About Jay

Jay Stern directs and produces film and theater.

Jay's most recent feature film, Say My Name, was shot in Wales in 2017, exhibited on the US and UK festival circuit, and opened in the US in the summer of 2019. His first feature film, an adaptation of Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling, opened in New York City in May, 2007. His second feature, Spirit Cabinet, was completed in 2013, and his third feature, The Adventures of Paul and Marian, was completed in 2014. Jay has produced and directed more than 30 short films which have played at festivals across the US and Canada, and produced Victor Varnado's feature documentary The Awkward Comedy Show, which premiered on Comedy Central.

Jay’s latest short film Love and Near-Death is currently on the festival circuit. He is in development on his next feature, which is scheduled to shoot in 2025.

Jay is also a founder, producer, and co-host of the Iron Mule Short Comedy Screening Series, which has been screening monthly since April, 2002.

Notable theater work includes Butterflies, Beulah Land, The Worth of Women, and The Bardy Bunch: the War of the Families Partridge and Brady.

Jay is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a founder of the World Wide Lab, an international festival of director-driven work developed at the Watermill Center, which had its inaugural presentation in New York City in the summer of 2012.

Jay holds an PhD in Media Philosophy from the European Graduate School, a BA in Writing (Minor: German) from Columbia University, and a Certificate of Filmmaking from Vancouver Film School. He has studied with Terry Southern, Peter Greenaway, John Waters, Claude Lanzmann, Jacques Derrida, Angela Davis, Avital Ronell, Agnes Varda, and Volker Schlöndorff. 

He is currently a film professor at Rider University.

You can read more about Jay’s work in his profile in Cineaste Magazine.