April 27th, 2024
Art Theatre of Long Beach
2025 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90814
Program A - 10:00 AM - 11:30AM
Presented by Stereoscope Coffee
Free Coffee from 9:00am-9:45am for Program A ticket holders only
Category | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
Non-Fiction | Night Flower | Nina Gofur |
Fortune | Yumeng Shirley He | |
Promises to Keep | Michael Gabriele | |
Slauson and La Brea | Jake Wolfert | |
Runs Like the Roadrunner | Jeremy Belack | |
What I Imagined the Fly | Hugh Clegg | |
Narrative | Someone's In Here | Ben Kitnick |
Breathe | Aisha Ford | |
Johnny Swinks Orders a Slice | Robby Ché | |
We Belong Together | Flo Meijer | |
Quote Me Outside | Nicholas Bentgen | |
The Three Building Blocks | Miguel Thomé & Fernanda Pompermayer | |
Music Theory | Leon Ristov | |
Animation | You are Here | Kirk Pearson |
Mattricide | Gemma Rigg | |
Sort | Katelyn Rebelo | |
Orange Juice | April Ieong | |
Rat Hands | Rose Moon Longo | |
2064 | Luke Strickler | |
Cat With Glasses | Dirk Verschure |
Program B - 12:00 PM - 1:30PM
Category | Film Name | Director |
|---|---|---|
Non-fiction | Super Sick Kids | Brandon Ogborn |
Coconut | Jard Lerebours | |
Home | Yasaman Baghban | |
Hands Up, Chin Down | Matt Houghton | |
The Mess | Dorothy Allen-Pickard | |
Rare: The Boy Who Cried Swag | King She | |
Narrative | Spike | Bruce Marcus |
Polly Goes Metal | Danny Sangra | |
Im Finstern | Mahyar Mandegar | |
A Part of You | Matthäus Bussman | |
My Twelve Addictions | Attila Damokos | |
Airplane Man | Rick Darge | |
The Triptych of the Keeper | Annabella Schnabel | |
Animation | Delta Airlines Safety Video | Jordan M Blake |
Left Brain | Omer Ben Shachar & Gome Alon | |
Chutes | Kenzie Sutton | |
Mr. Chicken Goes to Mars | Katrina Mathers & Leigh Hobbs | |
Horologist | Jared Lee | |
SWIM! | Isabel Santos | |
Going Going | Lauren Allex | |
Aaaah! | Osman Cerfon |
Program C - 2:00 PM - 3:30PM
Warning: contains adult content, may not be suitible for children.
Category | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
Non-Fiction | I Dreamed a Dream | The Ambrogio Twins |
Kylie | Sterling Hampton | |
Body Language | Leo Pfeifer | |
Khorosho | Dominic Angerame | |
Moomin | Zach Dorn | |
Faceless | Jackson Thornton | |
Narrative | Bump | Maziyar Khatam |
Union Jake | Luuk Walschot | |
What'll It Be Today? | Pulkit Arora | |
Stuck | Giselle Bonilla | |
Absolutely No One Bernadette | Dan Lesser | |
House of Spores | Frigge Fri | |
Animation | French Fly | Liam LoPinto |
To Do | Saul Pankurst | |
NOMANKIND | Mehdi Hadi | |
Pipes | Kilian Feusi, Jessica Meier, Sujanth Ravichandran | |
Margaret | Channing Christ | |
Happy Green | Sonnyé Lim | |
Telling George Again | Fergus Campbell |
Winner's Showcase - 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Category | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
Grand Jury Animation | TBD | TBD |
Grand Jury Narrative | TBD | TBD |
Grand Jury Non-Fiction | TBD | TBD |
Meet the 2024 Tiny Filmmakers!
Aisha Ford Breathe
Program A - Narrative
During her time at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Aisha earned accolades including the Tisch School of the Arts Dean's Fellowship, the Spike Lee Film Production Grant, and the esteemed NYU Wasserman Award for her captivating short film "Royal." Additionally, she was honored with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts HBO Scholarship. In recognition of her promising talent, Aisha was selected as one of the distinguished MFAs to represent NYU at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019
Annabella Schnabel
The Triptych of the Keeper
Program B - Narrative
Annabella Schnabel is an award-winning Film Director and Screenwriter, living in Budapest. In 2020, she graduated with a Film Directing MA at University of Theatre and Film Arts, with her short film ‘Mom’s Cat’ - which was eligible for the 2023 Student Academy Awards. In her authentic, dark-humor filled world, she is interested in portraying ‘humans as animals vs. animals as humans’, malfunctioning society structures and female roles.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
April Ieong
orange juice
Program A - Animation
April Ieong is an independent mixed media animator with a passion for cats, experimental film, and anything that moves. They draw inspiration from their own emotional world and experiences as a Taiwanese American, creating whimsical stories that embody their own struggles, which they hope will resonate with today's youth.
Attila Damokos
My Twelve Addictions
Program B - Narrative
Since their graduation from the University of Theatre and Film Art Budapest, Attila Damokos has directed over 100 commercials, music videos and experimental films that have premiered at the Danish Oscar Nomination Festival, competed in Lausanne and Bilbao and won the Gold Dolphin from the Cannes Corporate Media and TV Awards. In their little free time they teach Visual Storytelling at FilmUniversity.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Ben Kitnick
Someone's In Here
Program A - Narrative
Ben Kitnick is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker. He made his feature film debut with the documentary The Beanie Bubble (2022), produced by The Nacelle Company, now streaming on Amazon Prime. His films have received four Vimeo Staff Picks, screened at festivals around the world including Rotterdam, AFI Docs, Doc NYC, Cologne, Maryland, and Sarasota, and been featured by NPR, SPIN Magazine, Gizmodo, and The Fader, among others.
Brandon Ogborn
Super Sick Kids
Program A - Non-Fiction
Brandon Ogborn’s work spans film, radio and theatre. Ogborn studied and performed improv comedy in Chicago before penning the smash docu-drama play, The TomKat Project, about the marriage of Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Scientology. His podcast, Telephone Stories: The Trials of Michael Jackson made international news for its achievement in investigative reporting and his most recent documentary, Damn, Dana! is available on Youtube. He is represented by Emily Rose at Mosaic.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Bruce Marcus
Spike
Program B - Narrative
A student of the modern films of epic proportion, Bruce Marcus seeks to usher in the era of BIPOC BRUTALISM. His aesthetic aims to bridge the gaps between heritage and evolution while articulating delicate subject matter with a piercing bite.
Channing Christ
Margaret
Program C - Animation
Stop-motion Animator.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Dan Lesser
Absolutely No One Breaks Up With Bernadette Burns
Program C - Narrative
Aussie born, now L.A. based. Dan enjoys telling stories with themes of identity, self-love and anything that can get a cheeky giggle out of an audience. Whether narrative, branded, or music video work, Dan is striving to create authentic, visually dynamic, and kinetic work
Danny Sangra
Polly Goes Metal
Program B - Narrative
After graduating from Central Saint Martins, Danny Sangra quickly built a multi-faceted, recognizable body of work as a director, writer and illustrator. Danny brings a distinct use of composition, timing and performance direction to all his films, whether for fashion brands, commercials or his own narrative work. His debut feature film ‘Goldbricks in Bloom’ starring Zosia Mamet, Jake Hoffman & Leo Fitzpatrick was released in 2016
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Dirk Verschure
Cat with Glasses
Program A - Animation
Dirk Verschure is a Dutch animator and cartoonist, who lives and works in Berlin. He studied Animation at the Art Academy of Breda. He is part of the Berlin-based animation collective Zyklopik, where he works on a variety of projects that regularly feature monsters and dead animals. He has published a daily "bunny" cartoon on his blog and Facebook-page since March 2011.
Dominic Angerame
Khorosho
Program C - Non-Fiction
Dominic Angerame's films pay homage to films from early cinema and the classic avant garde to American underground films of the 1960s and 70s and non-narrative films of the present day. Angerame, born in 1949, teaches at several American schools in addition to having served as the executive director of the American avant garde distribution center Canyon Cinema from 1980 to 2012.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Dorothy Allen-Pickard
The Mess
Program B - Non-Fiction
Dorothy is an award-winning filmmaker who lives and works in London. She is a member of Breach Theatre and is video editor for Another Gaze. Her documentaries, fiction shorts and multimedia shows have won prizes including the Guardian Documentary Award and Total Theatre Award. She has made films for BBC3, Channel 4, The Guardian and Huck Magazine and they have been screened at BFI, Barbican, The Ritzy, Picturehouse Cinemas, PEER Gallery and Battersea Arts Centre.
Fergus Campbell
Telling George Again
Program C - Animation
Fergus Campbell is a writer and filmmaker based in New York City. He is a graduate from Columbia University. His past works include "Sankyo Stream," a nine-part web series about two college kids' quest to interview famed director Paul Thomas Anderson.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Flo Meijer
We Belong Together
Program A - Narrative
Flo Meijer is a Rotterdam-based filmmaker and a 2021 graduate of Central Saint Martins in London. Instead of filming grand, extraordinary events, Flo's films explore the absurdity of everyday life. Small, often overlooked stories. Fashion is a recurring element in her work, but always part of a bigger picture and always related to people and their stories, never as an isolated phenomenon.
Frigge Fri
House of Spores
Program C - Narrative
Coming from an art photography background Frigge Fri is a director and cinematographer working in documentary and art house cinema. Her latest film DARK BLOSSOM (2021) was awarded at CPH:DOX.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Gemma Rigg
Mattricide
Program A - Animation
Gemma is an award-winning stop motion director from London specialising in humour. Gemma started her career as an actress and comedian and moved into screenwriting; graduating from Royal Holloway University of London with an MA (dist.) in screenwriting. Gemma's first 2 films from the ‘Hoe Street’ series were screened across the globe and are currently distributed by Aardman Animations.
Giselle Bonilla
Stuck
Program C - Narrative
Giselle Bonilla graduated with Honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film & Television Production. Her thesis film, “Virgencita,” received the Adrienne Shelly Grant, Panavision New Filmmakers Grant, and won the Horizon Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In 2020, she was selected as a Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow and a Deutsche Bank Frieze Filmmaking Fellow. Aside from narrative filmmaking, Giselle is a recipient of the AUDI Scholarship and a current Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Hugh Clegg
What I imagined the dying fly, with the broken leg, was feeling
Program A - Non-Fiction
Graduating from the National Film and Television School in 2022, Hugh's short film "It Feels Personal" was an Official Selection at Tribeca Film Festival, and was acquired by The New Yorker. Post film school, he was one of five directors selected for the Netflix U.S short film fund, "It's Funny Because It's True", where he co-directed a film about a couple trying to find intimacy in a long distance relationship. Afterwards, Batman made his first audio comedy which aired on BBC Radio 4 for ShortCuts. Hugh has just finished directing a 10-part short comedy sketch series with comedian Frankie McNamara for BBC Studios.
A Queer filmmaker himself, he's currently writing his first feature film, "DREGS", an LGBTQ+ centred dark comedy.
Isabel Santos
SWIM!
Program B - Animation
Isabel Santos is animator and illustrator from Queens, New York. She earned her BFA in animation from the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently earning her MFA in experimental animation from the California Institute for the Arts. She works independently, creating and directing her own animated shorts, and commercially as a freelance animator and designer. Isabel is inspired by the weirdness of life itself and finds the best ideas in chaos and absurdity.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Jackson Thornton
Faceless
Program C - Non-Fiction
Jake Wolfert
Slauson & La Brea
Program A - Non-Fiction
Jake Wolfert is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles focusing on documentary work.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Jard Lerebours
Coconut
Program B - Non-Fiction
Jard Lerebours is a Queer Jamaican-Haitian filmmaker and poet. They create exploratory pieces in service of venerating his ancestors and putting image to theory. Jard spent his formative years in Long Island and adulthood in Atlanta after attending Emory University. They approach filmmaking as a conversation between friends and family in communion. His work focuses on the nuance, joy and responsibility that comes with being a living, breathing Black being. His work has most recently been programmed by NoBudge, Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival and Film Diary NYC.
Jared Lee
Horologist
Program B - Animation
Jared Lee is a filmmaker based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He runs a production house called Grim Film which focuses on commercials and shorts. Inspired by his family history, the people around him and Japanese manga has shaped the way he tells his story. “The Long Distance Relationship” (short film) in 2011 won Best Drama at the Soul 4 Reel Film Festival. He also directed a pilot, "The Last 7” in 2017, which was selected by several web festivals and won Best Pilot at the Vancouver Web Festival. Jared found the joy of filmmaking while looking for an output to his ideas back in college.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Jeremy Belack
Runs Like the Roadrunner
Program A - Non-Fiction
Jeremy Belack is a Los Angeles based director of photography. Originally from Philadelphia Jeremy moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking. His work features a variety of projects from short films, major label music videos, commercials and more. The common thread in all of his work is his dedication and a focused commitment to the story he is telling. In his free time Jeremy enjoys snowboarding and other physical activity in beautiful California.
Jordan M Blake
"Delta Airline Safety Video
Program B - Animation
Jordan Michael Blake was raised Mormon, but left the church to make movies at NYU. His work has screened at Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW and received multiple Vimeo Staff Picks. He produced & edited "The Touch Of The Master's Hand", which won *Best US Fiction Short* at The Sundance Film Festival. Currently, he is writing a feature movie about a repressed Mormon Eminem look-a-like.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Leigh Hobbs &
Katrina Mathers
Mr. Chicken Goes to Mars
Program B - Animation
KATRINA MATHERS is an Australian AACTA-winning filmmaker; Two animations she produced were Academy® accredited - The Gallant Captain which she directed with Graeme Base, and Nullarbor which was released as Highly Commended in the 2012 Oscar® Nominated Shorts Collection. Currently she runs Cherry Hands Media, a multimedia company and works with Monash University.
LEIGH HOBBS is an Australian artist and author, best known for his children’s books which feature his characters Old Tom, Horrible Harriet, Mr Chicken, Mr Badger, Fiona the Pig and the Freaks in 4F. His primary publisher is Allen & Unwin. A highly successful animated TV series, based on Leigh’s Old Tom series of books has been screened on television networks in Australia and across Europe. Leigh was also the Australian Children's Laureate in 2016 and 2017.
Kenzie Sutton
Chutes
Program B - Animation
Kenzie Sutton is an artist, animator, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA.
She started her career as the youngest painter/animator on the Oscar nominated feature film “Loving Vincent”. Her first short film Harls won Best Comedy at CineYouth Festival and the Audience Award at NFFTY. It was acquired by PBS as part of their “Film School Shorts” program. Her next short Somebody Take the Wheel played at over 30 festivals internationally including Palm Springs International ShortFest, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Ottawa International Animation Festival, and SlamDance. After its festival run it was purchased by The New Yorker magazine where it has over 800K views online. Her latest film Chutes will have its world premiere this month at AFI Fest. Interested in object based storytelling, Kenzie Sutton uses her strong background in painting and sculpture to tell stories of dark comedy. She holds a BFA in animation from Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts.
Beyond her practice in stop motion animation, she also enjoys building kinetic sculptures, some of which include a man embarrassed of his receding hairline and a woman who watches too much tv.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Kilian Feusi,
Jessica Meier &
Sujanth Ravichandran
Pipes
Program C - Animation
Jessica Meier, Kilian Feusi, and Sujanth Ravichandran are three animators and filmmakers from Switzerland. They met during their studies at Lucerne School of Art and Design, Bachelor in Animation and decided to put their skills to the test by working together as co-directors on the short film “Pipes” in the last year of their studies. They are now working independently in each of their professional fields.
King She
Rare: The Boy Who Cried Swag
Program B - Non-Fiction
King She is a multi award-winning filmmaking duo. Their recent collaborations on the Apple Music & Rihanna Super Bowl Halftime show won a Cannes Gold Lion for Entertainment for Music, Cannes Silver Lion for Social Film Series, a D&AD award nomination for direction, and 5 AICP nominations, including Best New Director (for which they were awarded). The two spots received over 10 million combined social impressions in the first week. It was their first commercial campaign. Recently King She was invited by the Young Director Awards to develop and host a Podcast Series. With a lauded background in journalism and cultural anthropology, the duo delve into the documentation of filmmakers’ processes with what Shots magazine calls ‘a deep and entertaining dive into mindsets and experiences of both rising and established filmmakers.’ They were recently named to Ad Campaign’s 2023 Top 10 Director List.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Kirk Pearson
You Are Here
Program A - Animation
Kirk is a composer and creative engineer currently living in Berkeley, California.
A lot of their time is spent searching for, recording, and making music from unusual sound sources. A mandolinist by trade, their practice now involves writing for unconventional musical instruments, and every once in a while, inventing new ones.
Much of their thematic work focuses on the triumphs and pratfalls of human communication. Their interest in this field developed over the course of several decades working as an educator, designer, and researcher, and now permeates most of their art, be those compositions, films, or written works. They aim for their audience to reconsider their relationships to sound—be those the quirks of natural language, distortions introduced by digital compression, or one’s conceptualization of physical space based on recordings.
Outside of their work as an artist, they am the founder and creative director of Dogbotic, a studio and audio laboratory that creates weird and strange sounds for weird and strange people. We create music and sound design for all sorts of multimedia projects, from feature films to interactive installations. Through Dogbotic Labs, we teach a variety of hands-on workshops on topics such as homemade synthesizers, experimental photography, and media theory.
They cut their sandwiches diagonally.
Lauren Allex
Going Going
Program B - Animation
Lauren Allex is a 2D Animator and Story Artist
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Leo Pfeifer
Body Language
Program C - Non-Fiction
An LA-based director, Leo Pfeifer makes commercials & films that aim to uncover the meaning, depth, and beauty of the world's incredible stories. Collaborators include The New Yorker, Facebook/Meta, NOWNESS, and NBC
Leon Ristov
Music Theory
Program A - Narrative
Leon Ristov is a writer-director from the Republic of Macedonia. He got his break as an actor, with a lead role in the Berlinale-premiering feature WHEN THE DAY HAD NO NAME (2017). Leon's sophomore short I'M CALLING YOUR FATHER (2020) premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival and screened internationally at over 20 festivals, winning the Grand Prix at two. Leon is pursuing an M.F.A. in Screenwriting and Directing at Columbia University in New York. He is an alum of Sarajevo Talents, and holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Liam LoPinto
French Fly
Program C - Animation
Liam LoPinto is a filmmaker currently based in Valencia, California, studying Character Animation at the California Institute of the Arts. He previously graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts UGFTV Program.
Luke Strickler
2064
Program A - Animation
Luke Strickler is a writer, actor and digital artist living in Los Angeles.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Luuk Walschot
Union Jake
Program C - Narrative
Luuk Walschot is a film director based in Amsterdam His work has been published on DirectorsLibrary, BooooooomTV, DirectorsNotes, Cinetree and GUPmagazine. He won several awards and honors, including a Young Director Award, ADCN nomination and 1.4 awards and worked for international brands like Heineken, Samsung, Puma, Philips, Mentos, WNF and many more. He likes real stories with a raw edge and a highly stylized visual signature. He is particularly excited about projects creating a deeper understanding of the human spirit and ultimately spreading a message of unity, love and equality.
Mahyar Mandegar
Im Finstern
Program B - Narrative
Born in Tehran, Iran, Mahyar is currently based in Los Angeles, California, where he got his MFA in directing from the AFI Conservatory. He started his career as an editor while studying at the Tehran University of Art and simultaneously began writing and directing. In 2020, his short film “White Winged Horse” premiered and was awarded at the Berlinale Film Festival. The work he has done has also been shown at other festivals including Venice Film Festival, Camerimage and Melbourne.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Matt Houghton
Hands Up, Chin Down
Program B - Non-Fiction
Matt Houghton is an award-winning filmmaker with an eye for crafting intimate human stories. His film "Dear Araucaria" won the Audience Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Matt has worked with a wide range of brands, including spots for Camelot, Google, Volkswagen, Strongbow, Toyota, Smart Car, Axe, Red Bull, Tate, Booktrust and Save The Children. Matt is represented by Pulse Films.
Matthäus Bussman
A PART OF YOU
Program B - Narrative
These days Matthäus will direct you a genre-defining, monolithic masterpiece of a manifesto film. He’s also a die-hard artist at heart, restlessly seeking fresh challenges and new ways of enhancing aesthetics, ideas and narratives. The results are epic, emotive and unexpected. and always achieved through a collaborative, calm and creative working style.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Maziyar Khatam
Bump
Program C - Narrative
Maziyar Khatam is an Iranian-Canadian Director/Writer with a passion for telling offbeat and revealing stories. He is a graduate of the Humber Film and Television Production program. Maziyar has contributed to a wide range of projects ranging from music videos to documentaries, always focusing on challenging and independent content. He is co-owner of Funny Bone Pictures, a production company in Toronto, Canada.
Mehdi Hadi
NOMANKIND
Program C - Animation
Mehdi Hadi is a Director and Concept Designer From Paris, France. He worked on various projects including title sequences, broadcast graphics, animation for computer games, corporate videos, TV advertisements and short animation films.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Michael Gabriele
Promises to Keep
Program A - Non-Fiction
Over the years, Michael has directed an array of projects, including commercials, short films, music videos, and innovative 360° content for VR headsets. His dedication and talent have been recognized with multiple accolades, including two Emmys, several Tellys, acceptances into multiple Oscar Qualifying Film Festivals and being awarded Best In Fest at a few of those as well.
Outside of the film world, Michael enjoys spending time with his family, his beloved three-legged feline rescue pet, Crepes, and expressing his creativity through crafting turquoise jewelry. He also takes on the alter-ego of a European-DJ.
Whether it's directing narrative works or delving into new creative ventures, Michael is dedicated to making meaningful connections through his films.
Miguel Thomé &
Fernanda Pompermayer
The Three Building Blocks
Program A - Narrative
Miguel Thomé is an artist and film director known for his captivating exploration of the human body and its boundaries. His projects as a director inhabit an intimate universe and explore the body as an instrument to tell stories. He had publications on platforms such as Nowness, Director’s Library, booooooom TV and mentions in Vogue and i-D Italia. Participation in festivals in Berlin, Milan, Hong Kong, NY.
Fernanda Pompermayer (Brasil, 1993) graduated in graphic design and is a self-taught artist, whose practice moves between ceramics, sculpture, photography, video and painting. Through an imaginative approach that embraces spontaneity, she has been able to combine her interdisciplinary practices and reflect her artistic path in her ceramic pieces. Pompermayer both sells her work in design shops as well has exhibited her work in a collective show in the Verso Gallery. By navigating these different approaches in the use of ceramics, the artist is able to bring the viewer inside her universe.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Nicholas Bentgen
"Quote Me Outside"
Program A - Narrative
Nicholas Bentgen is a writer, director, actor, cinematographer, editor and proud father of a three year old. Nicholas’ work has been highlighted by The New York Times, Visions du Reel, Vimeo, and the UKMVAs, among others. Nicholas directed, shot and edited a conversation between Jay-Z and New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet for T Magazine. He has directed many commercials and music videos and his first feature documentary, NORTHERN LIGHT, is a Critic’s Pick of The New York Times and The Village Voice.
Nina Gofur
Night Flower
Program A - Non-Fiction
Nina Gofur is an NYC based director, cinematographer and photographer. Her work is rooted in visceral images of the body and often explores themes of vulnerability and adolescence through non-linear narratives. Her mission is to honor the stories she tells and move the viewer. Working mainly with analog mediums, Nina wants to push the boundary of storytelling that will allow new perspectives to surface.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Omer Ben-Shachar &
Gome Alon
Someone's In Here
Program B - Animation
Omer Ben-Shachar is a Los Angeles-based director from Tel-Aviv, Israel. His perspective as an LGBTQ filmmaker drives his desire to tell honest, character-driven stories centered around the search for identity. In 2020, he was named to Forbes Israel’s 30 Under 30 list. His short, TREE #3, won a 2019 Student Academy Award, was nominated for a Student Emmy. Omer is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) as well as a BAFTA North America Newcomer. Along with his professional practice, Omer mentors directors and screenwriters at Sundance co//ab.
Gome Alon is an artist and animator.
Osman Cerfon
Aaaah!
Program B - Animation
Osman Cerfon is a French director of animated films. He has worked on various projects as a scriptwriter and technician for Folimage, then for Jesuisbiencontent. Since 2013, he has been working closely with Miyu Productions, an animation studio that produced his short film "Je sors acheter des cigarettes" (I'm going out to buy cigarettes), which was also awarded in many festivals (including Locarno).
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Pulkit Arora
What'll It Be Today?
Program C - Narrative
Pulkit is a writer-director based in India and New Zealand. He spent five years teaching in shelter homes and fundraising for non-profits before earning a spot in screenwriting fellowship AIB First Draft in 2016. He then studied under National Award-winning filmmaker Satyanshu Singh and found representation with Tulsea Pictures.
He has since created shows and led writing rooms with Disney+, written an episode of Netflix India's Home Stories, and developed a biopic feature film with Rainshine Entertainment. In 2021, his directorial debut short Milk Toffee screened at Tribeca Film Festival, amongst 8 others.
He also co-writes and hosts Still Awesome, a film dissection series for Netflix's YouTube channel.
Rick Darge
Airplane Man
Program B - Narrative
Rick Darge studied film at USC and won an Emmy for his work on one of the first broadband shows ever created. His first feature, Zen Dog, was made with a shoestring budget and went on to win a handful of awards including 'Film of the Festival' at Raindance in 2016. He's had his work featured on Adult Swim and has been Staff Picked at Vimeo multiple times and is currently represented by ProdCo for commercial and branded content. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and creative collaborating partner, Hilary Smith.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Robby Ché
Johnny Swinks Orders a Slice!
Program A - Narrative
Robby Ché (born August 3, 1993), also known by his stage name MURDEROID is an American actor, comedian, singer, rapper, writer, director, and producer. He began acting in music videos for Capitol Records signed band Cold War Kids while attending Film School at Biola University. He plans on releasing the highly anticipated series “FACE IN THE SKY” which he wrote and help produced with SCREENS LLC. With his crazy personality and off the wall antics people will often look at him and say “now that’s a funny guy”.
Rose Moon Longo
Rat Hands
Program A - Animation
Rose Moon Longo is a Boston based artist, filmmaker and animation student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She often animates with pencil and paper. Her work explores themes of transformation and personhood.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Saul Pankhurst
To Do
Program C - Animation
Saul Pankhurst is an experimental filmmaker working within creative non-fiction. He is currently based in London where he works as a director of photography and animator for artists’ moving-image. His background in analogue cinematography informs a bold visual style that makes use of collage and animation. His recent work focuses on themes of identity, industry and language, adopting highly collaborative approaches that scrutinise both the role of the filmmaker and the complex ethics involved in representing the stories of others.
Sonnyé Lim
Happy Green
Program C - Animation
Sonnyé Lim is an Independent Animator, Instructor, and Freelance Artist
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Sterling Hampton IV
Kylie
Program C - Non-Fiction
Sterling Hampton is an American filmmaker from Southern California. Sterling has directed works with various artists in the music video world including will.i.am, Mario, G-Eazy and others. His proudest piece to date within the music video space is "The Love" - Black Eyed Peas, that was adopted by the the 2020 presidential election campaign and played at the inauguration. Although his beginnings as a teenager started out within the film festival circuit as a documentary filmmaker, Sterling has returned to the film world to tell stories and shed light on topics of race, gender, religion and sustainability.
The Ambrogio Twins
I Dreamed a Dream
Program C - Non-Fiction
The Ambrogio Twins are a directing team born in Chicago and living in Los Angeles.
They've directed music videos, fashion films, and commercials and their work has appeared in Billboard, Playboy, I-D magazine. Their commercials have been nationally syndicated.
Their sensibility is a combination of over-the-top theatrics with a real human touch.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Yasaman Baghban
Home
Program B - Non-Fiction
Yasaman Baghban is an Iranian experimental and documentary filmmaker. She earned her MA in Cinema Studies from Tehran University of Art. After working as a lecturer, she decided to further her education. In 2023, she graduated with an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University. Her focus is mostly on socio-political issues, human rights, and feminism. Her short films have been showcased in international film festivals such as True/False, Atlanta Film Festival, Female Eye Film Festival, Cucalorus, and more.
Yumeng Shirley He
Fortune
Program A - Non-Fiction
Yumeng is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker from Beijing, China. Her first short ethnographic film, Kite (2020), explores the intersection between mental health, feminine embodiment, and the Chinese diaspora. Her second film, Échale Ganas: The Villa’s Tacos Story (2021), is a coalescence of her exploration of the documentary form and her long-standing interest in telling stories about food, memory, and diaspora. Yumeng's background in Anthropology informs her storytelling. She is passionate about telling stories that focus on identity, diaspora, memory, land. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Zach Dorn
moomin
Program C - Non-Fiction
Zach Dorn is a filmmaker, writer, and performing artist who creates miniature melodramas that explore the underbelly of childhood nostalgia through the disappointed eyeballs of adulthood. With puppets, paper dioramas, and a grotesque DIY craftsmanship, Dorn builds interweaving narratives tangled in homesickness and pop culture. Dorn’s multimedia puppet performances have premiered at Ars Nova (New York), St. Ann’s Warehouse (New York), and REDCAT (Los Angeles). His work has been funded by The Jim Henson Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, and the Artist Foundation of San Antonio. His animated films have been screened at Slamdance (2020), Sweaty Eyeballs (2020), and The Toronto International Film Festival (2021). Dorn received his MFA in Experimental Animation from Calarts in 2021.
Stay in the loop
Stay up to date on upcoming events, deadlines, and important information