​Film Festivals Panel

Also, the film festival directors and an executive director are going to talk about how they make decisions on how they select the films. 
 Panelists:  
Maria Palacio, director and founder of Revolution Me Film Festival
Inspired through her own experience as an up-and-coming filmmaker, Maria Palacio was driven to create a forum to nurture other emerging artists in the field by establishing Revolution Me Film Festival in 2016. With the experience in assisting the coordination for the Big Mini Media Film Festival at Long Island University during her graduate tenure, she has used her skills and knowledge in turning her festival into an annual event, attracting filmmakers from all over the world. 
​Maria wrote and directed her first short film, Necromancer in 2015, originally based on her TV Pilot script. It has screened at The International Puerto Rican Heritage Film (2015), The Short Women's film festival (2016), Official Latino Short Film Festival (2016), and The Bare Bones International Independent Film & Music Festival (2017).
Maria is currently working on her second directorial short film, The Unknown and is in the process of completing Parallel, a new sci-fi feature script.   ​​Maria holds an MFA & BA in Media Arts with a focus in screenwriting and directing from Long Island University.
​Geoffrey Guerrero, director and founder of Katra Film Festival
Geoffrey Guerrero, born and bred in NYC, is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He was selected as a finalist for the 2006 National Film Your Issue Competition for his provocative short “Here to Stay,” where then Senator Obama served as an honorary jury member. In 2007 he guest directed a short film called “Rewind” and won Best Short Film “On The Edge” Award at the 2007 HBO New York International Latino Film Festival. His original short film “The New McCarthyism,” which he wrote, directed, produced and acted in was an Official Selection at the 2007 Long Island Latino International Film Festival. In 2008, his short film “Baile (Dance)” won the Best Short Film “Fruit of the Vine” award at the Vine Shorts Film Festival in Santa Monica, CA and screened at the 2009 HBO New York International Latino Film Festival and 2009 Babelgum Online International Film Festival. Guerrero’s latest film “J-1” premiered at the 2013 Coney Island Film Festival, was an Official Selection at the 2014 Rated SR Socially Relevant Film Festival, 2014 Palm Beach International Film Festival and made its European Premiere at the 2014 Let’s All Be Free Film Festival in London, and was recently selected to the 18th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival.In June 2012, Guerrero launched the Katra Film Series – a monthly festival showcasing quality short content by emerging and award-winning Filmmakers. In partnership with Everyone Matters and Rhino Films the Grand Prize Winner was awarded a one-on-one meeting with acclaimed Producer Stephen Nemeth from the Academy-Award Nominated The Sessions and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
​Steffanie L Finn, Executive Director of Winter Film Awards
Steffanie Finn is an IT Professional with over 20 years experience in technical design and data architecture, project management, business intelligence and strategic planning. She is a Vice President at Marsh & McLennan, Inc in New York City, specializing in information technology Program Management for large-scale infrastructure projects. Steffanie holds a BA in Russian History and Mathematics from Wesleyan University and lives in New York City.
Moderated by Vivienne Jurado
Vivienne is a Latin American actress born in the Bronx, N.Y., the third of five children. She and her parents moved to Puerto Rico when she was 12 years old, where they would live for the next 10 years. While living in Puerto Rico, Vivienne pursued her passion for modeling and acting and began her training. Not only did her training provide an excellent outlet for the enthusiastic and energetic youngster, it would also provide to be a fortunate precursor for the start of her professional modeling and acting career. She moved back to New York where she was discovered by Metropolitan Agency and worked in Miami, Barcelona and Madrid for 4 years in commercials and print work. In New York she enrolled in acting classes at New York Performance Worksand interned at The Ensemble Studio Theater, where she acted in, wrote and staged "Lola" a short story about her childhood dreams of becoming a performer. She also toured with theatre company "DramaLoft" around New York City about a piece they all wrote together in honor of the September 11th attacks at the World Trade Center in 2001. When Director, Matthew Penn cast her in the TV series New York Undercover, she knew this is what she wanted to do. She has also appeared as the Bikini Girl in Saturday Night Live, Television Commercials and editorial work for magazines. She moved to L.A., did a few indie films, moved back to New York jumped into the theatre scene. She played "Dr. Sandra Paterson" in the award-winning feature film Dirty Shield.  Vivienne appeared in the well-reviewed lead role of "Brianna" in the Off-Broadway play Negative is Positive. She also played the role of "defense attorney" on the NBC Television Show, Shades Of Blue.  Recently she appeared in the well reviewed Off-Broadway play, Exile Is My Home, where she was awarded Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast at the 2016 HOLA AWARDS.