[link=/name/nm6675440]Lily-Rose Depp[/link], [link=/name/nm2864252]Mason Gooding[/link], and more stars who are on the rise in 2025.

Top Stars to Watch in 2025

<a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm6675440?ref_=nmtrv_eds_right-3_lk">Lily-Rose Depp</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm2864252?ref_=nmtrv_eds_right-3_lk">Mason Gooding</a>, and more stars who are on the rise in 2025.

Take a look at the IMDb staff picks for the best movies and series coming to theaters and streaming.

Staff Picks: What to Watch in January

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Josephina fell in love with film from a young age, spending her childhood on soundstages and screening rooms. It created a passion for storytelling that led her to attend the National Film School in 1995. While there, she organized international film festivals, worked as a copywriter, and wrote several 35mm shorts. She also spent a semester at La FEMIS film school in Paris, France in 1998 after being awarded a scholarship by the French Foreign Ministry. After graduating with a major in screenwriting, she worked for Romania's two largest film studios, Castel Film and Media Pro Pictures.

Since relocating to Los Angeles in 2001, Josephina continued to work in film, both as a screenwriter and in production on various indie features. In 2004, she founded Nightfall Pictures, a full-service development and production company, with her husband, writer/director Brad Sykes. She decided to take a chance and use her hands-on set experience to dive into full time producing.

Since then, Josephina has produced several feature films, including thriller Within the Woods, drama Dead Letters (starring C. Thomas Howell), actioner Mutation (debut of Katie Featherston) and the award-winning sci-fi/horror film Plaguers (starring Steve Railsback). Her work has been profiled in many publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Backstage West, Fangoria, Indie Slate, HorrorHound, Gorezone and Any Last Words.

Josephina is one of the co-creators and executive producers of the award-winning horror anthology "Hi-8: Horror Independent Eight" that was selected in the official competition of over twenty film festivals around the world. "Hi-8" received the Contribution to Horror Genre Filmmaker Award at Horror Hour Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA and was well reviewed in genre publications before being released worldwide by Wild Eye Releasing.

Alongside her partner Brad Sykes, Josephina created "Hi-Death", the sequel to "Hi-8". Besides executive producing the movie, Josephina also co-wrote "Cold Read", the L.A.-based segment. "Hi-Death" made its festival debut at New Jersey Con Film Festival and had its European premiere at Paracinema Film Festival in UK. After playing at other festivals all over the world, Hi-Death was released via streaming, DVD and VHS in 2019.

During the pandemic, Josephina dedicated her time to complete "Hi-Fear", the final installment in the "Hi" trilogy, supervising the production and co-writing the segment "Day Out Of Days" among other contributions. The true indie horror anthology "Hi-Fear" played many festivals in 2022 and is slated for an upcoming release on July 11, daring everyone to embrace their fears.

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

The latest movie Josephina Sykes produced, Plaguers, played at numerous film festivals around the world and has won various awards, among them: the Silver Unicorn for Best Screenplay at the Estepona Fantasy and Horror Film Festival in Spain, Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Feature at the Mid-Ohio Con Film Festival, and the &quot;Larry Stanley&quot; Honorary Award for Best Sci-Fi Movie and Best Actor for Steve Railsback at Shockerfest International Film Festival.

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Josephina Sykes

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