Overview
I'm an Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts and the Director of the Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity.
As a filmmaker, I co-wrote the script for Kill Your Darlings (Sony Pictures Classics), starring Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and won the International Days Prize at the Venice Film Festival. I've written feature screenplays and television pilots for Fox 2000, Lionsgate, Participant Media, Tomorrow Studios and served as a mentor at the Screenwriters' Colony (Nantucket) and Outfest Screenwriting Lab. My award-winning short films, including "Lavender Hill," "In the Hollow," "Ascent," and "Ghosts" have screened nationally and internationally at Frameline (SF), OutFest (LA), InsideOut (Toronto), Brooklyn Film Festival (NY), Provincetown International Film Festival (MA), Sidewalk Film Festival (AL), Milwaukee Film Festival (WI), Skabmagovat Indigenous Film Fest (Finland), MEZIPATRA (Czechoslovakia), USN Expo (Italy), and elsewhere. "Ascent" is now distributed on television by Shorts TV (nationally and internationally).
I'm the author of the short story collection The Brink, published by Harper Perennial and selected as a Lamdba Lit finalist and Electric Literature "Best Short Story Collection of 2015." I'm developing an original audio drama Audible Original for Audible, and my next book on short film screenwriting will be published with Bloomsbury (2024).
I worked for nearly a decade as a journalist, and my fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Zoetrope, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Science and Nature Writing, and elsewhere. My monologue, "Basement Story," won the Missouri Review Audio Essay Prize and has been broadcast on WBEZ, Third Coast, Australian Radio, and Michigan Public Radio. The audiobook of The Brink won the Audie 2017 for best fiction collection from Audible. I'm also a Michener-Copernicus fellow in fiction. In 2017, I won the Carpenter Memorial Advising Award for my work helping students connect with professionals in film, television, theatre and media.
Publications
Bunn, Austin. The Brink: Stories, HarperPerennial (NY, 2015)
Bunn, Austin and Vachon, Christine. A Killer Life: How An Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond, Simon and Schuster (NY, 2007)
In the news
- PMA Professor Austin Bunn to Host “The Short & Story” Event
- PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn’s Book Deemed "Exhilarating" by Filmmaker Magazine
- Short film screenwriting: a high-wire act of abbreviation
- PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn to Host Short Film Night at Liquid State Brewery
- Art + tech exhibit looking for student work
- Short films from Rural Humanities course selected for festivals
- Short films from PMA course selected for festivals
- PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn Discusses New Book About Short Film Screenwriting
- Panelists to examine crypto mining impacts
- PMA profs’ film earns spot in PBS film festival
- PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn’s Documentary Film "Campfire" Debuted on ShortoftheWeek.com
- Dance Film Competition Winners
- Cornell Cinema offers tasty, mind-stretching Science on Screen showings
- Dance Film Lab
- Dance on Camera Festival Shorts Program
- Professional Directions: Q&A with Stand-up Comedian and Performer Sam Morrison ’17
- Grants available to fund rural humanities projects
- Call for Submissions – Best Student Dance Films for the Dance Film Lab
- ‘Another Body’ documentary exposes harm of deepfake technology
- Associate Professor Austin Bunn's book listed on The Hollywood Reporter's 'The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time'
- Laurie Anderson visit offers a glimpse of her world
- "Creative Collaboration with AI" - A Masterclass by Laurie Anderson
- PMA prof’s film wins top honors at three festivals
- ‘Out Here’ film event shines light on rural LGBTQ life
- From Dr. Fauci to 'Succession:' A peek into the lives of two alumni filmmakers
- "Campfire" wins Best LGBTQIA+ Short Award at CIFF47
- Out Here: 3 Short Films about Rural LGBT Life
- From the Big Red to the Red Carpet: A two-day visit with alumni filmmakers Scott Ferguson ‘83 and Michael Kantor ‘83
- Faculty members' film focuses on boarding school escape
- Ghosts, a short film screening, 2022 Cornell Biennial
- PMA prof honored with fellowship for screenwriting work
- Next steps: PMA grads from class of ‘22 take their talent to leading MFA programs
- Community of practice explores digital storytelling in the classroom
- Author: World’s greatest ideas came from interdisciplinary teamwork
- Best-selling science writer to talk about epidemics, life expectancy, innovation
- COVID could reinvent how we go to the movies
- Regal Cinemas closure reflects serious plight of movie theaters
- Summer Milstein Program bridges tech and humanities virtually
- PMA prof named new director of Milstein Program
- ‘Hill’ reporter, Tony-award winning director return to campus for talks
- Chase Palmer, screenwriter of “It,” talks about pursuing a career in film
- Carpenter advising awards honor four on faculty
- PMA professor’s audiobook honored with top award
- Winners of playwriting contest honored Friday
- The page, the screen, the stage
- Cornell Council for the Arts supports 40 new projects
- Bunn on Agee and Evans's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men"
PMA Courses - Spring 2025
- PMA 3000 : Independent Study
- PMA 4450 : Rural Humanities Seminar
- PMA 4951 : Honors Research Tutorial II
- PMA 6450 : Rural Humanities Seminar