Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sophie Mutiara Nova. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sophie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Oh, baby, when it comes to writing queer work or just being queer in general– I think a lot of really awesome queer creatives can resonate with feeling misunderstood and mischaracterized.

As a nonbinary, mixed Indonesian, immunocompromised artist, I know I’ve faced some… *interesting* comments when putting my films and books out there.

“It’s a lifestyle not a life.”

“Aren’t queer stories so 90s?” (Shoutout to the 90s. I knew there was a reason I love leather and flannel!)

“*insert curse word or otherwise passive aggressive comment here.*”

And then, as always unfortunately, there’s the evergreen slew of comments of general intolerance against LGBT+ stories.

“You’re a freak, a weirdo, a monster; it’s a sin, it’s unnatural etc. etc”

Blah, blah, blah—that’s that me espresso.

There are also the general hate comments when people are so unimaginative they just autocorrect to bigotry. (They should’ve CTRL-Z’d it instead).

In response, I try to make my work even more authentic. More glittery, gory, and monstrous (I’m a big fan of Scream Queens, Final Girls, big gay monsters etc.) The film “Celluloid Closet” (1995) was my first exposure to the Hayes’ Code and queer coding- to learn the positives and negatives of queer coding in horror.

“I Saw the TV Glow” shattered people’s perspectives when it was released. Did anyone remember the delicious queerness in the “Fear Street” trilogy (maybe I’m just that kinda horror gay—Goosebumps anyone)?

Before “Agatha All Along”—I was rewatching the Hex Girls Scooby Doo episodes on DVD and “The Craft”. As I fondly put it—the “Substance” was MY “Challengers”.

And don’t get me started on queer thrillers with Bound (1996).

Ultimately, making queer horror is subversive because it reimagines and blurs the lines between monster-making and personhood– hero versus villain. It allows us to reimagine who our heroes are, both textually and subtextually. (And sometimes sexually, but that’s its own thing. Looking at you, fanfic community).

Sophie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Writer Director (films, novels, scripts! You can find me chatting about most of these works in my social media!) who uses tarot cards and games of chance to plot out my work. I wear crystals to protect against ghosts at night—and I always say thank you to really old trees because my mom taught me there are spirits inside them. (The stories of Kuntilanak will forever live with me). If you like mystery with a dash of horror, romance with a dash of horror, fantasy with a dash of horror, thriller with a dash of horror, horror with a dash of horror—you’ll enjoy my work! :)

Gosh. I think, first and foremost, please know I’m a fudging nerd. My mom taught me Indonesian that I promptly forgot and had to relearn as an adult (sorry, mom / maaf, ibu). My dad trained me to go to Nationals for the Spelling Bee (51st place in Washington D.C.! I watched the Keke Palmer’s “Akeelah and the Bee” movie on repeat for that moment).

I studied really hard in school. I published in literary magazines and novels at age 16. I had anxiety when playing sports — I wanted to do theater. Very High School Musical of me. I compromised by writing more work because the high school literary magazine (j’adore!) met on my sports off-days. All that hard work paid off, and I got into Dartmouth College!

I grew up with a major crush on all the queer-coded villains in 2000s movies (you know the vibe. Very Matrix, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Blade, Queen of the Damned, Silent Hill etc. where it was an obscene amount of leather in smoky nightclubs and tres Joan Jett core).

I learned I was queer (and was outed, ooh what an interesting time in young adulthood!) because of a studded-denim-jacket-and-pins punk enby who point-blank asked me if I was gay (or are you just a REALLY dedicated ally?) and I took approximately 365 business days to ruminate on that and go: YES!

Cue the whole: do I wanna be them or am I attracted to them? Did… did I ALSO want to wear a studded denim jacket and combat boots?

Resounding YES!

And, thus, I embarked on my semi-gothic journey.

I roamed in piercing & tattoo parlors until a belly button piercing infection took me out. Floated through punk spaces. Goth clubs. Learned I’m too awkward to be in a mosh pit, but I love supporting indie artists. (And always will!)

Had the honor of working in various film spaces and businesses. Made fifteen short films in four years. Published two more books! (The Gamin Immortals series at Ninestar Press) and a third book PHONING FAUST (coming out with NSP in 2025)!

Worked on really cool TV series and am super proud of my two theses that got me an MFA in Film Directing at CalArts (one official film thesis, one unofficial film thesis) INDAH AND THE SPIRITS (starring Dylan Djoenadi, Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti, DP Yusef Ferguson) and DETENTION OF THE DAMNED (starring Antti Holma, Rowland Smith, Nastia Yavorski, Olivia Xing, Ashwath Ram, Jordan Oakley, DP Lety Vargas).

My latest TV series is Final Girl F*ck*ry which just won the 2025 ScreenCraft Best Horror TV script award out of 1,400 submissions with a jury that included Gersh, Zero Gravity, Inclusion Literary Talent Agency, Energy Entertainment, and Scott Schulman Management. It’s an honor to be amongst such stellar, amazing horror community!

How to explain Final Girl F*ck*ry?

If you liked the irreverence of Bottoms mixed with Scream / Yellowjackets / Goosebumps / Agatha All Along / The L Word—then Final Girl F*ck*ry is going to be your newest, most favorite cup of tea ;)

***(Note: Try blasting Voice of Baceprot’s ““God, Allow Me (Please) to Play Music” or the “We are Lady Parts” soundtrack while doing so—it matches the badass riot grrrl vibe.)

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Relearn the benefits of community over staunch individualism. Reframe competitive thinking of “there can only be one” to more open and caring “we must bring each other up.”

Resentment against practices of inclusivity boils down to the line of thinking that goes: “you’re different than me. I am afraid of that difference. I don’t think you deserve to be here (because I deserve it more).”

It’s framing life as “I’m the main character” at the risk of believing everyone else is an “NPC” (non-player character, someone who is in the background.) Who, like a swathe of pixels, is nonexistent and replaceable.

Both methods of thinking are flat-out untrue, flawed, and deeply selfish.

I’ve experienced art from countless stellar queer, trans, BIPOC, disabled, elder and other such diverse artists. I’ve had the honor of collaborating with a variety of people who bring a variety of experiences to the table. And by my working with a vast array of artists and aiming to collaborate even more –this practice leads to creating art that more accurately reflects the world we live in. Art that values everybody and excludes nobody.

To unlearn bigotry, we must relearn what it means to be inclusive, empathetic, and kind. I know I’m learning from the amazing activists out there still. And remember—the greatest activists aren’t just the ones with a platform. It could very well be the kind neighbor kid down the street. The quiet one who stays a little longer each day to help his sick grandma with her groceries and works with local shelters, works with local organizations that don’t get the shoutouts they deserve. As much as we learn from platforms—let’s learn from each other.

Learn diverse queer history. Keep learning about the people in our past/present/future. Thank Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Leslie Feinberg, Tracy Chapman, John Waters, Jane Schoenbrun, Alok Vaid-Menon, Gregg Araki, Andrew Ahn, Cheryl Dunye, Kaveh Akbar, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Josephine Baker, Kai Mata, and so many countless others both in the United States’ LGBT+ history and internationally that are as vast as the rainbow flags that we wave during Pride.

I know queer artists who can live their life out and proud, and others who (for safety reasons) can only reveal parts of themselves in certain communities and other parts of themselves in others. Or must hide themselves entirely– especially now– but this makes them no less valid. Recognizing how we navigate the world allows us to recognize how we can help others (or support existing organizations that are trained to help them better).

I’m so proud of everyone who’s got that LGBT+ Pride residing within themselves, those who are on a journey to learn about themselves more. And I know I’m so thrilled to be able to see the future of queer art in these artists too.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The best advice I ever received was from a film panel that told me: “sign up for all the newsletters. All the lists.” And then “ACTUALLY go to the events.” (Shoot)

Trust me, I fought it as long as I could. I wanted to write and stare broodingly out windows, but I accepted that I’d have to take risks and anxiously go out into public and learn how to talk, talk, talk. And as a kid who was born premature (shoutout to the NICU for saving my life) and was nonverbal for the first few years of childhood—learning to start a conversation was quite the feat to learn!

Here’s some stellar organizations I’ve had the honor of participating in during the past few years.

NFMLA, CAAM, GLAAD, Pre-Rainbow Pages, AAPD, GEI, ACEX, WIF, Film Independent, Alliance of Women Directors AWD, Q26, CAPE, International Screenwriters Association (ISA), The Great Film Club, Golden Crown Literary Society, and Film Girlz Brunch.

And shoutout to all the amazing ones I have yet to learn more about!

Dear reader, thank you for taking the time to read this—I appreciate you! :) wishing you calmness, kindness, and so much stellar art.

Sincerely, Sophie Mutiara Nova

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sophiawhittemore.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesophiewhit/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-mutiara-whittemore-779a78116/
• Twitter: https://x.com/thesophiewhit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FinalGirlsFilms
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesophiewhit