Rising Stars: Meet Nicholas Giuricich of West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Giuricich.

Hi Nicholas, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m a filmmaker living and working in Los Angeles. Raised in Washington DC by two chefs who worked at the Smithsonian, my parents would push me in a stroller through the galleries as an infant. This early exposure to art, expression, and cultural voices motivated me to become a storyteller from a young age.  
At eighteen, I moved to New York to attend the film program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Surrounded by such colorful people in a diverse city, I used screenwriting as tool to understand my emerging identity and developing relationships with other queer people. After graduation, I worked as an assistant on Billions, eventually working his way up to a line producer’s assistant and writer’s assistant on a SYFY show where I could see how a large show was brought together and executed in production.
 
During the pandemic, I moved to Los Angeles and began working remotely as a video editor and motion graphic designer, further honing my skills as a visual storyteller. In 2023, I cobbled together my savings and a laundry list of favors to produce my first indy feature film – SPARK. A queer time loop thriller staring Vico Ortiz, Theo Germaine, Danell Leyva, and Christina Villa, SPARK was released by Freestyle Digital Media Entertainment this summer, and was raved as “…a departure from the time loop template” by the New York Times.

As I am in the early stages of developing his next feature – a horror film about grief – I currently work as the editor of Kyle MacLachlan’s (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City) new podcast – “What are we even Doing?”.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Heck no! My road has taken a lot of twists in turns.

My first job out of college was walking dogs in New York City as I hustled for literally any industry-related work. I finally got a PA position on a local show, and then worked very hard in the direction of having a TV career. I worked a variety of TV assistant positions both in production and at artist agencies. Although I finally started to get some momentum – getting consistent work, building relationships with producers – all of that came crashing down when the pandemic hit. Shows were cancelled. Work dried up. Additionally, the strikes and the general shift in the industry made focusing on TV writing too treacherous of a route for me to take.

After some time of spinning my wheels and struggling to find my new direction, I chose to empower myself. By pouring everything I had into producing my first indy feature, I’ve built the beginnings of a career where I am in charge, where I make things happen. I don’t want to make producing an indy feature sound easy – it was three years of very hard work with intense ups and downs – but it was pulled off. I am forever grateful to the team of producers, actors, and crew members I collaborated with, and I’m grateful to myself for manifesting SPARK.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Grief is my biggest inspiration. My stories are about characters trying to understand love, intimacy, and life through the lens of loss. How do we grapple the empty space within ourselves when someone we love dies? How do we move with it? How does it change our intimate relationships with others?

This theme can be explored across genres – Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror, etc, – and a variety of different stories. After my mom passed several years ago, my whole understand of life and the universe was thrown out the window. Navigating how to continue a relationship with a deceased person has deeply informed my work, as are the questions of what happens after life.

Another important part part of my work relates to my own identity as a gay man. The queer community is my community, and with every project I do, I want to feature queer characters played by queer actors. Trans, gay, lesbian, intersex – they are all a part of the fam, and they all belong in my films.

What are your plans for the future?
I’m currently developing my next feature project – a contained horror in the 1-2m budget range that is centered around around a heart transplant that goes completely awry.

Inspired by films about an innocent protagonist lured into a dangerous cult like MIDSOMMAR, GET OUT, and ROSEMARY’S BABY, this story is about the horrific lengths a grieving person will go to reconnect with a dead loved one. The film combines the dizzying advancement of modern medicine with a supernatural angle to tell a story about grief in a new, disturbing way. Pulling upon my own experiences with loss, I also dived into my own fears of twisted medical procedures, sacrificial rituals, and ancient practices to write this twisted story. .

With SPARK’s release, I will be using that momentum to produce my next project. My upcoming film will push myself farther as a filmmaker and storyteller, and I’m excited to manifest this deeply personal story.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thefilmspark.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholass_rising
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0F79V4CW8/ref=msx_wn_av

Image Credits
Headshot: JJ Geiger Film Festival photos: Jordyn Doyle Set photo: Allison Bibicoff