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]
A Midwestern theatre kid eager to spread her wings, Jordan attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City before eventually settling in the south of France. For over 10 years, she created performance art through intermedia contemporary dance productions. She now mostly writes stories in the woods of western Massachusetts. Please List the Title of Your Film…
A native of upstate NY, Brian completed an undergraduate degree in Sociology, eventually settling in Western Massachusetts to learn sustainable homesteading and carpentry while raising children. Brian has spent time on many sets and worked on documentary projects, as an activist video journalist in a previous life. Please List the Title of Your Film at BIFF 2026Thickly Settled What was…
Liliana is an award-winning biracial Indian American actress, writer, and filmmaker who is passionate about women-led stories exploring identity and empowerment, told with a mix of humor and heart. Her directorial debut short film Ride or Die premiered at the Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival, where it won Best Thriller. Break/Fix (writer/producer/lead), a short film about bi-racial identity and…
Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Lorena Luciano is a fellow of the Sundance Institute, the MacArthur Foundation, and the International Documentary Association (IDA), and an alumna artist-in-residence of the Jacob Burns Film Center. Born and raised in Italy, she studied law in Milan before moving to New York to pursue filmmaking, and her legal background informs the accuracy and ethics of her…
Jennifer Grausman recently completed the short documentary Investigator, which will screen at film festivals in 2026. She directed and produced the Emmy-nominated feature documentary Art and Craft (2014), which was shortlisted for the 2015 Academy Awards and was named one of the National Board of Review’s Top 5 Documentaries of 2014. Art and Craft opened theatrically across the country, as…
Over my career, I have produced, directed, and written in all formats and genres, mainly focused on music, comedy, and social consciousness. Along with producing the pilot with Larry David for HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, I produced, directed, and co-wrote two seasons of Z-Rock, a single-camera “Curb-meets-Spinal Tap” sitcom for IFC. I also produced and directed Ben Stiller’s Comedy Roundtable…
Sara Joe Wolansky is a documentary director and Emmy-nominated producer whose films depict stranger-than-fiction stories, grounded in genuine empathy. The Big Cheese is her first feature film as director. Her films will lure you in by making you laugh and then tug at your heartstrings. Her award-winning documentary shorts have racked up millions of views and earned plaudits from even…
Born in London, England, I moved to the U.S. in 1978 and didn’t get involved in film until I retired in 2004. I had always wanted to make documentary films and set about doing that as a hobby, which turned into a passion and now an obsession. My documentaries have primarily focused on World War II, and in particular the…
John David Coles’ feature directorial debut, Signs of Life, starring Vincent D’Onofrio and Mary Louise Parker, won the International Critics Prize at Deauville. His next project, Rising Son with Matt Damon, won the Audience Award the following year at Deauville. Other films include Darrow with Kevin Spacey, The Good Fight with Christine Lahti, and Friends at Last with Kathleen Turner.…
Tyler Coon is a filmmaker that recently completed his MFA in Film Production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Tyler comes from the great state of Massachusetts, loves baseball, cooking and home-improvement projects. Prior to, and during, his studies in USC's Film Production program, Tyler has written, directed, edited or produced over 15 independent short films in various above…
Sharon Liese is an Emmy Award-winning director who is passionate about telling stories that move people. THE FLAGMAKERS, which she co-directed with Cynthia Wade (NatGeo, Disney+), won the Emmy for Outstanding Short Documentary (2023) and was Oscar shortlisted. Her short documentary, PARKER, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is distributed through The New Yorker. Her HBO feature documentary,…
Since I made my first film, "Joan of Arc," at fourteen, I've always dreamed of having a movie in a real film festival. That was sixty years ago — and being in BIFF now is so worth the wait. More recently, my art series "Reinventing Rockwell" reimagined Norman Rockwell's iconic works through a contemporary lens, earning coverage from the New…
Steve Dabal is an Italian-American film director with a deep background in visual effects and a focus on non-fiction storytelling. His subjects have included Fortune 500 CEOs, 9/11 survivors, stroke patients, war veterans, climate scientists in the Arctic, and celebrities. Italian Wannabe (2026) is his feature film debut. He is the co-founder and creative director of The Family, an artist-owned…
Gaspard Choquet is a filmmaker and photographer currently based in NYC. He is pursuing his B.F.A. in Film & TV Production at New York University. Whether it’s as a director, cinematographer, or photographer, his work revolves around the complexities of emotional intimacy, the fear yet necessity of vulnerability, and love. Please List the Title of Your Film at BIFF 2026Raised…
Morgan Gruer (she/her) is an Emmy® Award winning Writer/Director whose work centers on women’s journeys to empowerment, Jewish identity, and the dark comedy inherent to love, grief, and family dysfunction. Morgan’s short, Fire At Will, World Premiered at Tribeca Festival 2025 and won Silver at the Young Director Awards at Cannes Lions. Critics praised the film for its “hilarious and…
Patrick Hamm is an award-winning documentary producer based in Brooklyn, New York. His films combine creative ambition with a clear social focus, and have premiered at festivals including Tribeca, SXSW, Slamdance, and IDFA. His recent work includes Dear Lara (2026) and Who I Am Not (2023). He works on films that examine power, institutions, and accountability, informed by a background…
Alexander is a writer/director born and based in New York City, with long-standing ties to Great Barrington and the Berkshire area. Alongside several short films, he has directed work for Airbnb, Joe & the Juice, Tanner Fletcher, and Genie the Band through his production company, North130. He is currently developing features based on his shorts ("The Actor" and "Top Shot"),…
John Gray is a Brooklyn-born writer, director, and producer known for creating the long-running CBS series Ghost Whisperer and for writing and directing numerous Emmy-nominated and critically acclaimed television films. He served as producing director on the CBS series Reckless and has helmed several studio and independent feature films, including the award-winning White Irish Drinkers, which premiered at the Toronto…
James Wright is an award-winning director based in Los Angeles and a George Lucas Scholar currently pursuing his MFA in Film & Television Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. He creates both narrative and documentary work, with films that have been recognized at multiple festivals. Following graduation, he aims to direct feature films. Please List the Title of Your…
Nira Burstein is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York City and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film as well as DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40. Her documentary debut Charm Circle won the Audience Award at Sheffield DocFest, was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and premiered on the Criterion Channel. Her work has been…
Sasha Waters is a moving image artist trained in photography and 16mm cinema, whose work explores ecstatic, metaphorical realism through the materials and relationships of everyday life. Her 2018 feature Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable won a Special Jury Prize at SXSW, screened internationally, and inspired her forthcoming book Garry Winogrand Archive 1948–1984, created in collaboration with Jeffrey Ladd…
Karen Ranucci is a veteran producer with over fifty years of experience in independent video and film production and distribution. She began her career at the Downtown Community TV Center in New York, where she worked on PBS documentaries, led community video workshops, and helped establish both an education program and a documentary distribution department. She later spent nearly a…
Daniel Straub is an award-winning Los Angeles–based director and producer with a recent hyperfixation on pencils. His work reflects a curiosity for process and detail, often finding creativity in unexpected places. Please List the Title of Your Film at BIFF 2026A SHORT DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A GIANT PENCIL What was your first experience with film and how did it influence your…
Alessandro Tonda is an Italian director with a background in creative writing and film, having studied at the Scuola Holden in Turin before graduating in Film Directing from the NUCT in Rome in 2006. Beginning his career as an assistant director, he collaborated on major Italian film and television productions such as Romanzo Criminale – The Series, Gomorrah – The…
Éamon Little is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and radio documentary maker based in County Galway in the west of Ireland. His screen adaptation of John McGahern’s final novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun (directed by Pat Collins), won the 2024 IFTA for Best Film and screened at festivals worldwide, earning numerous awards. His recent documentary Born That Way, about…
Eran Riklis is one of Israel’s most acclaimed filmmakers, known for a body of work that has achieved both international critical acclaim and commercial success. His films—including Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree, The Human Resources Manager, A Borrowed Identity, Zaytoun, Spider in the Web, Shelter, Playoff, Cup Final, Zohar, and Vulcan Junction—have been showcased at major festivals…
Brian Gersten is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, non-fiction writer, editor, and educator based in Millerton, NY. His extensive editing work—including Searching for Mr. Rugoff, Radical Wolfe, and Enter the Slipstream—has appeared on platforms such as Netflix, PBS, Amazon Prime, Peacock, HBO Max, and the Criterion Channel. His own short documentaries, including The Great Toilet Paper Scare, Balloon Boy, and The…
Omid Iranikhah is an Iranian-American writer/director whose work explores the complexities of the Iranian diaspora experience. A recipient of the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting and a semifinalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowships, his storytelling blends humor, intimacy, and cultural specificity to create narratives that resonate beyond their immediate communities. He recently earned his MFA in Film Production from…
