Alexa Lim Haas
AlexaLimHaas_WideSmile.jpg

About Me

Alexa Daniela Ruiz Gartland Lim Haas

Alexa Lim Haas (she/they) is a New York City–raised artist, filmmaker, and bodyworker. Her interdisciplinary practice moves between film and somatics, exploring troubled femmes, ordinary magic, and nonverbal communication through a care-based lens. She was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

Her short films Glove (2016), Agua Viva (2018), and Ode To Ocean (2020) all premiered at Sundance Film Festival, with Glove and Agua Viva winning Grand Jury Prizes for Best Animated Short at SXSW. Her work has screened internationally and been exhibited at MoMA, BAM, the Brooklyn Museum, and in The New York Times.

Lim Haas has directed hybrid documentary work for Planned Parenthood, Futures Without Violence, and other social justice organizations, centering stories shaped by survival, embodiment, and collective care. She was the Animation Director on projects including Random Acts of Flyness (HBO), Mucho Mucho Amor (Netflix), and music collaborations with artists such as Beach House. Most recently she was the Animation Director for Studio Tshay’s Tell Me When You Get Home, which premiered at SXSW 2026.

She is currently developing her first original feature, Saint Malo, and serves as a creative lead for the adaptation of Rachel in Love, supported by Sundance Catalyst.

Lim Haas has taught Story Theory and Directing courses at Carnegie Mellon University. Alongside her film practice, she works as a somatic practitioner and educator, facilitating liminal spaces that engage the body as a site of poetry and lineage. She leads TayoTayo, a Filipino cinema collective in Brooklyn, and collaborates with Philippine initiatives that support Indigenous sovereignty and land sustainability. Grounded in tropical futurism, their work imagines new relations between fluidity and translation among shifting landscapes.

Alexa’s dog is Minu.

Please contact alexalimhaas@gmail.com for inquiries.

Press

Awards and accolades

  • Sundance Catalyst Labs 2023 for Rachel In Love (In Development) with Josh Penn (Department of Motion Pictures) and Sam Bisbee (Park Pictures)

  • New York Times Most Memorable Illustrations in 2020

  • New York Film Festival Artist Academy Alum 2019

  • SXSW Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize 2018 for Agua Viva

  • SXSW Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize 2016 for Glove

  • Miami New Times Best of Miami 2018 for Best Film Director

  • Florida Film Critics Golden Orange Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film in Florida 2018

  • NoBudge Annual Awards 2018 for Best Film, Best Director, Best Animated Film

  • Dallas Film Festival Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize 2018

  • Palm Springs International ShortFest Best Animation 2016

  • Milan Film Festival Best Animated Short 2016

  • Provincetown International Film Festival Best Animated Short 2016

  • San Francisco International Film Festival Best Animated Short 2016

Lectures, Workshops and Mentorships

  • Carnegie Mellon University Animation Department Adjunct Instructor of iDeaTe ‘Story Development’ and iDeaTe ‘Storyboarding,’ and CFA ‘Intermediate Animation.’

  • Sundance Film Festival Indigenous Filmmaker Lab Mentor

  • Union Docs On the Choreographic Workshop, and Magical Realism Workshop Leader

  • Yale University Digital Media Center for the Arts Thesis Advisor and Speaker

  • Maryland Institute College of Art Animation Department Thesis Advisor and Speaker

  • School of Visual Arts Digital Animation Department Speaker and Vimeo’s “Ladies with Lenses” Panel

  • New York University Tisch School of the Arts Animation Department Speaker

  • Brooklyn College Residency Speaker

  • Parsons School of Design Animation Department Speaker