Meet Sydney Mills | Animator and Creator of Cool Girl Cinema Club

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sydney Mills and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sydney, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started Cool Girl Cinema Club because I wanted to build more community in the film-going space. I have no qualms about going to movies by myself, but I realized that there were many others in a similar position and not many opportunities for socializing. Likewise, it seemed like every theater catered to the typical “Film Bro” crowd. When I googled film clubs for women in Los Angeles, I was very surprised to learn that I couldn’t easily find one. I figured “why not do it myself?” and took the plunge in renting out a venue. While I didn’t have event-planning experience, I did have a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Film/Animation, a day job in the animation industry, and a deep passion for movies. I decided to focus my events around female-centered cinema and open up the doors to anyone who was interested in coming. It has been so fulfilling to run this club for the past 6 months, I have had the opportunity to meet (and collaborate!) with so many amazing people! Likewise it has been so wonderful being able to raise money for various charities through treat sales at the screening events, I feel like I can happily say that we are making a tangible difference through our love of movies.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Professionally I have been working as an Animation Timer in the 2D animation industry on television shows such as ‘Futurama’, ‘Disenchantment’, and ‘Fired On Mars’. My timing was incredibly lucky, and very soon after graduating from college during the midst of the pandemic, I got an opportunity to be trained to learn the skill of animation timing. Timing is a specific job for 2D traditional animation that is out-sourced, where one essentially writes the directions for the animators. It is like learning an entirely new language! However in college, I spent a lot of time doing stop-motion animation with homemade puppets and miniature sets. While working in Timing, I continued to tinker with my own projects on my own time and eventually I found a fellowship program through Film Independent that centers around stop-motion. Currently I am 9 months into a two year artist development program called Project Involve that is sponsored by Laika studios, the studio behind Coraline. Since finishing up Futurama season nine in May, I have been dedicating myself to both my stop-motion fellowship short film project and growing Cool Girl Cinema Club.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d take them to a concert at The Greek Theater, a Cinespia movie night at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery, a walk through Griffith to the Observatory, a beach day in the sunshine, and of course treat them to a birria taco with a margarita on the side. My personal favorite Los Angeles activity will always be going to an American Cinematheque Q&A screening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica and then sitting in the car discussing the movie for half an hour afterwards

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate my shoutout to my family, who have always been so supportive of my whacky creative endeavors. Whether it be flying across the country to study at an art school, driving to LA to follow my animation passions, or just my general against-the-grainness, my family has always been cheering me on. I feel so lucky and privileged to have them in my life.

Website: www.smills.art

Instagram: @coolgirlcinema_club

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydney-mills-77bb8514b/