Company Bio

Thurston Productions, LLC was founded in 2012 by husband-and-wife creatives Paul Awad and Kathryn O’Sullivan. The company has created and produced film, theatre, and fiction projects that have been nationally and internationally recognized with numerous awards and grants. Paul and Kathryn’s work and careers have been featured and/or reviewed by National Public Radio (NPR), WPFW’s Metro Watch, Backstage Magazine, Soap Opera Digest, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Booklist, Gumshoe Review, American Theatre Magazine, Washington Life Magazine, DC Theatre Scene, and The Connection Newspapers as well as numerous blogs and podcasts. Examples of recent projects include BICENTENNIAL BONSAI: EMISSARIES OF PEACE (documentary film airing on Maryland Public Television/PBS), A SAVAGE NATURE (feature film distributed by Gravitas Ventures), THURSTON (award-winning Western web series), and the Colleen McCabe novels (published by Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press).

PAUL AWAD (director/writer/producer)

Paul is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and producer who grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts and two Master's degrees in Film. He has worked on short and feature narrative films, documentaries, web series, and commercials. A SAVAGE NATURE (2021), a feature crime drama for which he served as director, producer, co-writer, and editor, won Best Feature Drama – French Independent Film Festival, Best Thriller – Washington Film Festival, Best Feature Film – New Cinema-Lisbon Monthly Film Festival, Grand Prize Thriller Award – Hollywood Screenplay Competition, and Best Actress (Joanna Whicker) – Los Angeles Crime and Horror Film Festival and was picked up by Gravitas Ventures for distribution. BICENTENNIAL BONSAI: EMISSARIES OF PEACE (2020), a documentary short for which he served as co-director, producer, and editor, won Best Short at the 2022 Arlington International Film Festival and the Utopian Vision Award at the 2021 Utopia Film Festival “for the best work in any category which reflects the value of cinema to help create a better world.” The documentary was also an official selection at the Dunedin International Film Festival and the Loudoun Arts Film Festival. The documentary is currently being broadcast on Maryland Public Television/PBS. His directing and cinematography have won awards from the Indie Series Awards and France's Web Series Mag. He was nominated for Best Director by the International Academy of Web Television for the Western web series THURSTON (director, cinematographer, producer, co-writer, editor). His work has received recognition from the ADDY Awards, The Kodak Company, and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Paul is also an award-winning science fiction author and Associate Professor of Cinema at Northern Virginia Community College. For more information about Paul, please visit https://paul-awad.com/