Special recognition: Outstanding Achievement, Calcutta International Cult FF; Special Mention, Athens International Monthly Art FF; Best Women’s Film, L’Age d’Or International Arthouse FF; Senses of Cinema Top Films of 2019; Best Animated Feature Film, Hazel Eye Film Festival (2019); Best Fx Design, FICOCC #13 (2018); Grand Jury Award (2016) & Gold Award (2018), L.A.N.N.E.F.F.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4563904/
May 2022, https://lottadiclassico.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/nb5.pdf
January 2020, sensesofcinema.com/2020/world-poll/world-poll-2019-part-3/ – 7
August 2019, http://www.themugwumpcorporation.com/2019/08/five-questions-sylvia-toy_26.html?m=1
June 2018, issuu.com/cine.makers/docs/special.edition/74
July 2017, theheroinejourney2016.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/the-heroines-journey-of-sylvia-toy/
July, 2011, http://vip.newmediafest.org/?page_id=674
MONOGRAPHY
Aug-Sept 2018, http://www.visualcontainer.net/sylvia-toy-st-louis-monography/
Class of 1969 National Merit Finalist and recipient of a National Achievement Scholarship. B.A. (Art/English), University of Nebraska/Lincoln, 1974. Certificate in Litigation, Philadelphia Institute for Paralegal Training, 1980.
Legal professional, 1980-2015.
I was a professionally represented sculptor from 1985-2010, regularly exhibiting in major group and solo exhibitions; and selling work to private collectors.
I was a self-represented theater artist focusing on solo performance (as “Nena St. Louis”) from 1991-2007. Bookings included: Afro Solo Festival, Cultural Odyssey, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, San Francisco, The Wagon Train Project, Lincoln Children’s Theater, Brava for Women in the Arts, The Marsh. I was a Resident Artist in the Artist Residency in Diversity Program at the University of Nebraska/Lincoln, 1998-2003. My solo performance play, “Essays on Anger and Custard Pie,” was selected for Lorraine Hansberry Theater Emerging Artist spring showcase, 1994. I was a Frierson Playwright Fellow at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 1992-1993.
During my family’s activism in the American Civil Rights Movement, 1961-1965: I was homeschooled in a yearlong school boycott; assisted in voter registration; and regularly participated in leafletting and picketing.
VIDEOGRAPHY
Year of creation: 2011
TRAVELING TO. Selected for STREETVIDEOART/Larcade Gallery, Paris, 2012.
Year of creation: 2013
RUNNING OUT. Selected for Pineapple Underground Film Festival, Hong Kong, 2014.
Year of creation: 2014
BEFORE CHILL. Selected for Creative Arts Film Festival and awarded Honorable Mention for Best Cinematography, Online festival, 2016. Semi-Finalist, Directed By Women-NYC Shorts of All Sorts, 2018. Selected for MoziMotion, The Netherlands, 2019.
THE SOUND OF BEING. Toured internationally in Magmart F.I.V.E., 2014-2015. Exhibited in CCIFabrika “Now&After17,” Moscow, RU, 2017.
QUEEN by Sylvia Toy. Exhibited at Siger Gallery, London, 2018.
Year of creation: 2015
THE BLUE LADY by Sylvia Toy. Exhibited in 1974-1978 UNL Alumni Exhibition, Eisentrager-Howard Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE, 2016. Selected for VIOLENCE TRANSFORMED, Boston, 2018.
Passages, a Myth. PASSAGES, A MYTH | DISCOVERY OF THE PREGNANCY OF THE KING, exhibited in Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece, 2016 and at Visual Container, Milan, IT 2017. Exhibited in The Wrong Biennale, Valencia, ES, 2019. Featured in Nina Byron, https://lottadiclassico.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/nb5.pdf, 2022.
KILLER JANE Pre-production videos. 2015-2017. Selected for L.A. Neo Noir Film Festival and awarded a Femmes Fatales Grand Jury Award, 2016.
Year of creation: 2016
THE HARPY by Sylvia Toy. Selected for Bucharest ShortCut CineFest, September, 2016. Selected for The Wrong Biennale, Valencia, ES, 2019.
VOICE, a performance art movie. VOICE was an official selection of Straightjacket Guerilla Film Festival, 2020, and Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival, 2017, and received an Honorable Mention from LA Underground Film Forum in 2016. VOICE was part of the “Stimmen” exhibition at schau.Räume (Austria) in 2018. VOICE festival cuttings screened in VisualContainer TV, HearteartH Project, International Video Art Exchange Program, and CM Projects’ Chemcraft Exhibit, 2015-2017. VOICE FESTIVAL CUTTING 3 selected for Underground FilmFest and Black Underground FilmFest.
Year of creation: 2017
THE HARPY Tribunal. Exhibited on Art Web Gallery, La Spezia, IT, online June-July 2017. Exhibited in The Wrong Biennale, Valencia, ES, 2019.
KILLER JANE by Sylvia Toy. Selected for VASTLAB, May 2020. Exhibited at Klanghaus, Oakland CA, May 2017. Selected for Chicago Amarcord Arthouse Film Awards, November 2017.
AND SO I SAID. Touring internationally in AGITATE Essential Cinema, 2020. Exhibited in Burnt Experimental Video Art and Film Festival, Montreal, December 2017. Exhibited in Kino Club Split, Croatia, November 2018.
SEQUENCE 13. Five Continents International Film Festival, (CIOCC), Chile, 2018.
SEQUENCE 32. Underground FilmFest, 2017, Munich. Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival, 2019.
CREDO: A PILGRIM. Selected for Austin Arthouse Film Festival, 2018. Exhibited in “The Democracy Scrabble Project” at Visual Container’s [.Box], Milan and on Visual Container TV, 2018.
DON’T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY, BUT. Exhibited in “The Democracy Scrabble Project” at Visual Container’s [.Box], Milan and on Visual Container TV, 2018.
MERGE. Exhibited on Art Web Gallery, La Spezia, IT, online April 2018. Screened in International Videoperformance, MACRO, Rome, 2019.
THE VICTIM. Exhibited in Il Mio Corpo Poetico, Il Mio Politico, Milan, 2018. Selected for Hyperflexion Contemporary Art, South Africa, 2019.
Year of creation: 2018
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SOUL: Scene 6. Exhibited at Hyperflexion Contemporary Art, South Africa, 2019.
CREATION by Sylvia Toy. Best Fx Design, FICOCC, 2018. Best Animated Feature Film, Hazel Eye Film Festival, Nashville, 2019. Semifinalist, New York Animation Film Awards, 2020. Semifinalist, Encontro de Cinema Negro, 2020. Excerpts exhibited in The Black Woman Is God, 2018. Selected for Zuma Film Festival, Abuja, Nigeria, 2019. CREATION|NIGHT FINDS A BLACK HOLE, excerpt exhibited in The Wrong Biennale, Valencia, ES, 2019.
DAY IN NIGHT. Exhibited at Siger Gallery, London, 2019. Semi-Finalist, Directed By Women-NYC Shorts of all Sorts, 2019. Semi-Finalist, Austin Arthouse Film Festival, 2019.
THE SELF-MADE TRAP: Tre. Toured internationally in Global Videos 2018. Exhibited at PLAY Room, The Netherlands, 2019.
DREAM One. Selected for Dreamtime/Lys d’Or Gallery, 2019.
DREAM Four. Selected for Dreamtime/Lys d’Or Gallery, 2019.
SLEEPWALKER. Selected for Dreamtime/Lys d’Or Gallery, 2019.
SNOW. Selected for Burnt Experimental Video Art and Film Festival, Montreal, 2018.
FLIGHT. Selected for We Make Movies International Film Festival, 2019.
Year of creation: 2019
DERMALIAN: The Secret Life of La Dottoressa Giulia Verne. Screened in Kino Klub Split, 2019. Selected for Cinematic Panic, 2020. Selected for TeleUphoria’s Channel 43, 2021.
DERMALIAN: Dr. Verne’s Little Big Bang. Official Selection of Austin Arthouse Film Festival; nominated for Best Animation, Best Concept, Best Absurdist Film, 2020. Official Selection of Independent Video Film Festival of Youtube Art Club Pavlos Paraschakis, Greece, 2022.
Year of creation: 2020
GOODBYE, exhibited in Bologna in Lettere, 2020.
THE LABYRINTH: Riverwoman Bathing 1, Official Selection of Image Play – International Video Art Festival – II Edition (2020).
THE SELF-MADE TRAP: 12, Selected for GG3 Group Global 3000, Berlin, 2021.
THE SELF-MADE TRAP: 13, Selected for REWIND Art #19, Jakarta, 2020.
DEPRESSION AS GEOGRAPHY (Remake), collected in “Poeticism,” 2020.
Year of creation: 2021
HALF LIVES, Best Women’s Film, L’âge d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival, 2021. Special Mention, Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival, 2021. Outstanding Achievement (Experimental), Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, 2021. Featured (excerpt: “My Mother Died in Her Sleep), JokerJoker TV, episode 187, 2024.
WHEN YOU DRAW YOUR BONES (excerpt), Silent Video Edition Akzente, 2024.
Year of creation: 2022
THE LABYRINTH by Sylvia Toy: SOLASTALGIA, Selection, Clapperboard Golden Festival, 2022; Selection, Festival del Cinema di Cefalù, 2022.
THE LABYRINTH by Sylvia Toy (short feature): Calcutta International Cult Film Festival “Outstanding Achievement,” 2022. Semifinalist, The Arthouse Film Festival, 2023.
THE CAVE by Sylvia Toy: Research and Development in Progress. Selected for “IL MONDO CHE VOGLIO-The World That I Want,” Lys d’Or web gallery, 2023.
THE CAVE by Sylvia Toy: So the Goddess Can Always Find Her. Artweb Gallery “The Videoperformance” 2023. Pinus Sessions 2023. Click Fest 2023.
Year of creation: 2023
THE CAVE by Sylvia Toy (short feature): “Best Smartphone Short Movie,” Vesuvius International Film Awards 2023. “Best Experimental Film (featurette category),” FICIMAD 2024.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
January 2021, https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKE4-2LIliC/?igshid=1t3qig050hpdu
January 2021, https://twitter.com/Mothlightpod/status/1349691820880650240?s=20
August 2020, https://issuu.com/arthousequarterly/docs/aqsummer2020smaller/40
January 2020, http://sensesofcinema.com/2020/world-poll/world-poll-2019-part-3/ – 7
August 2019, http://www.themugwumpcorporation.com/2019/08/five-questions-sylvia-toy_26.html?m=1
June 2018, issuu.com/cine.makers/docs/special.edition/74
July 2017, theheroinejourney2016.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/the-heroines-journey-of-sylvia-toy/
July 2016, medium.com/@12Catwoman/artist-retrospective-the-unsung-genius-of-sylvia-toy-2cc3f1a9bd5e
July, 2011, http://vip.newmediafest.org/?page_id=674
MONOGRAPHY
March 2020, https://lysdorart.blogspot.com/p/sylvia-toy-st-louis.html
Aug-Sept 2018, http://www.visualcontainer.net/sylvia-toy-st-louis-monography/
SELECTIONS/INVITATIONS (partial):
2020
Cinematic Panic, Memphis
Solo exhibition, Lys d’Or Gallery
Encontro de Cinema Negro Zózimo Bulbul – Brasil, África, Caribe e Outras Diásporas 13 anos
Straightjacket Guerrilla Film Festival
VASTLAB, Los Angeles
New York Animation Film Awards
Fragments of Life, Touring (Vienna, Chicago)
AGITATE Essential Cinema, Touring (Los Angeles, New York, Croatia, Berlin)
Bologna in Lettere, Italy
2019
Rewind Performance Art Festival, Jakarta
The Wrong Biennale, Valencia
International Videoperformance, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (MACRO)
Austin Arthouse Film Festival
Directed By Women–NYC Shorts of All SortsMoziMotion, The Netherlands
We Make Movies International Film Festival, Los Angeles
Straightjacket Guerrilla Film Festival
”F is For” Feminism and the Female Form, South Africa
Hazel Eye Experimental Film Festival
Dreamtime, Lys d’Or Gallery
Politics of Moisture, London
Radical 2019 Group Show at Hyperflexion, South Africa
u bent hier/The Netherlands
2018
Global Videos/The Netherlands
Austin Arthouse Film Festival
Directed by Women|NY Shorts of All Sorts
Sylvia Toy St. Louis Monography, Visual Container TV
The Black Woman Is God/US
Il mio corpo poetico, il mio corpo politico/Milan
Underground FilmFest/Munich
“Stimmen,” schau.Räume/Austria
Five Continents Int’l Film Festival/Venezuela
Women Cinemakers
Democracy Scrabble/Milan
2017
Chicago Amarcord Arthouse Film Awards
Burnt Experimental Video Art + FilmFest/Montreal
The Unstitute Projection Room
Clash/London
Now&After17 @CCIFabrika/Moscow
Klanghaus/US
Underground FilmFest/Munich
Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival
Video Art Miden @ Visual Container/Milan
The Videoperformance/Art Web Gallery
2016
Creative Arts Film Festival/US
Bucharest ShortCut CineFest
Festival Miden/Greece
L.A. Neo Noir Film Festival
Yami-Ichi, Tate Modern
HearteartH, 2015-17
2008-2014
F.I.V.E. Feelings, 2014-17
PUFF Film Festival/Hong Kong
SKY ARTE HD TV/Italy
STREETVIDEOART©/Paris
CologneOff
Altered Esthetics/US
Sylviatoyindustries 
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