Mya Taylor at PIFF Reimagined 2020
Written By: Margaux Fortier
Provincetown Film Festival looked very different this year. The festival was cancelled earlier in the year, as the annual June date was still not safe for large crowds of festival goers. The festival found new life as ‘PIFF Reimagined’, offering 4 days of streaming festival-selected films and 2 nights at Wellfleet Drive-In Theatre.
Beginning in 2017, PIFF’s Next Wave Award was developed to bring attention to emerging filmmakers and artists taking risks in the media arts. Luckily, the award was able to continue in the Reimagined Festival by selecting Mya Taylor as the 2020 winner. Mya Taylor made a name for herself in Sean Baker’s film, Tangerine, and is building her resume with powerful and meaningful roles. Becoming the first transgender actress to win an Independent Spirit Award in 2018, Mya’s star is on the rise.
Mya Taylor sat down to discuss the Next Wave Award win in a digital interview with Provincetown Film Society and brought light to her experience, ambition, and future plans. Mya has always known that entertainment was in her bones. Finding the most inspiration from Aaliyah, the tragically short career that started as a singer and moved onto acting in the 90s and early 00s. As Mya has been given an opening into the industry through acting, she wants to develop into a performer who can sing and act in the same way.
Crossing paths with former PIFF Filmmaker on the Edge, Sean Baker, while he was researching for ‘Tangerine’, Mya became key to making the film authentic, with a great deal of the plot revolving around her real experiences or the experiences of those around her. Gaining momentum in her career immediately, she won a Gotham Award and an Independent Spirit Award becoming a representative for the Trans Community. Feeling the pressure of this responsibility, Mya hopes that she can represent the community well.
As Mya was physically transitioning into the person she is today, she was also transitioning into the performer she had always wanted to be. Hoping to follow the momentum, Mya has been working regularly as an actress, incorporating music in her roles when she can. Her film, recent 2020 PIFF Reimagined pick, Stage Mother, is elevating her content with big name actors and complex character arcs.
Now in this time of the global pandemic, Mya Taylor is working as a nurse in North Dakota in order to lend a hand to those who need support. She hopes that the acting work will come again in the future and hopes that the world can continue with less violence and more love.
She is blazing new trails, doing so as her authentic self, and lends her voice to the work of women in media today.
Tangerine is now available on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4924757/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3824458/
https://www.hulu.com/movie/tangerine-1b2783de-343e-490e-8c01-dec49b0c4805
