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Liv Pallante, UG
Dancing With the Devil
Liv Pallante is a filmmaker from the foothills of Colorado. She first got interested in film after her mom bullied her for not knowing who Liam Neeson was. Recently, she has graduated with a degree in Film and Television from Tisch. Liv is super excited to be sharing her film and looks forward to making many more in the future.
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Michael Perrone, UG
Private Lessons
Michael lives in North Texas where he is excited to begin production on his debut feature, Child of Woe, which is co-written and directed with his brother, Samuel Perrone. In his downtime, Michael enjoys working out, woodworking and spending time with his family.
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Raphael Pettigrew, UG
Je Me Souviens
Raphaël Pettigrew is a New York-based, Los Angeles-raised French Canadian Director. An aficionado of classic American culture and cars, Raphaël was deeply influenced by the glamor of LA, especially coming from a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of Montreal’s West Island. His filmmaking is best described as a blend of typical Quebecois grittiness and honesty with an Americana flair. Raphaël moved to New York City to attend the NYU Tisch Film School in the fall of 2017 and became a working professional in 2020 as a production, development, and props assistant for various television shows and production companies. Raphaël is dedicated to telling honest, character-based stories in highly stylized and emotionally provoking films. In his free time, Raphael enjoys mastering his restorative skills with his most recent project a 1976 Puch moped rebuilt in a Brooklyn backyard as training for his dream project of bringing to life a 1961 Buick Electra.
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María Belén Poncio, Graduate
When everything burns
"I am a writer, director and editor from Cordoba, Argentina. I directed and co-wrote the short VR film "4 Feet: Blind Date", supported by the Sundance Institute and by the Biennale di Venezia College Cinema VR. It premiered at Biennale di Venezia 2018, Sundance 2019 and SXSW 2019, winning in the last one the best VR narrative award. It also won awards in Dok Leipzig and Guanajuato Film Festival. I then directed and co-wrote the fictional crossplatform series 4 Feet High, produced by Arte France TV, which premiered in Biennale di Venezia 2020, Sundance 2021, BFI 2021, TIFF Next Wave, and won jury and audience award in SXSW 2021. With the support of TSOA scholarship and Maurice Kanbar Scholarship, I am currently pursuing MFA in Graduate Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts."
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Alicia Qian, UG
Did You Eat Yet?
Alicia Qian (she/they) is a 22 year old filmmaker and sound designer with an irrational love for audio, writing, and most of all, food. Growing up Chinese-American, food has always been a central part of how they connect with her peers and family. Alicia has directed and sound designed several shorts, some of which have aired on NPR and featured on Apple’s Best of 2021 Podcasts. “Did You Eat Yet?” is Alicia’s first budgeted short film.
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Elizabeth Rao, Graduate
The Truck
Elizabeth Rao is a screenwriter and director based in Brooklyn. Born in California, to immigrant parents from Shanghai and Jiangxi, China, Rao grew up along the Mississippi River, in Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois. Rao’s work celebrates idiosyncratic outsiders, and reimagines Asian Americana through a vibrant and feminist lens. Rao is currently writing her debut feature film with the support and mentorship of Spike Lee. Her feature film is also a 2023 Hear Us Grantee. Rao is completing her MFA in writing-directing in the NYU Tisch Grad Film Program as a Yunni & Maxine Pao Memorial Scholar, W.T.C. Johnson Scholar, and Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Scholar. Rao has given Artist talks at Yale University, Gotham Fiction Feature Lab (formerly IFP Narrative Lab), The Edit Center, UnionDocs, and has taught workshops at True/False Film Festival. Rao is a proud member of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia. Rao’s body of work as indie Producer and Editor includes acclaimed Feature Films with premieres at Sundance, Berlinale, and MoMA; awards at SXSW, Tribeca; and multiple Gotham (including Best Feature Film), and Indie Spirit Awards nominations – Her filmography includes MADELINE’S MADELINE (Sundance, Berlinale, starring Helena Howard, Miranda July, Molly Parker, dir. Josephine Decker, DP Ashley Connor, Gotham Awards double-Nominee for Best Feature and Breakthrough Actor, Film Independent Spirit Award double-nominee, CSA Award Winner for Outstanding Achievement in Casting), MATERNA (starring Rory Culkin, Kate Lyn Sheil, Sturgill Simpson, Lindsay Burdge, Jade Eshete, dir. David Gutnik, DP Greta Zozula, Tribeca Film Festival double award-winner), and MAINELAND (dir. Miao Wang, DP Sean Price Williams, SXSW Special Jury Award Winner, NY Times Critics’ Pick). Both MADELINE’S MADELINE and MAINELAND earned their directors voting seats in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Rao helped launch the careers of acclaimed independent filmmakers including Josephine Decker, Miao Wang, Lynn True, David Gutnik and Krista Parris. Indiewire hails MADELINE’S MADELINE as “One of the boldest and most invigorating American films of the 21st century.” Elevating surprising new stories, with bold style, is integral to Rao’s artistic practice.
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Gustavo René Sanabria
Siesta
Gustavo René Sanabria is a Paraguayan-American filmmaker based in Brooklyn and currently pursuing an MFA in Film & TV at NYU Tisch. In 2019, he graduated from Wesleyan University, where his film, PACURÍ, was awarded the Steven J. Ross Prize for Best Thesis Film and had its online premiere at NoBudge. Since then, he has worked in construction and in service, where he often finds much of the inspiration for his work. In 2021, Gustavo René produced the narrative short film, BRUISER, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and became Academy Award eligible after being awarded a Grand Jury Prize at SIFF. Most recently, he associate produced the feature film, BRUISER (2022), which premiered at TIFF 2022 and was acquired by HULU. When he’s not hammering nails and tightening screws, Gustavo is developing deeply personal projects in hopes of spurring conversation, thoughts, dreams, and above all, connection. He is committed to telling underrepresented stories, always with his bi-cultural identity at the core of his work.
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Ben See-Tho, UG
Cabin 3
Ben See-Tho is a Filipino-Malaysian-German writer/director. Originally from the Bay Area, he moved east and graduated with a BFA in Film & TV from NYU Tisch. His work has been featured by GRAMMY U and Asian Cinevision. He also founded ORANGEJUUZ, a short-form production company. His protean filmmaking style is informed by a background in dance and music. Letting the mediums bleed together, he welcomes playfulness in his process and enjoys coloring outside the lines.
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Jee Hoon (Fred) Seo
Jesa
Jee Hoon (Fred) Seo is a Korean writer/director at NYU Tisch School of the Arts (Class of 2024). He is pursuing a BFA in Film Production and a minor in Business Entertainment Media & Technology. Born in Seoul, South Korea he moved to Boston at the age of 7, attending prep schools around New England before returning to Korea in 2018 to fulfill his military service. His debut short film 20s.30s. is about a long distance relationship between a Korean couple that premiered at the Micheaux Film Festival’23 in LA. For his next project he is developing a TV pilot about a Korean soccer playboy at NYU called FCBA (Football Club Big Apple).
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Tara Sheffer
Scratch-Off
TARA SHEFFER is an award-winning filmmaker from Arkansas with a diverse background in production and development. She has produced over twenty short films including FLOUNDER (Clermont Ferrand Official Selection and Vimeo Staff Pick), PLAISIR (SXSW Official Selection and Searchlight Short), and line-produced THE LETTER ROOM (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film). As a director, Tara’s most recent film MY DEAR GOD premiered at the 2021 New Orleans Film Festival, and her work has notably screened at Indie Memphis, Nitehawk Shorts, Little Rock Film Festival (where she was nominated for best director), and the Jeff Nichols founded Arkansas Cinema Society’s film series FILMLAND. Her previous credits include coordinator at the Department of Motion Pictures, associate producer of development where she developed WE BOUGHT THE FARM (HGTV), true-crime television writer, and Scott Rudin’s assistant. Tara participated in the 2019 Woman at Sundance Strategy Intensive in NYC and holds an MFA in filmmaking from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she was the recipient of the Sara Driver Production Award, the Robert Jahn Scholarship, the Peter Gould Scholarship, and the 2021 Robert Oberman/Gregory Pickert Production Award awarded to the best producer at NYU.
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Sam Kumiko Sheridan
UME [産め] Or (The Will To Fly Blind)
Sam Kumiko Sheridan is a Japanese American writer/director. She was born and raised in New York City.
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Deborah Shonack
Where We're Going
Deborah Shonack (They/Them) is an up and coming filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Primarily a writer and director, they also work as a producer and casting director on set. Deborah was a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar at NYU and is passionate about stories that center communities who’ve been underrepresented in film, especially the Latine and Queer communities. They currently work at Central Casting as a Casting Assistant.
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Jorge Sistos Moreno
In Freedom
Jorge Sistos Moreno is a Mexican writer / director from Morelia, México. He is a proud alumnus of the Graduate Film MFA program at NYU. He studied Philosophy at UMICH and has been a fellow of FONCA, Jumex Contemporary Art Promotion, and several prestigious film fund awards. Sistos Moreno is currently developing his debut feature film La Ausencia, which was accepted at the NEXT STEP 2022 Cannes Critic's week workshop. His work revolves around the mysticism of the Mexican province, magical realism, and the horror genre. Jorge’s films have been screened at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique, Morelia, Olhar de Cinema, and Fantasia. He was recently featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s renowned annual 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2022, and this year he is among the 10 international directors accepted with their projects at the Script Station of the Berlinale Talents 2023.
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Jess X. Snow
Roots That Reach Toward The Sky
Jess X. Snow is a non-binary filmmaker, multi-disciplinary artist, poet of the JiangXi Chinese diaspora whose work explores queer Asian migrant experiences, mental health, kinships across cultures and species, and abolitionist futures. Recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, their short films have screened at 50+ film festivals world wide including Blackstar, Outfest, Ann Arbor, BFI London Flare, New Orleans, Durban Film Festival (Special Mention), Cinequest (Best Student Short), and the Reel Asian Film Festival (National Film Board of Canada Best Short Award). They have served as a cinematographer on several award-winning narrative shorts and documentary features about marginalized communities speaking truth to power. In 2023, they received their MFA in writing/directing from NYU’s graduate film program as an Ang Lee and BAFTA BBC Diversity Scholar, and winner of the Sloan Science In Film Production Award. Their debut feature film is currently in development and is supported by the Cine Qua Non Lab and the Canada Council for the Arts. Prior to filmmaking, they lead dozens of community murals for migrant, racial and climate justice which have been featured on PBS Newshour, Hyperallergic, the SF Chronicle, the LA Times and elsewhere. Along with their artistic practice, they teach screenwriting and community mural making to students of all backgrounds.
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Ben Szemerenyi
Iris
Ben Szemerenyi is an aspiring writer/director from London with a BFA in Film & Television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. During his time at NYU he served as a screenwriter and producer on numerous projects, collaborating with a wide variety of artists to bring their unique visions to life. He wrote and produced a combined five independent short films, all of which went on to compete in festivals around the world. In his final year at NYU he wrote and directed his own thesis film, a sci-fi drama called IRIS, which just wrapped post-production and is preparing for its festival run.
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