2019 PROGRAMMERS

Landon Zakheim
Director of Programming

Landon Zakheim became director of programming for Aspen Shortsfest in 2018. In addition to his duties for Aspen Film, he is currently a short film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, where he has worked since 2008; senior programmer for the Philadelphia Film Festival and interactive curator for the Denver Film Festival. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Overlook Film Festival, a four-day celebration of all things horror which takes place in New Orleans, May 30th – June 2nd. He programs The Wrap’s online Short List Film festival and was head shorts programmer for the final 4 years of the LA Film Festival. Zakheim formerly programmed the American Film Institute’s fall festival in Los Angeles, AFI FEST and has more than a decade of festival experience with such organizations as the Telluride Film Festival, San Francisco Film Society, CineVegas, Austin Film Society, Tribeca Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Society and Outfest. He has consulted for a variety of short-form based projects including First Look’s Topic.com, an online magazine of short films, Vimeo and Lexus Short Films, and has been a juror at such prestigious festivals as SXSW, BiFan, and Sitges. He once directed two short films that went on to play at over 60 prestigious festivals around the world, including Aspen Shortsfest.

Opal H. Bennett

Opal has been a Festival Programmer since 2014. Beginning as a volunteer for the first Sundance London Film Festival, she now curates year round. Opal is on the programming teams for Aspen Shortsfest, Athena, DOC NYC, Nantucket and Tribeca Film Festivals, and is a Program Consultant for The March on Washington and Over-the-Rhine International Film Festivals. A Columbia Law grad, Opal holds a Masters in Media Studies from the LSE, and received her B.A. from New York University.

Emily Doe

Emily Doe is a short film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and Aspen Shortsfest. Previously, she distributed short films through McSweeney’s quarterly DVD magazine, Wholphin, and worked in film education at the San Francisco Film Society. She grew up outside of Boston, studied film and literature at Kenyon College in Ohio and now lives in San Francisco with her family.

Angie Driscoll

Angie Driscoll is short film champion who brings enthusiasm, passion and over 15 years of programming experience at a variety of international film festivals to Aspen Shortsfest. She has programmed for the Toronto International Film Festival, the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, Sundance, and Nordisk Panorama. She has curated films for pioneering online platform Babelgum, music videos for the Prism Prize and silent shorts for Toronto subway screens. Angie recently received the Bittersweet Decision-Maker Prize at Docs Port Incheon in South Korea, and is currently the Senior Shorts & Senior International Features Programmer at Hot Docs in Toronto.

Sudeep Sharma

Sudeep Sharma is a senior programmer at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and Palm Springs International ShortFest, as well as a shorts programmer at Sundance and an associate programmer for features at Tribeca. He has also held programming positions at AFI Fest, Los Angeles Film Festival and the Indian Kaleidoscope Film Festival. He was director of programming for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He completed his Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA and has taught at universities throughout Southern California.

Shortsfest 2019 Volunteer Pre-screeners

Robin Buchalter, Jessica Buchanan, Ruth Carver, Marie Chan, Marc Dulin, Judy Dunn, Clay Farland, Alicia Goldsmith, Martha Gregory, Christine Helling, Julian Hills, Regna Jones, Sheri Kaufman-Marsh, Ali Lightfoot, Mary McClure, Ryan McNamara, Evan Meyer, Amy Mountjoy, Patrick Oster, Hannah Pike, Lisa Prior, Ernie Quiroz, Gabrielle Rafelson, Richard Roche, Aaron Rogers, Elexa Ruth, Molly Scharlin, Becky Steere, Jennifer Taylor, Craig Turpin, Christopher Wheatley, Wendle Whiting, Sydney Louise Williams