Director and Chief Curator Dan Fine is an award-winning artist who lives and works in New York City. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts and has exhibited work in the United States, Germany and Israel. Fine founded Videoart.net in 2005 and currently serves as its director and chief curator. In 2010, he established the Video Art & Experimental Film Festival in New York City.
Mark Alpert
Board Member and Panel Moderator Mark Alpert is the author of the international bestselling novel Final Theory and its sequel, The Omega Theory. A longtime journalist who has worked for newspapers, magazines and television, he focuses his writing on the connections between science and art. He is a graduate of Princeton and Columbia and currently a contributing editor at Scientific American. His books have been published in more than twenty languages.
Guest Curator Niccolo Montanari was born in Italy and raised in the UK. He built his experience in fashion film as one of the founding members of the Berlin Fashion Film Festival. Since 2016 he has worked with film directors, production companies and agencies to support them in the distribution of video content across online media and international film festivals. Learn More
Sharvari Bhat
Senior Coordinator, Programming & Partnerships Sharvari Bhat is a Creative Producer based in New York City. Sharvari has a dual degree in Film & Television and Psychology from Boston University and has an MFA in Creative Producing from Columbia University. Her films have been supported by Panavision, NY Women’s Fund, The Film Collaborative, and The Gotham Film Institute. Sharvari is a recipient of the Arthur Krim Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Producing.
Senior Curator Carmela Del Vecchio is a TV/Film Professional based in New York. Her background is as a Production Manager having worked for MTV, among others. She received her Master’s Degree in Media Studies & Film Production Certificate from The New School. Her Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in Radio/TV/Film is from Marist College. She has a passion for film and currently has a short film in post production which she wrote, produced and directed. Carmela joined the VAEFF team in 2019.
Associate Curator Katie Christ is a filmmaker and video editor based in Queens. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Fordham University in 2019, and recently earned her MFA at Rochester Institute of Technology in Film Production.
Jonathan Fine
Producer Assistant & Editor Jonathan Fine is a filmmaker, VFX artist, and musician based in Brooklyn. With a degree in film production from Bard College and a background in piano, he has won awards including “Best Music Video” at NYIFA, “Young Filmmaker” at LAFA, and Gold Medal at the National Young Maestro Competition.
Associate Curator Fernando Vieira is a New York-based writer, director, and performer. As a multidisciplinary artist, Vieira balances their career as creator of stage and film works. Playwriting work includes the plays Goodbye, Little George (2020) and Anormales (2021). Vieira’s work has been presented at various theatrical companies and institutions such as BAAD!, Repertorio Español, IATI Theater, The Brick Theatre, Teatro Audaz, Chelsea Theater, Prelude Festival, The Tank, among others. Film work includes the documentary Unlabeled (2021) and the experimental short films Frenetic Journey Toward Muddledness (2023) and Las Olas (2024). Vieira earned a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies from CUNY Graduate Center.
Marketing and Communications, Johnathan Ellis is from Columbus, Ohio. Ellis recently graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with two Bachelors in Communications and Theatre (Literature & History). Ellis previously worked on VAEFF2023 as an Intern through the New York Arts Program. After returning to the city, he is excited to work again with VAEFF.
Associate Curator Bridget Fleming is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Visual and Cultural Studies program at the University of Rochester. Her research focuses on feminist film and video, and collaborative art practices. Her published writing is forthcoming in Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ) and ASAP/Journal. She is curating a moving-image exhibition about sex work, titled Sex/Labor, that will open at the Hartnett Gallery in Rochester, New York, in November 2024.
Tomás Orrego
Associate Curator Tomás Orrego is a Peruvian multidisciplinary artist with a background in architecture, currently based in Brooklyn. Exploring through confrontational and absurd means the subject of control and desire, his work spans film, music videos, digital animation, graphic design, collage, and video installation. His films have been screened in New York, Athens, Innsbruck and Belgrade as part of various festivals. His latest film, Fever, was selected as a semi finalist in the 2024 Student Academy Awards.
Gioia Hälg
Associate Curator Gioia Geiler grew up multilingual in Switzerland. She is currently working as an actress after finishing her degree at Drama Studio London in 2023. In 2023, she joined and co-founded the all female collective „tender fools“ which had its premiere with the theatre piece „TANKEN“ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Films have always been a big part of her life which is why she studied Cinema Studies at the University of Zurich. Additionally, she worked as a Production Assistant for the feature film „Youth Topia“, which won the Audience Award at the Zurich Film Festival and the Crossing Europe Award in Linz.
Emilia Carbajal
Associate Curator Emilia Carbajal is a sophomore film student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She has a background in dramatic arts, fine arts, music, and dance and has received awards from the Bucks County Playhouse and International Thespians Society. She has had work screen and show at the Mercer County Teen Arts Festival and the Foundation Expanded Exhibition. She has also worked on projects that have screened at BAM.
Destiny Duréké
Associate Curator Destiny Duréké is a recent Fashion Institute of Technology graduate in Advertising & Digital Design with a double minor in Multi-Sensory Branding and Digital Typography. Prior to her graduation, the 2x Gucci Changemaker finalist, author and 2017 DC-Baltimore Ms. Jr. Teen Beauty Queen has styled & MUA’ed an array of projects. Including feature films that’ve been showcased at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, 2019 Amazon Prime Video All Voices Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, and more. The Art Director and Brand Designer is currently based in Brooklyn where she virtually consults artists and brands.
Rosie Feerick
Associate Curator Rosie Feerick is a documentary filmmaker/photographer based in Brooklyn and raised in rural Galway in the West of Ireland. She studied at NCAD and Bezalel University, earning an All-Honors BA in Fine Art & Visual Culture. She is a recipient of the Arts Council Agility Award and is currently helping produce The American Revolution, a 12 hour, six-part documentary series directed by filmmaker Ken Burns. She is also co-founded of the nature-focused documentary company Nightflower Films and in production on a project exploring artificial light pollution and its environmental impact.
