Meet the Programmers 2025

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Meet the Programmers

As your tour guides of the Reel World, SIFF’s programmers watch movies year round so that, come Festival time, we can screen the most transporting of international and independent cinema. That means there are no bad choices when it comes to buying SIFF tickets, but naturally, each programmer, like each festivalgoer, has their favorites among the films.

With the 51st Seattle International Film Festival fast approaching, it’s time for you to choose your own Reel World adventure, and here to lead you through new cinematic landmarks with all their wisdom are our seasoned programmers. Scroll down this page to read about them, click through their Letterboxd profiles, and peruse their picks for this year's Festival.

Beth Barrett

Artistic Director
Nordic, Documentary, Spotlight Presentations

Meet Beth | Beth's Picks

Beth (she/her) has been with SIFF since 2003 and is responsible for managing the artistic vision of SIFF, including all aspects of programming for the Seattle International Film Festival, SIFF Cinema’s six year-round screens, and the SIFF Education team. Beth currently serves on the City of Seattle Film Commission and the Board of the Arthouse Convergence, and has served on juries and panels from Palm Springs to Park City.

Stan Shields

Associate Director of Festival Programming
Asian Crossroads, Documentaries, Face the Music

Meet Stan | Stan's Picks

Stan Shields (he/him) has been a member of the SIFF Programming Team since 2004 after having directed for their Screenwriter Salon program and assisted with their Exploding Cinema events. Prior to becoming the Programming Manager in 2017, he served as the Operations Manager for Intiman Theatre. He has also curated and/or taught for Bumbershoot, Cornish College of the Arts, and On The Boards, and currently serves as Artistic Director for (Seattle’s 2008 Mayor’s Arts Award-winner) The 14/48 Projects.

Justine Barda

Senior Programmer
France, the Middle East, North Africa, New Directors Competition

Meet Justine | Justine's Picks

Justine Barda (she/her) has been with SIFF since 2008, programming film from France, the Middle East, and North Africa, and serving on the New Directors Competition committee. She has also consulted with the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Dubai International Film Festival. In addition to festival programming, she taught in the Film Studies Program at Seattle University for a decade. In 2019, she founded Telescope Film, a discovery site for international film and TV. She is based in New York.

Dan Doody

Senior Programmer
Archival, Documentary, New Directors Competition, Short Films, UK/Ireland, WTF

Meet Dan | Dan's Picks

A Seattle-area local, Dan Doody (he/him) received a degree in English from Western Washington University and began working for the Seattle International Film Festival in 1999. He programs both features and short films for SIFF, serving for the past 15 years as the festival's lead programmer for its Oscar®-qualifying ShortsFest Weekend. He is an enthusiast of classic horror and the gothic in both film and literature and could quite happily live in a crumbling castle with nothing but the films of Boris Karloff to keep him company.

Megan Leonard

Senior Programmer
New American Cinema Lead, Shorts Co-Lead, WTF

Meet Megan | Megan's Picks

Megan Leonard (she/her) is an award-winning creative producer and festival programmer based in Seattle, WA. She started working for film festivals in 2010 and is currently a Senior Programmer at the Seattle International Film Festival. She has also programmed for Indie Memphis and DOC NYC and served as a mentor for SXSW and Film Independent. Leonard’s films have premiered at top-tier festivals around the world including Sundance and SXSW, debuted on global streaming platforms including Hulu and MUBI, and received five Vimeo Staff Picks. She is a Sundance Institute and Gotham alumna, a Webby Honoree, and has been featured in publications including Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine, and MovieMaker Magazine. In 2024, she was awarded a Special Citation for her service to filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest from the Seattle Film Critics Association.

Hebe Tabachnik

Senior Programmer
Ibero America: Latin America, Spain, and Portugal

Meet Hebe | Hebe's Picks

Hebe Tabachnik (she/her) has been a film curator, festival consultant, and producer for 20 years and focuses on visionary artists and stories which highlight human rights as well as social, political, and environmental justice. She has participated as juror, project evaluator, and panelist in the US, Europe, Latin America, Israel, and China. She is Senior Programmer at the Seattle (SIFF), Palm Springs (PSIFF), and Cartagena International Film Festivals (FICCI) and is the Artistic Director of Cine Latino Minneapolis Saint Paul. She worked for both Sundance and Los Angeles Film Festivals. She was one of the inaugural ARRAY Now Grantees created by Ava DuVernay’s Array Alliance that recognize the top community organizers and arts advocates in the USA. She was the Executive Producer of Valentina (Brazil, 2020 – SIFF 2021), winner of 25 awards, and The Perfect David (Argentina, Uruguay, 2021). She is currently working on the feature film project The Meeting (Chile, Vietnam) and “Pais Continental,” a non-fiction series in Brazil.

Angelo Acerbi

Programmer
Europe/Italy

Meet Angelo | Angelo's Picks

Angelo (he/him) has been involved in cinema for more than 30 years, starting in film festivals (Turin Film Festival and TGLFF), then contributing to the creation of the Turin Piedmont Film Commission, where he was Production Manager for five years. After a period in which he was involved in film production, film events, and film publishing, he resumed his collaboration with the Lovers Film Festival, where he is currently Head Programmer and Assistant to the Artistic Direction. Expanding his activity to the United States, he was a programmer for the Palm Springs International Film Festival, then moved on to the Seattle International Film Festival, for which he has been programming for Europe and Italy for over 15 years. He also has curated Cinema Italian Style Seattle for SIFF for the past 12 years. In the cinema field, he collaborates as a reporter and journalist with an English podcast that deals exclusively with festivals and cinema: “Fred Film Radio,” a media partner of the major international film festivals (including Venice, Rome, London, Berlin, Turin, European Film Awards). For four years, he has been teaching Cinematography and Multimedia Languages at the Galli Academy – IED Network in Como. He is also currently Artistic Director of the Film Section of the Saison Culturelle, an annual film program produced by the Regional Government of Aosta Valley, in the northwest of Italy.

SuJ'n Chon

Programmer
Asian Crossroads, New American Cinema, New Directors Competition

Meet SuJ’n | SuJ'n's Picks

SuJ'n (she/her) is an artist, writer, and curator born and raised in the Seattle area. As an independent consultant, she primarily works with arts organizations and nonprofits led by people of the global majority. SuJ'n began with SIFF in 2006, volunteering while living a five-minute walk from McCaw Hall—and later, from SIFF Uptown. She has been part of the programming team since 2018, focusing on Asian Crossroads, New American Cinema, and films by and about the Asian diaspora. She also serves on the New Directors Competition committee. SuJ'n now lives on the Swinomish Indian Reservation in rural Skagit County with her human companion, Han, and their beloved cat zoo—Boba, Cleopatra, and Misty (R.I.P. Josephine Baker).

James Davis

Development and Programming Coordinator
Culinary Cinema, Shorts

Meet James | James's Picks

Born Southern California and growing up in Utah, James (he/him) moved to Seattle and joined SIFF as floor staff when SIFF took over the Egyptian in 2014. Three years later, he moved into his current role as Programming Coordinator. He enjoys cycling, running, reading, and just being outdoors. He also makes his own hard cider and occasionally spirits, cheese, and kombucha, and roasts coffee. Outside of SIFF, James screens for AFI and is on the Programming team for FilmFest Oberursel.

Sofia Felino

Festival Programming Coordinator

Meet Sofia | Sofia's Picks

Sofia Felino has worked as a coordinator and programmer for many festivals across the country, big and small. In addition to SIFF, she is a programmer at the Cascadia International Women's Film Festival in Bellingham, and returns to her hometown every year to work with the programmers at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Sofia has an Interdisciplinary BA from Columbia College Chicago, where she studied creative writing, film and television, and the entertainment industry. She is also a published journalist and poet, and she lives in Seattle with her beloved tuxedo cat.

Kasi Gaarenstroom

Cinema Program Manager
WTF

Meet Kasi | Kasi's Picks

Kasi Gaarenstroom (she/they) is a PNW native and die-hard film enthusiast. As SIFF's Cinema Program Manager, she creates dynamic film series for Seattle cinephiles, featuring hits like March Monster Madness, They Came from Outer Space, and a mesmerizing David Lynch retrospective. They have been involved with film festivals all over the country as a screener and programmer for Tribeca, SXSW, Fantastic Fest, and more. This marks her second year as a SIFF programmer, and she's ecstatic to dive into the WTF program, delving into a treasure trove of quirky and captivating films.

Megan Garbayo-López

Education Manager
Films4Families, FutureWave

Meet Megan | Megan's Picks

Megan Garbayo-López (they/them) is the Education Manager at SIFF, where they cultivate new and deepen existing audiences with education through filmmaking and film appreciation experiences. Megan holds a BA in Writing for Film and Television from Emerson College and has extensive experience as a set rat. Other festivals Megan has worked with include Seattle Queer Film Festival, Translations Seattle Transgender Film Festival, Nightstream, and North Bend Film Festival. Their passion in life is closing the arts access gap in underserved communities and promoting media created for and by young people. ¡Si se puede!

Marcus Gorman

Programmer
New American Cinema, WTF, LGBTQIA+

Meet Marcus | Marcus's Picks

Marcus Gorman (he/him) is a Seattle-based film programmer and award-winning playwright and producer. His original plays and one-acts have been produced in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Ashland, Pittsburgh, and even the Wisconsin Northwoods. In the world of film, he has worked for such organizations as the Seattle (SIFF), Seattle Queer (SQFF), Cleveland (CIFF), North Bend (NBFF), San Francisco Jewish (SFJFF), Lake County (LCFF), and Tallgrass Film Festivals, Make Believe Seattle, and the Grand Illusion Cinema. He is currently a culture writer for "The Ticket" at The Seattle Times, has been published in Howlround, The Dramatist, and New American Theatre Magazine, and his voice and writing can be found on such podcasts as “Film at Fifty,” “Eggs & Space,” “SIFFcast,” and “The Ugly Radio.”

Kathleen Mullen

Programmer
Documentary

Meet Kathleen | Kathleen's Picks

Kathleen (she/her) is an experienced film programmer and festival director with a focus on inclusive, impactful film experiences. She is the lead programmer for Frameline: San Francisco LGBTQ+ Film Festival and programs for the Victoria Film Festival, Skoden Indigenous Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Kathleen also works with the Sustainable Production Forum, advocating for sustainability in film. A lecturer at Lesley University, she guides students in creating the Lesley University Independent Film Festival. Formerly the Festival Director of the Seattle Queer Film Festival, she has also programmed for Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs, Inside Out Toronto, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Planet in Focus. Kathleen holds an MFA in Film Production from York University and has directed the documentary Breathtaking.

Colleen O'Holleran

Programmer
WTF

Meet Colleen | Colleen's Picks

Colleen O’Holleran (she/her) has been a programmer for SIFF since 2017, showcasing scary, dark, weird, and wild midnighters along with the other genre movies in SIFF’s WTF lineup. A lifelong film lover, she is always searching for hidden pockets of cinema she hasn’t yet explored. Beyond film, Colleen is a dedicated supporter of animal rights organizations and farm sanctuaries. Based in the Rocky Mountains where the sun shines over 300 days a year, Colleen remains a lifelong "indoor kid" who you can usually find inside reading a book or watching a movie.

Tracy Rector

Programmer
Global Indigenous Films

Meet Tracy | Tracy's Picks

Tracy Rector (she/her) is a mixed-heritage filmmaker with a passion for amplifying and uplifting artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Trans, and those who are historically marginalized and underrepresented. She holds three decades of experience as a community organizer, educator, filmmaker, film programmer, and arts curator. Her work has been featured on Independent Lens, PBS, and National Geographic, in addition to being screened at international film festivals including ImagineNative, BlackStar, Maoriland, Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, and Toronto. Tracy served as a Seattle Arts Commissioner for eight years, is a Stranger Genius, sits on the boards of Working Films and Multitude Films, and is on the Advisory Council for the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media. She is happiest unapologetically fighting for justice and equity for all.

Martin Schwartz

Programmer
German-Language and Central European Cinema

Meet Martin | Martin's Picks

Martin Schwartz (he/him) is a scholar, film lover, and arts advocate based in Seattle, WA. Until its closure, he served as Program Curator at Goethe Pop Up Seattle, the temporary branch of the international cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, where among other filmic duties he programmed the monthly series GERMAN CINEMA NOW! at the Northwest Film Forum. Martin is a playwright as well, and five of his works have graced and troubled stages in California and Arizona. He earned a BA from UC San Diego and an MA from University of Chicago, working on German literature, drama, and film, and is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Washington, where his research focuses on antisemitism and New German Cinema.

Andy Spletzer

Programmer
Alternate Cinema, Documentary, New American Cinema

Meet Andy | Andy's Picks

Andy Spletzer (he/him) moved to Seattle in the '90s to help start the alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger, where he was the chief film critic/editor for nearly a decade. Once he left, he began freelancing in the film industry as a Script Supervisor, working with such delightful actors as Viggo Mortensen, David Tennant, and Cary Elwes, among others. That's also when he started freelancing at the Seattle International Film Festival, first editing the program catalog and free guide, and then as a programmer.

Cory Rodriguez

LGBTQ+ Shorts

Meet Cory

Cory Rodriguez (he/him) is a festival programmer in Seattle. He graduated from Seattle University in 2015 with a degree in Film Studies. He has worked at SIFF in multiple roles in the past and he has programmed for 12 years. He has a special interest in short films and his programming at SIFF has been centered around queer cinema. Additionally, he has worked for Three Dollar Bill Cinema, programmed for the 20th edition of Seattle Queer Film Festival, and served on the shorts jury for SQFF 2021. He has also served on the shorts/mid-length jury for Make Believe Seattle.

Darcy Wytko

Shorts

Meet Darcy

Darcy Wytko is a Los Angeles-based writer, filmmaker, festival programmer, and burlesque artist. She is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre's acting conservatory on Broadway and is co-founder of Blonde Ambition Burlesque, serving as a producer and performer. Currently, she is an inaugural Canva Fellow at the American Film Institute, where she is a screenwriting MFA candidate, and is a shorts programmer at the Seattle International Film Festival and Palm Springs International ShortFest. She has a soft spot for baby goats, the Velvet Underground, and her rodeo roots, and has a deep love for all films rock’n’roll, indie, arthouse, and international. Her aim is to both make and champion unique works with a punk rock and pioneering spirit, and foster the growth and preservation of independent cinema.

Emalie Soderback

Shorts

Meet Emalie

Emalie Soderback (she/her) was born and raised in the Seattle area and has been working at Scarecrow Video since 2013. She’s worked as an editor and publications manager for Seattle International Film Festival as well as shorts programmer for the North Bend Film Festival, and has contributed her film writing to several publications, including The Stranger. Emalie currently lives in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle and spends her time recording Scarecrow’s YouTube show “Viva Physical Media,” co-hosting the ’90s thriller podcast “The Suspense is Killing Us,” and of course, always watching movies (especially horror). Follow her on Letterboxd (@whateverokay) and Twitter (@esoderback).

Jesse Knight

Shorts

Meet Jesse

Jesse Knight is the lead programmer for Palm Springs International ShortFest. On roller skates, he is 5’11”.

Kimberly Dinehart

Documentary Shorts

Meet Kimberly

Kimberly Dinehart (she/her) is a shorts programmer at SIFF. She has been a programmer with SIFF since 2020 and has been involved with SIFF since 2010—first as a member of the inaugural FutureWave committee, later its president, and then as a Festival house coordinator at our former Eastside venues. Born and raised in Bellevue, Kimberly received a BA in History from Northeastern University with a concentration in the Cold War and an MBA from UCLA with a concentration in entrepreneurship. She currently does product marketing and operations for multiple startups including RightsTrade, a year-round social marketplace for film and TV distribution rights. She also writes the newsletter for Revival Hub, a non-profit that promotes repertory screenings throughout Los Angeles. You can find her working on her Letterboxd watchlist.

Nancy Pappas

African Pictures

Meet Nancy

Nancy Pappas (she/her) is a Congolese American producer, archival researcher, and film programmer. Growing up a third culture kid, she became interested in cultural studies, with a particular focus on archival theory and research and Third Cinema to make sense of the world around her. Her international upbringing gave way to nomadic global wanderings with camera in hand, living and working from Kenya to Vietnam, Morocco to Zanzibar, and beyond. Now Seattle-based, she works as a video producer and has had the pleasure of programming films for the African Pictures program at SIFF since 2019 thanks to a chance encounter with kismet. Nancy holds an MA in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin and continues her personal work in experimental archive montage and ethnographic research in her free time. Nancy has a deep love for cinema and believes curation to be a form of mapmaking and tool to foster cross-cultural understanding.

Nichole Young

Shorts

Meet Nichole

Nichole Young is the Shorts Programmer at the American Film Institute’s AFI FEST. She has programmed for several festivals including Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and Palm Springs ShortFest; was a panelist at Atlanta Film Festival and NALIP; and has acted as a judge for Nashville Film Fest and numerous student-run film festivals. She has also assisted in the success of hundreds of film organizations while working at the online platform Eventive. Nichole holds a BFA in Broadcast Journalism (News & Documentary Filmmaking) from Chapman University and a Master’s degree in Film and Media Studies from Arizona State University. This is her second year programming at SIFF. She currently resides in Phoenix, AZ continuing her arduous search for the state’s best breakfast burrito.

Mayumi Tsutakawa

Japan, Asian Crossroads

Mayumi Tsutakawa is an independent writer and curator, focusing on Asian and Asian American art. She is interested in contemporary and historical Japanese cultural issues and has edited anthologies of women's writing. Mayumi has served on SIFF's Asian Crossroads Program Team for several years.

Date: April 23, 2025
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Tags: Festival Programmer Picks