Scott W. Kekama Amona is an award-winning Kanaka Maoli filmmaker, Sundance Native Shorts Lab, IllumiNative + Netflix Indigenous Producers Program, and a 2024 NATIVe Stand / Indigenous Cinema Alliance recipient. Kekama is also one of eight Native Hawaiian writer-directors selected for the Makawalu feature film production with producers Daniel Day Kim, 3AD, Sarah Kim, and Anderson Le. His short film, E Malama Pono, Willy Boy, premiered at the 2022 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival that went on to win awards locally and internationally. He was also the story advisor for “This is Pele” an episode of Molly of Denali,…

Bryson Chun is a Native Hawaiian screenwriter most known for Moana 2 and the Disney+ Series Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. He has worked in development with Mattel and Ubisoft, and has produced award-winning short and feature films that have screened at the Criterion, the Smithsonian, PBS, and beyond. Through the prestigious Black List organization, he's a two-time Indigenous List honoree and a CAPE List honoree for his pilot script Poi Dogs and the feature film Don't Freak (co-written by Tara Aquino), respectively. He's been a travelling writer and teaching mentor for Sundance, PEAK, CAPE, HIFF, The Native American Media Alliance, The Dr. Barbara Seniors Harkins Foundation, NW Film Camp,…

Elizabeth M. Daley was appointed dean of the USC School of Cinema-Television in 1991. She is the inaugural holder of the Steven J. Ross/Time Warner Dean’s Chair. Under her leadership, the school has added three new divisions in Animation and Digital Arts, Interactive Media and Games, and Media Arts + Practice; built the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts; established 32 endowed positions; and formed successful partnerships with a variety of entertainment and technology companies. In 2006, Daley presided over the school’s official renaming as the School of Cinematic Arts by George Lucas and broke ground for a new complex…

Mari Keiko Gonzalez was born and raised in New York City. Her father was a civil rights attorney who represented the activists at the Stonewall Riots, and her mother was a Broadway and television actor, teacher, and playwright best known for the iconic 1970s Calgon commercial “Ancient Chinese Secret.” Mari studied at the School of American Ballet at The Juilliard School, performing in The Nutcracker with Mikhail Baryshnikov at Lincoln Center. In the early 1990s, she wrote, directed, and edited The Love Thang Trilogy, Target, and X-Girl, which screened at film festivals worldwide. Mari is an Emmy®Award–winning producer, director, and editor whose work spans…

Just as her family served Hawaiʻi through their talents, Native Hawaiian filmmaker Erin Lau wanted to elevate her community through film. The University Hawaiʻi at Mānoa SCA (formerly ACM) alum was selected as a Sundance Native Lab fellow for her Chapman University MFA thesis film, The Moon and the Night. The award-winning film went on to screen in over 30 festivals, including being short-listed for the 2018 Student BAFTA awards and licensed by the Criterion Channel. Since graduation, Erin has signed with the United Talent Agency and continued her growth through fellowships with the Sundance Indigenous Institute, Film Independent’s Project…

Konrad Ng is the executive director of the award-winning Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu, Hawaii - the only museum dedicated exclusively to Islamic art in the United States. Before joining Shangri La, Konrad was the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Center in Washington, DC where he produced exhibitions, public programs, and digital initiatives about Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture. He was also a professor of critical studies in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's Academy for Creative Media and the first curator of film and video at the Honolulu…

The Nichols have been long-time supporters of the arts in Hawaiʻi. Their involvement with the film community in Hawai’i started with bringing the Sundance ShortsLab team to Honolulu in conjunction with the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) in 2015. This was followed by support of Native Hawaiian Sundance Fellows in a Sundance Native Labs workshop at HoMA in 2016 and in a Sundance Indigenous x Hawaiʻi Intensive in Honolulu in 2024. These events have fostered engagement in projects by Native Hawaiian filmmakers through the NICHOLS Family Film Fund, most notably WAIKIKI the Film, an award-winning feature film by Chris Kahunahana;…

Since 2007, Georja Skinner has helmed the State of Hawaii’s Creative Industries Division (CID) in the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), where she has led the state's efforts to define, build and strengthen Hawaii's creative economy, while maintaining Hawaii’s reputation as a prime television and film production destination in the Pacific. Creative Industries, DBEDT oversees operations of the State of Hawaii Film Office, providing liaison and permitting services for television and film production, and the Creative and Emerging Industries Office (aka Arts and Culture Branch), focused on business and workforce development, infrastructure, the State’s Film and Creative…

After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Digital Art and Animation from San Jose State University, Sharon Sussman worked with prestigious firms including Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and DreamWorks Feature Animation before moving to Hawaii to become a professor in the New Media Arts program at Kapi‘olani Community College. 

Larry Teng is a veteran Television Director with over 100 episodes of experience in network, cable, and streaming. He has worked on tentpole shows such as Hawaii Five-0 and Criminal Minds and cult favorites such as The Walking Dead, Supergirl, and Doom Patrol. He recently directed the pilot for NCIS: Hawai‘i for CBS, as well as serving as an Executive Producer in its inaugural season. Larry also directed the Nancy Drew pilot for the CW and is also an Executive Producer on the show. Larry got his directorial break on the hit NBC/CBS show Medium and the episode he helmed…