May 2025 in Arezzo
Jess Jacobs
Jess Jacobs is an award-winning actress, writer, producer, entrepreneur, and activist whose work focuses on diverse representations of the feminine experience. Jess' films have screened at Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and Woodstock Film Festivals, among others and are available across various streaming platforms including Hulu, Amazon Prime and Paramount+. Her feature screenwriting debut in which she also stars, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, is set for release in 2025, helmed by Oday Rasheed and Executive Produced by Doug Liman. She is on the boards of Rooftop Films and the National Institute for Reproductive Health, and serves on advisory committees for Creative Capital, Upstart CoLab and the San Diego International Film Festival. She lives in LA with her husband and their two dogs.
Katherine Morein
Katherine's thrill-seeking tastes have led her to dip her toe into the experiences of skydiving and far-flung travel. After graduating from USC School of Cinematic Arts, she decided that it was more fun to write those kinds of adventures than have them. Her feature script THE WAY DOWN placed in the Top Five in the Action/Adventure Category of 2023 Big Break Screenwriting Competition.
Katharine Densmore
Katharine Densmore is a Los Angeles-based writer and script analyst with a background in documentary filmmaking and nonprofit work. A participant in the Reel Ideas Studio program at Cannes and Stowe Story Labs, she has had a pilot optioned by TVOne, produced short films, and earned over 30 screenwriting accolades. Her work often explores the complexities of womanhood, incorporating moments of humor, heart and haunting truth to show that life is both sweet and cruel in equal measure.
Kevin Brunner
I was born and raised in Missouri and earned a degree in broadcasting from Northwest Missouri State University. Upon graduation, I had a brief stint as a television anchorman in a small midwestern city before moving to New York City to pursue acting. Within a year, I earned my Actor’s Equity membership in Off-Broadway musicals. Since then, I have also sung in several operas with the Kansas City Lyric Opera. I moved to Los Angeles nineteen years ago to pursue my acting dreams further. Upon the urging of one of my sisters, I took night screenwriting classes at UCLA and fell in love with writing, gaining a certificate in two years. Since then, I have been writing TV pilots and features and entering screenwriting contests. Recently, my screenplay Return to Spalding Drive won Best Feature Drama at the New York Screenwriting Awards and was an award winner with the L.A. Neo Noir Film & Script Online Festival. Another screenplay, Mary Mary Quite Contrary, recently won Best Feature Comedy at the Screenplay Festival. I am also an artist, and my paintings have appeared on books and greeting cards as well as in numerous art shows throughout the country. I have written a children’s book with illustrations. My journey has been diverse, and I have lived in several areas of the United States—the Midwest, New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles. I enjoy all my pursuits.
Lisa Romagnoli
Lisa Romagnoli, a New England native now based in New York City, is an award-winning writer and director. Over the past 10 years, she has helmed hundreds of branded and editorial videos, resulting in over a quarter of a billion views on YouTube. She has created series featuring world-renowned academics as well as celebrities for prestigious brands, resulting in multiple Telly and Webby Awards. In addition, her screenwriting has landed her on numerous competition finalist lists, and her short films have played at dozens of film festivals, winning numerous awards. She splits her time between New York City and Maine, and loves collaborating with other creatives.
Mike Klubeck
Mike Klubeck is a New York City-based film director. During his time attending NYU Tisch, he wrote and directed two successful short films, "I-O" and "All Night Long", which each garnered festival admissions and awards. He graduated from NYU with a BFA in Film/TV Production in May 2020. After graduating, he directed the experimental short film “These Games We Play”, which was nominated for Best Experimental Short Film at the 2022 NFFTY Film Festival and had its New York Premiere at the 2023 NewFest Film Festival. He was a finalist for the most recent NewFest New Voices Filmmaker Grant. His latest short film, "Photocopy", recently had it's World Premiere at the 2023 NFFTY Film Festival. "Photocopy" is a proof of concept film for his debut feature of the same name, currently in development. In addition to his narrative experience, he has directed a variety of music videos and commercials, working with brands such as Panasonic, Ray Ban, Calvin Klein, and Dior.
Monique Matthews
Monique N. Mathews is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker. Hailing from Harlem, New York, Monique has received numerous accolades, including selection by Daily Variety as one of its “10 Writers To Watch” and serving as a lab fellow for writing and directing in Film Independent’s Writing and Directing Labs. She was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Feature Writing in 2022. In 2023, Monique’s directorial documentary feature debut, Birthing Justice, which she also co-wrote, was released and has won Best Documentary Feature Film at several festivals, including the Kansas City Film Festival - International, The California Women’s Festival, and the Impact Doc Awards. Monique recently produced and directed In Conversation: The Power of Imagination with Nikki Giovanni. A three-time UCLA graduate, including a BA in Sociology, an MFA in Film, Television and Digital Media, and an MA in African American Studies, she has also taught at multiple colleges, including California State Los Angeles, Los Angeles City College, and Santa Monica College, where she taught screenwriting and film theory. In her spare time, Monique—an avid hip-hop aficionado—enjoys cooking, exercising, surfing, hiking, and spin classes.
Sarah Jayne Portelli
Sarah Jayne is an Australian/Maltese storyteller whose career began in Melbourne, Australia. In 2013 SJ shifted her focus from freelance art direction crew roles in film and television to independent directing, producing and screenplay writing. SJ's most notable work as a writer, director and producer is Daughter, a short film starring Katherine Langford, with which she independently toured Australia to raise awareness around gender based violence and victim blaming. Her feature documentaries have been part of educational screenings, represented Malta at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, been broadcast on PBS, shown across Japanese cinemas, and utilised within the European Parliament to instigate change regarding strict abortion laws currently in place, particularly in Malta. Trained in the improvisational directing techniques of Mike Leigh, SJ is herself an educator in the experimental craft, while also remaining open to the traditional craft of screenplay writing. She lives in Europe, where she runs her production company with her long time collaborator, now husband and their sidekick, a playful ginger cat named Fićo. Recently, SJ has written two feature length screenplays, one of which was selected for the Nostos Screenwriting Retreat.