JLee MacKenzie
Filmmaker & Artist
ABOUT
Jeremy Lee MacKenzie (JLee) is an American filmmaker, artist & technologist.
In 2025, his feature directorial debut, Definitely Gangster, premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. His films have screened at festivals around the world, including Tribeca Film Festival's animated shorts curated by Whoopi Goldberg, The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and Champs-Élysées Film Festival in Paris, where his work received the 2021 Jury Award.
He earned his Master of Fine Arts from USC School of Cinematic Arts as a George Lucas Scholar and studied motion capture at the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. He holds a BFA in Creative Media from Champlain College and is a Right of Return USA Fellow.
In 2024, he received the Douglas-Lanahan Award from the Vermont International Film Foundation for outstanding contributions to the community through film. In 2018, he received the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Award, and in 2017, the James Goldstone Emerging Filmmaker Award for his biographical film Hidden Blueprints, co-produced by Julie Pacino.
He became a Stowe Story Labs Fellow in 2015 and that same year won Gold in the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards.
JLee works across genres, mediums, and technologies, following the story rather than a particular form. His work frequently explores magical realism, comedy, childhood, and people navigating extraordinary circumstances.