Sid Fiore Branca (b. 1987, New York) is an experimental filmmaker and moving image scholar based in Montreal, Quebec, and Chicago, Illinois. Their work as both an artist and an academic often emphasizes the intersection of cinema and live performance practices, particularly (but not limited to) within the horror genre. Primarily working in cinema and video art, they draw extensively on a background in experimental theater and performance art.

As an academic, Branca is currently a PhD student at McGill University researching the history of clowns and circuses in cinema. They previously served as film/video faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2015-2025), and hold degrees from Columbia College Chicago and the University of Chicago. Branca is associated with the New Media Caucus, the Moving Image Research Lab (MIRL), and Hexagram Réseau de recherche-création. They recently presented research at the Horror Studies Now conference at Northumbria University, and now serve as the Assistant Editor of the horror studies academic journal Monstrum.

As an artist, Branca often blends live performance methods and editing processes: using theatrical techniques to generate material for films, using video in tandem with live stage performance. There is often play with genre: the symbolic functions of science fiction and horror, or the formal properties of music videos, guided meditations, youtube vlogs, occult rituals. Thematically, their work frequently explores experiences related to gender, sexuality, kink, and disability.

Recent and forthcoming work includes mid-length experimental non-fiction film A Real Inverted Person, a collaboration with Bree Dani Parman adapting her solo stage performance to film, and the narrative fiction feature Quiet in the House, a psychological horror film about a group of actors in the grip of a charismatic theater director and a mysterious unseen force.

Residencies have included the Artist in Residence Niederösterreich (Krems, Austria), Arteles Creative Center Neo Future Residency (Haukijärvi, Finland), the Swarm Artist Residency (Plymouth WI, USA), and (with First Floor Theater) a Logan Center for the Arts Performance Lab Residency (Chicago IL, USA). Branca has been a recipient of a Finlandia Foundation Cultural Project Grant, a Rosenblum Award from Columbia College Chicago, an Odyssey Scholarship from the University of Chicago, and the Karen and Jim Frank Excellence in Teaching Award from the Art Institute of Chicago. Branca’s artistic work has been featured in The Wrong Biennale, the Onion City Experimental Film Festival, the Center for Book and Paper Arts, the Chicago Fringe Festival, the Neo-Futurarium, and Salonathon, among others. Theatrical projection design credits include The Grelley Duvall Show and Floor Show (with Alex Grelle), Hooded; or Being Black for Dummies, Refrigerator, Always Nothing Else, and Daddy’s Girl (with First Floor Theater). Acting credits include those with Curious Theatre, Mary-Arrchie, the Plagiarists, the Inconvenience, First Floor Theater, and Prop Thtr, as well as on-camera performances including work with Rob Zombie, Joe Swanberg, and Chivo Lubezki.