CALENDAR

Dr. in Cinema Studies (University of Athens), has a Master’s Degree in Audiovisual & Cinema (Nouvelle Sorbonne Paris III), studied TV & Cinema Directing (Stavrakos Cinema School, Athens), English Literature (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki) and Interior Design (Dimitrelis School of Arts). So far, she created 4 short films as producer /director /screenwriter. Final Instance (2003, fiction), Inner Land (2015, fiction) (40 festivals & 20 international awards), With open wings (2017, documentary) (25 festivals & 5 international awards), Krisi (2019, experimental). She is a Sarajevo Film Festival talent alumni (2016) and her script “Hansel” was at the Pack & Pitch of the same year. In 2018, her script “Lost & Found” won the Greek Film Academy Award at the Short Film Fund competition. At the moment she is working at the University of Athens, and is in progress of her short animation “Lost & Found”.

Originally from Norman, Oklahoma, John received his MFA in Film & TV Production from USC and his BA from UCLA in Theatre Directing and Playwriting. John co-founded production company Shatterproof Films, which specializes in genre-based films with topical social messages. He screened his short film “Dembanger” at Screamfest in 2013 and “The Labyrinth” in 2015. “Initiation,” a remake of “Dembanger”, is a topical reinvention of the slasher genre for the social media generation. He couldn't be more excited to come back home to Screamfest for his directorial debut.

Jason Cook is writer/director from Los Angeles. With a background in advertising that started in design and animation, and transcended into commercial directing, Jason has a unique approach to storytelling. His love of comedy led him to join forces with SUPERFUNNY, a live comedy variety show where he wears many hats as director, producer, and brand director. Jason's sensibility straddles the line between the everyday banality of life and the surreal. Pretty much, he's always down to get weird.

Fucking Ghosts was one idea that just wouldn't go away. An itch that needed scratching. A once in a lifetime opportunity to shoot a ghost orgy.

Born in 1988, Tommie Geraedts is a director working from Amsterdam. With a background in design and visual effects he weaves the fabrics of these disciplines together with live action to tell his stories. He is increasingly interested in human stories that border the metaphysical but always grounded in todays world.
He has been commissioned to direct films for the van Gogh museum, Stedelijk Museum, T-mobile, Dell and Videoland amongst many others that went on to get millions of views. One time, many years ago, he even turned down Kanye to go travelling with his best mate (true story).

Niels Bourgonje (1980) is an award-winning short film and commercial director based in Amsterdam. Niels graduated with the short thriller BURN, which was selected for several international film festivals winning numerous awards. Since then, his short films have consistently been selected for Academy Award qualifying festivals like Palm Springs ShortFest, Seattle International Film Festival, HollyShorts International Film Festival, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, Odense International Film Festival, Izmir International Short Film Festival, Brussels Short Film Festival and Leuven Kortfilm. His most recent films, TURN IT AROUND and SWIPE, garnered over one hundred film festival selections. Niels signed with WME after the premiere of his new short SWIPE. His latest films are WOODLAND CEMETERY and BARRIER. He is currently developing his feature debut.

Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz is a Chilean writer-director based in Los Angeles, California where he received an MFA in Directing from the AFI Conservatory. He is a Fulbright Scholarship Award recipient and winner of the 2020 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship for diverse emerging directors. His short films and music videos have been presented at dozens of film festivals around the globe, including the New York Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival. Juan Pablo has also won various international prizes including Best Director, Best Iberoamerican Short Film, and the prestigious Prix Courtoujours at Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, a French festival dedicated to the best of Latin American cinema. Aspiring to tell stories that are both entertaining and thought-provoking, Juan Pablo is developing several television series and features that dissect morally-conflicted characters through elevated genre and magical realism.

Esteban Garcia Vernaza is a Colombian filmmaker based in New York. His films usually revolve around suspense and horror. After working in Colombia as a freelance editor, Esteban moved to New York City to pursue an MFA in Film Directing at Columbia University. Esteban’s Thesis Film Silento was awarded a production grant from the Colombian Film Fund, received Jury Honors, an IFP Audience Award and the National Board of Review Student Production Grant during the past Columbia University Film Festival.

Director/Writer: Gordon Shoemaker is a very tall human (6'5") from a lovely farm in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2014 and currently lives in New York City with his producer, fiancé, and creative partner, Elizabeth Barchi.

In 2018, Gordon's first independent short film, “Lara,” screened at the Garden State Film Festival in New Jersey, the Soho International Film Festival in NYC, and six other festivals, including the PA Indie Short Film Festival where he won the award for Best Local Director. Also, in September 2018, “Lara” won five awards at the Independent Shorts Awards, including Gold for Best First Time Director.

Producer/Co-Director: Dr. Elizabeth Barchi is a dance medicine specialist working at NYU Essex Crossing in Manhattan. Elizabeth has brought her passion for choreography to Gordon's sets, where she plays a major role in setting and sculpting the action. Her skills and experiences from life and death situations in medicine have translated well to the insanity of film production. Elizabeth is also Assistant Company Doctor for legendary dance company Alvin Ailey and Assistant Director of the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries.

Merlin Camozzi is a filmmaker creating work both independently and on behalf of global brands such as Sprite, Coca-Cola, Uber, Morgan Stanley and ARRI. Merlin’s work has been featured in publications including Vice, Out Magazine, Booooooom, Flaunt Magazine, and Director’s Notes, and his short films have shown at festivals around the world. Awards received include the Cirque du Soleil Emerging Artist Fellowship and the MPAA Directing Award. Recently, Merlin was selected as a directing fellow for the Kyoto Filmmakers Lab, wrote and directed a package of digital shorts for Eli Roth’s Crypt TV, and created a promo spot and related content for a Coca-Cola project featuring Olivia Wilde. Merlin holds an MFA in film directing from UCLA.

Joanna Tsanis is an award-winning writer, producer, and filmmaker. Her directorial debut Imagine a World (2019), a satirical horror short, premiered at Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2019 and screened in multiple festivals around the world including Mórbido Film Fest in Mexico City and Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio where she won the award for ‘Best Director, Short’.

Joanna wrote and produced Eleftheromania (2018), a WWII-era short film starring Academy Award Winner Olympia Dukakis. The film screened at several festivals worldwide, including Raindance Film Festival. Joanna won the award for ‘Best Short Screenplay’ at Mindfield Film Festival, and the award for ‘Best Drama’ at Toronto Shorts International Film Festival.

Joanna recently directed the dramatic horror short Mourn, starring Lynne Griffin of the cult classic Black Christmas (1974). The film will screen at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles, the largest and longest running horror festival in the United States.

Formerly a comic book critic for the Toronto Standard, Joanna has a varied history with storytelling. She has produced numerous branded videos, both animated and live-action. Her branded documentary short Girls Helping Girls screened at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the 2017 Gabby Awards.

In addition to freelance producing, Joanna also works at the award-winning film studio Landed Entertainments where she produces both short and long-form content including a documentary on job recruitment in the United States, eight genre shorts, and a feature-length horror anthology film (currently filming).

Joanna actively lends her production experience to student filmmakers at Ryerson University where she ran an alumni film festival and managed a grant and mentorship program for film students in continuing education.

Trish Harnetiaux is a playwright, novelist, and co-creator of short dark comedies. Current projects include her play Bender and Brian, a new play commission: California, and the narrative podcast The MS Phoenix Rising, a serial podcast about a cruise ship conglomerate using avant-garde theatre to rebrand on their latest voyage. She’s developed or presented work with Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, JACK, Soho Rep, Ars Nova, Incubator Arts Project, NYU and Playwright’s Horizons. MFA in playwriting Brooklyn College. Harnetiaux was an Executive Producer on the off-beat comedy series Driver Ed that premiered at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. Residencies include: MacDowell, Yaddo, The Millay Colony, and SPACE at Ryder Farm.

Director- Marc Van Holt is a visual storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. Marc is an MFA student at the University of Southern California majoring in Film and Television Production with an emphasis in visual effects and directing in a virtual world. Marc is set to graduate in May 2021. He currently works part time as a videographer and editor for USC Dornsife and local independent film productions in Los Angeles.

Writer/Producer/Cinematographer- Alyssa Amer is a graduate of New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study with an interdisciplinary study in business and dramatic writing. During college, she worked as a distribution consultant at FilmDistrict and interned at Scott Rudin Productions, The Weinstein Company, and FilmNation Entertainment. She has produced ten short films. Alyssa moved to Los Angeles after spending most of her life in New York City. Upon moving to Los Angeles, she worked as an Executive Assistant, Coordinator, and Jr. Accountant at numerous entertainment companies. During the summer of 2016, she attended a feature film class taught by James Franco and co-wrote a feature film produced by Elysium Bandini Studios. She has also written film shorts for the online horror channel Crypt TV. In addition to writing, she worked as one of the Assistant Directors for 2018 Oscar Nominated short film, DeKalb Elementary.

Currently, her academic track at USC is cinematography with a focus in horror filmmaking. In addition to traditional filmmaking practices, she studies virtual production utilizing animation, motion capture, and gaming engines. She plans to pursue an interdisciplinary oriented career in filmmaking.

Sia Aleskovskaya is a director, writer and a production designer currently based in Los Angeles, California. Sia grew up in Moscow, Russia and moved to the US in 2012. She graduated New York Film Academy in 2019. Sia's previous film "Faces" premiered at Scottsdale Short Film Festival. Her next films - comedy "All men are pigs (?)" and gothic horror "The Last Leaf" are set to premiere in 2020. Sia has a strong interest in telling women's stories through a female eye. Sia is an active member of the LGBT community and hopes to bring more underrepresented voices to screen.