The Berkshire International Film Festival is all about filmmakers. We celebrate their films, connect them to colleagues and ideas, and recognize their achievements throughout their careers.
Each year, in the days leading up to our festival, we host our Filmmakers Summit to the benefit of the filmmakers who attend the BIFF. The 2025 Filmmaker Summit will take place on May 27 and 28. Details will be announced in April 2026.
Generously sponsored by Berkshire Bank, the Next Great Filmmaker Award presents a cash prize of $2500 to the winning filmmaker. BIFF and Berkshire Bank created this award in 2010 to support the work of independent filmmakers around the world.
In 2025, BIFF and Love Today Productions launched a new initiative supporting emerging filmmakers. The nexGEN Film Competition is open to US-based college and university students to encourage the work of the next generation of talented young filmmakers. [then click through to nexGEN page]
Jan Jalenak began as an actor and playwright and is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio. Her early training with the legendary Sanford Meisner instilled fearlessness to dig deep with her art. Jan directed her first full length play, Touch My Face at the Fourth Street Theater in NYC. Her work has been produced throughout theaters in NYC. As…
Born in Queens, NY, Frank is an emerging force in independent cinema. He made waves with his debut horror film, Killington, on Amazon Prime. An avid traveler, reader and film buff, Frank blends all of his global experiences and artistic influences into his work. Being a part of a touring band in his youth and cutting endless music videos, helps him to use the…
Wendy Lobel is a director and Emmy Award-winning producer whose work explores the complexities of the human experience, crafting stories that connect and resonate. With three decades of experience, her projects have been featured on networks such as PBS, A&E, VH1, MSNBC, Nickelodeon and more. Wendy produced over 25 episodes of the acclaimed children’s series NICK NEWS WITH LINDA ELLERBEE, including WORRIED…
Jacqueline Christy is a writer, director, and founder of three businesses including Access Manufacturing, Access Theater and Christy Consulting. She received her MFA from the NYU Graduate Film Program at Tisch and received grants from the NYC Women's Fund, the NY State Council on the Arts, the Hollywood Foreign Press grant, and the Sloan Foundation. Through Access Theater’s 33-year history,…
Sophie Sumner is a British actress, producer, and television personality. After winning America’s Next Top Model, she moved stateside and quickly made her mark in the fashion world, work including Vogue, Macy’s, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Sophie has since carved out a career in television, hosting on Amazon Live, reporting from Wimbledon, and speaking at the World’s Largest Mental Health…
Rosanna Xia is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. Her journalism has inspired new laws and regulations, and her celebrated book, "California Against the Sea," received the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, a gold medal from the California Book Awards, and a…
Scott Robinson is founder and executive producer at RFI in NYC. He has over a decade of experience developing, producing, and directing for broadcast, live-streaming, and the web. He has produced projects all over the US and internationally. Favorite producing projects include: Beyonce’s I Was Here music video filmed live at the United Nations; Turner Classic Movies Essential Films project…
Tim Roper is an award-winning Writer-Director with a diverse mix of experience in both filmmaking and brand building. After graduating with a Film degree from The University of Texas at Austin with a minor in History, Tim began a 25-year career writing and directing short form branded content and crafting screenplays. In 2016, Tim founded F. Yeah & Associates LLC—a…
Dori Berinstein is a six-time, Tony-winning Broadway producer, an Olivier winner and an Emmy-award-winning director, producer and writer of film & television. As a documentary filmmaker, Dori’s award-winning work includes: "ShowBusiness: The Road To Broadway" (IDA Finalist), "Carol Channing: Larger Than Life" (NYT List of Favorite Films of the Century), "Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love" (Emmy Award) and…
Dan Winerman is a theater and film director based in New York City. He recently directed Summer Break, based on a screenplay by Cary Gitter, and has numerous projects in development. He has directed and developed new plays at Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, New Dramatists, Lark Theatre, Flea Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, HERE Arts Center, Boston…
Dani Feixas is a Spanish film director, Shortlisted in the Oscars 2025 and Nominated to the Goya Awards 2024. His latest live action short film “Paris 70” is the most awarded short film in Spain, with more than 150 national and international awards, including an Honorable Mention at the Cleveland Film Festival in the United States. In addition, it premiered…
You might know Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as the actor who next stars opposite Michael C. Hall on the Paramount+ Showtime series Dexter: Resurrection or opposite Taron Egerton in the upcoming AppleTV series Firebug or from his past performances on The Lincoln Lawyer, Dead Ringers, The Chi, Treme, The Knick or the lead role in the Sundance Award Winning film…
Shaina Feinberg (she/they) is an award-winning American filmmaker and writer. She spent her twenties making a stoner, punk sketch show called The Spew. She has been on This American Life, was a resident at Space on Ryder Farms (2018) and Twenty Summers (2021), a Reel Families for Change grantee (2022), a recipient of the Reboot Studios grant (2023) and her…
Emily Sheskin is an award winning film and commercial director who tells stories full of optimism and resilience, without glossing over life’s challenges. She takes great pride in seeing her short films featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and even pirated on TikTok (though she’d prefer credit). Emily is currently diving into the world of speed…
Timothy Michael Cooper is an award-winning filmmaker, comedy writer, and script consultant based in Brooklyn. He wrote and directed the Writers Guild Award-nominated CONCIERGE: THE SERIES, starring Kate McKinnon. His short comedy LEMON premiered at Tribeca and was purchased by both United Airlines and Amazon.He also wrote the dramatic feature AWAY FROM HERE, starring Nick Stahl and Alicia Witt. And…
As a graduate of the USC Cinema Department, Maura went on to direct Towing with Sue Lyon and Joe Mantegna. While being an honors student in the MFA Screenwriting Program at Columbia University, Maura received the first prize for the Zaki Gordon Memorial Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. Ms. Smith has directed for such companies as Sony Music, BBC-TV, and…
Selina Lewis Davidson - co-director/co-producer Co-founded GreenHouse Pictures in 2003, a documentary production company that has produced more than 15 nationally broadcast documentaries, including the Emmy nominated Hard Road Home (director: Macky Alston) and Occupation: Dreamland (directors: Garrett Scott and Ian Olds), which was released theatrically and won the 2006 Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction award. Selina's IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1081733/ Macky…
Jason Eksuzian is an award-winning director, cinematographer, producer and writer. Currently based in Los Angeles, he is a native of Berkshire County and graduate of Bennington College. His work has been screened and won top honors at major film festivals worldwide including Tribeca Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Series Fest, The London Comedy Film Festival, LA Comedy…
Benjamin Flaherty is a filmmaker and photographer with a diverse collection work over the past 15 years - from documentary and art films with Lou Reed and Julian Schnabel to commercial spots for major brands like Humana and KFC. His short form PSA’s have been awarded at Cannes, D&AD, One Show and the Clios. His debut feature documentary Shuffle won…
Icelandic filmmaker Snævar Sölvason was born and raised in the small fishing town of Bolungarvík, located in the remote Westfjords of Iceland. His background in this rugged and isolated region has shaped his storytelling, which blends humor, realism, and emotional depth. Since his debut feature, Albatross (2015), which he self-financed and secured theatrical distribution for in Iceland, Snævar has continued…
Muneeb Hassan, born in Karachi, Pakistan, is a post-production wizard by day at the Motion Picture Editors Guild and an indie filmmaker by night. He somehow juggles editing shorts for others, earning an MIT certification in AI (because why not?), and finishing his own short film, All The Men I Met But Never Dated, which premiered at Oscar-qualifying festivals like…
Joshua Zeman is a leading voice in documentary storytelling. His film CROPSEY is one of the top true crime documentaries of all time. Zeman EP’d and directed THE KILLING SEASON for A&E, a docu-series EP’d by Alex Gibney; MURDER MOUNTAIN, a 6-part docu-series for Netflix; and THE SONS OF SAM, Netflix’s most-watched show the week it premiered. He also directed…
Jason Neulander is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and theater artist based in Austin, Texas. Neulander received his BA and MA in theater from Brown University. He founded and was the artistic director of Austin’s Salvage Vanguard Theater from 1994 to 2008. Over his tenure he directed and produced more than 50 world-premiere plays, musicals, and operas. His play THE INTERGALACTIC…
A highly-awarded and accomplished Producer, Lisa has spent three decades shaping scores of productions. Her vast experience and resourcefulness allow her to serve as Head of Production and/or Producer on film projects and ad campaigns alike. and has brought her to her current position as Managing Partner of the full-service, award-winning postproduction facility, 11 Dollar Bill, with offices in Boulder,…
Jill Campbell is an award-winning documentary Director, Producer, and Editor. She began her career working at New York’s Public Theater and writing and producing plays at LaMama, the Dublin Fringe Festival, across the London fringe scene, and as a fellow at Mabou Mines. In addition to her projects, Jill assists other filmmakers as a producer and editor working on over…
WRITER & PRODUCER | SHATTERED ICE Jake is the Founder/Owner of Nehoiden Street Films. Jake spent the early part of his career in the sport industry working for the LA Galaxy, XL Center in Hartford, CT, and the Needham Soccer Club. Jake now resides in Massachusetts with his wife Lexi. Jake believes Nehoiden Street Films will be a disruptor in…
Dan is currently COO of Inner Media Capital, a film finance and production company, which operations out of the Universal and Paramount lots in California and has delivered over 100 films with a zero loss model. Sheldon is a former talent agent at IAG representing some of the top actors in the industry effectively launching the careers of some of…
(Director/Producer) Sabean is an editor, producer & filmmaker, whose output includes independent narrative & documentary features, commercial video, and a large body of experimental work. His doc film work includes, “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground”, “The Man Card: White Male Identity Politics”, “Healing from Hate”, “Angry White Men & American Masculinity”, “You Throw Like a Girl: The Blindspot…
Deborah Puette is a queer creator who moves between film, television, and theater as a writer, director, actor, and producer. Adopted by an Irish-Catholic family of hunters who taught her to use a shotgun when she was eight, Puette left her life of weekend crow shoots to study photography in Paris, work at a shelter for abused women and kids…
Roxy Toporowych is an award-winning writer/ director focused on telling authentic, slice of life stories, often weaving colorful characters with world events, tackling themes of identity, culture and community. She is an NYU Tisch alum, IFP Narrative Lab Directing Fellow, winner of the IFP/Gotham Award for Emerging Directors, Fulbright Scholar and an AFI DWW+ 2024 fellow. Her narrative feature debut,…
Don Hardy is an award-winning filmmaker who has made films about wrongful convictions, terrorism, chemicals, international aid, and music. His films are often very personal while illuminating social justice issues and inequities in our world. Please List the Title of Your Film at BIFF 2025 BAR What was your first experience with film and how did it influence your first…
Yonah Sadeh is a filmmaker and photographer based in the Berkshires. Over the last decade, he has been creating short films, documentaries, and promotional content for local businesses and organizations. Yonah graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in 2024, studying film and digital media. His work focuses on storytelling that feels authentic and visually striking, often exploring social issues…
