Lola Petitbon
Lola Petitbon is a Franco-American screenwriter and director who trained at UCLA after beginning her career as an actress. A finalist and winner of several international screenwriting competitions, she is currently developing a TV series in Los Angeles, backed by an Oscar-winning producer, and a short film produced in France, where she will make her official directorial debut. Her work blends intimate, character-driven storytelling with music, humor, and a touch of burlesque.
Yacov Freedman
Yacov Freedman is the Senior Podcast Producer for Turner Classic Movies. He’s worked in TV and podcasts for twenty years and is a proud member of the Directors Guild of America. During COVID he watched more than 100 baseball movies, which just goes to show: never give up on your dreams.
Samuel Franco
Samuel Franco graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Writing and Producing for Film. Shortly afterwards, he secured an apprenticeship as a researcher under investigative journalist Mike Wallace at CBS News’ 60 Minutes, and six months later he joined The Charlie Rose Show as a research writer. A year later Samuel was recruited to work for The Howard Stern Show, where he focused on marketing, strategic sales and branding, creating Howard’s first-ever ad campaign: Stern Warning.
Samuel then went on to work for Infinity Broadcasting (CBS Radio), Paramount Pictures, and CBS Daytime Television, before moving to Los Angeles to focus on writing and producing. His credits include writing the feature scripts: Keeper of the Diary (Fox Searchlight) and Mayday 109 (Thunder Road Productions), and TV shows: The Fall of the House of FIFA (FX Networks), and Camelot (NBCUni’s Peacock), alongside writing partner Evan Kilgore. On the producing end, Samuel is executive producing a documentary about the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum art heist titled Ghosts of the Isabella (Ample Entertainment), and producing a feature film, which he is also co-writing, about heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano titled Unbeaten (Impossible Dream Entertainment). Samuel lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Jacob Fiskus
Jacob Fiskus is a New York-based filmmaker who has produced several independent documentary shorts. He has also edited short-form promotional videos for social justice organizations, and was a contributing writer for SLAM Magazine. Jacob is currently a co-producer on a documentary about antisemitism in America. His main passion is screenwriting. Jacob has written several screenplays and a pilot with his writing partner, Tal Robbins. His passion for screenwriting is matched only by his passion for Torah and Judaism. Jacob is dedicated to telling stories that encapsulate Jewish life and express Torah ideas and concepts.
Arnon Shorr
Arnon is a filmmaker, screenwriter and author of comics and graphic novels. He is known for crafting tales that blend Jewish characters, stories and themes with the tropes of popular and fantastical storytelling. He gained widespread attention with José and the Pirate Captain Toledano, a swashbuckling graphic novel about Jewish pirates in the 16th-century Caribbean, which expanded on his award-winning short film, The Pirate Captain Toledano. Shorr’s creative work frequently delves into Jewish identity, blending action-packed narratives with deep reflections on heritage. His talents have earned him a 2024 Fellowship with the JWI Screenwriters Lab and a 2024-25 Fellowship with the PJ Library Sephardic Stories Initiative. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, three children, a goofy dog, and the ghost of a dead, grumpy cat.
Alex Mann
Alex Mann is a writer-director and the founder of Space Oddity, a next-gen content studio backed by Snap Inc. Mann has written feature films for several A-list production companies, including Platinum Dunes and Thunder Road Films. Mann’s short films have accumulated over a billion views and been featured by CNN, The Los Angeles Times and New York Magazine. He’s directed branded content for Netflix, TikTok, Amazon, Verizon and Honda. Outside of filmmaking, Mann is a contributing writer for VICE and The New Yorker. Mann is represented by Paradigm Talent Agency and The Gotham Group.
Dan Goldman
Screenwriter, illustrator and narrative designer, Dan Goldman tells stories across comics, animation and video games. His graphic novel Chasing Echoes recounts a road trip of Holocaust survivors’ descendants across Poland to find their family’s land seized by Nazis during WWII. He is currently based in Brooklyn.