ATLFF ‘26 FESTIVAL FILM PROGRAMMERS

Jon Kieran
Programming Director

Jonathan Kieran is a film programmer hailing from Essex County, Massachusetts. After making a start as an amateur filmmaker at the tender age of 22, he moved across the country to take a spot at the Master of Fine Arts program in Film Production at the University of New Orleans. At the same time, he started as a volunteer for the New Orleans Film Festival, which slowly grew to become his professional home over the next decade and where he wore many hats, from organizing panels, to assisting the festival’s technical department, to finally settling into the role of Programming Manager. Jon also lent a hand at other regional festivals including Court 13’s Always for Pleasure fest in New Orleans, Borscht Corporation’s “Borscht Diez” in Miami, and the Camden International Film Festival. He was also a longtime contributor to online indie-film showcase NoBudge.

Jennica Carmona
Documentary Programmer

Jennica Carmona is a New York City based Puerto Rican filmmaker, actor, and activist. Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and raised in Rochester, NY she is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She is a proud co-founder of Sí Se Puede Productions, a theatre and film production company that creates material with socially conscious themes. Jennica has previously worked with the Montclair Film Festival, the New Jersey Jewish Film Festival, and the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival.

Astin Rocks
Narrative Shorts Programmer

Her name is Astin and she rocks! Described as a Multimedia Artist, Astin specializes in Writing, Filmmaking, Musicianship, and Event Production.
Thirteen years into the film industry, Astin has written and produced comedy series, visual albums, experimental narrative films, and short promos for local businesses. Season 2 of her latest work, satiric counterfeit-crime comedy, Real Fakes, was released in September 2023.
When not vocalizing her deadpan societal concerns on camera, she screams them aloud on stage as one half of punk & soul duo Thee BLK Pearl. Ten years into her career as a vocalist - and one year as a bassist - Astin and her dear friend Fred Robinson. founded Thee BLK Pearl in 2021 Their second EP Cult Classic, will release Fall 2024.
Landing the coolest 9-5 ever, Astin currently serves as the Narrative Shorts Programmer at the Atlanta Film Festival. “The only thing more fun than creating my own work is celebrating creators I believe in.” Astin is currently based in her hometown, Atlanta, GA.

Amber Love

Amber Love is a festival programmer and filmmaker based in Chicago, IL whose work is deeply invested in community and the interpersonal relationships that support us. She has been a film festival programmer since 2016 and has programmed for the Atlanta Film Festival, the New Orleans Film Festival, SFFILM Festival, and True/False Film Fest. Her own films have explored Afrofuturism, friendship, and Black heritage, and have been supported by PBS, IF/Then, Kartemquin Films, Firelight Media, and Short of the Week, as well as screened at festivals including Doc 10 and the Camden International Film Festival. She was a 2022 Kartemquin DVID Fellow, a 2020 Sundance Art of Editing Fellow, and an inaugural recipient of the HBO and The Gotham Documentary Development fund in 2023.

Brian Ratigan

Brian Ratigan is an award-winning director and film curator. He is the founder of Non Films, a label for ephemeral animation and experimental cinema in New York City. Ratigan is established in the film festival circuit as a programmer and juror for the Slamdance Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Indie Memphis, and the London Indie Festival, among others. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Moviemaker Magazine, 1883 Magazine, and film festivals worldwide. You can find him hosting DarkRoom short film screenings twice a month in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Caroline King

Caroline King is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and photographer. She currently works on an Apple TV+ series and is directing a documentary about labor rights. Now in her third year programming for the Atlanta Film Festival, she continues to wear many hats, but storytelling, and championing others who tell them, will always remain the throughline.

Celeste Wong

Celeste Wong is a lifelong film and performing arts enthusiast based in Oakland, California. She has worked in programming for various film festivals nationwide including Tribeca, Atlanta Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Palm Springs ShortFest.

Daniel Christian

Daniel Christian is a writer, filmmaker, and programmer in Atlanta, Georgia. He has programmed documentary features at the Atlanta Film Festival since 2021 and co-curated the 2025 Ethics at the Movies screening series, a partnership between the Emory Center for Ethics and the Atlanta Film Society. His feature documentary POSSUM TOWN premiered at the 2025 New/Next Film Festival.

Jillian Desirée Oliveras

Jillian Desirée Oliveras is a queer Boricua artist, storyteller, and film programmer based in New Orleans, LA. Jillian firmly believes in the power of art, and particularly film, as an agent of change. In addition to programming Narrative Shorts for the Atlanta Film Festival, Jillian programs Documentary Features and Narrative Shorts for the New Orleans Film Festival and is the Executive Director at Court 13 Arts, a New Orleans nonprofit focused on growing and sustaining the local cinema culture.

Kate Scofield

Kate Scofield is a film blogger and Contract Film Programmer for the Atlanta film festival. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a B.A. in Film Studies and owned her own film-themed restaurant, Slate Kitchen, shortly after. In 2022, she moved to Atlanta to be more involved in the film industry and has been a part of several projects including the ATLFF volunteer screening committee.

Mario Escoto

Mario Escoto is an artist based in Los Angeles. This is his fourth year with the Atlanta Film Festival, serving on both Narrative and Experimental shorts teams. Outside of programming, Mario makes music.

Mark Anastasio

Mark Anastasio has worked in film as an exhibitor for over 17 years and is currently the program director at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, a nonprofit, independent cinema located just outside Boston. He's also a senior programmer at the mighty Oak Cliff Film Festival.

Rachel Morgan

Rachel Morgan is an Instructor of Media Production at Lawson State College and is currently part of the Slamdance Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival programming teams. She served as Creative Director for the Sidewalk Film Festival and Cinema for eighteen years and co-taught in the acclaimed Documenting Justice film program at the University of Alabama for thirteen years. Rachel holds a BFA in Film and Video Production from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a MA in Film Critical Studies from the University of Alabama. She co-hosted the cinema-centric podcast SideTalks, which ran for seven seasons. Her writing has appeared in Film Threat, and she recently helped produce the short film NOT ROD, which premiered at the 2024 Miami Film Festival and won Best Documentary Short at the 2024 Key West Film Festival. A 2024 Overton Fellowship recipient, she has also written two feature screenplays - currently sitting on a desk, or in a recycle bin, at A24.

Rashada Fortier

Rashada Fortier is a queer, New Orleans based producer and programmer. Rashada holds a B.A. in Communications specializing in film and television from Seton Hall University, and a MFA in film from the University of New Orleans. Rashada currently works as an assistant production coordinator in the film industry.

Stephanie Tell

Stephanie Tell is a film curator, researcher, and festival worker. She is currently part of the  New Orleans Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival programming teams, with a focus in narrative cinema. Stephanie is completing a PhD thesis through the University of Melbourne, Australia, which deals with cultures of horror and masquerade on film. Her research interests broadly span liminal and ritual studies, genre cinema, and the possibilities of the cinematic carnivalesque. She hopes she was an iguana in a past life, but is pretty sure she was a fly.

Zuri Obi

Zuri is foremost an artist born and raised in the American South, with deep cultural roots in magical realism. As a Cinematographer, her lens has been graced by the likes of Soledad O’Brien, Solange, Lucky Daye, and Lizzo. As a Producer, her projects have screened at notable film festivals, including Sundance, and won top awards at New Orleans Film Festival, AFI, and BlackStar. Zuri is also a Film Programmer whose curatorial values are rooted in narrative justice.