Joanna Arnow

Directing

Joanna Arnow

Born

1987-01-01 (39)

Place of birth

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

22 titles

Joanna Arnow is a filmmaker and actor based in Brooklyn. She recently finished her first fiction feature "The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed", which screened at Cannes Director's Fortnight, TIFF and New York Film Festival. Her other films include personal documentary feature “i hate myself :)” as well as narrative shorts “Laying Out” and "Bad at Dancing.'

Known for

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed poster
5.1

A mosaic-style comedy following the life of a woman as time passes in her long-term casual BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

2024

The Arrow at Rest at Every Instant of its Flight poster
NR

Three seemingly disconnected stories unfold across New York City.

The Arrow at Rest at Every Instant of its Flight

2026

Human Theories poster
NR

Through forty interconnected vignettes, Human Theories is a comedic kaleidoscope exploring how people try, and often fail, to connect with one another in this weird world. Filmed over a year on location in New York City with a diverse ensemble cast of over 50 actors and non-actors, the film is an experimental love letter to the awkward struggle of modern city living.

Human Theories

2026

Chained for Life poster
6.3

A beautiful actress struggles to connect with her disfigured co-star on the set of a European auteur's English-language debut.

Chained for Life

2019

Staycation poster
NR

Unforeseen circumstances have brought a man to New York City alone. A trip that was meant for him and his girlfriend — they were to see a show — is now just him. And there’s something off about his Airbnb.

Staycation

2016

F***ed in the Head poster
NR

Scott is still sleeping with his ex-boyfriend and floundering through life when his mother calls to tell him his older sister Maggie is in the hospital with a brain tumor. Scott rushes to be by her side. As she lies unconscious he remembers the times their lives intersected. She was a party girl, a popular girl, she got around. Scott imagines what Maggie would say but ultimately realizes that you can never truly know anyone and decides to take a chance on love and life.

F***ed in the Head

2022

Film credits

2020s · 8 titles

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed poster
5.1

A mosaic-style comedy following the life of a woman as time passes in her long-term casual BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

2024

The Arrow at Rest at Every Instant of its Flight poster
NR

Three seemingly disconnected stories unfold across New York City.

The Arrow at Rest at Every Instant of its Flight

2026

Human Theories poster
NR

Through forty interconnected vignettes, Human Theories is a comedic kaleidoscope exploring how people try, and often fail, to connect with one another in this weird world. Filmed over a year on location in New York City with a diverse ensemble cast of over 50 actors and non-actors, the film is an experimental love letter to the awkward struggle of modern city living.

Human Theories

2026

F***ed in the Head poster
NR

Scott is still sleeping with his ex-boyfriend and floundering through life when his mother calls to tell him his older sister Maggie is in the hospital with a brain tumor. Scott rushes to be by her side. As she lies unconscious he remembers the times their lives intersected. She was a party girl, a popular girl, she got around. Scott imagines what Maggie would say but ultimately realizes that you can never truly know anyone and decides to take a chance on love and life.

F***ed in the Head

2022

The French Italian poster
10.0

Doug and Valerie have made a mistake. Their hate-fueled obsession with the jerks downstairs — who always seem to be singing karaoke in a brownstone, who even does that? — recently led them to flee the city for Doug’s parents’ place upstate, giving up a great deal on a rent-stabilized apartment. Their friends are horrified, and regret is setting in. They start plotting their revenge— and before they know it, they’re staging an off-Broadway play starring their nemesis.

The French Italian

2024

Lucy Schulman poster
NR

After a crushing breakup, Lucy moves back in with her eccentric single dad and dives into bad dates, false starts, and growing pains.

Lucy Schulman

2026

A Vira-Páginas poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Vira-Páginas

2026

The Travel Companion poster
NR

Simon, a struggling documentary filmmaker, enjoys free flights courtesy of his best friend and roommate, Bruce, who works for an airline. However, when Beatrice, a more successful filmmaker, enters the picture and starts dating Bruce, Simon risks flying too close to the sun.

The Travel Companion

2026

2010s · 6 titles

Behind the camera

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed poster
5.1

A mosaic-style comedy following the life of a woman as time passes in her long-term casual BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

2024

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed poster
5.1

A mosaic-style comedy following the life of a woman as time passes in her long-term casual BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

2024

Month One poster
NR

Short documentary about the occupy movement.

Month One

2011

i hate myself :) poster
5.4

Nebbishy filmmaker Joanna Arnow documents her yearlong relationship with an open-mic poet provocateur. What starts out as an uncomfortably intimate portrait of a dysfunctional relationship and protracted mid-twenties adolescence, quickly turns into a complex commentary on societal repression, sexuality and self-confrontation through art.

i hate myself :)

2017

Laying Out poster
5.0

This tersely lyrical meditation on sex and gender roles from Joanna Arnow features two fed-up mermaids lounging on a beach, drinks in hand, as they vent and commiserate over underacknowledged frustrations and unspoken desires.

Laying Out

2019

Laying Out poster
5.0

This tersely lyrical meditation on sex and gender roles from Joanna Arnow features two fed-up mermaids lounging on a beach, drinks in hand, as they vent and commiserate over underacknowledged frustrations and unspoken desires.

Laying Out

2019

Bad at Dancing poster
5.2

A perpetual third wheel and awkward outsider, Joanna increasingly inserts herself into the relationship of her more charismatic roommate Isabel. The two women test each other's sexual and emotional boundaries in this surreal manifestation of jealous rivalry.

Bad at Dancing

2015

Bad at Dancing poster
5.2

A perpetual third wheel and awkward outsider, Joanna increasingly inserts herself into the relationship of her more charismatic roommate Isabel. The two women test each other's sexual and emotional boundaries in this surreal manifestation of jealous rivalry.

Bad at Dancing

2015