Bedatri D. Choudhury is The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Arts and Entertainment Editor. Before this, she worked extensively with documentary films, particularly in the areas of program management and commissioning. She was most recently the Managing Editor of Documentary magazine, and is a programmer with DOCNYC, True False, and SFFILM. An alumna of the NYFF Critics Academy, Sundance and SXSW Press Inclusion Initiatives, the National Critics’ Institute, and Berlinale Talents, she can often be heard on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour.

James M. Johnston produced and directed Second Unit for the films The Green Knight, The Old Man and The Gun, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, and the upcoming Mother Mary from A24. He also directed Second Unit for Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy and Netflix’s Last Letter From Your Lover. He has directed multiple short films that have played to acclaim at festivals around the world, including the award-winning Melville, which IndieWire called one of the best American short films of 2015. Up next is his feature debut, Strawweight.

A veteran of the independent film scene, Ryan Krivoshey founded the award-winning distribution company Grasshopper Film in 2015, hailed as “one of the most artistically daring of distributors” (The New Yorker). With its adventurous slate, Grasshopper has built a reputation for introducing audiences to provocative documentaries and bold works from both emerging and celebrated filmmakers. In 2025, Ryan co-founded Correspondent, where he serves as President, a production company committed to developing artistic, cinematic, and boundary-pushing films.

Vera Brunner-Sung makes films exploring the intersections of identity and place. Her work has been presented at festivals, museums, and galleries internationally, including Sundance, the Torino Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, San Francisco International Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Images, and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Her first feature, Bella Vista, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2014 (Bright Future); her award-winning sophomore feature Bitterroot premiered in the US Narrative Competition at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. She is on the faculty in the Department of Radio/Televison/Film at Northwestern University.

Ashton Campbell is an Emmy award winning documentary director. He’s been in the industry for over 25 years and loves telling stories visually. So much so that he is now the Festival Director of the Oak Cliff Film Festival in additon to being a Partner at the historic Texas Theatre. His passion for improving the film and media community in Dallas has led him to become the Treasurer of the Dallas Producers Association and he occasionally teaches a documentary class at the Mediatech Institute. Recently, he joined the advisory committee for Screen Dallas.

Kelsey Taylor left her rural Washington to attend Loyola Marymount University, earning a degree in Film Production and minors in Film Studies and Music. Kelsey’s career began as a cinematographer and camera assistant before transitioning into directing. Her breakthrough sci-fi short, Alien: Specimin, was created through an initiative with 20th Century. Kelsey’s debut feature, To Kill a Wolf, is a modern reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood told through the lens of sexual grooming. The film premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival and was theatrically released 2025. Kelsey is a DGA member, and 2024 Film Independent Fellow.

With 20 years of experience in entertainment publicity, Kristin Shrader is currently an independent awards consultant working alongside the public relations teams at Warner Bros. Discovery, FOX Entertainment, and Netflix. Prior to launching her own firm, she oversaw communications for series and brand initiatives at the #1 entertainment cable network, USA. She previously held positions at Bravo, Oxygen Media, and Fuse TV where she executed unscripted series campaigns and corporate PR initiatives.

Kelly Williams is a creative producer and co-founder, with Jonathan Duffy, of Ten Acre Films. His credits include six features that have premiered at Sundance, including Light from Light, Sorry to Bother You (Independent Spirit Award winner), The Long Dumb Road, and Pit Stop (Independent Spirit Award nominee). Other films include: Mark, Mary & Some Other People (Tribeca 2021), No Future (Tribeca 2021), and I Used To Go Here (SXSW 2020) His latest production, What Happens Later, stars Meg Ryan and David Duchovny and opens in cinemas this November.

Neil Creque Williams produced the Miss Juneteenth (2020) with Sailor Bear and Leyline Entertainment. He’s been recognized as a producing fellow by Sundance, Austin Film Society and Gotham Cannes Producers. He is also an inaugural fellow in the Blumhouse/K Period Screamwriting lab for his horror script, The Plat-Eye. Neil serves as Head of Filmmaker Relations and Concierge Services at GATHR.