Rick Alverson
Filmmaker
Rick Alverson is a filmmaker from Richmond, Virginia. The Mountain, his fifth feature, premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2018. In 2017 he made William Eggleston: Musik, a short portrait of the photographer as musician. Entertainment, his previous feature, was released by Magnolia Pictures in 2015. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and, internationally, at Locarno and was the closing night selection of that year’s New Directors / New Films at Lincoln Center and MoMa. In 2012, his dramatic feature The Comedy, premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by Tribeca Film. His films have additionally played at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Sitges, BAFICI, London Film Festival, and SXSW among others. In 2011, he was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He has directed videos for Sharon Van Etten, Oneohtrix Point Never, Bonny Prince Billy and Angel Olsen, among others.
David Ehrlich
Editor, Chief Film Critic of IndieWire
David Ehrlich is the Reviews Editor and Chief Film Critic of IndieWire, where he oversees all of the site’s film reviews coverage. Previously, he worked as a Staff Writer at Rolling Stone, the Associate Film Editor of Time Out New York, the Editor-at-Large of Little White Lies Magazine, and the Senior Editor of Film.com. As a freelancer writer, he has contributed to Slate, Vanity Fair, the Guardian, the Dissolve, the A.V. Club, and other outlets. He co-hosts the “Fighting in the War Room” podcast, and his annual video countdowns of the year’s best films have been viewed more than 2 million times. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow @davidehrlich.
Mara Fortes
Film & Media Researcher
Mara Fortes is a film and media researcher and a curator based between Mexico and the U.S. She is currently Senior Curator at the Telluride Film Festival, where she has worked since 2014, and consults for the Ambulante Documentary Film Festival and the CUÓRUM Independent Festival of Gender and Sexual Diversity (which she also co-founded). In 2024 she was appointed Delegate for Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador at the Berlin Film Festival. She was previously the head curator at the audiovisual department of the Center for Digital Culture in Mexico City, where she redesigned the center’s film and media program under the concept “Cine más alla.”
Sarah Clarke
Actress, Producer
Sarah Clarke is an American actress and producer best known for her work in film and television. Her career started on FOX TV’s, 24 where she played CTU double agent, Nina Myers for its first three seasons. Other starring roles were on; MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, TRUST ME, COVERT AFFAIRS, THE BOOTH AT THE END, and BOSCH. Film credits include; THIRTEEN (Catherine Hardwick), HAPPY ENDINGS (Don Roos), THE TWILIGHT SAGA franchise, WOMEN IN TROUBLE, PUNK’S DEAD, STARING AT THE SUN and the soon to be released, GHOST TRAP and HEIGHTENED.
Elizabeth Lo
Director
Karen has worked with documentary director Frederick Wiseman for 43 years as Producer and Director of Distribution of Zipporah Films, the distribution and production company of all the Wiseman films. She is a voting member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has been a judge for the News and Documentary Emmys since 2020. Karen has presented at IDA, pitched at HotDocs and also been a jury member at Camerimage Film Festival.
Jeremy Workman
Director
Jeremy Workman is the critically-acclaimed director of the documentaries SECRET MALL APARTMENT (2025), LILY TOPPLES THE WORLD (Discovery), DECIDING VOTE (The New Yorker), THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET (Greenwich Entertainment / Kino Lorber), MAGICAL UNIVERSE (IFC Films), among others. Jeremy’s documentaries have played at prestigious film festivals, been released in theaters and on TV across the globe, and have been Oscar Shortlisted and Emmy-nominated. Hist most recent documentary, SECRET MALL APARTMENT, was a part of the 2024 New Hampshire Film Festival.
Andrew Bujalski
Writer, Director
Andrew Bujalski has written and directed seven feature films. His first, Funny Ha Ha, was cited by the New York Times as one of the most influential movies of the ’00s. Computer Chess was featured in the 2014 Whitney Biennial and Results was acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Support the Girls appeared on Barack Obama’s list of favorite movies of 2018. Outside of his independent film work, Bujalski has worked as a professional screenwriter, director, installation artist, and occasionally as a teacher and essayist. He types 89 wpm.
Laura Moss
Filmmaker
Laura Moss is a filmmaker from NYC whose work has screened at Sundance, Tribeca, Rotterdam, and SXSW, and who was named one of Indie Wire’s 10 LGTBTQ Creators On The Rise in 2023. Moss’ feature debut, BIRTH/REBIRTH premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance. It was distributed theatrically by IFC and Focus/Universal and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. Moss’ short film FRY DAY premiered at SXSW, was featured as a Vimeo Staff Pick and was featured on the Criterion Channel, paired with the classic Belgian satire, Man Bites Dog.
Amber Sealey
Director
Amber Sealey is an award-winning filmmaker who most recently directed the Peabody Award Winning Disney+ / Participant / Big Beach film OUT OF MY MIND, for which she won the 2025 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs; as well as a Gracie Award for Director – Made for TV Movie. Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Sharon Draper, the film stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Kirby, Judith Light, Jennifer Aniston, and newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor. The film premiered at Sundance 2024, won a TV Academy Honor, and was nominated for two Critic’s Choice Awards — Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie (Phoebe-Rae Taylor) and Best Movie Made for Television. It was also nominated for a WGA Award, won Best Narrative Film at Woodstock Film Festival, won Best Family Film at the Mill Valley Film Festival, won a Christopher Award, and was honored by the Rudderman Foundation for authentic portrayal of disabled communities, and holds a 100% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ryan Krivoshey
Founder of Grasshopper Film
A veteran of the independent film scene, Ryan Krivoshey founded the award-winning distribution company Grasshopper Film in 2015, hailed as “one of the most artistically daring of distributors” (The New Yorker). The company has released films by celebrated directors including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Albert Serra, Pedro Costa, Agnes Varda, Pietro Marcello, Tsai Ming-liang, and Claire Denis, along with groundbreaking documentaries such as the Academy Award–nominated Last Men in Aleppo, Sweetgrass, The Hottest August, Black Mother, Nocturnes, Bisbee ’17, and Leviathan. In 2024, Ryan expanded into production as Co-Founder and President of Correspondent, a production company committed to developing artistic, cinematic, and boundary-pushing filmmaking, with several projects already underway.
Thomas Lennon
Director
Lennon’s work in documentary has earned an Academy Award and four Academy nominations. Two of his films premiered at Sundance; he was twice honored with Emmys, duPont-Columbia and Peabody awards. Lennon recently completed the Oscar-nominated KNIFE SKILLS, and SACRED, which screened at 25 international festivals and aired on PBS in December 2018. Lennon made a celebrated trilogy of films set in China with Ruby Yang; together they founded the China AIDS Media Project, one of the largest AIDS campaigns in the history of the disease. Lennon directed two national history series on PBS, BECOMING AMERICAN, and THE IRISH IN AMERICA: LONG JOURNEY HOME. Lennon also made films for the documentary strands on PBS, FRONTLINE, and THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.
Pacho Velez
Director
Pacho Velez is a nonfiction filmmaker born and raised in NYC. His last feature, THEY’RE HERE (2024, co-directed with Dan Claridge) looks at UFO experiencers and the desire for transcendence in Upstate New York. It premiered at Tribeca before going on to play many festivals including Hots Docs (Toronto), Cucalorus (Wilmington, NC) and SXSW Australia (Sydney). Pacho also produced the features REALM OF SATAN (Sundance 2024, directed by Scott Cummings) and SOME KIND OF HEAVEN(Sundance 2020, directed by Lance Oppenheim). He received his MFA in film production from Calarts. At present, he is an assistant professor of screen studies at The New School (NYC).
Dave Mullins
Writer, Director, Animator
Dave Mullins is an Academy Award® and Annie Award®-American writer, director, and animator renowned for his significant contributions to storytelling and filmmaking. As the co-founder of ElectroLeague, he draws from a rich two-decade career at Pixar Animation Studios. Best known for his directorial debut, the emotionally resonant short film LOU, Dave earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Short Film. The film received acclaim at events such as SXSW® Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival, earning nominations for Best Animated Short and Best Family Film, respectively.
Sean Pecknold
Animator, Director
Sean Pecknold is an independent animator and director from Seattle, now based in Los Angeles, renowned for his work in stop-motion and multi-plane animation. He has collaborated with Fleet Foxes, Netflix, DreamWorks, Google, John Legend, and The New York Times. Sean’s debut stop-motion film White Winter Hymnal won a Jury Prize at SXSW, and his multi-plane animation The Shrine / An Argument earned Best Animation at the UKMVAs. In 2024, his acclaimed stop-motion short TENNIS, ORANGES screened at over 190 festivals, including Annecy, SXSW, AFI Fest, Raindance, Sitges, and Ottawa, winning multiple awards and qualifying for the 2025 Academy Awards.
Siqi Song
Writer, Director
Siqi Song is an Oscar-nominated animation director from China. Song is best known for her animated short film SISTER, which received an Oscar nomination in 2020. Her work has been shown in numerous film festivals around the world including Sundance, SXSW, Annecy, and Ottawa. Song was named a Directing Fellow by Film Independent in 2018, where she received the LAIKA Animation Fellowship. She was recently recognized by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts as a USA Breakthrough Director and Animator. Song has been a juror and mentor for animation films at various film festivals around the world. Song studied Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts and China Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Mike Cote
Editor for Yankee Publishing, Inc.
Mike Cote is New Hampshire editor for Yankee Publishing Inc., where his primary duties are serving as editor of New Hampshire Magazine and NH Business Review. A native of Manchester, N.H., Cote also has worked as a reporter, columnist and editor for newspapers and magazines in Colorado and Florida. He’s a contributing editor for Blues Music Monthly and has interviewed dozens of rock, blues, jazz, folk and bluegrass musicians, including a Beatle, a Kink, an Eagle and two Byrds (but, as of yet, no Stones.) His “Long Distance Calls” Spotify playlist, featuring one track from every artist he’s ever interviewed, spans 15 hours. In an act of rebellion, his eldest son favors film scores over rock ’n’ roll.
Dan Habib
Director
Dan Habib is the Inclusive Communities Project Director at the Westchester Institute for Human Development and the founder of LikeRightNow Films. He is the Director and Producer of INTELLIGENT LIVES, INCLUDING SAMUEL, WHO CASE ABOUT KELSEY?, and MR. CONNOLLY HAS ALS. His current projects are the Emmy Award winning short MY DISABILITY ROADMAP and the newly released feature documentary THE RIDE AHEAD, both co-directed with his son Samuel Habib. Habib gave the TEDx talk, “Disabling Segregation,” and served on President Obama’s President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Habib and his wife, Betsy McNamara, live in Concord, NH, and have two sons: Isaiah, 28, and Samuel, 25.
Dan Kennedy
Writer, Director
Dan Kennedy is a producer and cinematographer with a background in music video, commercial and narrative filmmaking. Credits include HONEYDEW, MERRY GOOD ENOUGH, SECRET MALL APARTMENT, and THE ARBORIST. He is currently in post production on AFTER, starring Andy Richter, Kevin Pollak and Karren Karagulian. Dan’s work has been featured at NHFF, Tribeca, Sitges and Rome, and he has collaborated with many renowned music video and commercial directors, artists and brands in the US.
David Hemingson
Writer
David Hemingson is a veteran television writer who in 2023 made one of the most astonishing feature film debuts in recent memory as screenwriter and producer of Focus Features’ widely acclaimed THE HOLDOVERS, directed by Oscar® winner Alexander Payne, marking Payne’s second project he did not write. Following its world premiere at Telluride, THE HOLDOVERS immediately became an awards juggernaut, earning five Academy Award® nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for Hemingson’s work and Best Picture. Hemingson’s screenplay was a focal point of the film’s considerable acclaim, netting him a staggering 38 nods from critic associations and awards bodies, including a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Screenplay in addition to winning the National Board of Review’s Best Original Screenplay as well as the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Original Screenplay.
