Carlos Franklin Visual artist, video and filmmaker XR artist mistercarrot.org Paris, France Carlos Franklin is a visual artist who focuses on documentary and archive-based forms. He combines new media, video, installation, and drawing, as well as engaging in protean performative projects. Franklin is interested in how artistic practice reveals historical and political discourses. He explores semiotics to study aesthetics and representation paradigms and their role in the construction of meaning and the restitution of testimony. His work has been exhibited at numerous festivals, museums, and art centres, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and Grand Palais in Paris, the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma – MACRO, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, among others. Deirdre Brenner Creative Producer/Writer/Line Producer South Pasadena, CA, USA Deirdre Brenner grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and headed straight for Los Angeles after graduating from Northwestern University. She’s worked in the animation industry for over twenty-five years, producing hundreds of hours of animated entertainment for studios such as The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon, and Six Point Harness. She was the Creative Producer on two CURIOUS GEORGE films for Universal Animation Studios and is currently a Producer on the popular adult animated series RICK AND MORTY. Deirdre resides in South Pasadena, California, with her cat, Benny. Jenna Levine Creative Development Assistant at Warner Bros. Animation & Cartoon Network Studios Animation | Live Action | Gaming, Los Angeles, CA, United States Jenna Levine is a junior creative executive and lover of all things animation from Boca Raton, Florida. After graduating from Northwestern University, Jenna has worked at Cartoon Network Studios & Warner Bros. Animation as a creative assistant, supporting project development from pitch to greenlight across TV and feature for all age demos and genres. Jenna is passionate about championing new voices and bringing stories that are innovative, bold, and meaningful to life. Shoko Takegasa Festival Director Asian Shorts Film Festival After working in finance, she joined the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA). In 2016 she became the programming manager and has participated in screenings and markets at international film festivals to promote the festival as well as the Japanese short films. She has also been involved in public relations for the SSFF & ASIA, including radio appearances and contributing articles about the festival to film magazines. From February 2021, she began working as Festival Director at SSFF & ASIA. She also worked for the Tribeca Film Festival as a short film screener, and participated in several festivals including Teheran International Short Film Festival, an Oscar qualified film festival as a member of the jury. Jen Rudin Writer. Casting Director Adjunct Professor. Author:CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR published by HarperCollins NYC, NY, USA jenrudin.com Photo Credit: Douglas Gorenstein JEN RUDIN is an award-winning casting director and author of Confessions of a Casting Director, published by HarperCollins. Jen began her career as a professional child actor in New York City. She spent seven years as casting director/executive at The Walt Disney Company, casting such beloved animated feature films as The Incredibles, Chicken Little, The Princess, and the Frog, and overseeing the Broadway casting and domestic tours for The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and High School Musical. Some recent casting credits include the Netflix animated series Arcane and Dead End: Paranormal Park. She also wrote and executive produced the short film Lucy in the Sky, starring Whoopi Goldberg, under her previous banner, Purple Glasses Productions, and cast the late Peter Bogdanovich’s final film, She’s Funny That Way. For more info, visit www.jenrudin.com and follow her on Instagram @rudinj. Yunah Chung Originals Development Content Acquisitions Astoria Film Festival Board Member NYC, NY, USA Of Texas provenance and a bicoastal upbringing in California and New Jersey, Yunah Chung is a Korean American creative executive. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as a film & TV major, she cut her teeth at CAA followed by MTV where she witnessed words on a page turn into pixels on a screen as a scripted series development and current programming assistant. Her lifelong love of Korean cinema naturally led her to blogging about it online over at Dramabeans.com where a global community of K-drama fans continue to engage in thoughtful and enthusiastic discourse. In early 2017, Yunah was selected for an inaugural comedy screenwriting fellowship from Whoop Inc. (Whoopi Goldberg’s production company) and Mana Contemporary. Unable to shake her interest in global cinema, she also developed series and analyzed scripts at Infinite Studios (local producer of Crazy Rich Asians) while completing her dual international MBA degrees in Singapore (Nanyang Technological University) and Tokyo (Waseda University). She wrapped a 3-year stint as a Development Executive at 9 Story Media Group in New York where she developed kids & family animated and live action content. Currently, Yunah is the VP, Content and Executive Producer at SAMANSA, a Tokyo-based SVOD platform for high quality short films from all around the world; she oversees content acquisitions and originals. Judy Kriger Program Director + Professor WOODBURY UNIVERSITY School of Media : Culture : Design Animation + VFX Burbank, CA Judy Kriger is an independent filmmaker and animator and has been a professional CG artist for two decades. Her credits include: Cats and Dogs, Antz, South Park, Ren and Stimpy, and Doughboy, Kraft and Keebler commercials. She teaches senior thesis, introductory through advanced 3D animation and visual effects production courses. Her book, “Animated Realism: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Animated Documentary