Zachary Wigon
Directing
Biography
Zachary Wigon is an American film critic and film director. He has directed the feature films The Heart Machine, Sanctuary, and Victorian Psycho. Wigon, who was raised in Scarsdale, NY and attended Scarsdale Middle School and Scarsdale High School, attended Tisch School of the Arts.He has contributed to Slant Magazine, Filmmaker, and The Village Voice as a film critic. Wigon has said that his experience as a filmmaker has informed his film criticism more than the reverse. His short film Someone Else's Heart won the Hammer to Nail Short Film Contest. The short film was the basis for his debut feature film, The Heart Machine, a romantic thriller loosely based on his own experiences. It debuted at the 2014 SXSW after a crowdfunding campaign. His next film was the 2022 psychological thriller Sanctuary, which premiered at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival. The films stars Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott and received positive reviews. In 2026, Wigon's third feature film, Victorian Psycho starring Maika Monroe, will premiere at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Known For
Confined to a claustrophobic hotel room, the heir to a hotel empire and the dominatrix who has primed him for success become locked in a battle of wits and wills as he tries to end his relationship with her.
Sanctuary
In 1858, an eccentric young governess named Winifred Notty arrives at the remote gothic manor known as Ensor House. As Winifred assimilates into life at Ensor House, staff members begin to inexplicably disappear, and the owners of the estate begin to wonder if there is something amiss about their new governess.
Victorian Psycho
A man begins to suspect that his long-distance girlfriend, whom he met online but has never met in person, has been living in the same city the whole time and sets out to find her.
The Heart Machine
A kaleidoscopic film portrait of Shelly Brown, a twenty-three year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital.
You Wont Miss Me
A young man becomes confused when he begins to suspect that his long-distance girlfriend has been living in the same city as him for the duration of their relationship.
Someone Else's Heart
A young photography student has lunch with his ex-girlfriend after not seeing her for eighteen months. When they meet, his memories of their relationship come into jarring conflict with their present circumstance.
Passed
A young man on the Lower East Side of Manhattan has to make a choice between his girlfriend and his job on the eve of the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Don't Walk Away in Silence
An absurd comedy about the experience of what happens to a human soul before it is born. Inspired by the recent debate over teaching intelligent design instead of evolution in public schools, Holy Sapien is set in a preparatory school for life called the Darwin School, where young souls reckon with their own existence before they are born and begin to question their beliefs about a world existing beyond their own.