Bridey Elliott

Writer/Director/Actress
After graduating from the National Theater Institute, she performed stand-up in New York and became a regular at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Elliott starred in the SXSW Grand Jury Prize–winning Fort Tilden in 2015. Her directorial debut, the short comedy Affections, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Bridey can be seen acting in Battle of the Sexes starring Emma Stone and in Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic project.

Diffan Sina Norman

Artist/Filmmaker/Writer

Diffan Sina Norman is a Kuala Lumpur–born, LA-based artist, filmmaker, and writer. His work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. His short film Kekasih, which premiered at Sundance in 2014, was made possible with a grant from the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia. More recently, his script Sitora the Weretiger was a recipient of a FINAS Feature Film Development Grant. His newest short, Benevolent Ba, premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Mallory Schwartz

Mallory Schwartz is a Los Angeles–based creative producer for film and television. A graduate of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Mallory began her career at Saturday Night Live, followed by CollegeHumor and Broadway Video, before landing at Alec Baldwin’s El Dorado Pictures, where she served as director of development until 2019. Her first feature as lead producer, Before You Know It, had its world premiere in competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and opened in select theaters nationwide in August 2019.

Toby Shimin

Editor

Toby Shimin has edited numerous films that have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, including How to Dance in Ohio (which won a Peabody Award), A Leap of Faith, Martha & Ethel, Miss America, Everything’s Cool, and the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award–winning films Out of the Past, This Is Home, and Buck. Her most recent film, Ernie & Joe, will premiere on HBO this fall.

Yoni Brook

Philadelphia-Based Filmmaker and Catalyst Fellow 

Yoni Brook is a cinematographer and producer twice nominated for an Independent Film Spirit Award, with Sundance Film Festival credits Menashe (distributed by A24) and Valley of Saints (winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award). For PBS’s POV series, Brook co-directed Bronx Princess, which premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Berlin International Film Festival. His directorial debut, A Son's Sacrifice, won the award for best documentary short at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens. The film was named the year’s best documentary short by the International Documentary Association. Brook is an alumnus of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Sundance Institute Staff

Ted Passon

Philadelphia-Based Filmmaker and Catalyst Fellow

Ted Passon is an award-winning director and video artist. He has won grants from JustFilms at the Ford Foundation, the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, the Bertha Doc Society, and the San Francisco Film Society. Ted has exhibited his award-winning short films in festivals and galleries around the US and abroad and has written, directed, and developed over eight original children’s television series for Comcast, as well as the series K9 Undercover for the Disney Channel. He has also directed and produced commercial projects for clients such as Google, NBC/Universal, Guinness, and Adidas. He is a co-founder of All Ages Productions, a full-service film- and video-production company based in Philadelphia.

Mike Plante

Senior Programmer

Mike Plante is a senior programmer for short films at the Sundance Film Festival, where he has worked since 2001. Each year he and a team of 9 shorts programmers go through over 10,000 entries to select 70 shorts to play at the Festival, discovering new film talent in the process. He has worked at film festivals since 1993, and he also makes feature documentaries. His recent film And With Him Came the West (2019) played at MoMA Doc Fortnight and his short The Polaroid Job (2017) is available at The New York Times Op-Docs.

Holden Payne

Technical Director, Exhibition and Production

Holden Payne has 30 years of cinema and production experience, including building permanent and temporary cinemas and theatres at festivals such as the Palm Springs Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and Telluride Film Festival. A collector of graphic T-shirts and a lover of dachshunds, eclectic rock ’n’ roll music, and fine dining, Holden is a typical Capricorn who’s ready to bore anyone on the minute details of theatrical lighting and sound, the early work of the Archers of Loaf or Dinosaur Jr., and the future of digital cinema.

DaManuel Richardson

Assistant to the Festival Director & Coordinator, Public Programming

DaManuel is the newest member of the Shorts Programming team. In addition to his programming duties he also serves as Assistant to the Festival Director. He's a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds an MFA from CalArts. As a filmmaker, his work has screened at the Atlanta Film Festival & Cartagena International Film Festival. In his spare time, he continues to develop projects and enjoys working in his community garden.

Eva Rinaldi

Director of Operations, Artist Programs

Eva Rinaldi is the director of operations for Sundance Institute’s artist programs. She oversees the operational aspects of residency labs, workshops, and community screenings for programs such as Feature Film, Documentary Film, Film Music, and Theatre that span artistic activities including filming and editing, showcasing plays in progress, and film scoring. Eva has a master’s in community leadership from Westminster College with a focus on advocacy. She represents her community by serving on local boards and is politically active.

Ebonee Johnson

Guest Relations Coordinator, Operations: Artist Programs

Ebonee Johnson grew up within the performing arts community of Manassas Park, Virginia. In 2017, after earning a degree in Sociology from the College of William and Mary, she launched a career in event management. She has assisted with the logistics and registration for several diverse events including the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 48th Annual Legislative Conference. She currently serves as Coordinator, Operations: Artist Programs at Sundance Institute overseeing guest relations. 

Skye Orchard

Coordinator, Technology Services

Skye has been working in technology services for Sundance Institute for almost two years now. They hold a BFA in sound design and technology and will be looking to pursue a second bachelor’s in game design next year to better combine a love of audio and gaming.