Josh Hamilton
Actor
Josh Hamilton was most recently seen on the stage in Wallace Shawn’s WHAT WE DID BEFORE OUR MOTH DAYS. He recently starred in Noah Baumbach’s JAY KELLY opposite George Clooney and Adam Sandler, in Mas Bouzidi’s debut CONCESSIONS, in Tina Satter’s acclaimed REALITY opposite Sydney Sweeney (for HBO Films), and in Cory Finley’s LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND (MGM). Josh earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance in Bo Burnham’s EIGHTH GRADE, and can also be seen in Bradley Cooper’s MAESTRO, Ilana Glazer’s FALSE POSITIVE, and Amazon’s THE MAP OF TINY PERFECT THINGS. On TV, he stars in Apple’s THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME and in Peacock’s THE FIVE-STAR WEEKEND, and was a series regular on AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD.
Odie Henderson
Writer, Film Critic at The Boston Globe
Odie Henderson is The Boston Globe’s film critic and the author of Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema. A member of the National Society of Film Critics, he loves film noir, musicals, Blaxploitation, bad art, and good trash.
Sawyer Spielberg
Actor, Producer
Sawyer Spielberg is a New York City-based actor. He has been seen on the Apple TV+’s series, MASTERS OF THE AIR, and in Celine Song’s film, MATERIALISTS. He’s also starred in the independent films: HONEYDEW, MERRY GOOD ENOUGH, A MARTY OF GOWANUS, ON THE END, CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT (Premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight), UNREST, and WRECKLESS.
Robert Daniels
Editor, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com
Robert Daniels is the Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com, and has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Reverse Shot, Screen Daily, and the Criterion Collection. He is based in Chicago.
Mike Hogan
Editorial Director, Filmmaker Magazine
Mike Hogan is a veteran journalist and editor who ran the digital operation at Vanity Fair, led entertainment coverage at Huffington Post, co-hosted the awards podcast Little Gold Men, and now serves as Filmmaker magazine’s director of editorial strategy. He lives in Sag Harbor with his wife and daughter.
Crystal Moselle
Director, Producer
Crystal Moselle is an acclaimed American filmmaker known for her singular, character-driven storytelling and work that blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Her debut feature, THE WOLFPACK, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and went on to receive multiple honors, including Breakthrough Artist at the Cinema Eye Honors and Best Documentary at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Moselle made her scripted debut with THAT ONE DAY, part of Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017. The film led to her collaboration with a group of female skateboarders, inspiring her narrative feature Skate Kitchen and the HBO series BETTY, which ran for three seasons. Her recent work includes SOPHIA, exploring the world of social humanoid robot Sophia, and THE BLACK SEA, which premiered at SXSW and was acquired by Metrograph Films for North American distribution.
Fiona Armour
Associate Curator & Program Coordinator, Telluride Film Festival
Fiona Armour is the Associate Curator at the Telluride Film Festival, where she has worked for over 12 years. She focuses on short film curation and contributes to shaping the Filmmakers of Tomorrow programs. She has written for the International Film Festival Rotterdam and served on the On the Edge Jury at the Zubroffka Film Festival. Alongside her programming work, she is a visual artist and experimental documentary filmmaker.
Luke Matheny
Writer, Director, Oscar winner
Luke Matheny is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning writer and director based in Los Angeles. He served as co-showrunner, producing director and writer of the Apple TV+ family mystery series, GHOSTWRITER – winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s or Family Viewing Program in 2020. He adapted E.B. White’s beloved novel “Charlotte’s Web” into an animated miniseries for Max, which premiered in October 2025, featuring a sterling voice cast including Amy Adams, Elijah Wood, Jean Smart, Cynthia Erivo, Danny Trejo, Randall Park, and Rosario Dawson.
Luke was also showrunner and producing director of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Amazon family series GORTIMER GIBBON’S LIFE ON NORMAL STREET, for which he received a WGA nomination. In 2011, Luke won the Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short for his film GOD OF LOVE, which he wrote, directed and starred in. The film was his thesis project at New York University’s graduate film program.
His other TV directing experience includes the IFC comedy Maron, the Netflix hit The Baby-Sitters’ Club, the pilot for Paul Feig’s space comedy Other Space, the Adult Swim stoner satire Black Jesus, and others. Luke also co-wrote the feature-length, coming-of-age comedy “A Birder’s Guide to Everything,” starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Kingsley.
Most recently, he is developing a feature with Lord Miller Productions.
Alan Ng
Editor-in-Chief, Film Critic, Film Threat
Alan Ng is the editor-in-chief of Film Threat. Alan has reviewed films and interviewed independent filmmakers since 2013. Alan is a member of the Critics’ Choice Association and co-hosts the Film Threat podcast and YouTube channel.
Kahane Cooperman
Director, Producer, Oscar nominee
Kahane Corn Cooperman is an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker and 11-time Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer, director, and showrunner. Most recently, she directed and produced the award-winning feature documentary CREEDE U.S.A.. Kahane is known for her focus on emotional, intimate, powerful storytelling and has made films on subjects as wide-ranging as mental health, civility’s role in democracy, life with autism, a violin’s journey, and ice sculpting. Select credits include the Academy Award-nominated JOE’S VIOLIN, THE ANTIDOTE, THE ME YOU CAN’T SEE, and THE NEW YORKER PRESENTS. Kahane’s work has premiered at festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, HotDocs, DocNYC, and IDFA and can be seen on PBS, HBO, AppleTV+, and Amazon. Kahane started out answering phones at the renowned Maysles Films and was a longtime co-executive producer of THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART along the way.
Winslow Crane-Murdoch
Director, Producer
Winslow Crane-Murdoch is a director and cinematographer based in Portland, OR. His debut documentary feature, THE QUIET EPIDEMIC, had its World Premiere at HotDocs 2022. He directed the award-winning documentary shorts OH WHALE and STRONG GRANDMA, distributed through Switchboard Magazine and The New Yorker. His work has appeared on HBO, TIME magazine, the San Francisco MOMA, and has been supported by the Catapult Film Fund.
Erika Dilday
Executive Producer POV/POV Shorts, Ken Burns
Erika Dilday, producer, journalist and media executive, is the Executive Director of American Documentary Inc. and the Executive Producer of its award-winning documentary series POV on PBS and AMERICA REFRAMED on WORLD.
Previously, she was the CEO of Futuro Media Group, a multimedia organization that gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience through award-winning journalistic content for and about BIPOC. Prior to Futuro Media, she was the Executive Director of Maysles Documentary Center where she oversaw community cinema, filmmaking programs and produced the acclaimed documentary, IN TRANSIT. Erika also held strategic planning and financial management roles at The New York Times, National Geographic Television and CBS.
She is a graduate of Harvard College, the Columbia School of Journalism and Columbia Business School. In 2020 she was a Knight Nieman fellow at Harvard University where she authored a piece for the Nieman Reports on authentic journalism in communities of color. Erika is a 2016 recipient of the Columbia Journalism School Alumni Award and a 2017 National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Fellow. Her latest film projects include Civil War with Rachel Boynton and Meanwhile with Catherine Gund.
Erica Chon
Director of Content, GKIDS
Erica Chon is the Director of Content at GKIDS, where she oversees the acquisition and development of animated features and TV series. Prior to her role as Director of Content, she launched nationwide marketing campaigns for Hayao Miyazaki’s THE BOY AND THE HERON, Makoto Shinkai’s WEATHERING WITH YOU, Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE, Hiroyuki Imaishi’s PROMARE, and more at GKIDS. As a New Hampshire native, she grew up digging through the DVDs at the Suncoast and FYE at the Rockingham Mall, and is a proud alumnus of Salem High School, Class of ’09.
Lilian T. Mehrel
Writer, Director
Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer & director with a visionary sense of feeling and humor. She is the winner of the biggest film production prize in the world for her debut feature, Honeyjoon, which premiered at Tribeca and 50 festivals, winning the Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories Award and multiple audience and jury awards. It is now in theaters with Utopia’s Circle Collective for 3 months and counting, an indie theatrical phenomenon. Lilian’s films have also screened at Clermont-Ferrand and the AmPav Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. She was selected for the SFFILM Rainin Grant, TorinoFilmLab ComedyLab, Film Independent Episodic Lab, Sloan Award, Nancy Malone Directing Award, Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, CineQuaNonLab, Film Fatales Episodic Directing Shadow Workshop, TFI Labs with YouTube/Google and Warner Media, and the Sony Pictures Classics Marcie Bloom Fellowship. Lilian earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Grad Film with a PDS Fellowship, and her BA from Dartmouth with a Senior Fellowship. She also enjoys hip hop dance.
Patrick Osborne
Writer-Director, Oscar winner
Patrick Osborne is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker celebrated for pushing the artistic and technological boundaries of visual storytelling. He won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for Disney’s FEAST (2014) and made cinematic history with PEARL (2016), the first-ever virtual reality project to receive an Academy Award nomination.
Osborne’s diverse body of work spans key animation roles on Disney features like TANGLED and WRECK-IT RALPH, co-directing Billie Eilish’s Grammy-nominated concert film HAPPIER THAN EVER: A LOVE LETTER TO LOS ANGELES, and directing for Netflix’s LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS. He serves as executive producer and supervising director of Netflix’s upcoming prestige animated series based on the Magic: The Gathering card game.
Crozby
Radio Host, Film buff
Crozby is the friendly afternoon host on 92.5 The River, Boston’s Independent Radio, where he has been spinning a mix of timeless classics and fresh indie tracks since 2009. His lifelong passion for music took root during childhood car rides and late-night radio sessions, leading him through high school, college, and Northeast stations before finding his home at the River. Known for his encyclopedic music knowledge, engaging storytelling, and down-to-earth vibe, he makes every broadcast feel like a chat with an old friend. Off the air, Crozby is an avid movie buff and animal lover who lives with his wife, Amy, and their three rescue cats.
Alex Mallis
Writer, Director
Alex is a Cuban-American, Jewish filmmaker raised in New Hampshire now living in Brooklyn, NY. His films have been selected for multiple festivals internationally. His short films have been distributed by PBS, Criterion, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. His debut feature THE TRAVEL COMPANION premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and is distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories. His short documentary SHUT UP AND PAINT (2022) was awarded Grand Jury Prize at IFF Boston and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, shortlisted for the 95th Academy Awards, and broadcast nationally on POV. Alex received an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College (CUNY) and is an active member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and the Meerkat Media Collective.
Matthew Scheffler
Writer, Director, Producer
Matthew Scheffler is a writer and director with a passion for genre storytelling. After serving as a Field Producer on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, producing multiple Emmy award winning segments, he left to pursue his own original work, starting with THE TRAVELER. Alongside producing projects like RANDOM ACTS OF FLYNESS, BLACK TWITTER: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY, and the Sundance-winning feature RICKY, Scheffler has directed branded commercials for BMW, CBS, and Reese’s Puffs. With THE TRAVELER, he hopes to launch the first chapter in a larger body of horror work.
Shelby Gaines
Writer, Composer
Shelby Gaines is a writer and composer.
His latest screenplay is for THE WEIGHT, an action-adventure film starring Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke that will premiere at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals in the winter of 2025. Shelby also scored the film with his brother Latham Gaines.
Shelby co-wrote WILDCAT, a film about the life of writer Flannery O’Connor, which premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2023. WILDCAT, directed and co-written by Ethan Hawke, stars Maya Hawke, Laura Linney, Philip Ettinger, Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman, Steve Zahn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Alessandro Nivola and Willa Fitzgerald. Shelby and Latham also scored the film.
Other screenplays include a remake of THE GUNFIGHTER for 20th Century, SATAN IS REAL, the story of Country Music Hall of Fame duo The Louvin Brothers; as well as CAMINO REAL, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play, co-written with Ethan Hawke.
Shelby’s music and sound design work includes recordings, film, performance, and visual art. He frequently collaborates with his brother. The Gaines brothers create sound sculptures, which are then used for scoring, performance, and exhibition. Their live score for Ethan Hawke’s revival of Sam Shepard’s A LIE OF THE MIND earned them a Drama Desk Award nomination.
