Firas earned an MFA in Film, Video, New Media, and Animation from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He has written and directed experimental, documentary, and narrative shorts in addition to a feature film (Winter, 2015), which was selected for several international film festivals.

Kathy Byrne is the Director of TV/Theatrical at SAG-AFTRA Chicago, where she has served for seven years. Prior to SAG-AFTRA, she served the production community as project coordinator at the Chicago Film Office for nearly twenty years. Kathy holds a BS in Communications from Illinois State University.

Ramona Curry is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Curry teaches histories, theories, and strategies for writing about cinema and other forms of popular media and culture. Prof. Curry’s research focuses on the sociocultural impact of media institutions, including film stars and cinema distribution and exhibition historically.

A Minnesota-native and graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Sam Flancher has been part of the programming team at the Chicago International Film Festival for the past 4 years, and has spent the last two as the Short Film Programmer. He has served on film juries including the DePaul Experimental Film Showcase and the BETS Forum. Flancher loves cinema in all of its innumerable forms, though holds a special affinity for experimental film.

Dr. Alicia Kozma is faculty in the Department of Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Her research focuses on two tracks: gender and labor in the entertainment industries, and the interaction of emerging media platforms on structures of film distribution and exhibition. She’s published and presented widely; her next publication is forthcoming from Camera Obscura (Fall 2017).

Michael Phillips is the Chicago Tribune’s film critic, covering everything from “Godzilla” to the latest in Turkish cinema. He has appeared on Turner Classic Movies, “CBS Saturday Morning,” “Charlie Rose” and the long-running nationally syndicated program “At the Movies.” He joined the Tribune in 2002 as theater critic, a post he previously held at the Los Angeles Times; the San Diego Union-Tribune; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; and the Dallas Times-Herald. He appears regularly on the Chicago Publ

Firas earned an MFA in Film, Video, New Media, and Animation from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He has written and directed experimental, documentary, and narrative shorts in addition to a feature film (Winter, 2015), which was selected for several international film festivals.

Kathy Byrne is the Director of TV/Theatrical at SAG-AFTRA Chicago, where she has served for seven years. Prior to SAG-AFTRA, she served the production community as project coordinator at the Chicago Film Office for nearly twenty years. Kathy holds a BS in Communications from Illinois State University.

Ramona Curry is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Curry teaches histories, theories, and strategies for writing about cinema and other forms of popular media and culture. Prof. Curry’s research focuses on the sociocultural impact of media institutions, including film stars and cinema distribution and exhibition historically.

A Minnesota-native and graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Sam Flancher has been part of the programming team at the Chicago International Film Festival for the past 4 years, and has spent the last two as the Short Film Programmer. He has served on film juries including the DePaul Experimental Film Showcase and the BETS Forum. Flancher loves cinema in all of its innumerable forms, though holds a special affinity for experimental film.

Dr. Alicia Kozma is faculty in the Department of Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Her research focuses on two tracks: gender and labor in the entertainment industries, and the interaction of emerging media platforms on structures of film distribution and exhibition. She’s published and presented widely; her next publication is forthcoming from Camera Obscura (Fall 2017).

Michael Phillips is the Chicago Tribune’s film critic, covering everything from “Godzilla” to the latest in Turkish cinema. He has appeared on Turner Classic Movies, “CBS Saturday Morning,” “Charlie Rose” and the long-running nationally syndicated program “At the Movies.” He joined the Tribune in 2002 as theater critic, a post he previously held at the Los Angeles Times; the San Diego Union-Tribune; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; and the Dallas Times-Herald. He appears regularly on the Chicago Publ

Richard J. Leskosky is a former president of the Society for Animation Studies and a former Director of the Unit for Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Although retired from the University, he continues researching and writing on a range of cinema and animation topics, including Japanese animation, genre in film and animation, and 19th century motion picture devices.

Brett Hays has been producing films for over ten years and is an active member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) as a Unit Production Manager. In 2006, he became co-owner of the newly formed production company, Shatterglass Studios and has built it up to be an Emmy award winning production company in Illinois. In 2015, Brett created the film development company, Shatterglass Films, which is now developing multiple independent film projects. Having produced nearly a dozen films, Brett’s fil

Nicole Bernardi-Reis is a producer and director, whose work spans narrative shorts and feature film, documentary features and reality television series. Her most recent producing project, Radical Grace, screened in over 30 countries and was called “Exhilarating…among the year’s best films” by RogerEbert.com. She’s taken numerous films and television projects from development to delivery and serves as a consultant for filmmakers as they launch their own films. She is currently in development on

Dr. Janice Marie Collins is a multi Emmy, Associated Press, Best of Gannett award winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience in the journalism industry and an award-winning professor with 14 years of teaching experience on the university level. She was selected as one of the Top 50 Journalism Professors in the nation of 2012 by Journalismdegree.org and has received recognition for her teaching and service, including a Faculty of Excellence award by the Department of Minority Affair

Earthling aka Koushalya Jeganathan, comes from the part of the earth called Pondicherry, a small, quaint coastal town located in the South east coast of India. For the past 13 years, as part of the Accessible Horizon Film Collective team, she collaborates with her 3 other team-mates as a director, art director, writer and editor for short films, documentaries & features which have all mostly traveled to various film festivals’ audiences, around the globe.

Their films mostly revolve around soc

Eric Chaudron has been the Executive Director of the SAG-AFTRA Chicago Local since 2010. Before joining AFTRA-SAG Chicago as it was known then, Mr. Chaudron was an attorney in California concentrating on plaintiff’s side employment, and labor law. Mr. Chaudron had previously served as Executive Director of the California Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, Director of Organizing/Business Representative for the Motion Pictures Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700) in Hollywood and a Fie

Richard J. Leskosky is a former president of the Society for Animation Studies and a former Director of the Unit for Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Although retired from the University, he continues researching and writing on a range of cinema and animation topics, including Japanese animation, genre in film and animation, and 19th century motion picture devices.

Brett Hays has been producing films for over ten years and is an active member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) as a Unit Production Manager. In 2006, he became co-owner of the newly formed production company, Shatterglass Studios and has built it up to be an Emmy award winning production company in Illinois. In 2015, Brett created the film development company, Shatterglass Films, which is now developing multiple independent film projects. Having produced nearly a dozen films, Brett’s fil

Nicole Bernardi-Reis is a producer and director, whose work spans narrative shorts and feature film, documentary features and reality television series. Her most recent producing project, Radical Grace, screened in over 30 countries and was called “Exhilarating…among the year’s best films” by RogerEbert.com. She’s taken numerous films and television projects from development to delivery and serves as a consultant for filmmakers as they launch their own films. She is currently in development on

Dr. Janice Marie Collins is a multi Emmy, Associated Press, Best of Gannett award winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience in the journalism industry and an award-winning professor with 14 years of teaching experience on the university level. She was selected as one of the Top 50 Journalism Professors in the nation of 2012 by Journalismdegree.org and has received recognition for her teaching and service, including a Faculty of Excellence award by the Department of Minority Affair

Earthling aka Koushalya Jeganathan, comes from the part of the earth called Pondicherry, a small, quaint coastal town located in the South east coast of India. For the past 13 years, as part of the Accessible Horizon Film Collective team, she collaborates with her 3 other team-mates as a director, art director, writer and editor for short films, documentaries & features which have all mostly traveled to various film festivals’ audiences, around the globe.

Their films mostly revolve around soc

Eric Chaudron has been the Executive Director of the SAG-AFTRA Chicago Local since 2010. Before joining AFTRA-SAG Chicago as it was known then, Mr. Chaudron was an attorney in California concentrating on plaintiff’s side employment, and labor law. Mr. Chaudron had previously served as Executive Director of the California Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, Director of Organizing/Business Representative for the Motion Pictures Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700) in Hollywood and a Fie