screenplay “My World At Night,” 2024
When a brilliant, young art specialist comes to London to curate her beloved mentor’s first post-mortem retrospective, she quickly finds herself in a distressing love triangle, inextricably bound by a mysterious painting and a cafe that is open only in the middle of the night.
Finalist, Cordillera International Film Festival, 2024
Beverly Hills Film Festival, 2025
23 minute film We Are Bleach, 2022
The pansexual lead singer of an up-and-coming London rock band flirts recklessly with adventure, threatening to destroy the love that is right in front of him
Produced by Poodle Owl Productions, Producer Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène
Winner, Best Short Film: Berlin Independent Film Festival, 2024
Winner, Best LGBT+ Short: Golden State Film Festival, 2023
Winner, Best LGBT+ Short: London Independent Film Festival, London, 2022
Winner, Emerging Talent: New Renaissance Film Festival, London, 2022
Winner, Best Indie Short: New Renaissance Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2022
Winner, Audience Choice Award, The Artists Forum Festival of the Moving Image, New York, 2022
Official Selection, Montauk Film Festival, 2022
Berlin TV Series Festival, Short Films Corner, 2022
4 minute film Please Be Kind, 2024
Produced by Poodle Owl Productions, Producer Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène
Premiere: Nightspiece Film Festival at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Honorable Mention: New Renaissance Film Festival, London
Official Selection: Sky Arts Film Festival, Kentucky
12 minute film Feel Nothing Inc, 2025
Produced by Poodle Owl Productions, Producer Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène
Premiere: Universal Film Festival Samothraki, winner, Best Director, 2025
London Independent Film Festival, 2025
Directorial debut: 24 minute film Inevitability, 2021
Winner, Outstanding Editing: The Art of Brooklyn, 2021
Produced by Poodle Owl Productions, Producer Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène
Honorable Mention: New Wave Short Film Festival, Munich, 2021
Finalist: Beyond the Curve International Film Festival, Paris, 2021
Semi-Finalist: Madrid Film Awards, 2021
FLICKFAIR Film Festival, 2022
Other Film work and Awards:
Music Video: 2 Ladiez by Tony Westcliff (Cinematography, Co-Directed with Tony Westcliff), 2024
18-page screenplay “We Are Bleach,” 2021
Semi-Finalist: HollyWood Just4Shorts Film and Screenplay Competition, 2021
Official Selection: Beyond the Curve International Film Festival, 2021
10-page screenplay “Feel Nothing Inc.” 2021
Writer/Director: Trip the Bite Fantastic (3 minute film), 2021
Writer/Director: The Moon & Back (3 minute musical film), 2020
2024 Script reader for Female Voices Rock Film Festival, NYC
Photography
2025
Events and gala photography for The Royal College of Defense Studies
Publicity shoot for Sweet Unrest
Publicity shoot for Abi Fay
Live music photography for Fire Records for Record Day - Mekons, Nightingales, Stewart Lee
Behind the scenes photographer for the Doc'n Roll Film Festival, London
Live music photography for Pretyman, Sweet Unrest, Lost Alice, The Deniros, Dead Freights, Max Bianco, Ali Hitit, Safe At Any Speed, The A66
2024
Behind the scenes and red carpet photographer for the Doc'n Roll Film Festival, London - Jeffrey Lewis, Thurston Moore, Stewart Lee, Pauline Black, The Bevis Frond, Deborah Bonham
Publicity shoot with Astile Doherty
Fine Art
“An Unmarried Woman” mixed media series, 2024
Solo Exhibition “Inevitability“, artsy.com, 2020
Artsy.com, “As The World Turns – 21 Artists in Support of Time In,” 2020
Adult Contemporary, series of works on paper, 2020-2021
Happy New Year, Doctor Zhivago, series of works on paper, 2020
The Film Series (2018-2019), Watercolors, solo exhibition, The Picturehouse Crouch End, London, October-December 2019
Pret-a-Spring 2019, series of watercolors, 2019
“Spirits of the Dead,” Horror Film Homage, Gallery Sorath, Kyoto, Japan, 2018
Video performance piece “An Evening With Del Shannon,” 2017
“I Enjoy the Quiet Life” featured in Changing the World through Art gala at Marianne Boesky Gallery, Chelsea (in private collection of Jill Ellis), 2014
Work featured in Haunch of Venison, Chelsea: Changing the World through Art gala (in private collection of Helene Safdie and Ira Levy), 2013
Work featured in Haunch of Venison, Chelsea: Changing the World through Art gala (in private collection of Catharine Nepomnyashchy), 2012
Video performance piece “The Liz,” 2012
Exhibition of works with Johana Skalsky at the HiArt! gallery, Chelsea (in private collection of Alexandre Tilmant), 2011
Work featured in Haunch of Venison, Chelsea: Changing the World through Art gala (in private collection of Stage Presence), 2011
Video performance piece “Bonbel,” 2011
Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga
52 page graphic novel “London Michael Magnolia,” 2018
32 page manga, “Llambada!!” 2018
16 page manga “Yasagure Club,” 2018
4 page manga “Ponko’s Situation,” 2018
Comic strips “Truly, Madly, Deeply…Allergic” and “The Sphinxes of Philosopher’s Path: The Return of Dr. Meowsmer,” 2018
Comic strip “The Sphinxes of Philosopher’s Path,” 2017
4 page manga “An Idol Waxing Philosophical,” 2015
6 page manga “Scrambled Flowers,” 2015
8 page manga “Alright, I’m a Praying Mantis Can We Get This Done?,” 2015
8 page manga “The Dream House,” 2015
Comic strip “Love & Secrets” parts 1&2, 2015
8 page manga “Today’s Strawberry is Tomorrow’s Jam,” 2014
8 page manga “Dreams of Naïs,” 2014
8 page manga “Fashion Advice for Loose Men,” 2014
17 page English language manga “Calcium,” 2013
9 page art comic “The Valhalla of Harpootle” (private collection of Susan & Marvin Numeroff), 2013
8 page art comic “Jazz Musician,” 2012
17 page English language manga “Slow Motion,” 2012
11 page art comic “Melisande,” 2011
Publications
Cover and supplementary illustrations, Seika University Gag Manga Department Graduation Works Digest, 2019
Illustration featured in Average Art Magazine issue 20, 2018
Illustration featured in A5 Magazine issue 12, 2018
Promotional illustration for The Time In Children's Arts Initiative DreamFest with Alice Coote, Joyce DiDonato and Bryan Wagorn, 2018
Illustration featured in Wotisart Magazine issue 13, 2018
Illustrations featured in MIM Magazine, issue 1, 2017
Illustration for promotional materials and website for Puccini with Passion, private charity event featuring opera stars Ailyn Perez & Brian Jagde, 2017
Promotional illustration for Shop 'till You Drop, HiArt Kids, 2017
Cover illustration for “Happiness is Luxury” Zine, vol. 1, 2015
Illustration featured in Hell Bitches 666 Zine, vol. 3, 2015
Illustration featured in Hell Bitches 666 Zine, vol. 2, 2014
Illustrations for Metropolis by Martine Bellen, from the poetry collection Wabac Machine (Furniture Press Books), 2013
Songwriting
Spotify - Apple - Youtube - Tidal
2025
Single: I’m With You Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube
Single: Please Don’t Go Out With Connie Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube
2024
Single: Platonic Fun Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube
Single: Free Apple Music - Spotify - Youtube
Single: I Want My Time With You Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube
Single: I Adore You Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube
Single: Greenhouse Edith & Her Smoking Crow Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube
Single: Pretty Thing - Listen to Pretty Thing Songbird HQ single review
Lyrics for Confidence Man and False Sense of Security, music by Oliviero Forni, original songs for We Are Bleach, 2021
Lyrics and vocals for Poison and Gasoline, music by Oliviero Forni, 2021
“Fork Throne” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Please Don't Go Out with Connie” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“I Want My Time With You” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Oh, Hello, Chaos” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Only Dance With Me” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Platonic Fun” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“I'm Done With Love for the Day” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Greenhouse Edith & Her Smoking Crow” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“I Adore You” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Schitzy Boy co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Tell Me Everything” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“More Better Boredom” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Free” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
“Sha La Lobster” co-written and performed with Ian Dench (EMF), PRS 2022
Education
London Film School, London (2020-2021)
Postgraduate Certificate in Filmmaking
Kyoto Seika University, Japan (2014-2019)
BA, Gag Manga (comedy-based comic and graphic novels)
School of Visual Arts, New York (2011-12)
Undergraduate Cartooning/Visual and Critical Studies Department
Honors Program, Deans List
Skills
Screenwriting, directing, storyboarding, watercolor artist, manga artist, Japanese language N2, graphic novelist, illustration, photography, graphic design, singing (mezzo soprano), songwriting