Stefan Avalos is an American musician and filmmaker.
Avalos was trained as a classical violinist. As a violinist, he won major competitions and was a soloist with, among others, the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was touted as a child prodigy but by early high school, Avalos realized his true love was film. Amateur movies in high school were followed by a college education in filmmaking. He won numerous awards with his student short films before moving into a professional film career. He worked in many aspects of the film business producing and directing commercials for foreign television as well as working for numerous clients as varied as Rescue 911, Frontline and MTV. In 1993, he wrote, produced and directed his first feature film, 'The Game' (also known as The Money Game).
In 1997, Avalos partnered with Lance Weiler to write, direct, produce and co-star in The Last Broadcast. The film received international attention as the first desktop-based feature film and was shown at film festivals, winning Best Feature Film Silver Prize at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Later, partnering with Esther Robinson and David Beard, Avalos created Wavelength Releasing . In October 1998, Wavelength Releasing made cinematic history with the first fully digital national theatrical release of a feature film via satellite.
In 1999, The Last Broadcast became the first feature motion picture to screen digitally at the Cannes Film Festival.
Through theatrical, cable, video, and foreign sales, The Last Broadcast has become, based on a budget-to-profit ratio, one of the most profitable movies in history.
Stefan Avalos has been recognized as "one of the twenty five people helping to reinvent entertainment" by Wired magazine. Stories about The Last Broadcast and Avalos have appeared in many major publications including Time, People and The Wall Street Journal. He has lectured in Europe, the United States, South America, Japan and Canada about digital filmmaking as well as written for numerous publications about the experience.
In 2004, Avalos took the next generation of "homegrown" digital films to a new level with the supernatural thriller, The Ghosts of Edendale. Described as Rosemary's Baby meets The Player, it is distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Warner Bros. It can also be seen worldwide through various distributors such as Anchor Bay UK and Japan's New Select.
His other work includes animation for Lost in La Mancha, the documentary about the spectactular demise of a Terry Gilliam movie, directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe.