2023 Summit Jury

Featured

As director, Variations on a Theme (series) (2023) - Creator/Writer/Director, Hungry Dog Blues (2023)- Writer/Director, A Magnificent Gray (short) (2021) - Writer/Director. Hungry Dog Blues won New York No Limits 2022 Summit Best Film. Instagram: @jason__abrams

LORENZO BENITEZ

Lorenzo is an award-winning Filipino-Australian director/producer based in New York. His acclaimed films have been programmed by institutions including Harvard University and the Maysles Documentary Center, selected by more than 50 festivals worldwide and televised nationally and streamed internationally. His first feature, Six Months to Salvation, had its national TV premiere in Australia on the ABC. He has previously screened two shorts at New York No Limits, including one selected among ‘Best of the Year’ at the 2021 Summit. He has served on the jury for CineFest Fairfield, as a programmer for New Cinema Club in Bushwick and contributor of film criticism to NoBudge and The Cornell Daily Sun. Instagram: @_lorenzob

ISAAC F. DAVIS

Isaac is a New York-based writer, and director, is renowned for his captivating, emotive, and grand filmmaking style. Born on April 9, 1998, in Tallahassee, Florida, Isaac began his filmmaking journey at the age of 9 when he discovered inspiration in DreamWorks' 1998 animated film, "The Prince of Egypt.” Growing up in a religious household, Isaac's connection to the story of Exodus was deeply rooted. Witnessing the narrative unfold on a modest Sony tube television in Chicago, Illinois, ignited his passion for the art of making motion pictures.

Isaac's latest short film, "Fall On Me," premiered twice in New York City and received an honorable mention at the Black Bird Film Festival in 2023. Presently, Isaac is developing his first narrative feature film at Iacon Pictures titled, “Asher’s Gate: A Deconstructive Thesis,” an action-packed drama thriller with all production set in New York City. Instagram: @isaacfdavis, @iaconpictures & @iaconmedia

2022 Jury

Featured

JULIA D'ANGELO

Julia D’Angelo is a Brooklyn based actor, filmmaker, dancer and singer/songwriter, originally from Toronto. Attaining her BFA in dramatic arts at The New School, Julia has performed on stage at The Tank, Shetler Studios, The Acorn Theatre, Bowery Electric and The Supermarket, among others. Recent on screen credits include; Caresses (dir. Minh Tran), Gowanus (dir. Reggie Chelsom), Fused (dir. Al Pattanashetty & Adrian Mikulauk), How to Disappear (dir. Ruthie Lee), Sketches of Love (co-prod by the NYPL), Mae (dir. Em Messana) and more. She was recently commissioned by ItalyTime Cultural Centre to choreograph “Reminiscence”, a new play by Federica Borlenghi. Along with film and theatre, Julia has also released a handful of music projects, including her debut EP, Night Before, and her most recent single and music video, Point of View, which she directed. She is currently working on more music videos, along with a short film in development that is set to be released in early 2023.

YUKI SOGA

Yuki Soga is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker that specializes in writing, directing, shooting, editing, and animating his own films. His first feature, WE ARE NOT CONTENT! was the winner of the 2021 NYNL summit. He has been updating the same YouTube channel, nFnBjR, with short films since 2008, and is in the process of making his next feature film.

RIA TOBACCOWALA

Ria Tobaccowala is an award-winning writer and director. Raised on Chicago’s South Side as a first-generation American, she explores womanhood, immigration, and multiculturalism in her work. Her short film, Shadows, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and is now streaming on HBO Max. Recently, she was selected as a finalist for the Shondaland Women Directing Mentorship program. Her first short film, Life After, was selected for several prestigious film festivals, including New York No Limits, and won best narrative short at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival. She received her MFA from the Graduate Film Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to her own filmmaking, Ria leads the Thousand Miles Project, an Asian and Pacific Islander screenwriting incubator in partnership with Universal Content Productions and Pachinko showrunner Soo Hugh.

2021 Summit Jury

Featured

Sep 27, 2021

DUNCAN BIRMINGHAM

Sep 27, 2021

Duncan Birmingham is a writer and filmmaker in Los Angeles. He's been a writer and executive producer on numerous tv shows including Maron on IFC and Blunt Talk on Starz. His short films have premiered at Sundance, AFI and GenArt. He wrote and directed the upcoming feature, Who Invited Them.

Sep 27, 2021

ASHA FLOWERS

Sep 27, 2021

Asha Flowers was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University with her Bachelor’s degree in Women's Studies. In addition to having worked on shows such as FOX's Family Guy and Snowfall, Asha has also shadowed director and showrunner, Tanya Hamilton, on OWN Network's Cherish the Day. Asha is currently approaching the end of a successful festival run with her directorial debut, ’Til Death. Her newest project, Looking for Me, will premiere at the 25th American Black Film Festival (ABFF). Asha is also a proud alumni of the inaugural class for Women in Film’s INSIGHT program, which partners with USC and Ghetto Film School to identify today’s rising women of color in film and television.

Sep 27, 2021

CYNTHIA SILVER

Sep 27, 2021

Cynthia Silver is a NYC-based stage & film director, acting teacher and occasional actor who directed last year’s New York No Limits Summit winner, THE SHALLOW END.

Cynthia began her artistic career training at New York City’s Atlantic Theater Company - where she subsequently spent over two decades as a faculty member - and earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her filmmaking is a culmination of twenty-five years of acting, directing, and teaching. It is with former students and many longtime theatre colleagues that Cynthia made the award-winning shorts SLEEP TRAINING, SIBS, CHEMISTRY, and the short-form series ADULT, all of which have screened at a wide range of festivals throughout North America. Her most recent short, THE SHALLOW END, written by acclaimed playwright Wendy MacLeod and based on her one-act play of the same title, was also the recipient of last year’s Rebel Award at Female Voices Rock Film Festival, Best of Fest and Best Director Awards at IndieWorks NY, Best Director at RevolutionMe Film Festival, a finalist at USA Film Festival, and an official selection at over a dozen 2019 & 2020 festivals including Indie Memphis Film Festival and LA Shorts Int’l Film Festival.

Cynthia was one of ten filmmakers selected to participate in THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca CHANEL Women's Filmmaker Program in 2019. She is currently in development for the feature films HOMER LANE, written by Daisy Tinsley Barnett, and MELISSA, her second collaboration with CHEMISTRY writer and lead actor, Charlotte Martin.

Sep 27, 2021

2020 Summit Jury

Amy DePaola

Amy DePaola is a director, writer, producer, host and actress, whose credits include work that can be seen on Comedy Central, The CW, Netflix, Amazon, Bloomberg, BRIC TV and more. Amy holds an MFA in Film and Media Art from Emerson College and is the founder of the production company and creative label, Pink Among Men; a production company and creative label that produces films, podcasts and content that celebrate "different among many," and is committed to gender and racial parity. She also hosts a weekly podcast of the same name and currently works with SoulPancake, a division of Participant Media overseeing episodic digital and TV productions. For more visit www.amydepaola.com and www.pinkamongmen.com or follow Amy at @amydepaolafilms on Instagram.

Alex Kavutskiy

Alex Kavutskiy is a writer/director born in freezing Kiev, Ukraine and raised in sunny Los Angeles, California. His latest short film (excluding the cool one you're going to see at this fest) Squirrel was an official selection at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and also won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short at Fantastic Fest. He wrote and directed the Adult Swim special Cool Dad, starring Jerry O'Connell and Andrea Rosen. He's written and directed one feature film, On the Rocks (not the one that Sofia Coppola is making with Bill Murray), and many webseries and shorts, notably Kill the Baby, Judy, Sound Speeds, and Late Tonight with Nick Burton. You can see all his stuff at his full name dot com.

Stacey Larkins

Stacey Larkins is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and musician residing in the New York City metropolitan area. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College and a Masters in Music from New York University. She has shot, written, directed, composed music and edited several short films that have played in numerous film festivals as well as Shorts TV International. Her award-winning film Jabari Keating is currently airing on Aspire TV’s Urban Indie Film Block. She most recently won best director for short film at Newark International Film Festival, and the Vanguard award at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival for her film Zoe in Review.

She has also written work for theater, that has been produced by theatrical production companies in New York City and London.

2019 Summit Jury

Dave Chan

Dave Chan is an award-winning writer/producer who studied screenwriting at New York University and is founder of the independent production company, Navy Yard Films. His short comedy script "Fly!" is a winner of the Academy Award-qualifying Nashville Film Festival among others, and his "Family Guy: What The Phuc?!" spec script won or placed in 25 competitions including the prestigious Austin Film Festival. In addition, his television pilot script "County of Kings" is a Finalist in the industry-sponsored Catalyst Content Festival. He was also a script consultant on the crime-drama feature film "Ambushed" starring Dolph Lundgren.

Dave and award-winning director Michael Goldburg are the writers and producers of "Sure-Fire" a feature crime-comedy about a NYC con-man having a midlife crisis, that is currently in development. Dave is the subject and producer of his personal documentary "The Secret of B" that chronicles the search for his birth parents in Hong Kong after recently finding out he was adopted. He also served as the Guest Festival Director of the 2017 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and the Screenplay Judge for their 2019 festival.

Nicolas Chevaillier

Nicolas Chevaillier is the writer/director of Victor’s History (Amazon Prime), the winner of best feature film at 2017’s New Orleans Film Festival, and 2018’s New York No Limits Film Series. Born to a French father and American mother, Nicolas is based in Berlin, where he spends his time screenwriting and running a boutique animation and motion graphics company.

Laura Wagner

Laura Wagner is an award-winning creative producer who produces feature films and documentaries. She recently produced the feature documentary ARTIFISHAL, which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, and ART 21 “San Francisco Bay Area,” which premiered on PBS.

Her films have premiered at top-tier film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, BAMcinemaFest, Seattle, Rotterdam, Melbourne and many more, and have enjoyed success worldwide in theatrical markets, on television and on digital streaming platforms.

She is the recipient of the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Fellowship and Lab, the San Francisco Film Society’s Kenneth Rainin Foundation Fellowship and Grant, and the IFP/Cannes Marché du Film Producer’s Network Fellowship. She is also a Film Independent fellow and grant recipient and an alumna of the Trans Atlantic Partners program, the Rotterdam Lab and Berlinale Talents.

She has produced feature films including IT FELT LIKE LOVE (Spirit Award and Gotham Award Nominations), TRACKTOWN (Sundance Creative Producing Lab and SFFILM Residency), EASY LIVING (Jerome Foundation Grant; Film Independent AbelCine Grant; selected for US in Progress) MY FIRST KISS AND THE PEOPLE INVOLVED (Best Cinematography & Best Narrative Feature at the Ashland Independent Film Festival; Audience Award at the New Orleans Film Festival) and MEMORIAL DAY by Josh Fox (director of GASLAND).

She is a member of IFP, New York Women in Film and Television, Bay Area Women in Film and Media, SFFILM, and Film Independent and served on the jury for the San Francisco International Film Festival.

2018 Summit Jury

Mandy Fabian

Originally from Austin, TX, Mandy began her career in New York City doing theatre, sketch comedy and Improv before moving to Los Angeles and putting her film degree to work as a director. Since then, she's directed award-winning shorts, music videos, web series, was awarded a fellowship in the Sony Pictures Television Directing Program, and was named "Best New Filmmaker of the Year" by NewFilmmakers LA.

More recently, Mandy was the co-creator and director of "The Young Hillary Diaries", Lifetime's first digital series, and her Amazon digital series “Dropping the Soap” (starring Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Missi Pyle), won Jane Lynch an Emmy for Best Actress in a Short Form Original in 2017. Her latest screenplay, Late Bloomer, was selected for the Meryl Streep/Oprah Winfrey Writers Lab in 2017.

Mandy now lives in LA with her husband, actor Patrick Fabian, her two daughters, Abbey and Delilah, and an impressive collection of reusable water bottles. For more information, go to mandyfabian.com.

Jesse Knight

Jesse Knight is a multi-award winning filmmaker and screenwriter. While receiving his BFA in film and fine art from Pratt Institute, Jesse became interested in mythology, storytelling and, eventually, screenwriting. His short film Knock Knock was featured at the 2007 Anthology Film Archives horror film festival. His short, Waiting for Molly, premiered at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival in 2013. His screenplay, A Lush Life, was a winner of the 2014 Big Star screenwriting competition. His feature film AFTER PARTY, starring Rachel Nichols, Laura Dreyfuss, and Steve Guttenberg, won Best Comedy at the 2017 Madrid International Film Festival. Jesse is an internationally known DJ who has played residencies in Berlin, New York, Paris,and Greece. A documentary about the Lower East Side is currently in production.

Mayuran Tiruchelvam

Mayuran Tiruchelvam is a screenwriter and producer. His filmmaking is fueled by a vision for a more compassionate and openhearted world.

His feature screenwriting debut, neo-noir THE GIRL IS IN TROUBLE, executive produced by Spike Lee, was released by eOne in April 2015 and a critic’s pick from the Village Voice and RogerEbert.com. As a producer, his feature films include TO BE TAKEI (Sundance 2014), THE UNTOLD TALES OF ARMISTEAD MAUPIN (SXSW 2017), and MY FIRST KISS AND THE PEOPLE INVOLVED (LA Film Fest 2016)

Mayuran is a Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and Film Independent Fellow. He has taught screenwriting and producing in the graduate film programs at Columbia University and Sacred Heart University.

Patrick Wells Valenti

Patrick Wells Valenti is a director, producer and editor currently working out of Los Angeles, CA. Recently he directed, produced and edited the dramatic short film, Head Wound, which played at the 2018 River Bend Festival, 2017 San Jose International Short Film Festival, 2017 New York No Limits Film Festival, and the 2018 Yountville Film Festival. He also has directed various other short films such as Amy and When We Knew. He directed two episodes of Interrogation: A Scifi Webseries , for which he was also the series editor and cinematographer.

Recently Patrick edited the dramedy feature Buddy Solitaire (co-starring Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland), which was an Official Selection for the Cinequest Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and others. He was also an editor on the feature documentary Social Animals, which premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, and on the family comedy Best Mom, which is currently beginning its festival run. In addition he has edited several short mini documentaries, including Comedy Therapy, Miniature Man, and A Walk Through Memory, as well as several short narrative films, such as Coyote, Out of Town, Blue Pig, Word Police, and others.

As for future projects, Patrick is currently in development for his first feature, The Secret Lives of Youtubers, with screenwriter/producer, regular collaborator (and wife) Britain Valenti.