The Truck
Against the simmering anxieties of post-Roe America, Jo, 16, and Arash, her boyfriend, attempt to buy the morning-after pill in a small town where reproductive rights are contested and quietly policed.
Against the simmering anxieties of post-Roe America, Jo, 16, and Arash, her boyfriend, attempt to buy the morning-after pill in a small town where reproductive rights are contested and quietly policed.
Rao was recently named Vimeo Breakout Creator of the Year 2025 and is a Gotham-nominated feature filmmaker, and award-winning short film Writer and Director, with premieres at Sundance, Berlinale, Telluride, The Museum of Modern Art, Tribeca, SXSW and more. On scholarship, Rao recently completed her MFA in Screenwriting and Directing, at NYU Grad Film.
Her award-winning Oscar-qualified short fiction film as Writer-Director, THE TRUCK, is a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere, and Director’s Notes Premiere, with an audience of nearly 200k and counting.
The Truck” World-Premiered at Telluride, screened at MoMA, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Oscar-qualifying Florida Film Festival, won Best Screenplay at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, screening in more than 50 festivals and counting, worldwide. Liz Rao is a Hear Us Awardee and Ouray Film Sabbatical Inaugural Fellow developing her debut feature, a thematic cousin to “The Truck”.
Her work is supported by top awards from The Future of Film is Female, Fusion Film Award, NYU Kings Award, the Clive Davis Award, the Yunni & Maxine Pao Memorial Scholarship, the Willard T.C. Johnson Fellowship, and the Jonathan Laxamana Emerging Filmmaker Award. Rao has given artist talks at Yale University, Mount Holyoke College, The Gotham Fiction Feature Lab, The Edit Center, UnionDocs, and has taught workshops at True/False Film Festival. Rao is a proud member of A-Doc and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
World Premiere - Telluride Film Festival
SCREENING MoMA: The Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK Premiere), Encounters Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival
Salute Your Shorts Film Festival, Santa Barbara international Film Festival (West Coast Premiere), HollyShorts Film Festival, WME FUTUREFEST
Sun Valley Film Festival
WINNER, Florida Film Festival - Grand Jury Award, Best Narrative Short, Oscar-Qualifying Award
WINNER, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival - Best Screenplay
WINNER, Bend Film Festival - Jury Prize
WINNER, Edinburgh Short Film Festival - Best Film
WINNER, Fusion Film Festival - First Place, WINNER, NYU First Run Film Festival - Second Place
Jo - Shirley Chen
Arash - Daniel Zolghadri
Mason - Garrett Richmond