TAKING THE LEAP: MAKING YOUR FIRST FEATURE

Matthew grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in Brooklyn. His short film Dirty had its World Premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Award for Acting. His short film Lavender premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by Searchlight Pictures for an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run. It went on to screen at SXSW, Aspen, Palm Springs, Maryland, Outfest, and New Orleans film festivals, amongst others, and was nominated for Vimeo’s Best Drama of 2019. His previous short film The Mess He Made premiered at SXSW in 2017 and was a finalist for the Iris Prize.

Matthew is a 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellow, a member of the 2017 New York Film Festival Artist Academy, a recipient of the Richie Jackson Artist Fellowship and a Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 2019 25 New Faces of Independent Film and as one of Indiewire’s 25 LGBTQ Filmmakers On The Rise. He is currently developing his first feature film and in post-production on a short documentary.

Annabelle Attanasio is a writer and director. Annabelle’s first feature, MICKEY AND THE BEAR, tells the story of a teenage girl tasked with taking care of her single, veteran, opioid-addicted father in the small town of Anaconda, Montana. In 2019, MICKEY premiered at SXSW to critical acclaim, and went on to make its international premiere at Cannes Acid. Other notable festivals include Deauville, Marrakech, and Cameraimage. It was acquired and distributed by Utopia and holds an 100% rating on RottenTomatoes. Currently, she is writing her second feature film, which she will also direct. She is attached to write, direct and executive produce upcoming series THE PLAYERS TABLE.

Lance Oppenheim is a filmmaker from South Florida. His films have been screened at film festivals across the world including Sundance, Rotterdam, Tribeca, True/False, and featured at the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian. He was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film 2019," a 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellow, and noted in Variety's 2020 Power of Young Hollywood feature. He is the youngest contributor to The New York Times Op-Docs. Online, his films have appeared on The New York Times (as three Op-Docs), The Atlantic, Vimeo (as six Staff Picks), NoBudge, and Short of the Week. His first feature, SOME KIND OF HEAVEN, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The film was produced by Darren Aronofsky, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Media Fund. It will be distributed by Magnolia Pictures in 2021.

Chicago native, Kendall Goldberg is an LA-based writer/producer/director. At 22-years-old, Kendall’s feature directorial debut WHEN JEFF TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD — starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Jim O’Heir (Parks & Recreation), and Anna Konkle & Maya Erskine (PEN15) — was released by Gunpowder & Sky after winning the International Film Critics’ Prize at the 2018 Heartland Film Festival and the Indie Vision Breakthrough Performance Award at the 2018 Twin Cities Film Festival. Kendall graduated with a B.F.A. in Film Production from Chapman University where her thesis film won the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant, was a Student Academy Awards Semifinalist, and screened at over 50 festivals worldwide, including the AmPav Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. Most recently Kendall created and directed a docuseries pilot for Comedy Central, which follows comedian and actor Steve Berg as he introduces us to the cultures of his deepest fascinations — UFOs, the paranormal, urban legends, and non-traditional beliefs.

Kendall was a participant in this summer’s Big Vision Empty Wallet Level Up Lab, where she developed and pitched her latest feature film, SOMETHING HAPPENED IN FREEMONT COUNTY. She is signed with Chicago-based production company Strange Loop, where she has directed several music videos as well as commercials for Walgreens, The Second City, Meijer, RetailMeNot, and more. She was selected as a mentee for the 2019 Women In Film Mentoring Program and was a semifinalist for the 2020 Sundance Makers Episodic Lab.