Black Bear Signs Rising Directors Sandra Wollner & Stephanie Ahn

EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear‘s management division has signed rising directors Sandra Wollner and Stephanie Ahn.

Wollner’s Everytime recently played in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the section’s top honor. The film wasacquired by 1-2 Special for U.S. distribution and will continue its festival run this fall, screening in the Centrepiece section at Toronto and as part of the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival. The film will be released in the U.S. on September 25th, 2026.

Born in Leoben, Austria, Wollner studied documentary film directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. While still a student, she made her first feature, The Impossible Picture, which received the German Film Critics’ Award for Best Feature Film in 2018 and was also nominated for Best Feature Film Debut. The film received also won the Lawrence Kasdan Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Her graduation film, The Trouble With Being Born, had its world premiere in the Encounters section of the 70th Berlinale in 2020, where it won the Special Jury Award. The film went on to receive more than 20 international awards, including Best Feature Film and Best Director at the Austrian Film Awards, as well as the German Film Critics’ Award for Best Feature Film. She lives and works in Berlin.

Ahn premiered her directorial debut, Bedford Park, in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Special Jury Prize for Debut Feature Film. The film was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for worldwide distribution and will be released on September 22, 2026, following its international premiere at Toronto. Additionally, the film will go on to screen at the Busan International Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival, and the Taipei International Film Festival.

Ahn got her filmmaking degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to Bedford Park, she worked as an editor on films including The Girls and My Old Lady. Her screenplays have been recognized as finalists by Cinequest, the Austin Film Festival, the Final Draft Screenwriting Contest, ScreenCraft’s Film Fund, and Rooftop Films’ Filmmakers Fund, and have also been featured at The Gotham’s Independent Project Forum. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.

The two filmmakers have signed with Black Bear’s Joanne Roberts Wiles whose clients include Gregg Araki, Quintessa Swindell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Cooper Raiff, Karyn Kusama, Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar.