Verena Puhm is a Sundance-featured, award-winning AI filmmaker and creative technologist blending emotional storytelling with cutting-edge tools. With a background in producing series for CNN and BBC and writing for Leonine Studio's Wiedemann & Berg TV as well as Red Bull Media's Terra Mater Studios, she bridges traditional and AI-driven cinema. Her work has been honored by Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, and top AI festivals.


A keynote speaker and panelist at Cannes Film Festival 2025, Berlinale 2025, Austin AIFF, Stockholm AI Film Conference, AI Film & Ad Fest Dubai, and the Atlanta International AI Film Festival (AIAIFF), she is a frequent speaker and judge in the field. Verena is part of OpenAI’s Sora Creator Circle, Google Veo 2 Beta, Adobe AI Community Leader Program, Luma, Kling, Hailou Minimax, LTX, Freepik, Pika and Showrunner AI's Creator programs and collaborates globally across studios, pushing the future of storytelling forward.


In addition to her solo creative work, Verena has developed several hybrid and fully AI-driven production pipelines, combining cutting-edge tools and processes for cost-efficient, high-quality content creation. She commands a distributed team of global specialists across production, AI and 3D animation, editing, VFX, sound, and compositing—allowing fast iteration, flexibility, and stylistic precision while keeping production lean and scalable. Verena’s workflow merges traditional filmmaking with generative AI capabilities, ensuring both narrative strength and technical innovation.

Currently advising:

Register by 6/1
Self-Paced Course

Crafting Your Short Film Screenplay

With: Asher Jelinsky and 3 more

Crafting Your Short Film Screenplay

Beginner to Intermediate
With: Asher Jelinsky, Gabi Grossman, Kate Rebecca Phillips and Constance Tsang
Short films are a great way to showcase your voice, talent, and storytelling skill. In this eight-week self-paced online course, you will learn the fundamentals of screenwriting and develop your original story idea into a short screenplay with accomplished filmmakers as your guides. Designated homework assignments are reviewed by a Sundance Advisor and designed to move you closer to your completed short screenplay (5-15 pages).
Register by 5/26
Self-Paced Course

Screenwriting: Core Elements

With: Trey Ellis and 4 more

Screenwriting: Core Elements

Beginner to Intermediate
With: Trey Ellis, Caleb Aldrich, Raj Trivedi, Melanie Rish-Ho and Maggie Talbot-Minkin
Learn the core elements of writing a screenplay for a feature film, with an accomplished screenwriter as your guide. In this self-paced course, you will develop a new script idea into an outline that can be used to write your first draft.