Indie film director Lynn Shelton of many critically acclaimed films including Humpday, Sword of Trust and Outside In died on Friday at a hospital in Los Angeles of a previously unidentified blood disorder. She was 54.
Shelton was 40 when she made her first film, We Go Way Back, which premiered at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival. She followed up in 2008 with My Effortless Brilliance, which screened at South by Southwest and Maryland Film Festival, and won her the Someone to Watch Award at the 2009 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Her next film Humpday earned her a Special Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, screened as part of the Directors Fortnight sidebar at Cannes Film Festival and won the John Cassavetes Award (for films costing less than $500,000) at the 2010 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Touchy Feely premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2013, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize; in 2017, Outside In premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.; and in 2019 comedy Sword of Trust had its world premiere at South by Southwest.
Shelton is survived by her son, Milo Seal; her ex-husband, Kevin Seal; and her parents, Wendy and Alan Roedell and David “Mac” Shelton and Frauke Rynd. She is also survived by her brothers, David Shelton and Robert Rynd, and sister, Tanya Rynd, as well as the comedian and podcaster Marc Maron, with whom she spent the last year of her life.