Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival
Donate

More results...

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

About MNFF

General Information

About

Our Mission


The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival was formed to support, promote and exhibit the work of first and second-time filmmakers from around the world. That is our sole mission and we do it well. Our unwavering commitment is to offer a level playing field to emerging talent and to offer our audiences an unparalleled opportunity to discover new voices.

Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival

 Each year in August, we welcome over seventy filmmakers and hundreds of audience members to the town of Middlebury, Vermont, offering a dynamic showcase of films from emerging voices in independent film. Dedicated solely to the work of first- and second-time directors, MNFF provides a unique and supportive platform for artists taking their first steps into the world of independent cinema.

We are proud to offer visiting artists a supportive setting in which to meet their peers, connect intimately with audiences and special guests, and participate in workshops, panels and events that advance their craft. Our awards, prizes and filmmaker grants also offer financial and career support to filmmakers at early stages of their careers.

Over its first 11 years, MNFF has showcased the work of a diverse array of passionate new filmmakers from around the world, working across all genres. Our programming team seeks out compelling and memorable narratives – fiction and nonfiction, features and shorts – that embrace risk-taking and boundary-breaking and that promote and uplift underrepresented communities and stories. 

MNFF Selects Series

In addition to the main festival held annually in August, we also present the MNFF Selects Series, a year-round film series hosted in Middlebury, Vermont. The series reprises festival favorites for our local Vermont audience and features a lively post-film discussion.

Vermont Tour

Our Vermont Tour brings a small selection of outstanding films from our festival program to towns across the state of Vermont. In collaboration with local venues, we offer filmmakers whose work is shown in the Vermont Tour the chance to appear live for post-film Q&As and socializing with audiences.

Team

Jay Craven

Co-Founder / Artistic Director

Jay is co-founder and Artistic Director at MNFF and an independent filmmaker with 11 narrative feature films, a comedy TV series and four documentaries to his credit.

His films have played Sundance, SXSW, AFI, Lincoln Center, the Constitutional Court of Johannesburg and others. He also founded and directs the Semester Cinema program where, every two years, 30 professionals mentor and collaborate with 40 students from 14 colleges to make an ambitious feature film for national release.

Lloyd Komesar

Co-Founder / Interim Producer

Lloyd Komesar spent nearly 30 years as a sales, research and distribution exec in the film and television programming industry, first at Blair Television in New York, then, for the next 25 years, at the Walt Disney Company in New York and Los Angeles. Having acquired extensive knowledge of the distribution models of film and television over his rewarding career, he brings a considerable amount of perspective and insight to the MNFF endeavor.

Andy Knight Mitchell

Managing Producer

Andy is a 5-time Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. After attending Middlebury College in the 90’s, he traveled the world making films for National Geographic, before moving back to Middlebury, VT to start a family. He’s the Co-Founder of the 501(c)3 nonprofit Middlebury Underground, an arts and event production company that he runs with his wife, Lisa. When not working, he can be found making his own movies, building unnecessary things, and foraging mushrooms in the 1000 acre woods.

Simeon Hutner

Senior Programmer

Simeon Hutner is the Senior Programmer at MNFF.  He is a film editor as well as a director and producer, with thirty years of film and television credits, including works shown at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Telluride and many other film festivals, and on HBO, BBC, Bravo, A&E and PBS. 

Annika Ellis

Associate Producer

Annika is a graduate of the University of Vermont’s Film and Television Studies program. She first fell in love with the festival circuit as an intern for the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival in 2022, and has since returned to MNFF as a filmmaker, honoree guide, and venue manager. 

Between her variety of film festival and hospitality experience, Annika brings a unique perspective to festival operations that prioritizes both filmmaker and passholder experience. She is passionate about the potential of film festivals to foster connection and enlightenment.

Screening Committee


Anna Sang Park

Anna Sang Park is a Korean American filmmaker whose work explores immigration and memory and examines displacement narratives. Born in South Korea, she is the writer and director of The Cho Stories, and producer of Wallabout, Stockade & The Loving Story. 

She is the co-founder of Veronique Films and she teaches film at Hunter College in New York City.

Dominic Lounds

A recent graduate of Emerson College’s MFA film program, Dominic specializes in documentary filmmaking and motion graphics.

Previously an archival researcher and associate producer for documentaries such as Ailey, The Sun Queen, and Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History, she now works as a producer at Brookline Interactive Group.

Greydon Hanson


Graydon Hanson is a recently-graduated Film Major from Middlebury College. He has worked as a programmer for the Vermont International Film Festival and the Green Mountain Film Festival, and currently works as the head of the programming committee for the Hirschfield International Film Festival at Middlebury College. He has also written, directed, and edited several short films when he was a student at Middlebury, and hopes to continue watching and making films as an alumnus

Jenny Shi

Jenny Shi is a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker. Her debut, Finding Yingying (2020), won a Special Jury Award at SXSW and was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy.

She is now working on her second feature, with support from ITVS, Sundance, CAAM, Firelight, Kartemquin Films and others.

Stacia Thompson

Stacia Thompson is an independent documentary filmmaker and editor, and has worked in the film and TV industry for more than 40 years.

After starting her career in film acquisitions and distribution, she segued to film editing and directing, and ultimately to documentary series producing. Films and series she has edited, produced and/or directed have played at film festivals including Frameline and Sundance, and have been aired on PBS, ABC, Discovery and many other networks.

Phil Wall

Phil Wall is an award-winning filmmaker. He has written, produced, directed, filmed and edited three feature documentaries, including 2020’s The Book Keepers.

He lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he works on independent and commercial narrative content.

Board of Directors

Maggie Keith

Co-Chair

Maggie Keith is the president and co-founder of little seed COFFEE ROASTERS, a roasting house and community-centric coffee shop in Middlebury, Vermont. Her pivot to entrepreneurship was spurred following a career in development at not-for-profit independent schools in New York City, most recently as a Director of Annual Giving. Over the course of her time in advancement, Maggie’s achievements have included executing a robust annual fund while bolstering community participation, developing and managing a large team of fundraising volunteers, as well as planning a multitude of campaign-oriented fundraising and stewardship events.
 
Now, as co-owner of little seed Coffee Roasters, Maggie has brought what started as a passion project — roasting coffee out of her Brooklyn apartment with her husband, Anthony Gerakos — to life, here in Vermont. She now calls Bristol, VT home.

Alex Draper

Co-Chair

Alex Draper is a Professor of Theatre at Middlebury College and a professional stage, film and television actor with an impressive forty-year career. Draper is the co-Artistic Director of the Dogteam Theatre Project, Middlebury College’s professional theatre company, and has held leadership roles with PTP/NYC and Blue Light Theatre in NYC. A graduate of Middlebury College and the Yale School of Drama, Draper brings a deep commitment to the arts and storytelling to the MNFF Board.

Drey Ward

Vice Chair

Drey Ward, a Middlebury resident by way of Mount Desert Island, Manhattan and Ithaca, NY, is the Director of Customer Care, Sales and Marketing for Silver Maple Construction. Beyond her professional work, Drey is an avid traveler, a scuba diving enthusiast, a budding hiker and an aspiring letterpress artist. Deeply passionate about community and creativity, Drey is excited to support MNFF’s efforts to foster an inclusive, vibrant space for filmmakers and audiences alike.

Don Devost

Treasurer

Don is a founding partner of Marble Trail Financial where he works with a diverse set of clients providing personalized and holistic solutions to achieve their financial goals.

Before founding Marble Trail, he worked in senior financial positions at both public and private corporations, which has informed his work today. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University and an MBA in Finance from Cornell University.  Don was raised here in Middlebury and has served as a director for several area non-profits, including, most recently, the Opera Company of Middlebury.

Lloyd Komesar

Co-Founder

Lloyd Komesar spent nearly 30 years as a sales, research and distribution exec in the film and television programming industry, first at Blair Television in New York, then, for the next 25 years, at the Walt Disney Company in New York and Los Angeles. Having acquired extensive knowledge of the distribution models of film and television over his rewarding career, he brings a considerable amount of perspective and insight to the MNFF endeavor.

Jay Craven

Co-Founder / Artistic Director

Jay Craven is an award-winning director, writer, and producer whose narrative films include High Water (1989); Where the Rivers Flow North (1993); A Stranger in the Kingdom (1997); In Jest (1999); The Year That Trembled (2003), Disappearances (2006), 
Northern Borders (2012), and Peter and John (2015).

Jay also directed, produced, and co-wrote the 2005 Emmy Award-winning public television comedy series, Windy Acres—and the Queen City Radio Hour, a 2009 comedy and music variety show performed before a live audience and broadcast over Vermont Public Radio. His documentaries include After the Fog: Interviews with Combat Veterans (2006), Dawn of the People (1984) and Gayleen (1985).

Elizabeth Robinson

An 8th-generation Vermonter, Elizabeth graduated from Middlebury College in 1984. She served on the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and the Humanities in Washington D.C., at the Bank of Boston, and is director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau at the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce in Burlington, VT. She settled with her family in Middlebury in 1994 as the Director of Alumni and Parent programs at Middlebury College. Until recently, Elizabeth served as Associate Dean of the College for Creativity, Engagement & Careers.

Elizabeth currently serves on the boards at VCET and HOPE and the MNFF. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Linda Rossi

Linda Rossi is the State Director of the Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) and just concluded six years on the national America’s SBDC board of directors, the last two as Chair. Linda serves on the America’s SBDC Accreditation committee, traveling around the U.S. visiting other programs and is a board member of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC).

Prior to joining the SBDC, Linda spent 20 years in the private sector as a national project manager for IBM and business manager for four start-up and growing small businesses. Linda holds a degree in business management, marketing, and psychology, and certifications in leadership, project management, entrepreneurship education and workforce development. She settled in Vermont with her husband in 1995 where they enjoyed raising two daughters and being active in their local community.

Jenny Williams

Jenny Williams brings decades of legal and executive leadership experience to the MNFF board. Over her 30-year career, she served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for American Trailer World Corporation and Unisource Worldwide, Inc., where she also held the role of EVP of Human Resources. A retired partner of Dentons law firm, Jenny holds degrees from the University of Tennessee and Washington University in St. Louis, along with an Advanced Management Program certificate from Harvard Business School. A longtime supporter of the arts, Jenny has previously chaired the board of Art Papers and serves on the board of Artadia. She resides in Cornwall, Vermont, and Vero Beach, Florida, with her husband.

Receive our email newsletter