Supporters & Advisors

Alex Stolz

Future of Film is founded and led by Alex Stolz, an executive and creator with over 22 years experience at the nexus of audiences, storytelling and innovation.

In 2017, he founded Future of Film, initially as a podcast and now a global community and annual summit, dedicated to bridging the gap between new technologies and emerging creative practice.

Concurrently, Alex continues to drive innovation in distribution and marketing as Head of Film at the leading entertainment analytics business, usheru.

Previously, Alex has held senior positions at Picturehouse, the UK Film Council and the BFI, the latter in the role of Head of Distribution. He is a regular keynote speaker and continues to consult for numerous media organisations.

Anjali Midha

Anjali is an entrepreneur with a passion for driving innovation in media and marketing analytics. She is the co-founder & CEO of Diesel Labs, a content analytics company that addresses the toughest questions facing media companies today: what to produce and where to distribute and market it.

Before starting Diesel Labs, she was the Global Director of Media Research at Twitter where she developed the ‘playbook’ for television – illuminating the synergies and opportunities across traditional and new media. She joined Twitter via their acquisition of Bluefin Labs (the pioneer of Social TV Analytics), prior to which she was the VP of Strategy & Analytics at Digitas.

Anjali holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA in Economics from Tufts University.

Ben Lumsden

Ben Lumsden is the business development manager for media and entertainment at Epic Games, where he has furthered Unreal Engine adoption and innovation since 2017. Ben focuses on the ever- expanding use of Unreal Engine across the sectors of film and television, broadcast and live events, animation and VFX.

Ben has worked on films District 9 and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and games Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Dead Rising 3. He's earned credits on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Godzilla, and the game Star Citizen. Ben was also instrumental in launching the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest in which the character Ariel puppeteered a live avatar on stage, rendered in real time in Unreal Engine.

Brian Newman

Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre, consults on content strategy, distribution and marketing for some of the top brands in the world. Current and former clients include: The Climate Pledge (Amazon), IBM, New York Times, Oatly, Patagonia, REI, Stripe, Sundance, Unilever, and Yeti Coolers. Brian has served as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, and writes a popular weekly newsletter on film.

Diana Williams

Diana Williams is the CEO & Co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment. She has a wide range of experience in the entertainment industry, developing IP and producing creative content for distribution across storytelling media. Throughout her career she has been at the forefront of working with emerging and established talent to ensure a diversity of voices are included in an ever-evolving industry.

Kinetic Energy Entertainment is a multi-disciplinary company that partners with creators at the intersection of story and technology to develop and produce story-based IP. Kinetic’s project slate includes a series in development at HBO, the cross-platform storyworld of The Gatecrashers, political sim videogame Political Arena, Founder Hustle podcast based on venture fund 1863 Ventures’ focus on entrepreneurs of color, Crimson an epic fantasy/thriller take on Alice in Wonderland, recipe-memoir Adventures in Starry Kitchen, and a documentary feature film with Apple+.

An award-winning producer, she produced the critically acclaimed feature film Our Song, which earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award in the Producer category. Other credits include documentaries Room 237, the Emmy© award-winning Sylvia Drew Ivie, Student Academy Award©-nominated Another First Step, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, and Dear Mom Love Cher.

In addition to producing, Diana has held various positions in the entertainment industry. She was the Creative Development and Franchise Producer at Lucasfilm within the Story Group, the team responsible for developing and maintaining narrative cohesion and connectivity throughout the Star Wars universe. While at Lucasfilm, Diana developed film and tv (including Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One), mobile and console videogames (including 2015’s Battlefront), publishing (Marvel’s Star Wars comics and novel expansions). Diana helped launch ILMxLAB, an immersive entertainment and mixed reality lab, with projects including Vader Immortal, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award© winning VR experience Carne y Arena. She was also a production consultant for BET on Let the Church Say Amen, Gun Hill Road, and Untitled Kenya Barris Project.

Currently the Chair of the Interactive Board of Jurors for digital and immersive storytelling for the Peabody Award, Diana is also on the Strategic Planning Committee of The National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange; the advisory committee for the Royal Shakespeare Company/Digital development; the advisory board for UK-based organization Future of Film; and the boards of Diverso (a non-profit organization by students for students, dedicated to empowering the under-represented storytellers of the next generation), The Overlook Film Festival (genre festival), and Here/No Proscenium Summit for interactive and immersive events, theater, and creators. Diana began her career in production as an Assistant Director and is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

HaZ Dullul

HaZ started his career in Visual Effects before transitioning over to directing and producing with his breakout feature film THE BEYOND, the indie sci-fi was released in 2018 and was number 2 in the iTunes Charts before being licensed on Netflix and turning into a profitable movie.

His second feature film - 2036 Origin Unknown, starring Katee Sackhoff earned a limited Theatrical release before landing on Netflix. He was then hired by Disney to helm the pilot for action comedy series Fast Layne, where he also served as EP / Creative Consultant on the entire series. HaZ is currently utilising virtual production and realtime CGI with his latest feature film - RIFT, a sci-fi action anime currently in production and rendered entirely in Unreal Engine.

Houston Howard

Houston Howard is the Chief Storyteller at One 3 Creative, a transmedia design firm, and a co-founder of Fulcrum Worldbuilders, which is an organization that designs large-scale storyworlds that are meant to shift culture and catalyze large-scale social impact.

He has written three books about transmedia including, You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Storyand Make You’re Story Really Stinkin’ Big.

He is a professor of transmedia storytelling and worldbuilding at the Arts Center College of Design and the host of the Super Story Podcast.

In the spirit of full disclosure, he loves Star Wars: The Last Jedi and did not hate the last season of Game of Thrones.

James Wight

James graduated with distinction from the University of Exeter and London Film School for an MA in International Film Business. Prior to that he studied Japanese at UEA and Meiji Gakuin University, and has a passion for multimedia storytelling. He was recently a member of Creative UK's programme for Games and Immersive Tech and Services, and is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Cambridge where he gives talks on marketing, and IP development.

Jeff Gomez

Jeff Gomez is President and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, a leading producer of highly successful fictional "Worlds," which maximize the value of intellectual properties by preparing them for licensing, merchandising and extension across multiple media platforms.

Starlight Runner then utilizes a variety of technologies as well as a proprietary cross-media rollout technique designed to produce these "Worlds," directly extending them onto the Internet and mobile phone platforms, as well as into animated and live-action feature films, branded and sponsored digital content, video games, books and graphic novels, toys and merchandise. These in concert are also uniquely designed by Starlight Runner to validate and celebrate audience participation. The company's clients include The Walt Disney Company, Comcast, Mattel, Hasbro, and Scholastic.

Jeff is also known for developing the rich interactive worlds of Hot Wheels for Mattel, Magic: The Gathering for Hasbro, The Black Belt Club for Scholastic, Turok Dinosaur Hunter for Acclaim Entertainment, and Team GoRizer for The Walt Disney Company. Jeff co-wrote and produced Hot Wheels World Race, a computer-animated feature and series for Cartoon Network. He is currently developing a slate of original "World" properties with Starlight Runner and various partners to be produced in the coming year.

Jeff is also currently developing a series of "alternate reality experiences" for major media and entertainment companies. Alternate reality experiences are a striking new trend in advanced media entertainment.

Julie La Bassiere

Julie La’Bassiere is an Awards + Publicity+ Marketing Strategist based in London where she currently manages Awards campaigns in the UK for Apple TV+. In 2021, she was the Industry Events Programmer for the BFI London Film Festival. Prior to the move back to the UK, where she was born, she was the Head of Special Projects at Obscured Pictures where she led the charge on marketing and promotional outreach campaigns, film festival launches, strategic partnerships, awards campaigns, and special events for clients such as Bleecker Street, Amazon Studios, Focus Features, Magnolia Pictures, Netflix, Apple TV+ and Roadside Attractions. Prior to working with Obscured, she was the CEO of BAFTA New York. She is a Voting Member of BAFTA and currently serves on the Film Committee. La'Bassiere is a Founding Board Member of The Future of Film is Female and is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Educational Anthropology.

Kaya Jabar

Kaya Jabar is a multidisciplinary visualisation supervisor with unique experience leading previs, postvis, techvis and virtual production for tentpole film and TV projects.

Kaya began her career as an animator at Guerilla Games where she discovered a passion for interactive storytelling as part of the cinematics team. In 2014 Kaya moved to The Third Floor London as a previs artist and principal architect of the company’s virtual production and on-set visualisation services. This led to a two-year stint on the multi Emmy Award winning Game Of Thrones, which saw her deliver on-set motion control and simulcam supervision and implementation, as well as virtual camera supervision and workflow/pipeline design.

Leaving Westeros behind after three seasons, Kaya then supervised virtual production for JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and Tim Burton’s Dumbo, before returning to London to develop real-time adoption and virtual production workflows with the aim of making visualisation more efficient and interactive.

A regular on the international speaking circuit and one of the most influential women working in VFX, Kaya joined FPS in 2020 as a pre-production supervisor, working across previs, postvis and virtual production, as well as providing on-set technical direction and planning for complex VFX and practical setups.

Kevin Goetz

Kevin Goetz has been at the center of what Hollywood calls the movie research industry for more than thirty years. His firm, Screen Engine/ASI, conducts research for a majority of all movies that are widely released in America and around the world. With decades of experience, Goetz has worked alongside all of the major film studio chiefs, network and streaming platform executives, and production company decision-makers.

The Los Angeles Times Magazine counted Goetz as one of the 100 most powerful and influential people in Southern California. He has also produced twelve movies and brings both a marketing and filmmaking perspective to the interpretation of his research findings. He is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and several other distinguished organizations: Producers Guild of America, Television Academy, the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, and the American Marketing Association.

Rohin Malholtra

Rohin Malhotra manages FIXING US, leading its innovation health system and continued evolution and international expansion.

Prior to this, his 25 years career spanned media, tech, production and gaming for a range of organisations, including Fox Kids Europe, World Poker Tour, Nickelodeon India, Fox Sports USA, Active Research, Bookie Mania, appScatter, Chiligaming and PartyGaming. Rohin’s journey has featured numerous start-ups, exits, turnarounds, global media corporations, IPOs, books and over 300 hours of television content that has been broadcast in over 100 countries.

Rohin studied Law at King’s College London, served with the military and has a MSc in Cities with London School of Economics and he is currently studying a MSC in Strategic Innovation with the Science Policy Research Unit at University of Sussex.

Sarah Atkinson

Professor Sarah Atkinson has over 20-years’ experience as an academic with expertise in film, cinema, screen media, computer gaming, immersive experiences, technologies, creative practices and industries. She has published widely on the impacts of digital technologies on film, cinema & media audiences and screen production practices & industries, across three books, numerous articles, book chapters as well as being a regular contributor to The Conversation. Professor Atkinson is Co-Editor of Convergence, a world-leading journal into new media technologies. She has been the lead academic on a number of funded immersive media projects – collaborating with industry, artists and commercial organisations - including on an AHRC/EPSRC Next Generation Immersive Experience project; an InnovateUK funded project - Applying AI to storytelling; and on a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council project leading on a major immersive reality diversity initiative. Professor Atkinson is a regular speaker at various international technology forums including the IET Prestige Lecture Series, the international new.New festival, Develop: European Game Developer conference, Sheffield International Documentary Festival; the European Women in Games Conference; MTH Conference; and B’Ars VFX.

Stephen Follows

Stephen is an established data researcher in the film industry whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Evening Standard, Newsweek, The New Statesman, AV Club and Indiewire.

He acted as an industry consultant and guest on the BBC Radio 4 series The Business of Film, which was topped the iTunes podcast chart, and has consulted for a wide variety of clients, including the Smithsonian in Washington.

Thomas Hoegh

Thomas is an artist, entrepreneur and Investor. His latest startup is Garden Studios in London, a 200k foot studio complex for feature films and series with virtual production at its core. His company, Arts Alliance, built LoveFilm (acquired by Amazon); Arts Alliance Media (acquired by Luxin Rio in China); Met Film School; Picturehouse Cinemas (acquired by Cineworld). He is a backer of Kebony, Shazam, Park Circus, Lucky Voice, Made, Skai, Creative Live; Ocado; Lastminute; Tails; Launch; Atom Films; Property Finder; Interactive Investor; PrePay Technologies; Spinner; Opera Software; Mamut; Planet All; Firefly and more. Thomas is a Trustee of Wim Wender's Foundation and likes to play the trumpet and build stuff with wood.