2023 Inclusion Fellowship Mentors and Guest Speakers

Film / Media Maker

Variety as 2021 Educator of the Year. Born in Michigan but raised on the West Coast of the United States and in Buenos Aires, Argentina in a bilingual, bicultural family, Cristina Kotz Cornejo is also a descendant of the Indigenous Huarpe people of the Cuyo region of Argentina. Cristina's debut feature film, 3 Américas, received DVD distribution and streamed on Netflix. Cristina’s short films have screened at festivals around the world. Her documentary short film, “Jewel and The Catch”, was selected by Outfest to be part of UCLA's Film and TV Archive. Cristina’s most recent work in immersive 360° filmmaking is making the festival circuit in the US, UK and Canada. She’s also in development on a VR/MR experience. She’s the first Latina Full Professor of media production in the US, and is currently the Chair of the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College.

Motion Picture Editor

Michael N. Knue, A.C.E., has been editing both television and major motion pictures for over 40 years. His credits range from Sylvester Stallone films (Lock Up, Rocky V) to television credits like St. Elsewhere and Marvel's Daredevil, as well as many TV movies and pilots. Most of Michael’s work can be seen in a variety of action, science fiction, and horror. He cut the cult favorites, The Hidden and Night of the Creeps, as well as Todd McFarland’s comic book classic, Spawn. He edited Nightmare on Elm St: The Dream Master and directed 2nd unit photography for Freddy’s Dead: the Final Nightmare. Other films include Death Sentence, House, The Ring 2. Michael started making documentaries and producing and directing local educational television in his hometown, Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, taught editing courses at UCLA Extension’s Department of Entertainment Studies.

Writer / Producer

Oscar Torres is a writer-producer of films such as Innocent Voices (Voces Inocentes), a film that went out to win over 70 awards, and became Mexico’s official submission to the 77th Academy Awards; En Tus Manos, an anti-violence film that won the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival and the Spirit Quest Film Festival; Bravetown (2015), starring Josh Duhamel and Laura Dern; Pulling Strings (Amor a Primera Visa) starring Mexican leading man Jaime Camil produced by Pantelion Films; and the runaway hit Instructions Not Included, starring and directed by Eugenio Derbez, which became the most successful Spanish Speaking film of all time grossing over $44 Million in the U.S. alone. His most recently completed film 7th & Union starring Mexican star Omar Chaparro will be released worldwide in 2022. His production company Mango Tree is in development of several projects including his directorial debut Te Adoro (I Love You), a modern-day musical which will be shot in his native country of El Salvador, a the long awaited Innocent Voices – The Series which tells the story of Chava arriving in the United States.

Creative Director, Storyboard Artist, and Visual Consultant

Roman is the founder of Film Reframed, a professional development platform teaching composition and visual storytelling to aspiring directors and working filmmakers around the world. He has also created visual solutions for American Express, Vox, California Pizza Kitchen, Netgear, Yoga with Adriene, and OGX Shampoo (among others), and has been featured by No Film School and Caviar Connects.

Co-director of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ fantasy action adventure film, Raya and the Last Dragon. Having joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in the late Spring of 2019, López Estrada is a member of the Studios’ story trust, and has another animated feature in development. His debut film, Blindspotting premiered on the opening night at Sundance 2018 and subsequently sold to Lionsgate for a theatrical release. He was selected for Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch” for 2018 and his second feature, Summertime, premiered on opening night at Sundance 2020.