 After directing and producing short films from 1979 to 2015, Priestley made an abstract feature film, "North of Blue", which premiered at the Annecy International Animation Festival in France in June, 2018.Priestley has received fellowships from Creative Capital, National Endowment for the Arts (USA), American Film Institute (USA), Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), Millay Colony (USA), Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (Canada) and the Caldera Arts Foundation (USA).She was awarded the 2007-08 Media Arts Fellowship from the Regional Arts and Culture Council and her films are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Academy Film Archive and the Library of Congress.