2026 MHFF Filmmakers

A Culinary Uprising – Annie Laurie Medonis
Annie Laurie is a director and producer of short films, documentaries, and animation videos. Her passion for film has led her to travel all over the United States for film festivals, talks, and panels. She loves creating and telling stories that uplift and inspire people, often evoking strong emotions, and doesn’t limit herself to any one genre of film. She has received multiple awards, a nomination, and several official selections for her short films and documentaries on a diverse array of topics including domestic violence, female athletes, and cats.

Since starting work on A Culinary Uprising: The Story of Bloodroot, in December of 2020, Annie Laurie has had a whole new perspective on what it means to be a woman and a feminist. She is drawn to working with women entrepreneurs and artists. Inspired by Bloodroot’s 45 years of community impact and the tenacity of its founders, Selma and Noel, Annie Laurie created the women’s artist collective, Women Artists in Action. It provides female artists in the Boston area opportunities to create art, inspire one another, and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Annie Laurie truly believes that we all have the power to make an impact in this world, and it starts with community.

A Suspended Tide (Une marégraphie suspendue) – Félix Caraballo
Félix Caraballo is a filmmaker and visual artist working in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and N’dakina/Marieville. His practice takes the form of films, live 16mm projections and installations. His work questions the relationships between landscapes, their components and the singular properties of analog processes.

After The Silence (Après le silence) – Jean-François Cameron, a Jean-François Cameron is a self-taught Montreal filmmaker who combines his technical expertise with a unique artistic vision. He has written and directed several short films, one of which was officially selected at the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma (RVQC). His creative approach is distinguished by a keen focus on performance and a strong visual style.

Anyway, I Piss Sitting Down (Anyway, j’pisse assis) – Zak Slattery
Zak Slattery is a filmmaker from Gatineau, Quebec. In 2022, they graduated from Concordia University with a BFA in the Film Production program at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. During their studies at Concordia, they directed Beyond the Troubled Water (2023), a short fiction film selected in several festivals, including Rendez-Vous Québec Cinéma. In their work, Zak explores themes such as coming of age, gender identity and expression. They attempt to deconstruct queer cinema through a colorful, tinged with humor and gentle cinematic approach.

Ars Animalis for Troubled Times – Anne Ciecko
Anne Ciecko is a US-based maker, writer, and educator. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she currently lives and works in towns in western Massachusetts, with deep gratitude and respect for the natural environments and Native histories of these lands. Her poetry films/videopoems and experimental short works have been selected for festivals worldwide.

Aventure FM – Martin C. Pariseau
Martin C. Pariseau is a Montreal-based director who began his career in the music video industry, collaborating with internationally renowned artists such as Kaytranada, Ryan Hemsworth, and Charlotte Cardin. Building on these years of experience, his works are characterized by their sensitivity as well as their desire to connect with the raw and profound emotions of his characters in an understanding and non-judgmental way.

Best Day Ever – Ben Knight, Berne Broudy
Ben Knight grew up in rural North Carolina and left home at 17. Knight pointed his camera and a reasonably reliable Oldsmobile due west in 1996 and spent 28 years in Colorado. Nineteen of them in Telluride where an annual film festival called Mountainfilm inspired him to leave photojournalism for filmmaking. Now 47, Knight has won more than 70 film festival awards for shorts and features and was nominated for National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year for his 2014 documentary DamNation. His 2019 film The Last Honey Hunter was qualified for a Short Documentary Oscar and his most recent film Learning to Drown premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC.

Berne Broudy is a seasoned journalist turned filmmaker whose work centers on breaking boundaries—physical, cultural, and societal. A lifelong adventurer and storyteller, Broudy brings her deep connection to the outdoors and her unwavering drive for equity and inclusion to every project she undertakes.

Born in New York City and raised in Connecticut, Broudy studied philosophy of religion at Williams College before setting off on a cross-country cycling trip—despite having no experience on a bike. That bold leap set the tone for a career defined by passion, perseverance, and purpose. After working in international development and guiding across South America, Europe, and the U.S., Broudy spent the next 25 years as a globe-trotting outdoor journalist and photographer, capturing stories in places as remote as Mongolia, Greenland, and Ghana.

Now based in Vermont, Broudy co-founded a local trail club in 2017 that went on to create the first-known fully adaptive mountain bike trail network. That grassroots effort sparked a new chapter—filmmaking—driven by the belief that stories have the power to shift culture and expand access.

“We didn’t know exactly how to do it,” she says. “But we knew we had to try. And what we witnessed—communities transformed and ableism dismantled—demanded to be shared.”

Brothers in Arms (Frères d’armes) – Francois Lalonde
Trained in film direction at UQÀM, François Lalonde enjoys creating works that are meant to be generous with their audience. In this sense, he is a fan of coming-of-age films, a genre that allows the use of popular culture codes, but above all, exposes the emotional upheavals of its characters to the fullest. Behind his cynicism, François hides a multitude of rays of hope.

As a director, he has signed the short films Fair Ball (2022) and Usual spleen (2022), both of which have had successful runs in festivals. His upcoming short films Brothers in arms and Après le close will have their premieres in festivals in the coming months.

In parallel to his work as a director, François also works as an assistant director. He has worked on several feature films and series, including Les Météorites, Les Mal-Aimants, La terre appelle Mathilde, Le temps d’un été, and We are Zombies.

Claim the Lane – Jesse Huffman
Jesse Huffman is a multiple-award-winning writer, director, and producer with over a decade of experience crafting emotionally impactful and socially relevant documentary and branded content. His work includes projects on LGBTQ+ rights, DIY powerwalls, climate justice, Olympic athlete burnout, and musical subcultures. From the mountains of Japan to street protests and hospital rooms, Jesse’s empathy and clarity allow him to create intimate profiles of people who embody human change. Jesse has directed and produced digital non-fiction for outlets including Vice, Outside, and ESPN. His documentary work has been supported and recognized by the Seed&Spark Patrons Circle (2024), the Back Forty Foundation (2024) and the Alchemist Foundation (2025).

CORPUS – John R. Killacky
John R. Killacky’s videos have been screened in festivals, galleries, museums, hospitals, and universities world-wide and is in the collections of numerous libraries and universities. His work has been televised locally in Minneapolis, Houston, and Vermont and nationally on Free Speech TV and PBS.

Deep in the swirl (Au cœur du remous) – Mélanie Saint-Germain
Mélanie Saint-Germain, a multidisciplinary artist, specializes in animated filmmaking. She is committed to addressing taboo and socially engaged topics in her films, which she approaches with both sensitivity and boldness.

Guided by a feminist vision, her first film ELLES (2021) was selected in about 20 festivals. In April 2023, in partnership with CALQ and Télé-Québec/La Fabrique Culturelle, she released her animated web series Bon…, which uses humor to unpack a wide range of topics, such as the pro-choice movement, rape culture, and the female orgasm.

The year 2023 marks the filmmaker’s return to a documentary approach. She is currently working on her animated short film Les Femmes Savent Danser, which gives voice to 14 women who have experienced psychological, physical, or sexual violence. She also completed her documentary film Au cœur du Remous, combining live-action footage and animation, in December 2025.

Evelyn’s Here – Sean Temple, Sarah Wisner
Sarah Wisner (she/her) and Sean Temple (they/he) are a queer writing and directing team committed to telling character-driven genre stories with personal and socially-conscious themes. They believe that the horror genre is an invaluable entry point to exploring the human psyche and social condition, and that horror is most effective when it achieves high levels of audience engagement and identification. Their short films have been featured in numerous festivals and contests, including Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest, Boston Underground Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, and many more.

Everyone is a bird – Christopher Wiersema
Christopher Wiersema (he/him) is a Vermont based award-winning media artist, educator, and arts administrator, working in experimental film, documentary practice, and community media. He is the founder and director of the Vermont Youth Documentary Lab.

Through poetic documentaries, experimental non-narrative film, essay film, and found footage collage, his work has focused on landscape, everyday life, labor, and personal and cultural memory. Originally from the Chicagoland area, Christopher Wiersema’s films and videos have been screened at ID/Identities (Istanbul, Turkey); Bring Your Own Beamer (Caracas, Venezuela); the New Newness and Signal to Noise (Chicago, Illinois); and the Portland Experimental Film Festival (Portland, Oregon); and featured on Vermont Public, Indiana Public Media, and Democracy Now! His most recent project, Rough Blazing Star, is the 2024 winner of the Vermont Public Award for Best Documentary at the Made Here Film Festival in Burlington, Vermont, and is being distributed with the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.

Christopher Wiersema lives in Central Vermont, with his partner and their two sons, where he works as Executive Director of Mad River Valley Television, Lecturer in Media Studies at Norwich University, and has served as Advisory Board Chair of the Green Mountain Film Festival since its return in 2024.

FAN – Philippe Berthelet
Philippe Berthelet is a filmmaker and producer based in Montreal. He made his first steps in the film industry during his undergraduate studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, where he developed a passion for stylistic experimentation. In 2024, Philippe launched his production company, Isabelle Films Inc.

Ghislaine’s Place (Chez Ghislaine) – Franie-Éléonore Bernier
Franie-Éléonore has directed numerous short films, including Danavan (Show Me Shorts Film Festival), Fond bleu (FNC, Palm Springs International ShortFest), and her most recent work, Chez Ghislaine (Festival Regard). Her diverse background has led her to direct several humorous advertising campaigns as well as an award-winning music video at ADISQ. She is currently developing two vibrant feature films: Papa Burger and Bleu marin. Through her cinema, Franie-Éléonore aims to create surprising experiences, imbued with humor that will make you say, “what the f*ck” while touching you right in the heart.

Glorious Obscurity – Ronan Furuta
Ronan Furuta is a director and cinematographer based out of Burlington, Vermont, and the Bay Area. His past work includes cutting and developing documentary features and episodic films at Creative Company Media. His films, A School of Trout, Two Kinds of Sadness, and Florence Fang Community Farm, have played and placed at festivals in cities across the country, including San Francisco, Cleveland, Portland, Manchester, and Burlington. Along with his work on set and in post, Ronan is the creator and developer of FrameUp, a director/cinematographer viewfinder app.

Gone Guys – Chad Ervin
Chad has worked in a variety of roles on around thirty-five documentaries, including films for PBS’s Frontline and American Experience. As a lead film editor his films have premiered at South by Southwest and the Toronto International Film Festival and won Emmy, Peabody, Polk, and DuPont Columbia awards. “Coal’s Deadly Dust,” (co-producer / editor), was nominated for Emmy and Peabody Awards and was featured as a question on “Jeopardy!” His storytelling strives to explore complicated issues with compassion for the human impact behind statistics.

He co-owns Well Told Films in Montpelier, Vermont and has shifted into a supervisory role as Director & Producer and enjoys mentoring the next generation of creative professionals and passing along his experience from years of hands-on work.

Happy Birthday, America – Neil Ira Needleman
I was born somewhere near the midpoint of the previous century in a mythical place called Brooklyn, NY, a land rich in kreplach, knishes, and bagels.

To the best of my recollection, I began making movies shortly after I was born. I may be wrong about that. I may have actually started making movies while I was still residing in my mother (which must have been very uncomfortable for mom.)

If I have any presence in the “art world,” it’s because of my videos, many of which have been screened in film festivals and other venues around the world. This fact both surprises and delights me.

I’m about more than just videos. I love to indulge in a wide range of creative projects, some of which may be worthy of your time and interest. But that’s for you to judge. Hey, I’m just the creator.

Hell – Parker Croft
Parker Croft is an American director and screenwriter known for his portrayal of flawed, conflicted characters and his exploration of themes like mortality and love through a bold, voyeuristic visual style. His most recent short film, As Easy As Closing Your Eyes (2024), has earned 144 awards across more than 200 film festivals, including 16 for Best Director. His debut short, Suncatcher (2019), was similarly acclaimed, screening at 62 festivals and earning 13 awards.

Croft first made his mark as a screenwriter with the feature Falling Overnight (2011), which won the Special Jury Prize at Cinequest and later streamed on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. In 2017, he co-founded Paper Horse Pictures, an award-winning film production company based in West Hollywood, California. In addition to his narrative work, he has directed music videos for artists such as The All-American Rejects.

Hyperlink (Hyperlien) – Juliette Poitras
Juliette Poitras is an emerging Montreal based director and producer. She graduated with a BFA in Film Production from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in 2019. She was awarded the prestigious Mel Hoppenheim Award for Outstanding Overall Achievement, presented each year to a film production student who has demonstrated exceptional excellence. Guided by a deep sensitivity, Juliette is drawn to stories where the intimate meets the universal. Her work, whether in fiction or documentary, explores with nuance the themes of childhood, identity, love and family dynamics. She is particularly interested in narrative forms that move away from traditional structures, creating works that rely on emotion, observation and a visual approach attentive to the subtle details of the real.

It Will Always End in the End (Ça va finir par finir) – Nancy Pettinicchio
Nancy Pettinicchio is an Italian-Canadian non-binary filmmaker from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal exploring topics surrounding gender, mental and physical health, and coming of age. Their first short film FALENA (2022) premiered internationally at the Palm Springs ShortFest, screened in festivals across Canada, the United States, and Europe, and won the image+nation 2022 Best Québec Short Film award. Nancy’s second short film and first documentary, IT WILL ALWAYS END IN THE END (2024), explores HIV art activism in Québec. Thanks to support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Nancy is currently writing their debut feature film, PER LA GRAZIA DI DIO.

Jazz infernal – Will Niava
Will Niava is a filmmaker whose work spans West Africa, the United States, and Canada. From ZOO (Clermont Ferrand, Criterion Collection) to ELEMENT (VIFF), his films, both visceral and poetic, resonate across borders. He also co-wrote PARADISE, a feature film by Oscar-nominated, Jeremy Comte.

LegoMan – David Dufresne-Denis
David D.D. has been exploring the world and its backroads with his camera and microphone for around 20 years. His explorations have taken him all over Eastern Canada, Europe, and Africa. He now lives in Trois-Rivières with his family, navigating calmly in the realm of audiovisual production.

Little Victories – Rafaël Beauchamp
Rafaël Beauchamp is a French Canadian filmmaker, interested in enhancing modern societal issues through the lens of genre cinema. His films have been screened internationally at festivals such as SXSW, Palm Springs, Leiden Shorts and Inside Out. He is also an alumni of the Sundance Ignite program.

M@CY’s HIGH – Zoe Boray
I was born and raised here in Vermont. Growing up I was always making and editing videos with my friends, so after high school I moved to New York to study television at Hofstra University. At Hofstra I started crewing short films, and I discovered that’s where my passion truly lies. I directed my first short film, BEANS, in the spring of 2025, and it went on to win Third Place Best Intermediate Film at the Hofstra Film Festival. The following semester I decided to take a documentary class so that I would have the opportunity to make M@CY’S HIGH. I am incredibly thankful for all of the community members that were willing to help out and lend interviews as well as my friends (and skilled crew members) who traveled up from Long Island with me to film for a weekend.

Marginal Understandings (Dirt pt. 2) – David Finkelstein
DAVID FINKELSTEIN received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2022. His video work has been featured in numerous film festivals around the world and has won awards at 27 of them. In 2013, he was an invited artist at the Traverse Vidéo Festival in Toulouse, France. His two feature films premiered at New Filmmakers in New York. He has had solo screenings of his films in Bilbao, London, Porto, New York, Chicago, Portland, Austin, North Carolina, Minnesota, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. His work has been funded by The Fund for Creative Communities, The Field, Movement Research, Meet the Composer, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, BACA, and other sources.

Muses – Simon Vermeulen
Director, dancer, and Quebecois artist Simon Vermeulen discovered the expressive power of body language on screen by choreographing and producing “Der Untermensch” (TIFF 2013). After studying music in London and feature film screenwriting at L’inis, he wrote, directed, choreographed, danced in, and produced the short films “Saint-Rémi” (FIFA 2024) and “Muses” (Regard 2025).

My Memory-Walls (Mes murs-mémoire) – Axel Robin
Axel Robin is a young filmmaker searching for a balance between sincerity and absurdity, as well as between organicity and artificiality, experimenting through fiction, documentary and dance films.

Not Losing You – James Lantz
Earlier this year, filmmaker James Lantz was arrested at the Pennsylvania state capitol for protesting the deaths of five trans youth in Lancaster PA — the same county led by a MAGA extremist state senator and majority whip who introduced and supported numerous anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills.

James is an award-winning filmmaker and playwright who has been writing and directing film and theater work for over three decades.

As a teen, James began working as a country radio DJ in the same station where music legend Patsy Cline got her start where he learned the craft from a number of colorful old timers. Later he taught high school in a farming program called Vocational Agriculture where he was honored to be named Teacher of the Year.

He has written, directed and produced over 200 commercial and corporate films, many for Fortune 500 Companies such as American Airlines, Alamo Rental Cars, Amtrak and Mobil Oil.

As a playwright, James’s work has been produced Off-Broadway, played nationally and internationally. New York theater critic Weston Clay called his award-winning LGBTQ play, THE BUS, “Theater magic,” and British Theatre Guide said it was “fascinating.” On its premiere in Vermont the Burlington Free Press called it, “Extraordinary.”

THE BUS won the State Winner Award for The Clauder Prize in 2016.

His play, AMERICAN MACHINE, was a co-commissioned project of The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and premiered to sold out houses and positive reviews. The Burlington Free Press called it, “Powerful.”

His documentary short film and essay THE SIGN was commissioned by, and published in, The Guardian and won the Best Documentary Award at the 2016 Boston Short Film Festival.

His Kickstarter-funded documentary about a Vermont trademark conflict over the phrase “Eat More Kale” premiered in Vermont in 2021. SevenDays gave VERMONT AND THE BRIGHT GREEN NOTHING a Four-Star review and called it “…a fascinating case study in documentary filmmaking.”

James recently completed touring his Award-Winning Short Film A JUDDERING on the national film festival circuit where it was honored at ten different festivals winning Best Director, Best Short Film and Critic’s Choice awards.

Previously James programmed films for The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and worked as an adjunct college instructor.

James also produces the Angry Gay Grandpa a web series about three trans teen suicides that occurred in a single year in a small town in Pennsylvania along with a PSA supporting trans and LGBTQ Youth called, NOT LOSING YOU. Earlier this year he was arrested for protesting an anti-LGBTQ state senator in Pennsylvania.

He came out as gay two years ago on National Coming Out Day. You can read his Coming Out letter to his wife at www.jameslantz.com “About”.

James has also been public about his diagnosis five years ago with a rare Sarcoma cancer called MPNST which has left him partially disabled. Despite this, he still believes it’s possible to change the world for the better.

On This Land – Salma AlaaEldeen Badra
Salma is an Egyptian filmmaker and a recent graduate of Champlain College. She grew up in a household where watching films during dinner was a daily ritual, which sparked her early love for cinema and storytelling. Her work reflects a deep emotional connection to memory, identity, and the warmth of everyday moments. As a young Egyptian woman, she draws inspiration from her cultural heritage and personal experiences, expressing them through a minimalist and intimate visual style. Her short films include On This Land, The Therapist, The Crow, and The Radio, which explores the relationship between sound, memory, and emotional longing. Salma’s influences include Kamla Abu Zekry, Youssef Chahine, Ayten Amin, Abbas Kiarostami, and Giuseppe Tornatore. Currently, she is developing new projects that continue to explore memory, identity, and human connection through simple yet emotionally rich narratives.

People Live Here (Des Gens Vivent Ici) – Gabrielle Côté
Gabrielle is an emerging filmmaker and editor based in Montreal. Her compositions take an immersive approach, driven by imagery, music, and rhythmic composition. She uses contemplative storytelling to create narratives that are both socially engaged and poetic. Her films explore themes related to architecture, urban transformations, and social issues. She combines her unique creative vision with solid technical mastery in post-production. Passionate about editing as a space for invention, she develops hybrid universes where documentary and experimentation intersect. Curious and audacious, she brings her projects to fruition with a rigorous method, while also leaving room for improvisation and discovery. She readily experiments with a variety of tools, integrating visual effects, animation, and video collages to serve her artistic vision.

Petticoats (Jupons) – Gaëlle Graton
Gaëlle Graton lives in Montreal and chooses fiction to address social issues related to women. On paper and behind the camera, she seeks to free them from the historical subordination that fiction has long imposed on them. Her cinema, a true act of activism, aims to propose a rewriting of history and create new images filled with agency.

Pippa and Leo (Pippa et Léo) – Abeille Tard
Originally from Montreal, Abeille graduated in Image from INSAS (Brussels).  

She has been a screenwriter, director, cinematographer and editor for over twenty years. Her films have been screened at various festivals around the world.

Abeille is currently developing three thousand projects in his head. At the forefront is a feature-length fiction film, Fred & Luce , with ACPAV.

In parallel, she works as a videographer and creates films in various formats (portraits, educational videos, documentaries, masterclasses). She assembles her team according to her different projects and surrounds herself with specialists and collaborators who reflect her own values: creative, committed, and friendly.

She is also the co-founder of a warm, local film club , nestled in Villeray, which offers monthly screenings of Quebec films and meetings with their directors.

Abeille also taught cinema for years to cohorts of teenagers who nourished and inspired her, and with whom she cultivated a bubbling complicity.

Abeille’s projects offer a sensitive, poetic and committed perspective on humanity.

Her films focus on the unspeakable, on silences and on the expression of emotions through dance.

Prickly Mountain and My Design/ Build Life – Allie Macrae Rood
Allie Rood is a filmmaker and creative director.

She studied studio art at Whitman College—an education she sees as foundational to her approach to storytelling. Her freelance work spans independent film as well as commercial and branded content for companies such as Patagonia and Nike, all shaped by her deep roots in the outdoor industry. Growing up in a Vermont community centered around design/build, Allie learned to approach projects iteratively and with a problem-solving mindset, embracing mistakes as an essential part of the creative process. Her filmmaking blends autobiographical curiosity with a human-centered approach.

Allie premiered her first feature-length documentary, Prickly Mountain, and My Design/ Build Life, this fall at the Architecture & Design Film Festival in NYC, LA, Vancouver, Toronto, and Mumbai. The film is a personal exploration of the countercultural architecture movement that shaped her hometown in Vermont.

Radio – Salma AlaaEldeen Badra
Salma is an Egyptian filmmaker and a recent graduate of Champlain College. She grew up in a household where watching films during dinner was a daily ritual, which sparked her early love for cinema and storytelling. Her work reflects a deep emotional connection to memory, identity, and the warmth of everyday moments. As a young Egyptian woman, she draws inspiration from her cultural heritage and personal experiences, expressing them through a minimalist and intimate visual style. Her short films include On This Land, The Therapist, The Crow, and The Radio, which explores the relationship between sound, memory, and emotional longing. Salma’s influences include Kamla Abu Zekry, Youssef Chahine, Ayten Amin, Abbas Kiarostami, and Giuseppe Tornatore. Currently, she is developing new projects that continue to explore memory, identity, and human connection through simple yet emotionally rich narratives.

Road 138 (Route 138) – Sarah Warren
After completing her bachelor’s degree in cinema at UQAM, Sarah directs her first short, ‘Midnight Sun’, which appears in a few festivals such as Fantasia. She then writes and directs a first documentary short, ‘Road 138’, which is currently being distributed. In 2024, Sarah is selected as a finalist in Cours écrire ton court with her short ‘At Night, All Cats Are Grey’, a project she is currently developing. Multidisciplinary artist, she also works as a production designer and graphic designer on various projects.

Salt Marsh – Tom Bell
Tom Bell is a documentary filmmaker and lives in Yarmouth, Maine.

Siren (Sirène) – Marilou Caravecchia-Pelletier
Montreal-born, Marilou Caravecchia-Pelletier is a Quebec screenwriter and director whose works explore family dynamics with finesse and sensitivity. Alongside her work as a filmmaker, she has also built a strong career as a first assistant director (Falcon Lake – Charlotte Le Bon, Simo – Aziz Zoromba), a role that continuously shapes and refines her cinematic approach.

Her first short film, Harevan, won the Best Screenplay award at UQAM and was screened at various festivals, including the prestigious Camerimage in Poland. In 2022, she explored the complex dynamics of mother-daughter relationships with her short film Rose blanche (Canadian Film Fest, Cinemania, Cinema on the Bayou, RVQC).

Marilou is drawn to details, small things, fragile beginnings, first steps and sparks that precede explosion.

Something Greater than You – Gordon LePage
Gordon LePage is a writer, as well as an animator of stop motion films. Some of his films include A Change of Song, Dragon Poets of Boston, A Natural Force, Today We Climbed a Hill and Jo-Jo Rhymes Against the Tide. Screenplays include The Invisible Monster and Love in the Time of Heat Death. Two of his theatre plays–Don & Wally, and My Fair Share of the Sun–are published by Dramatic Publishing, Chicago. Gordon lives on a farm in western Maine. His studio is a one person operation (including armature and puppet fabrication, as well as animation using traditional stop motion techniques). Further information can be found at LePageCreatives.com.

Sour Grapes – Evan Hunt, Lorena Santana
Evan Hunt is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, and actor. Raised in St. Louis, Evan studied fiction writing at the University of Missouri before turning to film. His next short, “Pocket Calculator,” shoots mid-2026.”

Lorena Santana (performer, writer, director) was born in México and raised in Southern California. Her next film, La Lechuza, will shoot in the spring of 2026. She’s also developing a full-length play and a middle-grade novel set along the Mexico/US border. Proud member of SAG and Dramatist Guild.

Still Moving – Rui Ting Ji
Rui Ting Ji is a Canadian-Chinese animator and filmmaker based in Montreal, Quebec. Playing with new and old art forms, she works in animation, interactive narratives, documentary, and animated comics. She is most interested in sharing stories of hidden perspectives and finding beauty in the smallest details. Her films tend to focus on real people or issues, and have screened around the world. She has animated for award-winning documentaries, feature films and short films alike and teaches animation in college. Her most recent film, still moving,  is an animated short film exploring the liminal moment between “what was” and “what is next” between a mother and her daughter.

Sugarhouse – Jesse Kreitzer
Jesse Kreitzer is a Vermont-based filmmaker whose fiction and nonfiction work explores rural life, folk cultures, and traditions. His films have received Oscar®-qualifying and New England Emmy® awards and screened at galleries, museums, and festivals worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art, Museum of the Moving Image, Biografilm, Raindance, Rooftop, Big Sky, Camden, Woodstock, and Oldenburg.

Kreitzer holds an MFA in Cinema and Comparative Literature from the University of Iowa and a BA in Visual & Media Arts from Emerson College. His work has been supported by Kodak, AARP, National Arts Strategies, the LEF Foundation, and state arts councils in Massachusetts and Vermont, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently lives in southern Vermont where he spends his free time restoring an 1830 schoolhouse.

Superhost – A.P. P. Bergeron, Sophie Edell
Sophie Edell and A.P. Bergeron, collectively known as SAP, are a filmmaking duo based in the Eastern Townships of Québec.

The Journey Home – Cole Whitaker – Cole Whitaker
Hi, I’m Cole Whitaker! I live in the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts with my wife and two daughters, all of whom have now been wrangled into movie making. A social studies teacher by day, I unexpectedly became an amateur filmmaker when my oldest daughter (4 at the time, and with nary a television in her life) asked, “Daddy, can we make a movie?,” and I, for reasons still unknown given my utter lack of noteworthy knowledge, experience, or equipment, said yes. That first experiment resulted in the short film “School Day” as well as a newfound curiosity about how movies are made and their special magic as a storytelling medium.

My subsequent films, “Deep Sea” and “The Journey Home,” continue this experimentation with turning my furtive journaling habit, primarily about my experiences as a father, into a public cinematic journey of curiosity, humility and, hopefully, humor. I hope these films will provide glimpses of the wonder and the beauty, the revelations and the purpose that can be found amid even the most exasperating and mundane moments of life and parenthood.

The Dawnland Kitchen – Scott Cherhoniak
Scott Cherhoniak is a Vermont filmmaker who began his media career writing script coverage in Los Angeles for producer Ashok Amritraj’s company, Hyde Park Entertainment. Scott’s versatility is evident: having worked on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Square, a film projectionist at an Italian cinema in Parma, and a semi-theatrical distributor for the Sundance award-winning documentary, Alive Inside. Other projects include his work on the production of TEDx Hollywood, a writer for Eminem’s Total Slaughter rap battle league, and the producer/director of a short documentary project called, Bite to the Future, exploring the future of food (starring chef Wolfgang Puck, comedian Hasan Minaj, lab grown meat pioneer Mark Post, vegan activist Moby, and more). He is the owner of Carbonate Media, a local commercial video production company in Vermont.

The Downtown Burlington Bear – Dillon Tanner
Director of Roland and Mary, A Winter of Towing in the Northeast Kingdom. Creator of Mothership Monthly Film Festival.

The Magician (Le Magicien) – Mathieu Gauvreau
Mathieu Gauvreau first completed a BFA at NSCAD in Halifax and a MFA at York in Toronto in film. He recently directed his third musical in collaboration with Sarah Presne. He is interested in fantastical universes and imagination in all its forms.

To Your Hands – Ana Mouyis
Ana Mouyis is an Animator, Filmmaker, and Educator. She grew up in Nicosia, Cyprus and spent much of her adult life living and working in New York City. She is now based in Boston, MA where she works as Assistant Professor of Animation at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her work has screened at the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival in Bristol, England, Animation Block Party in Brooklyn, NY, KLIK! Animation Festival in Amsterdam and numerous other film festivals and galleries all over the world.

Tomorrow’s Shame (Chez nous) – Alexandre Lefebvre
Québécois filmmaker and screenwriter Alexandre Lefebvre delves between fiction and documentary, having directed 5 short films and a television medium-length film. Intrigued by ways of escaping one’s own identity, his cinematography evolves around raw characters navigating through everyday life tragedies. Incidentally, he digs deeper in those themes with his first feature film Chasing Losses, currently in development.

Veiled Light – Myles and Alexandra Jewell
Myles and Alexandra Jewell are partners in all things, building both a life and a creative practice together in Burlington, Vermont.

Alexandra (she/her) runs Armadillo Collective, a production company she founded to center collaboration and care. She’s intentional about crafting filmmaking teams that respect boundaries, honor consent, and create the conditions for stories to unfold with authenticity.

Myles (he/him) runs Pennington Productions and teaches film and video at the University of Vermont. Moving between non-fiction, experimental, and narrative work, he sees filmmaking as a way to connect people and build community.

Together, they balance their own practices with shared projects, always looking for the space where contradiction and connection meet.

Who Moves America – Yael Bridge
Yael Bridge (Director, Producer) is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. Her feature documentary, The Big Scary “S” Word, traces the history and resurgence of socialism in the U.S. and premiered at Hot Docs and on Hulu. Prior to that she produced Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC, and Saving Capitalism, which premiered on Netflix.

You’re OUT (T’es OUT) – Marie-Louise Gariépy
Marie-Louise Gariépy is a Québec filmmaker who emerged from the Kino movement. Holding a degree in physics from McGill University and driven by a passion for science fiction, she explores futuristic concepts and philosophical reflections through her films. In addition to her role as a director, she has also worked as a line producer on several Québec feature films.

Marie-Louise Gariépy est une réalisatrice québécoise qui a évolué au sein du mouvement Kino. Titulaire d’un diplôme en physique de l’Université McGill, et passionnée par la science-fiction, elle explore des concepts futuristes et des réflexions philosophiques à travers ses films. En plus de son rôle de réalisatrice, elle a également exercé la direction de production pour plusieurs longs métrages québécois.