About

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Paul is a director/cinematographer who has worked in theatre and on short films, features, documentaries, web series, and commercials. He has directed plays at the American Globe Theatre (Off-Off Broadway), The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Source Theatre, and The Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint.

Paul's screenplay (co-written with Kathryn O'Sullivan)  for “A Savage Nature” won the Hollywood Screenplay Grand Prize Thriller Award. His screenplay "The Legend of Lizzy Flynn" was a finalist at the Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition. (Click here for more information on his writing.)

His directing and cinematography work have won awards from the Tellys, Indie Series Awards, France’s Web Series Mag, and he was nominated as Best Director and Best Cinematographer by the International Academy of Web Television. His work has also received recognition from the ADDY Awards, The Kodak Company, and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

Paul has earned a Bachelor’s in Theatre Arts and an MA and MFA in Film. He is a Cinema Professor at Northern Virginia Community College and is currently working on a textbook about Micro-Budget Filmmaking.

Bicentennial Bonsai is a documentary by Paul Awad and Kathryn O'Sullivan. It will be available for screening in 2021.

Finalist at the 2021 Environmental Film Festival

On the evening of their wedding anniversary, a troubled couple attempts to make a fresh start, but things take an unexpected turn when sinister strangers invade their home. As the night unfolds, loyalties shift, secrets spill, and lives shatter.

2020 Winner: Best Drama Feature, French Independent Film Festival

2021 Winner: Johanna Whicker-Best Actress Award,  LA Crime & Horror Film Festival

Click here to read a review of the film.

A Savage Nature is distributed by  Gravitas Ventures and available fall of 2021. 

Click here to read the Backstage Magazine article on Thurston.

Click here to hear an interview with Thurston's producer Kathryn O'Sullivan. 

Click here to view the series website.

The work was shot on 16mm or 35mm film. Format SD.

Dracula has invited his fiance, Lucy, home to the castle to meet his overbearing mother. When Lucy arrives, Mrs. Dracula clearly disapproves of her son's choice for a bride. When nothing goes according to Dracula's plan at dinner, battle lines are drawn and Dracula is forced to choose between his mother or his one true love.

The Fugue is a micro-budget mumblegore feature inspired by Asian horror cinema.  It was released by Indiefix and available on DVD from Netflix in 2008.

Where should you look during an audition? What makes a good headshot? What should you wear? Paul guides students through workshop exercises created to help actors make the most of their audition time, bring out their unique qualities and give them a solid grasp of the auditioning process and the skills necessary to get the part.

The video series is available from First Light Video Publishing.