ABOUT OUR PANELISTS

Hannah Fidell is an accomplished writer, director and producer in both television and film.
Fidell made her feature film directorial debut with the independent drama A Teacher, which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. FX Networks ordered A Teacher as a 10-episode limited series starring Kate Mara and Nick Robinson.

Recently, Universal Pictures released her film The Long Dumb Road, which she wrote, directed and produced. Michael Rechtshaffen from Los Angeles Times stated, “Neither long nor dumb, Hannah Fidell’s The Long Dumb Road is, in reality, a terrifically entertaining odd-couple road comedy expertly navigated by costars Tony Revolori and Jason Mantzoukas.”

Prior to that, Fidell wrote and directed the feature film 6 Years, a romantic drama that was released by Netflix. The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2015, while its European premiere was at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival the same year.

On the small screen, Fidell has directed acclaimed episodes of Hulu’s The Act and Casual and the Facebook series Sorry For Your Loss.

Fidell has received multiple titles and awards in recognition of her work including the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award for A Teacher in 2013, being named one of the 25 new faces of indie film in Filmmaker Magazine in 2012 and being inducted into the director’s branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, making her one of the youngest members of the organization.

Holly Herrick is Head of Film and Creative Media at the Austin Film Society (AFS), where she has played a key leadership role in the expansion of AFS’s film exhibition and artist services programs, including the establishment of the AFS Cinema. She oversees the AFS Grant, an annual production grant for emerging filmmakers, and works to make connections between Texas filmmakers and the global film community. Previously, she was Director of Programming at the Sarasota Film Festival and Deputy Programs Director at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and has worked on the producing team of several independent feature films.

This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department. FILMCollective is a project of Moving Image Arts & Education, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.