About this submission

My mother used to eat a whole pomegranate every night after dinner. I was moved by how striking the image was—her fingers digging, red juice splattering, the empty husk after she was finished. That image burrowed its way into my subconscious, and Holly Fontanetta, our writer, helped me to excavate and shape it into ‘Pomegranate.’ She drew from personal experience, as well as biblical mythology, to craft the story, and in the final script I saw a potential for lush, surreal, and emotive images. I believe that the final product is emblematic of our attitude toward experimentation and invention.

Will Benzian

Creator

WILL BENZIAN is a writer and director based in Los Angeles. Endlessly fascinated with the human capacity to both love and hurt one another, Will makes films that attempt to reconcile that contradiction, always asking questions, never once seeking an answer. At the center of each of their projects is an impulse to create the feeling of wonder, and explore its capacity to move viewers and transform worlds. A recent graduate of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, their work has been supported by mentorship programs at SBIFF and Panavision’s New Filmmaker Program. They are an alum of the 2025 Paolo Sorrentino Lab.