As a child, I was afraid of the dark, dolls, and monsters. Surprisingly, as I grew older, these very fears became the inspiration for my greatest passion: filmmaking. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to turn my childhood terrors into captivating stories on screen. It's a journey from fear to fascination that I'm grateful to share with audiences everywhere.
Alex Lee Williams and Jay Drakulic have won numerous awards during their ten year journey together including TIFF’s Most Promising Filmmaker. They’re the co-writers and co-directors of the feature film Hellmington. In 2018, Mallory Drumm joined their collective which gave the trio an exciting new voice. Mallory brings a fresh perspective as the trio looks to take the genre space by storm with their debut collaboration, Dream Eater.
Matthew Hardesty, born in Houston, Texas, has been described as having a ‘very special talent for taking figurative demons and making them real and terrifying’. He started his career in independent film in Austin at age 18. His education at the Austin School of Film showed him the importance of experimental cinema, and of not viewing the world through the obvious perspective. After moving to Los Angeles, Matthew continued to push boundaries on projects that the press have penned as ‘all orgiastic mayhem’ with ‘stunning visuals’.
Writer/Director - Beyond The Drumlins
Writer/Director - "After The Fall"
Polly Schattel is a novelist and film director. Her previous films include Sinkhole, Alison, and Quiet River. Her novels include The Occultists, Shadowdays, and the Stoker Award-longlisted novella, 8:59:29 (JournalStone).
You may remember Bradford Selby from his legendary turn as Daddy Warbucks in his 5th grade production of Annie. Or perhaps from the back of his head in the Jeff Bridges/Tommy Lee Jones film Blown Away—a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that sparked a lifelong love of acting. Originally from outside Boston, he spent nearly a decade in Los Angeles and now performs with The Tellers Garden Playback Theatre troupe in Portland, Maine. This year, you can catch him in Dan Bowhers' Beyond The Drumlins and Mariah Larocque’s Silent System.
Jeffrey Thomas is a prolific writer of science fiction and horror, best known for his stories set in the nightmarish future city called Punktown, such as the novel Deadstock (Solaris Books) and the collection Punktown (Ministry of Whimsy Press). Among other accolades, he has been a 2003 finalist for the Bram Stoker Award (Best First Novel) for Monstrocity, and a 2008 finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Deadstock.
CASSANDRA KHAW is the USA Today bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Library at Hellebore, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, The Salt Grows Heavy, Breakable Things, and coauthor of The Dead Take the A Train with Richard Kadrey. They are an award-winning game writer.
Dean Lemire is a native of Portland, Oregon. He started playing the piano at the age of five. His training in classical piano was with the late Mary Dunlap, Music Department Chair, at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. He later studied theatre pipe organ with the late Don Simmons and Jerry Gregorius.