Desperately Seeking Susan with Susan Seidelman

SUSAN SEIDELMAN
2026 LOFTY ACHEIVEMENT AWARD

The Loft Film Fest is honored to present Susan Seidelman with a 2026 Lofty Achievement Award for her groundbreaking films and extraordinary contribution to cinema culture.

Susan Seidelman was the first American director to have an independent film, Smithereens, screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. This 1982 feature was followed by Desperately Seeking Susan, which co-starred Madonna, in her first film, and Rosanna Arquette, a guest at the first Loft Film Fest in 2010.  Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) was named as one of 100 greatest films directed by women by the BBC; it resulted in a Cesar Award nomination and in 2023 was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its “cultural, historical or aesthetic significance”.

Seidelman’s other feature films include Making Mr. Right with John Malkevich; Cookie, co-written by Nora Ephron; and She Devil, starring Meryl Streep ant Rosanne Barr in her first feature film, Gaudi Afternoon, Boynton Beach Club, Musical Chairs and The Hot Flashes.

Seidelman, and screenwriter Jonathan Brett, were nominated for an Oscar for the live-action short film The Dutch Master in1994. Her television credits famously include the pilot of Sex and the City.
 
The Lofty Achievement Award will be presented to Susan Seidelman before the screening of Desperately Seeking Susan. She will introduce the screening of Smithereens.

DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN
Every man is desperate to have her. One woman is desperate to be her. But someone is desperate to kill her. If they can figure out who she is. In Desperately Seeking Susan, two women – a bored housewife and a bohemian drifter – are linked by a series of personal ads in a newspaper. Set in New York City, identities are mistaken and the plot twists and turns as the film explores the intersection of the lives of these two women. Notably the film also features early roles for John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurie Metcalf and Steven Wright.  And the film had a seismic impact on 1980s fashion, influenced in part by Madonna’s early style.
 
Directed by Susan Seidelman 1985, USA, 104 minutes, PG-13