Mourning Sacrifice is a contemporary detective noir short film that explores how even the most altruistic love can turn monstrous.
Natalia León
Natalia León was born in Mexico City in 1997. She left Mexico at the age of 17 to study at the ENSAD in Paris, specializing in animation. Passionate about writing and storytelling, León completed her training at The School of Visual Arts in New York.
Mansi Maheshwari
Mansi Maheshwari is a writer, director, and animator based in London and India. Her filmmaking is a genre-defying crazy journey. Her mad but poignant graduation film Bunnyhood premiered and won Third Prize in the La Cinef selection at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Chloé Robichaud
Quebec filmmaker Chloé Robichaud has stood out twice at the Cannes Film Festival with Herd Leader (2012) and Sarah Prefers to Run (2013). She has since directed several films, including Days of Happiness (2023 Toronto International Film Festival), and now shares her fourth feature, Two Women (2025 Sundance Film Festival).
Cansu Baydar
Cansu Baydar is an Istanbul-based filmmaker. Her first short film, Neredeyse Kesinlikle Yanlış (Almost Certainly False), was selected to premiere at the 81st La Biennale Venice International Film Festival Orizzonti Short Films Competition.
Rachel Fleit
Award-winning filmmaker Rachel Fleit has quickly risen as an auteur known for telling intimate, nuanced stories. Her recent films include Bama Rush, which was the number one most-watched launch for a Max Original Documentary, and Introducing, Selma Blair, which was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Nadia Fall
Nadia Fall is CEO and artistic director of Theatre Royal Stratford East and was a former associate artist at the National Theatre. Her screen work includes Bush (2019), No Masks (2020), and Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (2020). She was named a 2023 Screen Star of Tomorrow as a writer-director.
Loren Waters
Loren Waters is an award-winning Cherokee and Kiowa filmmaker whose creative work spans several disciplines, including directing, producing, and casting. Her work centers on environmental knowledge, culture revitalization, and Indigenous futurity through storytelling.
Elli Vuorinen
Elli Vuorinen is an animation artist who lives and works in rural Finland. Her works often strike a balance between surreal, symbolic, and playful. While her approach is often humorous, her films explore significant themes, such as melancholy, humanity, and social structures.
Bri Klaproth
Bri Klaproth is a writer, director, and producer. Her producing credits include Vimeo Staff Pick for Herly and the viral short The Cowboy and the Samurai. Her debut feature, Big Fun, which she co-wrote and produced, won Best Comedy Film at the 2023 Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.
Chien-Yu Lin
Taiwan-based, Chien-Yu Lin is a director and screenwriter. Before studying at the London Film School in 2016, she worked as a fashion designer and dedicated herself to experimental media production. Her debut short film, The Sound of Falling, won an award in the 2019 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
Kaitlyn Mikayla
Kaitlyn Mikayla, a former motocross champion, transitioned into fashion photography and directing, with work featured on Times Square billboards and national TV. Now, her passion for film inspires her first steps into narrative on 16mm, blending her artistic vision with a love for her childhood in motocross.
Shoshannah Stern
Shoshannah Stern first saw herself at seven when Marlee Matlin won her Oscar. This is Stern’s directorial debut. She recurred on Weeds, Supernatural, and Grey’s Anatomy; created, wrote, and starred in SundanceTV’s This Close; and wrote for Marvel’s Echo. Her writing has been in the NYT and LA Times.
Amandine Thomas
Amandine Thomas is a French-American writer-director, editor, and the co-founder of the production company Thumper Films. Their short film, Viaje de Negocios, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Previously her first short, Cherry Cola, played at film festivals internationally.