David Leidy
Directing
Biography
David Leidy (born July 2, 1991) is a writer and director who has been awarded for his mindbending thrillers that bend genre lines. He wrote, directed, wrote and edited Atonia (2013) with cinematography by SXSW® nominated cinematographer Tobias Deml and was a co-production of Prodigium Pictures (production company of HBO’s Gaming Wall St). Leidy won Best Noir of the Year at Independent Shorts Awards 2018 for his short film Faded Love. He also won Best Director of the Year Award at Action on Film MegaFest 2019 for his short film Platonic. The film received theatrical distribution from Fourwalled in 2019. Made in association with his production company Eidetic Pictures, Unidentified Objects was a film Leidy was an executive producer on which received a Certified Fresh status on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was Official Selection at Fantastic Fest 2022 and won the audience award for Best Narrative Feature at LA Outfest 2022. It was distributed by Quiver Distribution in 2023 and is now streaming on Hulu, Amazon and Paramount+. He is a proud co-creator and facilitator of the Workbench Filmmaker Intensive since 2022 onward where he has produced 15 original short films and counting. In 2025, Leidy wrote, directed and edited the proof of concept short for Solstice starring Travis Quentin Young and TV Carpio (Across the Universe) which features special effects makeup from Eric Fox (a top contestant on SyFy’s Face Off).
Known For
A curmudgeonly gay dwarf and his unstable, alien-obsessed neighbor are thrown together on an impossible road trip that will alter their strange friendship (and their sense of reality) forever.
Unidentified Objects
Two female bartenders test out the age old theory that all women can have sex whenever (and wherever) they want.
Sex Scientists
After a dream about a murder investigation, a professor discovers a pregnant woman in her house. When she enters, details about the crime resurface.
Platonic
A reporter repulsed by older men evades her psychiatrist who plans to reenact a disturbing scenario from her childhood to cure her.
Faded Love
A duplicitous woman guards a primitive man from beholding a mysterious book. For the vast knowledge it possesses comes with a grave consequence.
Translucid
A man visits his aging mother at her Malibu estate to ask her to get checked for dementia, only to be met by a disturbing realization.
Solstice
A rigid white collar worker has vivid nightmares of herself paralyzed in bed while a new employee from work torments her.
Atonia
A woman and her cousin trudge through a mystical forest of giant trees searching for a medicinal plant until their day ends up the only thing uprooted.