Meet Our 2024 Speakers
Writer/Producer - The Holdovers
David Hemingson (Yale '86)
David is an award-winning writer and producer for film and television. He started in TV writing and is best known for writing the 2023 film The Holdovers, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Producer - Past Lives, May December
Pamela Koffler (Yale '87)
Pamela is an Independent Spirit Award winner who co-founded Killer Films with Christine Vachon in 1995. Together, they have produced more than 100 films, including: Kids, I shot Andy Warhol, Happiness, Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Far From Heaven, One Hour photo, Still Alice, Carol, Beatriz at Dinner, and Dark waters. In television, Koffler executive-produced the Emmy and Golden Globe-awarded miniseries Mildred Pierce and the Emmy Award-winning limited series Halston. Recent releases include May December (Netflix) and Past Lives (A24), for which she received a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
Producer - Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, In The Heights
Anthony Bregman (Yale '88)
Anthony Bregman is president and Chief Executive Officer of the indie film company, Likely Story. His movies have won numerous awards at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Gothams, Indie Spirits, and Cannes, Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals, among others. He has produced over 50 movies including Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and In The Heights. In 2010 Roger Ebert named Synecdoche, New York the "Best Film of the Decade."
TV writer - The Boys, Arrested Development, Mad Men
Michael Saltzman (Yale '86)
Michael Saltzman is an award-winning comedy writer and executive producer. He has worked on The Boys, Arrested Development, Mad Men, and more. Saltzman also staffed on Hell on Wheels, Sneaky Pete, and Halt and Catch Fire. He received Writer’s Guild Nominations for seasons 5 and 6 of Mad Men. Most recently, he was writer and co-Executive Producer for the hit Amazon series “The Boys,” for which he received his third WGA Best Writing Nomination and two Emmy nominations, one for Best Song (for which he co-wrote the lyrics).
Voice of Toph - Avatar The Last Airbender
Michaela Jill Murphy (Yale' 17)
Michaela Jill Murphy (also known as Jessie Flower) is an American voice, film, and stage actress. She is known as the voice of Toph Beifong in the animated Nickelodeon television series "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Michaela's voice has been featured in several animated movies, including Meet the Robinsons, Over the Hedge, The Ant Bully, Finding Nemo, The Emperor's New School, and Brother Bear 2.
Writer/Director/Colorist
Patrice Bowman (Yale '15)
Patrice D. Bowman is an award-winning director and a colorist. As a writer/director, her work focuses on the mental and spiritual lives of women of color –– particularly, of Black women. Her short films have screened nationwide at many festivals, including the Academy Award-qualifying Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series. Her work has been supported and recognized by multiple organizations, including PANO, the Ucross Foundation, and Stowe Story Labs. As a colorist, she works with independent storytellers and major creative agencies, and conducts color grading workshops at various universities and festivals .
CEO of Bungalow Entertainment - Former New Line Cinema Exec
Bobby Friedman
Bobby is a 30-year entertainment veteran, who has held an array of senior executive positions including President of Radical Media & Entertainment; President of AOL, Interactive Marketing, TV & Ad Sales; Co-Chairman of New Line Cinema in charge of worldwide Theatrical Marketing and Licensing; President of New Line Television, which he launched for the company.
Independent Producer - Karmalink
Valerie Steinberg (Yale '09)
Valerie Steinberg is a producer based in LA, Named one of Variety's "10 Producers to Watch" in 2023, whose recent credits include Executive Producer of A24's The Inspection (2022) (TIFF '22, Golden Globe nominee, three-time Indie Spirit and Gotham Award nominee), as well as EP of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell's directorial debut War Pony (2022), which won the Caméra D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival '22. She is the lead producer of Karmalink (2021), a Cambodian Buddhist sci-fi feature that was the opening night film of Venice Film Critics' Week '21, sold by XYZ Films, and released theatrically in the US and abroad.
Film Financer
Debbie Vandermeulen
Debbie has successfully helped filmmakers turn their ideas into profitable cinematic entertainment. Debbie is adept in ensuring the bottom line responsibility for the development, financing and management and operation of both domestically and internationally launched projects.
Producer - Roleplay
Jenny Mercein ('95)
Jenny Mercein is an actor, teacher, director, and writer currently living in New Orleans, where she is an Assistant Professor at Tulane University. She is a producer of Roleplay, a play and documentary film project exploring student perspectives on love, sex, power, and consent.
Director - Roleplay
Katie Matthews
Katie is an award-winning film director and producer. Her films take you on intimate, nuanced journeys through life's transitions, with a decade of documentary and narrative skills in the driver's seat.
Documentary Filmmaker
Andrea Weiss
Andrea Weiss is an emmy winning American independent documentary filmmaker, author, and professor of film/video at the City College of New York where she co-directs the MFA Program in Film.