Success on Set - The Producer’s Role with Kara Durrett (HONK FOR JESUS, SAVE YOUR SOUL), David Hinojosa (STILL ALICE), Jess Wu Calder (ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI) and Alexandra Byer (COLEWELL)

Kara Durrett is an independent producer, a 2019 Sundance Producer Lab Fellow, and a 2021 nominee for the Independent Spirit Piaget Producers Award. Recently, Durrett produced Adamma Ebo's HONK FOR JESUS, SAVE YOUR SOUL which is premiering at Sundance 2022, as well as Celine Held & Logan George’s VANISHINGS AT CADDO LAKE Produced alongside M Night Shyamalan, currently in Post Production. Past productions include Floyd Russ’s AYAR, which premiered at SXSW 2021, Celine Held & Logan George’s TOPSIDE, winner of both Best Technical Achievement at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, the Special Jury Award for directing at SXSW 2020, and Alex Fischer & Eleanor Wilson’s SAVE YOURSELVES!, which premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and sold to Bleecker Street. Upcoming projects are David Craig and Brian Crano’s I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU, alongside producer Joel Edgerton; As well as Laurel Parmet's THE STARLING GIRL produced alongside 2AM. Durrett’s short film work has been nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, and has screened in competition at Sundance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and in the Narrative and Midnight Competitions at SXSW. Her award-winning short film CAROLINE was short-listed for the 2019 Academy Awards.

David Hinojosa is Founding Partner and Head of Production at 2AM. David spent over a decade at Christine Vachon’s iconic award-winning production company Killer Films. While at Killer, he developed such titles as Wash Westmoreland & Richard Glatzer's Academy Award winning STILL ALICE and Todd Haynes' CAROL which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and received six Academy Award nominations. Most recently, Hinojosa produced Josephine Decker’s SHIRLEY, Janicza Bravo's ZOLA, Mona Fastvold's THE WORLD TO COME, Brady Corbet's VOX LUX and Paul Schrader’s FIRST REFORMED. Hinojosa has upcoming work from Todd Solondz, Billy Porter, Rebecca Miller and Jennifer Kent. He is Co-Vice Chair of the Producers Guild of America East, Chair of the Independent Producer's Task Force and lectures at New York University's prestigious graduate film program. In 2019, Hinojosa was invited to join the Producers branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Prior to Killer, he worked at The Weinstein Company on the marketing campaigns of films including Tom Hooper's THE KING'S SPEECH and Derek Cianfrance's BLUE VALENTINE.

Jess Wu Calder co-founded Snoot Entertainment in 2004 to develop, finance, and produce film and television across all genres and media. Jess most recently produced Regina King’s feature directorial debut ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, which Amazon Studios released earlier this year. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI made AFI’s Top 10 list in 2020 and has since received Academy Award, Producers Guild of America Award, and Golden Globe Award nominations. Additional features include the Charli XCX documentary, ALONE TOGETHER which had its world premiere as the closing night headliner at SXSW in 2021, Sundance hit LITTLE MONSTERS, Charlie Kaufman’s Academy Award®-nominated animated film ANOMALISA, Adam Wingard's THE GUEST, YOU’RE NEXT, and BLAIR WITCH, and the NAACP Image Award-nominated documentary THUNDER SOUL. Jess is currently in post-production on Starz’s series BLINDSPOTTING, a spinoff of the critically acclaimed feature film Jess also produced, which premiered opening night at Sundance in 2018. Up next, Jess is developing a feature film adaptation of the lauded video game, FIREWATCH, as well as a feature film adaption of Christopher Paolini’s TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS. Jess is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She resides in Los Angeles.

Alexandra Byer is a Brooklyn-based producer and co-founder of the production company RATHAUS. She recently produced Tim Sutton’s fifth feature FUNNY FACE (Berlinale 2020) and Cedric Cheung-Lau’s debut film THE MOUNTAINS ARE A DREAM THAT CALL TO ME (Sundance 2020). Byer was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards for Tom Quinn’s COLEWELL (Gravitas Ventures). She also produced Diana Peralta’s DE LO MIO (HBO), Matt Porterfield’s SOLLERS POINT (Oscilloscope Laboratories), and Tim Sutton’s DARK NIGHT (Sundance Film Festival 2016; Arbelos Films). Byer also participated in the 2016 Cannes Producer’s Workshop as well as the 2015 Berlinale Talents Lab.