Welcome

Hello filmmakers. Hello storytellers. Hello directors. Hello actors. Hello writers. 

I am here to help directors and actors communicate with each other—and give filmmakers the tools to tell stories that touch an audience's hearts, tickle their imaginations, and give them spine-tingling thrills. 

My first book, Directing Actors, was originally published in 1996. But 25 years later I was privileged to be allowed to create a fully revised, updated, and expanded version—Directing Actors: 25th Anniversary Edition. It was released in April 2021. 

I love the 25th Anniversary Edition. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to refine the ideas, the principles, and the tools of the original book and bring them into the 21st century. If you want to read Directing Actors—or if you want to give it to a friend—or if you want to reread it in preparation for a new project—please, please, seek out the updated 25th Anniversary Edition. I fully spent the whole of 2020 pandemic lockdown creating this new and improved version.  

And then I was invited to make an audiobook version of my second book, The Film Director's Intuition. It was launched in May 2024. Before recording it (that's my own voice on the audiobook) I went over the text with a fine-tooth comb—and made crucial revisions. I went to great lengths to streamline the ideas and tools, refine the script analysis of major films like Chinatown, sex lies and videotape, Tender Mercies, and Clerks. I'm deeply proud of this audiobook version of The Film Director's Intuition. 

It's my intention to continue offering tips and encouragement to filmmakers, via my Substack account. (I haven't yet posted much but I have a lot of notes.)

I also continue to offer one-on-one consultations with directors and writer-directors of film and television as they prepare to bring their projects to life. To expand and deepen their ideas—and give them confidence. 

I'm also available to give Zoom Q&As and workshops for schools, festivals, and organizations. I have done such online workshops for the Sundance Collab, Film Fatales, Tisch/NYU, Directors Guild Canada, New Orleans Film Festival, Sony TV Diverse Directors Program, British Film Institute, Tallinn (Estonia) Film School. If your school, festival, or organization is interested in booking a zoom workshop or Q&A, please contact us at john@judithweston.com.  

I started teaching directors, actors, and writers in1985. I'm very proud of all my students, including: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant, Birdman, Biutiful, Amores Perros, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths; Ava DuVernay, Origin, When They See Us, Selma, Queen Sugar, 13th, Middle of Nowhere; Taika Waititi, Interior Chinatown, Reservation Dogs, Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Boy, Flight of the Conchords; Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave, Small Axe, Shame, Hunger; Alma Har'el, Honey Boy, Bombay Beach; Andrew Stanton, WALL-E, Finding Dory, Finding Nemo, Better Call Saul, Stranger Things; Pete Docter, Soul, Inside Out, Up; Vicky Jenson, Shrek, Shark Tale, Spellbound; Steph Green, Watchmen, The Americans; Fred Toye, Shogun, The Boys, Westworld; Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Mustang, Handmaid’s Tale, Perry Mason, The Last Thing He Told Me; Ritesh Batra, The Lunchbox; Nzingha Stewart, Daisy Jones and the Six, From Scratch, Inventing Anna, Maid, Little Fires Everywhere; Sarah Adina Smith, Lessons in Chemistry, Buster's Mal Heart; Andrés Muschietti, It, The Flash, Mama; Michael Gracey, Better Man, The Greatest Showman; Terry Zwigoff, Bad Santa, Ghost World; Patricia Cardoso, Real Women Have Curves; Lucy Tcherniak, The End of the F***ing world, Wanderlust, Station Eleven, Sunny; Hanelle Culpepper, Westworld, Star Trek Picard, How to Get Away with Murder; Lawrence Trilling, Nobody Wants This, Goliath, Pushing Daisies, Parenthood; Mark Fergus, The Expanse, Cowboys and Aliens, Iron Man, Children of Men; Andrea Toyias, Diablo, World of Warcraft; Caitriona Balfe, Outlander, Belfast, Ford v Ferrari; David Chase, The Sopranos

  • “I am eternally grateful for your help.”

    TAIKA WAITITI, writer-director, JOJO RABBIT, THOR RAGNAROK, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, BOY, EAGLE VS SHARK, FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

  • “I took a seminar with an acting teacher named Judith Weston. I learned a key insight to character. She believed that all well-drawn characters have a spine, and the idea is that the character has an inner motor, a dominant, unconscious goal that they’re striving for, an itch that they can’t scratch. I took to this like a duck to water.”

    ANDREW STANTON [from his Feb 2012 TED Talk] writer-director, FINDING DORY, WALL-E, FINDING NEMO, A BUG’S LIFE; director, BETTER CALL SAUL, STRANGER THINGS; writer, TOY STORY, TOY STORY 2, TOY STORY 3

  • "Judith's method is wonderful because it is practical. She has given me numerous tools to solve problems on the set and to earn the trust of actors. Her classes and her book are invaluable resources to any director."

    LAWRENCE TRILLING, director, GOLIATH, RECTIFY, PARENTHOOD, MASTERS OF SEX, PUSHING DAISIES, DAMAGES, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, NIP/TUCK, MONK, SCRUBS, INVASION, ALIAS, FELICITY

  • "Thank you for teaching me how to direct actors. Taking your classes made me believe I could direct. Taking your classes gave me a base, a foundation, a framework to find my own style. To step out on faith. I'm forever grateful. Love and respect to you, magnificent Judith Weston." 

    AVA DuVERNAY, director, WHEN THEY SEE US, QUEEN SUGAR, A WRINKLE IN TIME, SELMA, SCANDAL, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

  • "Everything you taught me was more than useful. I am deeply grateful."

    ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU, director, THE REVENANT, BIRDMAN, BIUTIFUL, BABEL, 21 GRAMS, AMORES PERROS