Adam J. Graves is an American filmmaker and philosopher.^[1][2] He earned an Academy Award nomination for his film Anuja, which he wrote, directed and edited.^[3]

Graves studied at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in South Asia Regional Studies in 2001, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy of religion in August 2007.^[4] He also spent time as a visiting student at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, in 1997.^[5]

Graves is a professor of philosophy at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where he founded the Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry (Dphi), a public humanities center focusing on the intersection of philosophy, film, literature, and the arts.^[2][4] He previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and in the University of Virginia's Semester at Sea program.^[2]

Graves wrote and directed his first short film, Cycle Vérité, which premiered at the Denver Film Festival in 2021.^[6] In 2024, his short film Anuja was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2025. His films tend to explore larger philosophical and socio-ethical issues within the context of more intimate familial relationships.^[7]

Philosophical Contributions

Graves' philosophical contributions explore themes in phenomenology, the philosophy of religion, and hermeneutics, with particular attention to the nature of agency, moral responsibility, and narrative selfhood.^{[citation needed]} He has worked on Paul Ricœur and the phenomenology of revelation, and developed a normative theory of action, which conceives of freedom as an “achievement of narrative self-understanding.”^[8] He has said that his philosophical thought fuels his work as a filmmaker.^[1]

Graves is married to multidisciplinary contemporary artist Suchitra Mattai.^[9]

• 2021 – The Phenomenology of Revelation in Heidegger, Marion, and Ricoeur ISBN 978-1-7936405-7-4

• Adam J. Graves at IMDb
• Official website