Mourning Sacrifice is a contemporary detective noir short film that explores how even the most altruistic love can turn monstrous.
Rachael Abigail Holder
Rachael Holder is a writer and a filmmaker from New York. She’s a first-generation American. Holder has a playwriting MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has directed episodes of several television shows and a few shorts. Holder has written several irreverent dramedies — funny movies about sensitive people.
Violet Du Feng
Violet Du Feng is an Emmy-winning filmmaker, a documentary branch member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, and adjunct professor at Columbia University. She has directed, produced, and executive-produced 13 documentaries, including Hidden Letters. Her producing credits include Night of Nights, Singing in the Wilderness, and Please Remember Me.
Sierra Falconer
Sierra Falconer is a Michigan-raised, Los Angeles–based screenwriter and film director. She holds a BFA in film theory from Wesleyan University and an MFA in film directing from UCLA. Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) is Falconer’s feature directorial debut.
Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz
Michelle Walshe is a New Zealand–based director celebrated for Chasing Great, the nation’s highest-grossing documentary. Co-founder of Dark Doris Entertainment (Girl on the Bridge) and executive producer of Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles, she creates films that blend intimate storytelling with global relevance to inspire social change.
Lindsay Utz is an award-winning editor who has worked on documentaries including American Factory, which won Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020; Martha; the Oscar short-listed Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry; Miss Americana; and Quest. Prime Minister is her feature directorial debut.
Cristina Costantini
Cristina Costantini is an Emmy Award–winning director. She started as an investigative journalist, covering immigration and the opioid crisis. Her first film, Science Fair (2018 Sundance Festival, Festival Favorite Award), was turned into a series for National Geographic. Her second film, Mucho Mucho Amor (2020 Sundance Film Festival), was acquired by Netflix.
Amel Guellaty
Amel Guellaty is a Tunisian director. After two award-winning short films, Black Mamba and Chitana, she made her feature debut, Where the Wind Comes From, in 2025, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Guellaty is also a photographer, published in different magazines including Elle France.
Aurora Brachman and LaTajh Simmons-Weaver
Aurora Brachman (2020 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship) is an Emmy Award-winning documentary director, producer, and cinematographer. Her films use poetic storytelling to witness intimate relationships within Black, brown, and Queer communities. Aurora is committed to ethical and collaborative filmmaking and holds an MFA in Documentary Film from Stanford University.
LaTajh Simmons-Weaver is a producer and director in both the narrative and documentary spaces and is an Oakland, California native. In their work, they are dedicated to reclaiming and telling the overlooked stories of Black and Queer intersectionality and exploring ways these communities learn to cope with everyday injustices.
Maia Lekow
Maia Lekow is a renowned Kenyan musician and filmmaker. Currently performing internationally with her band Maia & the Big Sky, Lekow fuses her music with a fascination of people and culture to make films as a documentary director, producer, composer, and sound recordist.
Erin Brown Thomas
Erin Brown Thomas crafts dramas that masquerade as comedies until delivering an emotional gut punch. Her work explores the perils of unchecked ambition and satirizes social imbalances, blending tones into genre cocktails. As artistic director of the Salute Your Shorts Film Festival, she champions other emerging filmmakers.
Flora Lau
Born and raised in Hong Kong, educated in the U.S., Flora Lau passionately weaves social and cultural contexts into her visually rich narratives. Her debut feature, Bends, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, marking her entry onto the global stage.
Kate Beecroft
Writer and director Kate Beecroft is a Los Angeles native who graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Her background in acting has given her a deep love and respect for those she works with on camera, whether professional or non-actors.
Geeta Gandbhir
Geeta Gandbhir is an award-winning filmmaker and the co-founder of Message Pictures. Her directing credits include Reclaimed for Sesame Workshop, The Devil is Busy, the Oscar-shortlisted film How We Get Free, Born in Synanon, Eyes on the Prize, and the Emmy-winning Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power.
Winter Coleman
Winter Coleman is a filmmaker and photographer currently based in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on healing, suffering, identity, and the small indignities that ultimately shape who we become.