Nico Baumbach holds a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke University. His research and teaching focus on critical theory, film theory, documentary, and the intersection of aesthetic and political philosophy. full profile 

Jane M. Gaines is Professor of Film, Columbia University, and Professor Emerita of Literature and English, Duke University who in 2018 received the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Distinguished Career Award and in 2021 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm, Sweden. full profile 

Racquel Gates is the author of Double Negative: The Black image and Popular Culture. Her research focuses on Black film and media, reality television, and popular culture more broadly. full profile 

Ron Gregg writes and teaches about queer cinema (both Hollywood and experimental), classical and contemporary Hollywood, and the impact of globalization and digital technology on recent Hollywood film. full profile 

Annette Insdorf is the author of Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes; Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has; Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski; Francois Truffaut; Philip Kaufman, and the landmark study, Indelible Shadows: Fil full profile 

Rob King is a film historian with interests in American genre cinema, popular culture, and social history. Much of his work has been on comedy. full profile 

Richard Peña has been at Columbia since 1989, becoming full time in 1996 and being named Professor of Professional Practice in 2003. full profile 

James Schamus is an award-winning screenwriter (The Ice Storm), producer (Brokeback Mountain), director (Indignation), and former CEO of Focus Features. Recent credits include The Assistant, Driveways, Adam, and the limited series Somos. full profile 

Lance Weiler is a storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader. An alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, he is recognized as a pioneer in mixing storytelling and technology. full profile 

Fabio Andrade is a film scholar, critic, and filmmaker. His work has been published by Berlinale, Criterion, and Kino Lorber, and he has worked on films by Thomas Elsaesser and Gabriel Mascaro, among others.  full profile 

Loren-Paul Caplin has written scripts for many of the major studios (Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros.), Hollywood producers and Independent producers, including Laura Ziskin, Joe Roth, Robert Harris, Ben Barenholtz, and Ira Deutchman. full profile 

Author, co-author or editor of 15 books. Taught film history for 20 years at the Cooper Union, also NYU, Harvard and Columbia. Published in the New York Review of Books, Artforum, New York Times, Tablet, The Nation, and elsewhere. Film critic at the Village Voice, 1978-2010. full profile 

Jason LaRiviere received his PhD in Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. His writing has appeared in boundary 2, e-flux, The Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. He is working on a book incorporating data compression archeology, psychophysics of perceptual coding, and digital philosophy. full profile 

A former lawyer in his native Romania, Bogdan George Apetri is an European director and producer based in New York. His directing and producing work screened and won awards at Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Sundance & Toronto. full profile 

Ramin Bahrani is an Academy Award® nominated Iranian-American filmmaker. His cinematic oeuvre is housed in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Roger Ebert proclaimed Bahrani as “the director of the decade” in 2010. full profile 

Andy Bienen received a BA from New York University, an MA from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in Film from Columbia University School of the Arts. He cowrote Boys Don't Cry with Kimberly Peirce '96, director of the film. full profile 

Hilary Brougher, a member of of the MFA Film Program in Directing, is a screenwriter and director whose films include South Mountain 2019, Stephanie Daley 2007 and The Sticky Fingers of Time 1997. full profile 

Ira Deutchman is an independent film producer, marketer and distributor. He was a founder of Cinecom and later created Fine Line Features—two companies that helped define the independent film business. He was co-founder of Emerging Pictures, the first digital projection network in the US. full profile 

Writer-director Katherine Dieckmann’s most recent feature film, Strange Weather, starring Holly Hunter and Carrie Coon, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and opened theatrically in 2017. full profile 

Professor Trey Ellis is an Emmy Award winning screenwriter, an American Book Award Winning novelist, and playwright. He has written screenplays for, among others, Columbia Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, HBO and Showtime. full profile 

A pioneer in American Independent Cinema, Bette Gordon is known for her bold explorations of themes related to sexuality, violence and power. full profile 

Jamal Joseph has written and directed for Black Starz, HBO, Fox TV, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and A&E. His produced screenplays include Ali: An American Hero (Fox), New York Undercover (Fox), Knights of the South Bronx (A&E), and The Many Trials of Tammy B. (Nickelodeon). full profile 

Kalin’s Swoon won prizes at Sundance, Berlin, Stockholm & the Gotham Awards. Savage Grace premiered in Cannes, opened Zurich and screened internationally. He produced I Shot Andy Warhol and Go Fish. He directed the first episode of Pride for FX, which airs 2021. full profile 

David Klass has written feature screenplays for all the major studios, including: Kiss the Girls starring Morgan Freeman, Desperate Measures starring Michael Keaton, Walking Tall starring The Rock, and most recently Emperor starring Tommy Lee Jones.  full profile 

Christina Lazaridi is an Academy Award nominated screenwriter and an expert in dynamic story design and audience response. Projects she has authored, or actively developed, have won awards at Cannes and Berlin, Oberhousen, Serajevo, Sundance, SXSW, the Ariels, and more. full profile 

Jack Lechner’s producing credits include The New Yorker Presents, Blue Valentine, and The Fog Of War. As an executive, he was involved in movies like The Crying Game, Good Will Hunting, and The Full Monty. full profile 

Mynette Louie is an Emmy-nominated, Spirit Award-winning producer. Credits include I Carry You With Me, Swallow, The Tale, The Invitation, and Land Ho! She was named one of Business Insider’s “12 Movie Producers at the Top of Their Game to Watch in 2020 & Beyond.” full profile 

Eric Mendelsohn's feature debut, Judy Berlin, starring The Sopranos' Edie Falco was an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), won Best Director at Sundance, Best Independent Film at the Hamptons Film Festival and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. full profile 

Maureen A. Ryan is a producer based in concentrating on narrative and documentary feature films. She is co-producer of James Marsh’s Academy Award-winning documentary Man on Wire and the author of Producer to Producer: A Step-by-Step Guide to Low Budget, Independent Film Producing. full profile 

Blair Singer is an Emmy-nominated New York-based television writer and playwright. Most recently, he served as the Co-Executive Producer on the upcoming Fox show, Filthy Rich, starring Kim Cattrall. full profile 

Sex Guaranteed by writer/director Brad Barnes, Romance & Cigarettes and Illuminata by writer/director John Turturro, and Luminous Motion, Handsome Harry, and Border Crossing directed by Bette Gordon are among June Stein’s most recent film appearances. full profile 

Lance Weiler is a storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader. An alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, he is recognized as a pioneer in mixing storytelling and technology. full profile 

Peter Ackerman was a writer and producer on the award winning FX series, The Americans and on the upcoming Amazon series, Amazing Stories. He co-wrote the movies, Ice Age, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Angry Birds 2.  full profile 

Vito Adriaensens (PhD, MFA) is a Belgian filmmaker, writer, and cinema and performing arts scholar. He specializes in the interaction between (early) cinema and the arts and works primarily on celluloid. full profile 

Adam Bernstein is an Emmy® and Peabody Award winning director whose work spans across television, film and music videos. Bernstein directed the pilot episodes for Scrubs, Alpha House and Strangers with Candy. full profile 

Joe Cacaci co-created the CBS prime time series The Trials of Rosie O’Neill, starring Sharon Gless and has been the Executive Producer of two prime time series, SHOWTIME ‘s The Hoop Life and CBS’s The Education of Max Bickford. He wrote and directed the final episode of The Hoop Life. full profile 

Michael is an audiovisual artist, sound designer, composer and technical specialist with a wide range of professional experience in the sonic and visual arts. full profile 

Laurie Collyer is a writer/director living in Brooklyn, NY. full profile 

Jeannie Donohoe is an award-winning filmmaker and a recent fellow in the 2019-2021 Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directors Program. This past fall, she was a director trainee on Sony and HBO Max’s Gordita Chronicles. full profile 

Harris Doran wrote and directed the short film F^¢K '€M R!GHT [email protected]¢K (2022 Sundance Film Festival). full profile 

Richard Dresser is a playwright and novelist and has worked extensively in TV. He is President of the Writers Guild Initiative, which does writing workshops all over the country with those whose voice is not being heard. full profile 

Matthew Farrell has worked in NYC Film & Television since 2009 as a member of I.A.T.S.E. Local 52 (Shame, Place Beyond the Pines, Boardwalk Empire) and graduated from Columbia University's School of the Arts in 2017 with an MFA in Film Directing. full profile 

Kathy Greenberg is a Writer/Creator of Ratatouille, Gnomeo and Juliet, Sherlock Gnomes, L Word and Imposters. Formerly an Executive at Working Title Films/Universal, Jim Henson, and Tristar, she is graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. full profile 

Michael Hausman has been in the Motion Picture Industry for over five decades. Starting as a production assistant he has worked with many directors as a producer and assistant director on films including: Brokeback Mountain, Gangs of New York, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and more. full profile 

Mark Sean Haynes is a New York based post production supervisor and producer. He graduated from Columbia University's film MFA program in 2016 as a directing concentrate. Films he has served on have played in Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, Venice, and Sundance. full profile 

Writer / Director Rachel Israel is a NYC based filmmaker and an adjunct professor of film at Rhode Island School of Design. She received her BFA with Honors from RISD and her MFA in Film with Honors from Columbia University.  full profile 

Born and raised in India, Sushma is a writer/director based in New York City. A storyteller with a passion for women’s rights and immigrant narratives, Sushma’s stories often explore/challenge the idea of home, identity, and the myth of the American Dream. full profile 

Elizabeth Kling is a filmmaker working as Editor and Producer in both film and television. As Editor she worked on films such as Zebrahead, The Thin Blue Line, Georgia, Addicted to Love, Practical Magic, and the pilots for Big Love, The Killing, and others. full profile 

Dana Kuznetzkoff produced or managed such diverse projects from HBO’s pilot episode Boardwalk Empire to their acclaimed series The Wire and NBC’s Smash. full profile 

Tal Lazar is a Cinematographer, Producer and Educator. He moved from Tel Aviv, Israel in 2007 to pursue an MFA in Cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Hollywood. full profile 

Ben is a filmmaker and creative director for virtual reality. Combining cutting-edge technology with creative storytelling and a love of genre, he conveys narratives in ways no one has seen before. full profile 

Valerie Castillo Martinez is a Filipina American filmmaker who founded her company IndieFlip, to make films that deal with underrepresented subjects, cross-cultural themes and flipping the usual narratives. full profile 

Lisa Milinazzo (Director/Playwright, Theatre, Film): Directing Award Nominations: Barbara Whitman Directing Award; Alan Schneider Freelance Directing award, Best Director Award, Origin Theatre 2019, Best Director & Best Ensemble, L.A. Weekly Awards. full profile 

Stephen Molton is a screenwriter, producer, librettist, author, and former film executive. His books include Brave Talk and Brothers in Arms: The Kennedys, the Castros and the Politics of Murder (co-authored with Gus Russo), selected by its publisher as a Pulitzer Prize nominee. full profile 

Mike O’Brien is an experienced audio professional well-versed in all aspects of location sound. In his far-reaching career, Mike has seen and done it all: ENG, EFP, multi-camera live events, and narrative and documentary films.   full profile 

Diana Peralta is a director, writer, and producer. Her debut feature film, De Lo Mio (HBO), had its world premiere as the closing night film of BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and was picked up for distribution by HBO in 2020. full profile 

Producer and executive in the entertainment industry for over 25 years including studio/independent feature films and network and premium television. Currently COO and head of production for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions full profile 

James Price (Acting For Directors and Screenwriters) is the Founding Director of The Acting Studio - New York and Chelsea Repertory Company where he has trained generations of actors and teachers since their inceptions in 1983 and 1984 respectively. full profile 

Jeremy Robbins was a producer on The Spiderwick Chronicles for Apple, Paramount, and Barry Sonnenfeld. He’s developing a tv series with Adam McKay and Hyperobject Industries, a project for WBTV and DC Comics, and his feature APEX was on the 2021 Blacklist. full profile 

Shrihari Sathe is an Independent Spirit Award-winning producer. His feature directorial debut 1000 Rupee Note has received over 30 awards. Sathe is a member of PGA, IMPPA, and AMPAS. full profile 

Beth Schacter is showrunner/EP of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber & Billions. Previous credits for television: Soundrtrack, Bunheads, Seal Team, Quantico. She wrote & directed Normal Adolescent Behavior which was her 2nd year Columbia Film Screenplay. full profile 

David Schwab has been a professor of screen writing at the Graduate Film School at Columbia University since 2014. Mr. Schwab has written for Scott Rudin, Warner Brothers, Animal Logic, Hollywood Pictures, Propaganda, and Paramount Pictures. full profile 

Ramin Serry has written and directed two critically-acclaimed feature films, Maryam (2002) and Loveless (2011). His short films have been official selections at several film festivals. full profile 

Shira-Lee Shalit is an award-winning director of film and theatre. Chosen by Steven Spielberg out of 12,000 filmmakers, she was one of 18 Finalists for the Fox/Dreamworks show, On the Lot. full profile 

Jon directed, co-wrote, and produced Urbania, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. full profile 

Mary Jane Skalski is a New York based producer working in both film and television. full profile 

Mikael Södersten has over 25 years of experience in the Nordic film and television industries. Widely known as one of Scandinavia's leading script doctors and dramaturgs, he’s worked on over 80 projects in Europe and his native Sweden. full profile 

Kaiser Wahab represents startup ventures to Fortune 500 companies on the range of corporate, venture capital, contract, and intellectual property issues that confront businesses. full profile 

Stuart Weinstock is a writer, a director, and a professor of Film. He earned his BA in Film Studies and Psychology from Columbia College, and his MFA in Directing from Columbia's School of the Arts. His short films have screened and won awards at film festivals worldwide. full profile 

Anthony Weintraub is an accomplished screenwriter, film and TV producer and director, with a foot in industries ranging from feature films, television and children’s media to branding and communications. full profile 

Zealey Bess, is an award-winning filmmaker, theatre director and educator. She has been directing theatre and film, specializing in new work since she arrived on these shores and established her company, Weird Sisters, as a theatrical entity in 1997.   full profile