Joséfa Celestin
Writer / Director
France & UK (Scotland)
Joséfa is a French writer-director based in Scotland where she co-founded Shakehaus, a production company in 2016.
Her short film “Event Horizon” has been distributed in French cinemas by L’Agence du Court Métrage and her latest short, “Tomorrow Might Be The Day”, was commissioned by the Scottish Film Talent Network in 2018. Joséfa was also selected to the Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent lab that same year.
In 2019, her first feature project “Aurora’s Skies” received funding for development and her second project “The Last Kind” was selected to EIFF’s Talent Lab Connects.
Joséfa is fascinated by the outer space which inspires her to write speculative and grounded sci-fi stories, primarily targeted toward younger audiences. She loves coming- of-age stories and wants to tell the tales of smart but awkward female characters.
Project
Aurora’s Skies
2050. Aurora, scientist and space colonist, awaits departure to Mars in isolation with her crew. When her best friend and crew member, Skye, commits suicide, Aurora breaks protocol and uploads Skye’s consciousness inside an Egorrian: an AI humanoid prototype they developed for Mars and their golden ticket to leave a hostile Earth. The new unstableEgoSkye shows signs of self-awareness and emotions but the crew is terrified of its existence and jeopardizes their departure due in a few weeks. Aurora pressures them to keep EgoSkye’s sentience a secret from Mission Control and to make sure EgoSkye is ready for Mars. Aurora attempts to reconnect with what she believes is her best friend. But she realises that she brought back only a version of Skye whose thirst for life on Earth conflicts with Aurora’s hopeless wish to escape it. When EgoSkye refuses to depart and the crew decides to reset her, Aurora understands she must sacrifice their mission to make amends and set EgoSkye and herself free.
