Reel Innovators

Celia Aniskovich / Director / FACING THE FALLS 

Celia Aniskovich is a New York based director and producer. Her career began in live broadcast news as an NBC Page before she transitioned into narrative and documentary filmmaking. She has directed, produced, developed and consulted on numerous US & UK projects and her films and series have been broadcast around the world.

In 2021, Aniskovich released Spy Affair, a 6-part podcast series for Wondery Originals based on the story of alleged Russian spy, Maria Butina. She also wrote, directed, and produced BURN IT DOWN!, a feature documentary about Woodstock 99, for MRC Studios/Rolling Stone that had its world premiere at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival. Her other 2021 premiers include a feature documentary she executive produced and directed for Discovery+, Fruitcake Fraud (Nominated for a Realscreen Award), and a film she produced for HBO Max, Beanie Mania.

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Violeta Ayala / Filmmaker / LA LUCHA

Violeta Ayala is a filmmaker, AI innovator and creative technologist. As the first Quechua member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ayala combines traditional narrative with cutting-edge technologies like XR, VR, and AI. Her notable works include the critically acclaimed interactive VR animation “Prison X” (Sundance, Cannes, SXSW) and the AR experience “Las Awichas” displayed on London’s Strand. Ayala has directed powerful documentary films such as “La Lucha” (2023), which helped secure disability pensions in Bolivia, and “Cocaine Prison” (2017). Her films have premiered at major festivals and broadcast globally. 

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Lee Cipolla / Director / Screenplay / Writer / RALLY CAPS 

Lee Cipolla’s first two feature films Harder They Fall and Know Thy Enemy were acquired by Lionsgate and distributed on Netflix. His third feature, The Shift, stars Danny Glover and is available on Amazon Prime. He also has directed content for Disney, Canon, AT&T and Warner Bros. He was a participant in Ron Howard’s Project Imagination program as well as a staffed director for Walt Disney Imagineering.

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Hannah Currie / Filmmaker / WORKING DIFFERENTLY

Hannah Currie is an BAFTA-winning filmmaker from Glasgow, Scotland. With a background in journalism and production, she trained in documentary directing at Goldsmiths University of London, achieving Masters with Distinction.  Hannah is a passionate advocate of accessibility and equality in the industry and was recently commissioned by Screen Scotland to direct Working Differently, promoting better understanding of neurodivergence in the film and television industries.

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Daisy Friedman / Writer / Director / AS YOU ARE 

Daisy Friedman is a writer and director based out of New York City. Her history as a multi-organ transplant recipient has drawn her to create work that centers on the intersections of tradition, intimacy, embodiment, and disability. Her short film, Unholy (2024) had its world premiere at Sundance 2025.

Her previous short film, As You Are (2023), has screened at prestigious film festivals such as Frameline, Inside Out, Outfest, The Chicago International Film Festival, and The National Film Festival For Talented Youth. The film has received numerous awards such as the U.S. Narrative Short Grand Jury Prize Special Mention at Outfest 2023 and the NewFest35 Emerging Filmmaker Award.

Her work has been featured in Deadline, Variety, Advocate, and Out Magazine. She recently received the 2023 Colin Higgins Youth Foundation Grant. Daisy has worked at Saturday Night Live and FilmNation and was the assistant to Erica Rose and Elina Street on the set of The Lesbian Bar Project. Daisy received a 2020 National Scholastic Gold Medal and American Voices Award for her poetry. She is a graduate of Barnard College’s Film Studies program. 

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Elettra Fiumi / Director / FACING THE FALLS

Elettra Fiumi is a director, producer and editor. Her documentaries focus on portraits that explore themes of discovery, innovation and sense of place. She’s told the stories of people, brands and places across nations and industries, including in technology, adventure travel, fashion, art, architecture and education. She has worked on horseback, in a war zone and through white water rapids.

Prior to Fiumi Studios, she co-founded and ran Granny Cart Productions for over five years. She started her career as a print journalist at American Express Publishing, for Departures, Black Ink and Travel+Leisure magazines. Elettra is an alum of the Columbia Journalism School, Mount Holyoke College and the International School of Florence. She speaks English, Italian and Spanish fluently and has working knowledge in French. She is based in Lugano but can often be found in Italy and elsewhere. 

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Lynn Montgomery / Director / AMAZING GRACE 

Lynn has been a writer since she was six years old and penned her opus, The Stinko-pottamus. She has written for radio, print, television and film. She won a Writer’s Guild Award and an LA Emmy. Amazing Grace is her feature directorial debut. Thank you to all the talented professionals as well as Emmy and Academy Award winners who volunteered their time and talents to make Amazing Grace a powerful film about music’s ability to heal and transform.” 

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Nicole van Kilsdonk / Director / OKTHANKSBYE 

Nicole van Kilsdonk was born in 1965 in Velsen, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She is a director and writer, known for Ventoux (2015), Okedoeibedankt (2022) and Patatje Oorlog (2011).

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Peter Hoffman Kimball / Director / Producer / Deaf Giants

Peter Hoffman Kimball is director, producer, and much sought-after screenwriter. As a director, his short films have played at festivals like Slamdance, Vancouver, Calgary, DC Shorts, LA Shorts, and dozens more around the world. In 2022, his film “My Brother is Deaf” premiered at Slamdance and won such awards as Best Short Documentary at the DC Independent Film Festival. 

He wrote and directed the groundbreaking 2022 film “Millstone” – starring Daniel Durant from CODA – featuring an all-Deaf cast and shot entirely in American Sign Language. As a screenwriter, he stays extremely busy as a rewriter for hire, in addition to putting together his own projects as a writer/director. He is a graduate of Brown University, is fluent in German, and is based in Washington, DC. 

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Ted Passon / Director / PATRICE 

Ted Passon (he/him) is an award-winning director who created and directed the critically acclaimed docuseries PHILLY D.A., along with co-director Yoni Brook and producer Nicole Salazar. The series won a PEABODY AWARD, the GOTHAM AWARD for “Best Breakthrough Nonfiction Series”, a DUPONT-COLUMBIA AWARD and the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PRODUCING AWARD for nonfiction film. 

It premiered at Sundance and had its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, becoming the first docuseries to screen there. It was named “One of the best TV shows of the year” by TIME, The NY Times, Variety, The LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The Washington Post, Vulture, Vogue, Slate, Indiewire, and The New Yorker. It was also nominated for “Best Nonfiction Series” by The Independent Spirit Awards, Cinema Eye Honors, and the IDA Awards.

Ted also directed multiple episodes of the Netflix series WORN STORIES, which has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Ted is a 2018 Sundance Catalyst Fellow and a 2016 Sundance Lab Creative Summit Fellow. He has also written and directed over 8 children’s television shows for Disney and Comcast. He is a co-founder of All Ages Productions.

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Sean Schiavolin / Filmmaker / TO MY FATHER

Sean Schiavolin is an Austin-based film director focused on stories exploring cultural environments, human connection, and man’s search for meaning. He uses these themes in his direct-to-client and agency work to reflect the mission and values of brands and non-profits. Sean’s film work has been featured in the New York Times, the Vatican, Film Festivals, and Cultural Events all over the world. 

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Stewart M. Schulman / Writter / Producer / Director / LEFT ALONE RHAPSODY 

Stewart is an award-winning producer, director, writer, and independent filmmaker. He has written the feature screenplays: BOTH, SISTER BERT, LA MACHA, and BEYOND MEASURE. His feature-length documentary film “LEFT ALONE RHAPSODY – The Musical Memoir of Pianist John Bayless” is currently garnering awards on the film festival circuit.

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Kaveh Taherian / Director / 25 PROSPECT STREET 

Kaveh Taherian is a director and illustrator. He produced the award-winning documentaries “20 Years of Madness” about what happens when mental illness meets a midlife crisis, and the award-winning “The A-Word,” about how women from different backgrounds process their abortions. He holds a BFA in Illustration and Design from LCAD and an MFA in Film Production from USC. 

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Bing Wang / Director / LOUD LOVE

A Brooklyn transplant by way of his native China, Bing Wang is a documentary filmmaker known for capturing intimate human relationships and presenting enlightening cinematic moments to cultural outsiders. His self-produced and directed feature debut, “The Ability Exchange” (2016), acclaimed as “a one- man band empathy engine” by IndieWire, explores disability and inclusion in an intimate college classroom and beyond. “Loud Love”, a tender probe into parenting and growth, epitomized by a gay deaf couple with hearing twin children in New York, is his second feature. 

Besides working on his own projects, Bing is also known for his editing and production skills which have been featured in an impressive portfolio of powerful films, including: “9-Man” (2015), “Complicit” (2017), “The Naked Truth: China Queer” (2017), “People’s Republic of Desire” (2018), “One Child Nation” (2019), “All in My Family” (2019) and “The Ugly Model” (2019).