About
Sebastien is a Filipino-Swiss writer-director based in Los Angeles whose work explores displacement and the politics of belonging. Raised across seven countries speaking five languages, he brings an outsider's eye to character and place.
A 2024 Stowe Launch Fellow supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2026 Luna Lab Fellow, he is currently developing Bodies of Water, a Mediterranean thriller selected for the Gotham Week Project Market 2026 and produced with Over the Fence Films (Brides, Sundance 2025). He is also writing Squire, a psychosexual thriller set in Manila about a hustler who weaponizes desire to survive a world built to exploit him.
He began making short-form travel documentaries, some aired on the Travel Channel, before directing short films including Joyrider (Newport Beach Film Festival, Short of the Week) and Anamnesis (Best Sci-Fi, Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival).
His debut feature This Time was released in North America and internationally by Freestyle Digital Media, won the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Asian American International Film Festival, and screened as Centerpiece at LA Asian Film Festival and Closing Night at CAAMFest.
He serves as Narrative Feature Programmer for Asian CineVision's AAIFF and leads fundraising for the Pilipino Workers Center, keeping him close to the human cost behind the stories he tells.