Asked by her pastor at 11 years old what she was passionate about, Rebekah Covington abandoned the good, Jesus-y answer and responded, “making people laugh.” A childhood of reading stories and performing for her adoring fan base (stuffed animals), led to an adolescence of writing stories. When the neighbor kid got a video camera, she quickly found every excuse to borrow it, and her love for film and television blossomed. She wore the hats of director, producer, and star, but always returned to her true passion for writing. While pursuing a degree in screenwriting (and a minor in law for mom and dad) from Chapman University, Rebekah got coffee for a variety of important people on several backlots. Upon graduation, she donned the completely unflattering uniform of the NBCUniversal Page Program, where she got even more coffee and had no health insurance. A Chicago-native, Rebekah now lives in Los Angeles, where she still cheers on the Chicago Cubs and tells anyone who will listen that ketchup does not belong on a hot dog. Rebekah was a quarter-finalist for NBC’s Writers on the Verge Program in 2018 and the Jury Award winner for her original pilot at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in 2019.

Matthew Irving Epstein is a writer and producer, known for Cuddle Party (2016), Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (2020) and Me.N.A. (2020).

Matt Pelfrey’s plays have been produced around the country at theaters such as Artists Rep (Portland, OR), Furious Theatre Co. (LA), Moving Arts (LA), Pittsburgh Playwrights, The Shattered Globe (CHI), and the Actors Theatre of Louisville during the 1999 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is the winner of the Actor’s Theater of Louisville’s Heideman Award, a Backstage Garland Award for playwriting and was nominated for an LA WEEKLY playwriting award and a Los Angeles Ovation award. His adaptation of John Ball’s IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT was produced around the country. His latest play, THE ALLIGATOR GOSPELS, was developed at the 2020 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. His plays are available from Original Works Publishing, Broadway Play Publishing, and Samuel French. He worked as a staff writer on the MTV drama SKINS and wrote, produced, and directed webisodes and content for the SKINS/MTV website. His screenplay SURVIVALISM was included on the 2011 Blood List, an industry-generated list of the favorite unproduced horror and thriller scripts in Hollywood. His screenplay, HARVEST CREEK, sold to director Dayyan Eng and is being developed for production in China. He received his BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State and his Master in Fine Arts in Playwriting from U.C.L.A. He is the Program Director for Screen & Stage writing at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Giulia Gandini is a London-based writer/director originally from Italy. Her latest short film My Time was long-listed for the Academy Awards 2020 and was featured on Refinery29, Yahoo, Reuters and others. Her documentary mini-series Home Stream (supported by the UN and BFI Future Film, distributed by NowThis and Real Stories) quickly reached more than 8 million organic Facebook views. Most recently she has directed the third season of the award-winning TV teen-drama series Jams for Italian State Broadcaster RAI. She graduated with an MA in Directing from MET Film School (based in Ealing Studios, London) and she is represented for commercial work at Snapper Films.

Kelly O'Sullivan is a writer, director and actor originally from North Little Rock, Arkansas. Her first feature screenplay, Saint Frances premiered at South by Southwest, where it won a Special Jury Recognition for "Breakthrough Voice" and the Audience Award for Narrative Feature. The film was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories in 2020. Kelly was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" and was a member of Film at Lincoln Center's 2019 Artist Academy. She is proudly represented by William Morris Endeavor and currently resides in Chicago.

MarBelle is the founder and editor-in-chief of the independent film curation and interview site Directors Notes. Prior to that, he worked as editor of Shooting People’s Filmmakers Bulletin and as a contributing writer for Short of the Week and No Film School. Through DN he has curated numerous film programmes and served on festival juries for over a decade.

Mika Kimoto is a native of Japan and the co-president of KimStim, a New York based arthouse film distribution company dedicated to the release of exceptional independent, foreign, and documentary film from around the world. After working for Kodansha publishing company and a contemporary art gallery in Japan, she came to the US to pursue her passion for art. She has MFA from the California Institute of The Arts. She recently served as a member of the jury for the 2020 Ashland Independent Film Festival.

Giselle Bonilla graduated with Honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film and Television Production. Her thesis film, Virgencita, won the Horizon Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, received the Adrienne Shelly Grant, and won the Audience Award at NFFTY in 2019. Giselle also directs music videos which have premiered on the digital platforms of Rolling Stone India and The Fader. She is currently a 2020 Sundance Ignite Fellow, and based in Los Angeles.

At 20 years old, Quinn Shephard wrote, directed, and starred in Blame, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival--making her the youngest female filmmaker to ever screen a feature there. She received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay for the film. Now 25, Quinn is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list maker, and has developed an original series at FX Networks alongside EP Noah Hawley, as well as an original miniseries and feature at new studio MakeReady.

Sean created and oversees the Creative Culture program for filmmaker fellowships and residencies at the Jacob Burns Film Center. His producing credits include Matthew Puccini’s Lavender (Sundance, Fox Searchlight), Crystal Kayiza’s Edgecombe (Sundance, POV), and Emily Ann Hoffman’s Nevada (Sundance, Vimeo Staff Pick). These shorts and many more were produced within Creative Culture – a program connecting filmmakers to the film industry and to one another through a guiding philosophy of inclusion and collaboration. He is a former director with the Upright Citizens Brigade and got his start directing films in the Private Cabin Collective. Sean holds an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College and a BA in Cinema Studies from SUNY Purchase College where he continues to teach.

Phillip Youmans is a filmmaker from the 7th Ward of New Orleans. At 19, Phillip became the youngest and first African-American director to win the Founder’s Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival for his feature-length debut, Burning Cane, which he wrote, directed, shot and edited during his final years of high school. Phillip is also the youngest director to ever have a feature film compete at the Tribeca Film Festival. Distributed by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing, Burning Cane opened in select theaters on October 25th, 2019 and was released on Netflix on November 6, 2019. Phillip was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director and a Film Independent Spirit Award for his work on the film. Recently, Phillip wrote, directed and edited a short film for Hulu’s Black History Month titled Imagine a Moon Colony, about a black family in 1970 Los Angeles that imagines the year 2020 through a black lens and creates abstract visuals based on their predictions.

Sean is a filmmaker from Fremont, CA, currently living in NYC. He is a graduate of USC's School of Cinematic Arts, a Google Creative Lab 5 alum, and current Sundance Ignite Fellow. Most recently, Sean contributed sequences for the feature film, Summertime, which premiered in the NEXT category at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and his short film, Still Here (還在), was featured by the American Film Institute, Short of the Week, and Vimeo Staff Picks.

Alexandre O. Philippe holds a Masters Degree in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is Creative Director at Exhibit A Pictures. Most of his films take on the role of unpacking the most influential works of master filmmakers, and dissecting seminal screen moments. Past works include Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (Venice ’19, Sundance ‘20), MEMORY: The Origins of Alien (Sundance ’19), 78/52 (Sundance ’17), Doc of the Dead (SXSW’14), and The People vs. George Lucas (SXSW ‘10).

With his short film obsession leading him to join the team at Short of the Week back in 2009, Rob has been championing short film on the platform ever since. Looking to help a new generation of filmmakers share their stories on a larger stage, Rob believes short film is more than a playground for narrative and craft and is constantly excited and surprised by the new work being made in the format.

Meredith Lavitt has over 25 years experience working in the independent film arena and with emerging creatives. Lavitt worked at Sundance Institute for over 20 years, most recently as the Director of the Sundance Ignite program, which cultivates and supports a new generation of filmmakers. Prior to Ignite Lavitt was the director of the Sundance Film Forward Initiative (2010 to 2016), an international touring program designed to enhance greater cultural understanding by using the power of story to connect filmmakers and audiences. During Lavitt’s career with Sundance Institute, she was instrumental in establishing the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program in 1999, serving as the Associate Director of the Program and lead administrator for the Sundance Documentary Fund, granting over $1 million in funds annually. She created and directed the Institute’s former youth programs including Reel Studio held annually at the Sundance Film Festival and Reel Stories presented in collaboration with the nationally recognized Utah-based Spy Hop Productions. In 2004 she founded Swirl Productions and produced documentaries which aired on Showtime and PBS. She currently sits on the advisory board of directors of Spy Hop Productions, a youth media arts organization and serves on the advisory committee for the Utah Film Commission. Meredith holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and lives in Park City, Utah with her family.

Brendan Hall is a filmmaker and photographer capturing stories in the natural world and beyond. His deep curiosity for new experiences has led him to pursue projects centered around nature, science, social justice, and healthcare. After earning his BA in film from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Brendan went on to work at the National Geographic Channel, assisting with the development of new programming. He has since traveled the world directing content for major international non-profits, brands, and agencies. Brendan's last short doc, Maggie Rogers: Back In My Body, received over 750K online views, a Vimeo Staff Pick, and screened at Video Consortium. His feature-length directorial debut, WESTWARD, follows a journey through 20 national parks to meet the incredible people within them. The film is currently in production and will enter the festival circuit in 2021. In his work and personal life, Brendan is especially passionate about connecting people with nature and public lands.

Rahul Roy is currently the Theatrical Distribution Manager at Magnolia Pictures, where he has worked on releases like JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, RBG, SHOPLIFTERS, and the annual OSCAR-NOMINATED SHORTS. Prior to Magnolia, he worked in post-production at Fuse TV, and has interned at FilmNation Entertainment and Disney-ABC Television Group. Prior to becoming a working adult, he attended the University of Chicago where he studied Creative Writing and Economics. He’s a first-generation Bangladeshi-American born and raised in Florida who now calls New York his home. His favorite movie of all time is 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU.

Esy Casey is a filmmaker whose cinematography can be seen in the Emmy nominated BORN TO FLY (shot with DPs Albert Maysles and Kirsten Johnson, Independent Lens PBS), BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (Dir. PJ Raval, America Reframed PBS), and THING WITH NO NAME (Dir. Sarah Friedland). Her directorial debut JEEPNEY was nationally broadcast on PBS and won the jury prize for Best Cinematography at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Her work has received awards and fellowships from The New York Film Festival, The Princess Grace Foundation USA, The Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Initiative, The Center for Asian American Media, MacDowell, Yaddo, The Flaherty Seminar, The Creative Work Fund and The American Association of University Women.

Rana San is an artist and arts administrator whose creative practice melds dreamwork, written word, body in motion, video poetry, and analog photography. She serves as the Artistic Director at Northwest Film Forum where she co-curates year-round programming, including Local Sightings Film Festival, ByDesign Festival, and Cadence: Video Poetry Festival. She is also a guest curator for the 2020-2021 season of Yellow Fish Durational Performance Art Festival VI.

Siqi Song is an animation director and animator from China. She studied at China Central Academy of Fine Arts before turning to filmmaking and receiving her Masters in Experimental Animation at CalArts. Song was named a Film Independent Directing Fellow in 2018, BAFTA Los Angeles Newcomer in 2019 and was nominated for an Oscars for her animated short Sister in 2020. She also contributed to the Oscar-nominated Feature Animation Missing Link and Netflix Original Series Ask the Storybots. Song is currently based in Los Angeles, California.

Olivia Pecini is an illustrator and animator working in Los Angeles. She works in both storyboards and background design/paint. Her credits include The Midnight Gospel, Critical Role: Legend of Vox Machina, Fairfax, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Wet City. She is currently a background painter on Tuca and Bertie.

Aleks Dimitrijevic is the Film Academy Festival & Events Producer at the British Film Institute in the UK. She is responsible for programming and producing all digital and in-venue Film Academy events for new talent (16-25 year olds) including the annual BFI Future Film Festival, the UK’s largest film festival for young people. Prior to joining the Film Academy team, Aleks was part of the BFI London Film Festival Events Team producing Screen Talks – in-depth interviews with leading directors and actors in contemporary cinema. She also worked as the Production Manager at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the largest documentary film festival in the UK. Aleks started her film festival career at the helm of the Smalls Film Festival, where she put together three editions of their short film festival in London and Singapore. She has also led the launch of The Smalls Film Fund, a £25k short film grant for young talent.

Andrew Chesworth is a filmmaker living in Burbank, CA. ​He co-wrote and co-directed the Oscar-nominated short film One Small Step ​at Taiko Studios with Bobby Pontillas. He was an animator for Disney on such films as Zootopia, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Moana, Wreck-It Ralph, Feast, Get a Horse!, Inner Workings, and Olaf's Frozen Adventure​. Previously he was a director of commercials and short films at Make Visual in Minneapolis. Currently, Andrew is employed full-time at Taiko Studios directing and producing animated shorts and developing feature film projects. He is also freelancing part-time as a character animator and teaching at Animsquad.

Actor/Filmmaker Camrus Johnson is going into season 2 of the CW’s BATWOMAN as the male lead ‘Luke Fox’ and can currently be seen on HBO in Warner Bros./MGMs THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR opposite Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton. On the filmmaking front Johnson currently has an Academy Award qualified animated short film, GRAB MY HAND: A LETTER TO MY DAD, that he wrote, directed and voiced winning Jury awards across the country (including at NFFTY 2019!), recently wrapped production on his second short BLUE BISON sure to hit the festival circuit soon, and has an animated series, comic book, and graphic novel in development.

Kelly Gallagher is a filmmaker, animator, and Assistant Professor of Film at Syracuse University. Her award winning films and commissioned animations have screened internationally at venues including: the Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery of Art, Sundance Film Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry, and Black Maria Film Festival. Solo programs of her work have screened at institutions including: UnionDocs, the Wexner, and Sight Unseen, among many others. Kelly enthusiastically organizes and facilitates film workshops, camps, and masterclasses for communities and groups of all ages.

Madden grew up in the southeast, making movies under the moniker ORNANA. His freelance career was built on directing, animation, and sound design. In 2012, he was listed on Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" after (Notes on) Biology won the animation prize at SXSW. He has directed 11 Vimeo staff picks, including Krista which won the first ever Staff Picks Award at SXSW in 2018 and inspired BEAST BEAST, his debut feature film which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020 (Executive produced by Alec Baldwin). He worked as Creative Director with Jim Cummings on THUNDER ROAD, and has also directed video shorts for PBS, HBO's 'Random Acts of Flyness,' and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

Jonathan is an acclaimed screenwriter and member of the prestigious Writers Guild of America. He has penned films for Sony Studios, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and Germany’s Telepool GmbH, among others. Jonathan currently has projects in development for Will Smith, Justin Lin, Aldis Hodge, and the legendary Norman Lear. In addition to writing, Jonathan has produced two films for Lifetime Networks and is deep into development on a series with the producers of AMC’s “Walking Dead.” In 2020, Jonathan became the Director of Development for Good Hero Productions, Laurent Zeitoun’s New York based production company formed by the creators of “Leap”, “Death of Stalin” and Pixar’s “Cars” franchise. In his spare time, Jonathan is a university professor and started the Inmates Screenwriting Initiative at the Washington State Department of Corrections.

Talia is a multidisciplinary LA-based film and theater maker from Washington, DC via Pittsburgh, PA, where she studied Drama (Directing) and Screenwriting at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work incorporates time travel, supernatural powers, women-powered community, simulated reality, unrequited love, road trips, and kinetic communication and has been featured across international platforms and festivals like Short of the Week, Filmatique Talents, NoFilmSchool, PÖFF Shorts, and the LA Dance Film Festival. In the industrial sector, she has directed and produced work for corporate clients including Nanostring Technologies and Uber ATG. Filmmaking is the ultimate adventure and her goal in any medium is to employ the unexpected to tell more human stories. Next Time, an upcoming science-fiction short film, is an Official Selection of the Nashville Film Festival, SCI-FI-LONDON, and GenreBlast Film Festival. Isolations, a dance film made in quarantine, will screen at Salute Your Shorts, and the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema. Her dance film E T A received an Audience Award at NFFTY in 2018, and she is honored to be on the jury this year.

Media artist and educator Leslie Raymond joined the Ann Arbor Film Festival as its executive director in August 2013. Before that, she founded a New Media Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio and served as assistant professor of art in digital video and new media art at Oakland University, where she was recognized with an Innovations in Teaching award. Raymond excels at organizing special projects that bring together practitioners to advance the conversation around contemporary cinema practice. Off the Screen! consists of precisely such special projects. In this project, Raymond’s role is to review the submissions and select the works and artists to be included in the series. She also communicates with AAFF host venues in the community, such as partnering galleries and event spaces, to share specifications of the works and artists so that installation, exhibition, and presentation logistics can be organized and implemented.

Deborah Girdwood is the Moving Image Program Manager at the Walker Art Center and the lead programmer for Nextwave, an international youth program at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (2004-present). The annual showcase of global features for family audiences, formerly known as Childish Films, expanded in recent years to include a youth (18 and under) filmmaking competition for which Girdwood mentors a youth selection committee and youth jury. For a decade (2005-15), Girdwood curated a monthly series, Childish Films, for the downtown Minneapolis Public Library, featuring artistic children's films and live arts engagements. She also worked in the performing arts for young audiences at Children’s Theatre Company (2006-2017), serving for four years as Director of Access and Inclusion. Before moving to Minneapolis in 2004, Deborah was the co-founder and a Managing Director and Programmer of the nonprofit film organization, Northwest Film Forum, in Seattle, Washington.

Emily Woodburne has worked in independent film distribution for nearly 20 years and currently oversees theatrical sales and distribution for Janus Films.

Currently the head of Programming at the Nashville Film Festival, Lauren has over six years experience working in the Film Festival and non-profit arts organization industry. With a primary background focusing on media literacy and programming, Lauren previously worked at Cinema/Chicago and the Chicago International Film Festival managing the Education Program. This included organizing year-round educational screenings for at-risk youth, a three-day international youth film festival (CineYouth) and assisting with festival programming. Through these experiences, Lauren has developed a passion for approaching film from both an entertainment perspective as well as a powerful teaching tool for cross-cultural understanding. Lauren graduated with a B.A. in Media and Cinema Studies and a Minor in History from DePaul University (Chicago, IL) in 2013. As a film theory professional, Lauren’s primary skills include executing community-driven programming, writing for film and educating youth on the power of film.

Before joining Vimeo in 2014, you could find Meghan cheering on filmmakers in the comments section of countless videos on their site. Today she serves as a member of Vimeo's curation team, for which she watches and curates thousands of short films a year. In October 2014, she created Ladies With Lenses, a collection of exceptional short films made by women, and, in pre-Covid times, hosted screenings featuring some of those films at venues such as Brooklyn Academy of Music, Museum of the Moving Image, and VICE. Find out more about the channel and screening series at @ladieswithlenses.

Judy K Suh is a filmmaker and artist based in Chicago. Her body of work consists of video installations, short films, and branded & commercial films. Her video installation works are often an experiment in merging cinematic content with physical space. She often works with projection mapping techniques to experiment. Her video installation works were shown at various contexts including iLight Singapore, BLINK Festival, Typeforce, CICA Museum, the Banff Centre, and will be featured at Currents New Media Festival in 2021. She has also made permanent installations for lobby spaces. Judy is an alumni of NFFTY with the screening of two short films, and is the winner of the inaugural Story Starts Here screenplay competition for Roberta's Living Room, which after completion went on to win 4 best picture awards and screen at 30+ film festivals around the world. She is a Silver Telly Award winner for a short documentary. She holds a BA in Film and Art at Northwestern University, and currently freelances as an art director in experiential design. www.judysuh.com

David Dinnell is a filmmaker, film curator and programmer currently living in Washington State where he is the Director of the Tacoma Film Festival. Dinnell is the co-founder and co-curator of Mur Murs, a Los Angeles-based film series that presents artists' cinema. He was recently Visiting Faculty at the California Institute of the Arts and in 2017-2018 was the curator for Canyon Cinema 50, an internationally touring program of historical experimental and avant-garde cinema.

Danielle Hinde started her career as a music video dancer, where she began a long-standing love affair with music videos. Today she operates her own company, Doomsday Entertainment, serving as both Executive Producer and as a Director’s Representative to filmmakers such as Hiro Murai, Savanah Leaf, James Lees, Claire Edmondson, Yoni Lappin, Remy Cayuela, Tristan Holmes and more! In addition to producing the documentary about MoCA’s street art exhibit, Outside In: The Story of Art in the Streets, she has recently overseen groundbreaking and award-winning videos for Marvin Gaye, David Guetta, Katy Perry, Juanes, Capital Cities, Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, One Republic, Die Antwoord, J Lo and hundreds more. Doomsday has also produced the Grammy winning feature film Nine Types of Light for TV On the Radio, and other short films including Clapping for the Wrong Reasons starring/written by Donald Glover, short film Today’s the Day starring Danny Devito which premiered at Tribeca, short film Identify Theft starring Kate Burton and Bill Irwin, and short film Exit starring Maria Bello which premiered at TIFF. Doomsday has also produced spots for Beats, Nike, Jordan, Doordash, Corona, Google, Gillette, Sonos, Lincoln, Microsoft and Apple to name a few. Most recently, Doomsday won Best Music Video at the 2019 Grammys for Childish Gambino’s “This Is America”, directed by Hiro Murai. Other awards include gold at the Clio and Ciclope festivals, and Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, as well as several Music Video Production Association Awards, MTV VMAs, Best Video at SXSW, Los Angeles Film Festival, Vimeo Awards, Director of the Year at UKMVA, and Best Music Video at the 2019 Latin Grammys. Danielle Hinde was nominated for Best Producer at UKMVA 2015. She is also a professor at USC for Film Production.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder of IMVDb.com and a Music Video Director’s Rep at Reprobates. He has been working in the music video industry for over 10 years and in that time has watched more music videos than anyone. He currently lives in Los Angeles, CA and likes to drink a lot of water.

Drea Clark is a longtime film festival programmer, currently at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival and Sundance, and previously with Slamdance and LA Film Fest, where she served as Senior Programmer. As a producer, Drea has released three independent features. Mo Perkins’ THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN (Gravitas Ventures), Mike Ott’s LAKE LOS ANGELES (Under the Milky Way), and Amber Sealey’s NO LIGHT AND NO LAND ANYWHERE (Factory 25), executive produced by Miranda July. She’s also produced numerous shorts, music videos, webseries, and a pilot for FX directed by Charlie Day titled WE’RE GOOD THANKS. She is currently Producer-in-Residence at Film Independent. Drea co-hosts Who Shot Ya, a movie podcast that’s not just straight white guys, on Maximum Fun, and Ticklish Business, a podcast devoted to honoring and deconstructing classic cinema.

In 2015, Tim was the youngest working director to ever screen in SXSW's Music Video section. Today, he is the oldest working director to still regularly struggle to tie his shoes. He aspires to: make stuff that shouldn't exist exist anyway, make wild, goofy spectacle with a heart secretly buried in it, make you uncomfortable, and be Edgar Wright. He was born in 1992 in an obscure corner of Texas, and is currently based in Pasadena.