Editor’s Note: Supporting women should not be limited to a month. So at Reel 360 News, we have decided to amplify and promote dynamic women’s voices all year long. Today, let us introduce you to talented filmmaker Patricia Beckman Wells.
Patricia Beckmann Wells directed the first Artificial Intelligence pipeline film (Mombomb, part 1) to compete with live-action films at a major festival, Slamdance 2025 Film Festival.
She was one of eight female-identifying directors chosen for Lunafest, sponsored by Luna Bars, and her film ‘Family Tale’ traveled nationally with Lunafest, raising money for breast cancer. Her film Propolis, Part 7 premiered at Slamdance in Park City, Utah in 2019.
Her career includes executive leadership roles at Dreamworks SKG, where she also co-led the build of the Bangalore studios, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, responsible for art asset pipeline development and training, and artist roles at Warner Brothers Digital, Film Roman, and ITE Denmark, among others.
She now works independently as a content creator at her studio, Bunsella films, a virtual production studio and stage with facilities in both Los Angeles and Glendale. She is an expert in artificial intelligence-enhanced pipelines coupled with virtual production techniques and game engine integration.
Mombomb, part 1 is the first of 12 episodes, and two more episodes are currently ready for festival entry. She is the author of Face It: A Visual Reference for Multi-ethnic Facial Modeling. Her expertise has led to roles as a consultant for the Epic Games Unreal Metahuman project and speaking engagements with Pixar and SIGGRAPH on informed ethnic Identity in character design using forensic evidence and markers on skulls gathered from around the world.
Recently, she was invited to speak at the AgBO + Slamdance summer showcase hosted by the Russo Brothers (Everything Everywhere All At Once) as a member of the featured round-table discussion of ‘AI and independent filmmaking’.
Beckmann Wells’ animated films have participated in over 200 festivals, including Slamdance, Lunafest, Tirana International Film Festival, Artefact AI film festival with MK2 and Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, CERN, Supernova Digital Animation Festival, Anima Zagreb, among others.
Let’s meet Patricia!
What’s your origin story?
I grew up in Toledo, Ohio. My father was a professional artist, and my mother was a seamstress. They ran a frame store. When it was not busy my father would paint in the back room. They were two people who created their vision and the town was kind enough to support them.
They gave me art supplies for holidays as gifts, and I was expected to entertain myself. I was very shy, so it was a comfort to create my own worlds. Both of my parents were immigrants with a heavy accent but they were the kind of people who saved up for a car and bought it with cash. I was taught to live below my means, invest, and follow my dreams when I had a safe financial foundation. Thus, I am coming into my own as an artist later in life.
How did you break into filmmaking?
I attended graduate school for cinema at a major film school in California. We were given access to Silicon Graphics Computers. Though this was an exciting opportunity, it was still fraught with hurdles. Students had to compete for time on each computer and access was not organized.
Very few tutorials and training were available as everything was so new. Data disks could only hold about 256 megabytes at the time. I learned to strategize access, training, and workflow. This was noticed by the other students in my program and these friends helped me get my first job at Warner Brothers.
Who were your mentors, and how did they influence your journey?
I define a mentor as someone you can go to for assistance with problem-solving, poor behavior pattern and reaching strategic goals; someone who guides your training and advancement. I did not have a person like this in my life.
I did not emerge from resources that made this type of relationship available and I worked in a competitive male-dominated industry. This lack of access put hurdles in my way but also increased my independence.
What fuels your creativity?
I enjoy mastering new technologies and applying them to stories. I like to produce faster and faster because the story is my end goal. It is fulfilling to me to bring an idea to fruition without getting stuck on a small production detail, so I enjoy creating efficient pipelines. Then, I am free to create one of the many ideas in my notebooks without needing to ask for help.
What’s the biggest myth about women in your field?
I do not know any myths about women in the entertainment field. I have met strong, beautiful people of all sexual identities who are very capable of creating content. These talented women make great stories. These women are heroes of mythic proportions.
Name a creative risk you took that paid off.
I was pursuing an MBA in Ohio because I was following the direction of my parents. It was a terrible fit. I can do accounting, strategy, and finance … but it lacked an identity to me. It felt like busy work, and the solutions were already worked out.
I am very good with my finances and investing now, so I appreciate the time spent, but I left the MBA when I was accepted into a top film school in California. Stories are a constant Rubik’s Cube inviting solutions. I left business in order feel some meaning in my life and it worked out.
My parents could not support me in either pursuit, so it was a financial burden to make this change. I was able to pay off my student loans quickly because I understood the money as an investment and treated it as such.
What’s your take on the rise of AI?
I embrace it. I made my latest film, Mombomb with AI, and it was a very positive experience. AI is still in need of ethical development and resource identification, but very smart people are working on solving these problems. AI-assisted pipelines get better every day.
What’s a piece of advice from another woman you carry with you?
I do not carry a specific piece of advice from other women. I do stay cognizant of the work women have done to afford me my current opportunities. I appreciate every protest, degree, law, and sacrifice women have reacted with. I respect their advancements by following my intellectual interests every day. I embrace a good book and a messy house.
Which would you reboot: Soul Train, American Bandstand or MTV Spring Break?
I would rather reboot Liquid Television, MTV.
How do you balance ambition with self-care?
Spending money on stocks instead of spa treatments is my self-care. Invest in what you know. A $50 facial lasts a day, but the same investment in a Nvidia stock purchased at 50 cents a share will let you own the spa.
You’re writing a memoir. What’s the title?
Mombomb. This is my current AI film and it is based on events in my life but fictionalized to embrace the succinct hero’s journey. The first five minutes are realized and have won international film festivals and a feature is in the works.
Go to Karaoke song.
I prefer other music, but Miley Cyrus’ song lyrics are getting interesting. I would not dare to try to sing them, though, as I do not have the range. Dolly Parton songs are worth a shot.
In 10 years, what do you hope to look back and say you changed?
Representation is everything. My adopted son is multi-ethnic, so I conceived the book to educate character designers in media on forensic science that can inform character design. There are markers on skulls found in cline around the world that are unique to each area.
I have spoken at Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney, SIGGRAPH, and Epic Games on the subject of informed character design, and the book greatly influenced the Unreal Engine Metahuman project. I already look back on having made the change, and I hope to influence more gaps in culture. One big gap I would like to address with my work is entertainment content for intelligent women.
Patricia’s Social Media:
Instagram: @invokeadolly
To see who else is a Reel Woman, click here.
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