Andrew Darlak (born August 5th, 2003) is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known for his award-winning western, Hand-to-Hand Combat. He is currently working on two upcoming films: The Ikarians (a modern adaptation of the Greek tragedy, The Fall of Icarus) and American Scouts (first feature-length film). He grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where at an early age discovered filmmaking after watching his favorite movies to this day. His favorite filmmakers and greatest influences are Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorcese, Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Kurosawa, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, and Michael Curtiz. His filmmaking style and techniques involve extreme wide shots, extreme high and low angles, quick cut transitions, and handheld cameras. His common themes involve polarization, yin and yang duality, adolescent maturity, wonder/fantasy, intense plots, and "putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances".