Mike Olenick’s genre-fluid films use experimental cinematic and photographic techniques to create narratives with unique visual strategies and editing structures. Please Be Tender, a melancholy and perverse thriller, focuses on the true story of an individual fantasizing about their secret and destructive desires in a 1970s motel. The Cure, a retro soap opera turned sci-fi thriller, utilizes practical special effects to explore loneliness in relationships, families, and in interstellar trysts.

In 2024 he won two major awards from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. An Artist Projects grant allowed him to film Cat and Mouse, a surreal thriller with hand painted backgrounds and starring a cast of local artists, while a $25,000 Artists Elevated Award recognized his filmmaking accomplishments.

His work has screened at genre festivals (Fantastic Fest, Fantasia), streamed online (MUBI, Vimeo Staff Pick), and aired on Dutch television. His work has won numerous awards (including Best Experimental Film at Slamdance, Best Looking Film at Chicago Chicago Underground, Honorable Mention at Ann Arbor). He’s an alumnus of Shudder Labs and has also received several Individual Excellence awards from the Ohio Arts Council.

His trajectory as a filmmaker mirrors his editing career: he worked on experimental films (for filmmakers and artists including Kelly Reichardt, Lucy Raven, Michael Robinson, and Sadie Benning) before working on more narrative films for Guy Maddin (assistant editor on Keyhole, The Forbidden Room, and Seances) and Jennifer Reeder (he’s edited countless films for her including Knives and Skin and A Million Miles Away). He most recently collaborated with Reeder on a music video for Jena Malone’s song Barstow, which also featured Malone (The Hunger Games, Donnie Darko) and actress Robin Tunney (The Craft).

For over 17 years Mike worked at the Wexner Center for the Arts, first as a video editor in their Film/Video Studio and then as a project manager overseeing the Film/Video Studio’s archive. He continues to work with artists and filmmakers as an editor, consultant, and grant writer through his business MIND MOIRÉ.

Mike has an MFA in Photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Media Studies from the Columbus College of Art & Design.