Director and Writer, Fela
Warped depravity in pop bubblegum packaging, Emma Higgins is a writer and director interested in telling stories she hasn’t seen before through a genre lens. Known for her visually striking style and humanistic approach to complex characters, Higgins is quickly establishing herself as a fearless and unique new voice in filmmaking.
Higgins recently brought her talents as a writer and director to her highly acclaimed debut feature film, Sweetness. The film premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival to rave reviews and ranked as one of the festival’s best films. A modern-day twist on a coming-of-age story for the digital age, Sweetness asks the question: what is the line between innocent fandom and twisted obsession? Higgins endows the film with her singular vision and pitch-perfect understanding of tone, while anchoring it with empathetic characters and grounded performances. Starring Kate Hallett and Herman Tømmeraas, the Austin Chronicle described it as ‘a movie that understands the aching loneliness that comes with adolescence, and how it can curdle into something more sinister’, while Collider said Sweetness ‘packs an acidic punch’.
The roots of Higgins’s creative voice can be traced back to her upbringing in the gloom of the Pacific Northwest, where, to a soundtrack of Avril Lavigne, she began her love of storytelling. A self-taught filmmaker, Higgins has since firmly established herself directing commercials and music videos. Here, her passion for eye-popping art direction and unique visual style has consistently set her work apart. Notably, she helmed Jessie Reyez’s music video No One’s in the Room, earning the esteemed Video of the Year win at the 2021 Juno Awards. In commercials, she has collaborated with major brands including Rockstar Energy, YouTube, Chime, A&W, Cheetos and Best Buy.
