Cecilia Barrionuevo has served as artistic director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival (Argentina) for four editions and was a member of the festival’s programming team since 2010. She had been a co-programmer for Neighboring Scenes: New Latin American Cinema at Film at Lincoln Center (New York City, USA) and program advisor for Antofacine (Antofagasta, Chile). She was co-artistic curator of Documenta Madrid in 2020 and 2021 and has curated special programs for UNIONDOCS - Center for Documentary Art (United States), MACBA - Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Museo Reina Sofía and La Casa Encendida (Spain), and she is co-editor of the bilingual cinema publication Las Naves Cine. She has a Bachelor’s in Communication from the Universidad de Córdoba (UNC) and a Master's in Documentary Filmmaking from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). In 2020, she was awarded the honorary title of Chevalier of the Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture. She has been a member of the Advisory Board for the Film Study Center at Harvard University in 2021, and Associated Fellow (2022-2023). She is Visiting Scholars at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University (2022-2

Andréa Picard is a film curator and writer specializing in the intersections of film and contemporary art. She studied art history, cinema studies, and French literature at the University of Toronto, and later, at the École du Louvre in Paris. She has worked at TIFF since 1999 in a multitude of roles and is presently Senior Curator of Film for the Festival and Cinematheque, overseeing the Wavelengths section and curating retrospectives. She was the Artistic Director of the 40th edition of Cinéma du Réel at the Centre Pompidou, where she edited the monograph “What is Real?” with contributions from some of today’s most important filmmakers. Her writing has regularly appeared in Cinema Scope magazine and other publications such as Artforum, Sight & Sound, Mousse, and Phaidon. She has curated exhibitions internationally and is an advisor to the Marrakech International Film Festival.

A native of Puerto Rico, José F. Rodriguez is a Feature Film Programmer at the Tribeca Festival, overseeing the festival’s Documentary Screening Committee and helping to determine the feature documentaries and fiction features that are pre-screened, shortlisted and invited for the festival. He also leads outreach and programmatic curation for Latinx/Latin American features that are submitted to—and considered for—the festival. He was formerly a senior staffer at Tribeca Film Institute, where—for over 10 years—he oversaw the growth, funding & overall strategic vision for all their documentary programs as well as their filmmaker / industry market. In the past six years he has made two short films: the documentary short Adolescencia (which screened at the Guanajuato International Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, and DOK Leipzig, among others) and the experimental short Mama,mama (which screened at the Bushwick Film Festival and the Nitehawk Shorts Festival in 2018). He is currently wrapping up the festival circuit with his latest experimental short, Jungle X.

Dominga Sotomayor (1985, Santiago de Chile) is a filmmaker, co-founder of the production company CINESTACIóN and CCC, Centro de Cine y Creación, a new arthouse cinema and center in Santiago. Her first feature film Thursday till Sunday was developed at the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence and won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2012. In 2013 she co- directed the short film The island that also won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam. In 2015, she premiered Mar at the Berlinale Forum and co-directed the collective film Here in Lisbon in Portugal. For her last film Too Late To Die Young (2018) she became the first woman to receive the Leopard for Best Direction at Locarno Film Festival. She has made videos and photographs for exhibitions like “Little Sun” (Olafur Eliasson) at Tate Modern 2012. In 2020 she premiered the documentary Correspondencia co-directed with Carla Simón and in 2021 the collective feature film “The year of the everlasting storm” at Cannes Official Selection. Since 2020 she is Visitor Professor in the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University. Recently she was part of the Chilean Pavilion at the Biennale Art exhibition that opened in April 2022.

Ximena Amescua Cuenca is the Manager of Artist Programs at Firelight Media. In this role, she manages all aspects of program development and implementation for the flagship Documentary Lab. She also manages Firelight Media’s grant-making initiatives, which include the William Greaves Fund for mid-career BIPOC filmmakers in the US, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, and the Impact Campaign Fund, which supports audience engagement and impact campaigns led by Firelight Media-supported artists and alumni. Since 2012, she has worked in the nonfiction film industry, mostly at nonprofit organizations working at the intersection of human rights, social justice, and art. Her experience includes documentary film production, cultural programming and events production, and social impact strategy. Ximena is a Creative Capital "Taller for Latinx Artists" alumna and the director of the short documentary Juanita, which had its premiere at the 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival. She is from Tijuana, Mexico, and holds a BA in Anthropology and Media Studies from Pitzer College, as well as a MA in Cinema Studies with a graduate certificate in Culture and Media from New York University.

Mexican director Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico City, 1983), makes films deeply grounded in his identity as an immigrant artist, crafting a poetic gaze from the margins, using striking imagery to portray the contradictory nature of our shared world, while revealing the potential for transformative change. He has received the support of The Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), Sundance and Tribeca Institutes, while his films have screened on PBS and Netflix. His film 499, won Best Cinematography at Tribeca and the Special Jury Award at Hot Docs. Rodrigo is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim and Creative Capital Awards, as well as the Rainin Fellowship and the SF Indie Vanguard Award. For years, he has worked to mentor the next generation of diverse artists through his work as a member of the Board of Directors for Video Consortium and Co-Director of the BAVC Mediamaker Fellowship, and teaching masterclasses at renowned institutions such as Berkeley's Journalism School, Princeton, The New School, UCLA as well as being a guest lecturer at the Stanford MFA in Documentary Film. In 2022, Rodrigo won the Best Film Award at Sheffield DocFest with his latest feature, Sansón and Me, which is being distributed by Cinema Guild and will broadcast on Independent Lens in 2023.

Vicky Westover is a film programmer and booker for film series, festivals, and competitions with 34 years of experience. She served as the Director of the Baltimore Film Forum and the Hanson FilmTV Institute. Vicky has created and directed educational programs and public events with noted filmmakers, including Native Eyes Film Showcase and Tucson Cine Mexico. She is currently the co-director of Cinema Tucsón. Vicky developed and taught courses for the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television, including Film Programming and Exhibition, focusing on best practices in cultural film programming. She is an independent film producer and director and a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance. Vicky has served on diverse boards, committees, and panels, including for the AFI in Washington, D.C; NALIP (National Association of Latino Independent Producers); and NALIP/HBO Documentary and Estella Awards.