Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists. Donate today and help bring August and the Albatross to life.

Logline

A struggling artist enters an open relationship with her closest friend and collaborator, risking everything as love and ambition collide.

Synopsis

Eleanor, a fiercely independent sculptor in her late twenties, is drawn into a consuming, emotionally fraught polyamorous relationship with August, a charismatic artist in a long-term partnership. Inspired by the tumultuous romance between Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin, August and the Albatross explores the blurred lines between creation and destruction, intimacy and isolation, as Eleanor struggles to define herself outside the gravitational pull of a love that could consume her.

Meet the Filmmakers

Lizzy Walther— Filmmaker
Lizzy Walther is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, actor and writer originally from rural Indiana, where she was raised on her family farm. Her work explores love, shame, and identity within the American blue-collar experience often centering female-driven narratives that challenge traditional notions of the American dream. With a strong voice rooted in autofiction, Lizzy creates emotionally rich, character-driven stories that bridges the rural Midwest with divergent, creative identities. A graduate of NYU Tisch, Lizzy studied at Playwrights Horizons and ITW Amsterdam. She was awarded the 2021 Bevya Rosten Memorial Award for Excellence in Writing. Her first short film, A Farmer’s Daughter, marked her commitment to creating independent, low-budget films outside of the traditional system. Her follow-up short, Before We Die, won Best Short at the Boston Film Festival. She was a finalist for the 2023 Sundance Screenwriters Lab with her feature Where To Go From Here and has developed multiple feature projects both independently and within the industry. Her debut feature film, August and the Albatross, continues her mission to amplify underrepresented voices and tell bold, intimate stories outside of conventional pathways.

Micah Hauptman— Filmmaker/Actor

Micah Hauptman is a filmmaker, actor, creator, director, facilitator and founding partner of Chaotik Media. With over 50 acting credits, Micah is most notably known for playing real-life documentarian and mountaineer David Breashears in the Working Title/ Universal Pictures film “Everest”. Other film credits include: FilmDistrict’s “Parker” directed by Taylor Hackford, “Anything” (producer and actor), “Phobias”, “The Boy Behind the Door”, “The Obituary of Tunde Johnson”,  “Asher”, “The Riot Act”, “We the Coyotes”, “Rust Creek”, “Interior Night”, “The Lennon Report”, “In Stereo”, “Bread and Butter”, “I Am I”, “Iron Man”, “A Bag of Hammers”, “S.W.A.T.: Firefight”. Upcoming films: “Anywhere, America” (writer, producer and actor) to be directed by Anna D. Shapiro, “D is for Detroit” (writer, director, producer and actor), produced in partnership with Andrew Van Wyk (head of creative at River Road Entertainment). TV credits include: “Homeland”, “Masters of Sex”, “Supernatural”. Theatre: Off Broadway World Premiere of Nicole Catania’s “& All Our Yesterdays” (director and producer), World Premiere of Brian Crano’s semi autobiographical play 12^th Premise. Micah’s currently working on a radically modern stage adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters”, that interrogates and investigates the world we live in today through the lens of the sisters, which he’ll also direct and begin work shopping in early 2026.

Chaotik Media, a production and artist management company that focuses on creating “content that matters”, was founded to produce narrative work that is both socially relevant and politically minded, exploring stories and characters too often untold and unrecognized, and having a lasting social impact, by giving them voice and life on screen and stage.

Montana Lampert Hoover – Actor/Producer

Montana Lampert Hoover is a New York-based actor and producer whose work spans film, theater, and new media. She is drawn to projects that explore identity, social nuance, and human relationships. Montana’s recent screen work includes Remnants (dir. Amir Moverman), Let Me Assist You (now streaming on Omeleto, dir. Noam Argov), Keepers of the Flame (NY premiere at the Diversity and Inclusion Film Festival at Lincoln Center 2024, dir. Shari Carpenter), Ships in the Night (dir. Ned Myerberg), and Vroom Vroom (official selection, New York Shorts International Film Festival 2024, dir. Alec Deland). Her theater credits include Laughs in Spanish, The Turnaway Play, and Hand to God at Kitchen Theatre Company; Lewiston by Samuel D. Hunter; In the Parlour (National Black Theater / American Slavery Project); The F**king Wright Brothers (dir. Abigail Zeely Bess, NYC Fringe); and Double Falsehood (dir. Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, Irondale, Off-Broadway). She also puppeteered and voiced the character Teddy for Queer Kid Stuff, an educational children’s series on YouTube.

Make a donation to August and the Albatross.

Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.