Maria Akay is an NYC-based producer and industry professional. As the Marketing Manager at Spotlight Cinema Networks, she curates the CineLife Preshow Short Shorts Program in collaboration with film festivals nationwide. Maria has produced short films which have premiered at festivals such as Cannes, TIFF, BFI London, among others, and currently serves as the Lead Programmer for the New York Latino Film Festival presented by Warner Bros. Discovery.

María Alvarez is an internationally recognized Cuban-Dutch filmmaker. She graduated from USC with a BFA in Film & Television Production. A Rising Voices fellow (Hillman Grad/Indeed/271 Films), she directed and co-wrote the short film “Last Days of the Lab,” which premiered at Tribeca, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was Oscar-qualified for Best Live Action Short at the 2024 Academy Awards. María is a freelance director and photographer working across narrative films, music videos, and commercials for clients like Nike, Converse, and Netflix. As a Sundance Institute Latine Collab Scholar, she is developing “Guava Tree,” her feature film exploring themes of cultural identity, family, and belonging.

Jonah Haver is a VMA and Juno nominated Polish-Canadian director living and working between Toronto and Los Angeles. Jonah’s directorial work spans multiple genres across music video, commercial, and narrative. He has worked with a myriad of amazing talent, including Platinum recording artist Tate McRae, Tinashe, Maisie Peters, Washed Out, and countless others. His projects have aired on North American broadcast networks and on the biggest late-night shows on the continent: Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. His commercial and fashion work extends to multibillion-dollar brands like Microsoft, Bayer, Claritin, Kappa, The Toronto Raptors, The Toronto Maple Leafs, TurboTax, GoDaddy, Fiverr, hydraSense, OLG, RBC, UBC, and many more.

Hadley Hillel is a Los Angeles-based writer-director, originally from Seattle, who tells darkly comedic stories set in surreal fantasy worlds. He loves magical realism and is a firm believer that a little taxidermy never hurts. His narrative shorts have won more than 40 jury and audience awards, gained international distribution and earned him the ‘Directing for Drama’ Student Emmy at the College Television Awards. His award-winning music videos for Grammy winner Chappell Roan have amassed over 45 million views and screened at SXSW 2024. Hadley is currently developing his first feature and has a number of other upcoming projects in the works.

Sky Iraheta is a visual artist who focuses on live shows, music videos and immersive art installations. She has worked on a variety of projects including ODESZA's The Last Goodbye tour and Blackpink’s Born Pink tour. Her work centers around creating visuals that amplify live performance.

Neema Sadeghi is a commercial, narrative, and music video cinematographer. He has worked with such brands as Nike, M&Ms, GQ, and Crocs.