Emily Cohen Ibañez (she/her/ella) is a Colombian-American filmmaker and screenwriter. Her documentary, BODIES AT WAR/MINA, about Colombian landmine survivors premiered at Bogotá’s International Film Festival (2015). Her feature doc, FRUITS OF LABOR, about a teenage farmworker, premiered at SXSW 2021, aired on PBS POV, and was nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award. You can find her short films online at The Intercept, TIME, PBS, and The Guardian. Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Perspective Fund, Chicken & Egg, Firelight Media, Film Independent, Cinereach, AWAW Environmental Arts Grant, BAVC and SFFILM support her filmwork. She earned a doctorate in Anthropology from NYU. www.emilycohenibanez.com

Project: ORQUÍDEA (pronounced Or-key-dee-ah and means Orchid in Spanish)

ORQUÍDEA is a hybrid documentary set in Colombia’s Amazon in the aftermath of war. The director, a Colombian filmmaker living in the diaspora, will act as our guide as she enters a film set under construction–a mythical labyrinth of flowers. Descending into the labyrinth she encounters unexpected alliances between biologists, indigenous elders, farmers, and ex-guerilla fighters who conserve orchid-filled jungles amid mass deforestation. In the final act of the film, participants stage their own dreams for a better future of ecological restoration.

Jalena Keane-Lee (she/her) is a filmmaker who explores intergenerational trauma and healing. Jalena was named one of DOC NYC’s 2024 40 Under 40 Filmmakers to Watch, a 2023 Adobe x Sundance Woman to Watch, and co-founded Breaktide, an all-women-of-color video production company that uplifts stories by and for the global majority. Jalena’s first feature-length documentary STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS premiered at HotDocs in 2024 where it won Best Social Impact Documentary. Jalena’s work has been shown at The Kennedy Center and The New York and San Francisco Museums of Modern Art. She is currently developing a fiction feature via the 2026 SFFilmHouse Residency and making hybrid and video installation work. http://www.jalenakeanelee.com/

Project: YELLOW WIDOW
In a world controlled by tech billionaires, a young Chinese American woman working with an Asian American vigilante group on a mission to target powerful white men who have Asian wives, infiltrates one of the most powerful families in Silicon Valley.

Justin Kim WooSŏk is a writer-director whose work focuses on diaspora, belonging, and our changing relationship with the natural world. Born in South Korea and raised in LA, he has lived and worked across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. His short fiction film SARAJIN was selected for the 2023 Indeed x Hillman Grad Rising Voices program and premiered at Tribeca. His documentary short film WHITE GRASS was selected for the 2022 Sundance Ignite program and premiered at HotDocs. He is a current SFFILM Sloan fellow and previously a recipient of the Sundance TAAF, Fulbright, Thomas J. Watson, Mortimer-Hays Brandeis, CJ x TIFF K-Story and Sony Pictures Classic x IFP Marcie Bloom fellowships. He is now working on his debut feature.

Project: THE GREEN CORRIDOR
Joseph Yoon, a Korean-American anthropologist, returns to his homeland on a Fulbright grant, drawn by rumors of a tiger’s reappearance in the DMZ - a creature long thought extinct on the peninsula. As he partners with a sound ecologist working along the border’s edge, their pursuit transforms into a confrontation with colonial ghosts, personal grief, and the limitations of human perception.

Jonathan Pickett is an Emmy-nominated director and producer whose documentary work captures intimate real-time stories with curiosity and playfulness. His work has been released through The New Yorker, GQ Magazine, Documentary+, Short of the Week; premiered at film festivals like SXSW, Tribeca, Big Sky, & Palm Springs; and been supported by the Sundance Institute, Sandbox Films, Mountainfilm, and DOC NYC. His film DEEP IN MY HEART IS A SONG won Best Shot on 16mm at HollyShorts before debuting as a Vimeo Staff Pick. A NEW INFERNO (co-directed with Nita Blum-Reddick) world premiered at SXSW 2026, and will release this summer with The New York Times Op-Docs.

Project: SING AT MY WAKE 
At the world’s first human composting facility, a passionate team works to expand access to sustainable deathcare. SING AT MY WAKE follows their efforts while chronicling the emotional journey of a family embracing this novel end-of-life option.

Grammy-nominated and multiple Emmy-winning director and producer Lisa Cortés generates bold, explosive art that shines light on important stories hidden from view. From executive-producing the Academy Award®-winning film, PRECIOUS, to producing and directing 2023’s “enthralling documentary” (Variety Magazine) LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING, Cortés continues to spark cultural conversation through works of exceptional impact and artistry. Most recently, ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS, a documentary that Cortés executive-produced, won an Academy Award®.

Spirit Award nominee for film producer of the year, with over 150 producing credits, including the first film ever to win three prizes at Sundance, Gill is a former lawyer, founded sonaBLAST! Records (whence he gives free music to indie filmmakers).  He plays well with others, and is involved in many other things like start-ups, Appalachian revitalization (Harlan County Beer Company), and serves on many civic and cultural boards.  He is involved in post-production presently with a doc on Sun Ra, and five features (one may be actually good!), and helping out on some shorts too.  

Emmy, Guggenheim, and Sundance award-winning duo Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson co-founded Rada Studio to balance their family life with their passion for the arts. Together, they have built an impressive portfolio of fiction films, documentaries, immersive XR installations, and books. Through a Black Atlantic lens, they reimagine narratives of resistance and healing, weaving fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms that center a Black Radical tradition and the lived experiences of the Black diaspora exemplified by their genre bending works: Changing Same XR, Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games, The Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and they are currently in post-production on Untitled Paul, a film about the life and legacy of activist and storyteller Paul Robeson. 

Ellen Kuras, ASC is a world-renowned Academy Award®–nominated, two-time Primetime Emmy–winning American director and cinematographer known for her visionary work across feature films, documentaries, music films, and commercials in both independent and studio settings. A pioneering figure and one of the first women admitted to the American Society of Cinematographers in 1999, she is recognized for her visually striking work on ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, BLOW, and SUMMER OF SAM, and is a three-time Sundance Excellence Award winner for Best Dramatic Cinematography. Her many honors include two Primetime Emmys, the Kodak Vision Award, the Women in Film Muse Award, and the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award—the first woman to receive it—while also serving on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As a director, her debut documentary THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON) earned Academy Award and Spirit Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy win. She has directed acclaimed television projects including THE NIGHT OF, OZARK, CATCH-22, INVENTING ANNA, and THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, and has collaborated closely with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Michel Gondry. Her recent work includes directing on KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, filming AMERICAN UTOPIA, and her narrative feature debut LEE, starring Kate Winslet, with upcoming projects including Apple TV's 12 12 12 and the finale of HBO’s DUNE: PROPHECY.