Kaitlyn Busbee
MFA Candidate Kaitlyn Busbee is the recipient of this year’s Volker Bahnemann Award for Outstanding Cinematography.
Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Kaitlyn T. Busbee earned her BA in both Theatre Arts and Cinema with a Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship from the University of Iowa. Her award-winning films explore female-centric stories reveling in both the drama and the humor of everyday life. She strives to excavate and deeply explore what makes us tick as humans by examining moments both big and small.
Recently, Busbee was DP on the short film In Passing, premiering at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. She served as DP and Field Producer for Uprooted, part of an HBO Max/Sesame Workshop docuseries (Through Our Eyes), about the climate crisis told from the perspective of affected kids. Most notably, Busbee was Co-Director, DP, and Editor for the indie feature These Hopeless Savages. Savages played over 30 festivals worldwide and is now available on Amazon Prime through the film’s distributor. Both Savages and Busbee’s comedic short film, Sexpert Franzen, were selected for Tribeca’s 30 Under 30 Film Festival where she was recognized as “one of the next wave of gifted young filmmakers.”
Her short, Bed Bugs, screened at 13 festivals, received 5 awards, and recently made its broadcast premiere. She’s wrapped post-production on her upcoming short film, Layaway, which will screen at festivals in the following year. Busbee is in development and workshopping a feature screenplay set in the world of Layaway.