Ryan Zacarias is an award-winning Film and Television Producer based in LA. Recently, Zacarias produced Riley Keough/Gina Gammell’s War Pony, which won the Camera D’or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and John Trengove’s Manodrome, starring Jesse Eisenberg (Berlinale ‘23). He produced Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara, which won the Director’s Fortnight Award at the Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for Best Picture at the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards, and was released by NEON. Zacarias also produced Alverson’s The Mountain (Jeff Goldblum, Tye Sheridan) which premiered at Venice 2018 and Sundance 2019, and Kirill Mikhanovsky’s Give Me Liberty, which premiered at Sundance 2019 and had its international premiere at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Cannes 2019. Additionally, Zacarias produced Annie Silverstein’s debut feature, Bull, which premiered in Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2019. He produced Harmony Korine’s short films, Umshini Wam and Snowballs. In 2015, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Mediterranea, and again for the prestigious Producers Award in 2020. He recently premiered Mary Bronstein’s A24 feature,, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, starring Rose Byrne and A$AP Rocky at this year’s Sundance and most recently wrapped David and Nathan Zellner’s Alpha Gang, starring Cate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, Lea Seydoux, and Riley Keough.

Evan Landry is an award-winning creative producer and Executive Producer/Partner at Toronto-based production company Asymetric Media. Some of his notable work includes producing the short 5 Films About Technology, which premiered at TIFF, played at Sundance, and was later adapted into the TV series 9 Films About Technology for FX/Hulu. He produced the music video for Drake’s viral hit Hotline Bling, which amassed over 1 billion views and multiple awards. Evan recently produced and co-wrote the award-winning feature film Racewalkers with filmmakers Kevin Claydon and Phil Moniz under their banner Bobby F Productions, alongside Collective Pictures. The film premiered at Slamdance where it won a Grand Jury Prize, and has been picked up by Protagonist Pictures for international sales.

Lauren Avinoam is a Canadian born, LA based independent filmmaker and commercial producer. Her work has screened and taken home awards at over 100 film festivals worldwide including SXSW, Tribeca, DocNYC & Outfest, acquired by & distributed on platforms such as Netflix, Showtime, Sky, Hulu & Amazon Prime. 

Her latest feature documentary LOWLAND KIDS produced alongside Darren Aronofsky is currently on the festival circuit. Since premiering at CPH:DOX it’s had a robust festival tour, most recently presented at Deauville, upcoming Zurich Film Festival and here at CIFF. 

In late 2024, she and partner Sammy Cortino launched a global creative studio, Cortino, where she is an Executive Producer and Head of Production. Since launching, they’ve amassed a client roster that includes: NFL, EA Sports, Amazon Prime, Variety, Condé Nast, Lionsgate, Cirque du Soleil, eBay & Giorgio Armani.