Adesola Thomas is a queer Nigerian-American filmmaker and the Atlanta Film Society’s incoming Filmmaker in Residence (Sept 2025-Mar 2027). She makes narratives about the American South and Black diasporic domestic life to create, proliferate, and archive visuals of community interdependence. 

Adesola was a 2024 Directing Fellow at the Visionary Justice Lab. There, she wrote and directed “Sister Salad Days,” her magical realist family drama which won Best Georgia Short at the 2025 Atlanta Film Festival. Adesola’s work has been programmed at Lincoln Center (32nd New York African Film Festival), Millenium Film, and distributed by No Budge. She is an East Coast Reporter at Letterboxd, a Producer’s Assistant at Kashif Film, and Kino Film Collective programmer. 

Adesola is developing her Southern rave film “Marigold Leaves Her Body” which won Best Short Script at the 2025 Atlanta Film Festival, 2024 Out on Film Festival, and was a 2024 South Pitch Narrative finalist.

Mark Oshiro (they/them) is the award-winning author of the young adult books ANGER IS A GIFT (2019 Schneider Family Book Award), EACH OF US A DESERT, and INTO THE LIGHT, as well as their middle grade books THE INSIDERS, YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, DAVID BRAVO, STAR WARS HUNTERS: BATTLE FOR THE ARENA, and JASMINE IS HAUNTED. They are also the co-author (with Rick Riordan) of the #1 New York Times Bestseller and #1 Indie Bestseller THE SUN AND THE STAR: A NICO DI ANGELO ADVENTURE. When not writing, they are trying to pet every dog in the world.

Jacob McKee (he/they) is a screenwriter and director based in Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently an MFA candidate at the Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design. He's in post-production on his new short, My Dear Watson, an LGBTQ+ adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. His feature screenplay, Spread 'Em, was the runner-up in the 2024 Out on Film Screenplay Competition, as well as a semi-finalist in the Del Shores LGBTQ+ Writers Search and a quarter-finalist in the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Originally a theatre artist, Jacob has performed with most of the professional theatres in the metro Atlanta area and directed at several. When he's not writing or making movies, he's probably -- as Olivia Rodrigo would say -- watching "reruns of Glee."

Briaunna D. Caver is a writer and freelance script reader/story analyst in the film industry. Graduating from Academy of Art University majoring in screenwriting, Briaunna has had the opportunity to read for large-scale competitions such as the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, American Zoetrope and Disney’s Launchpad Fellowship. She was recently one of five winners selected for the 2025 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition for her TV pilot. Briaunna enjoys comedic stories centered around dysfunctional families and friendships, generational trauma, and slice of life. She is proud to tell similar stories in her own voice.

Tee Johnson is a multi-award winning Production Designer, Writer, Director & Storyteller. Prop house owner. She has worked with BET, Lowes, Amazon, Hulu and many more.

John Settles is a black queer artist and director from Atlanta, GA who started his filmmaking journey in 2022. Over the last three years, he has assisted with the development and creative direction on numerous music videos, documentaries, and short films by local indie artists. Currently, he works as an assistant director and camera operator for his church’s media team. 

His latest project “fear not.”, funded by the Gilead COMPASS Initiative, unites HIV advocacy with the faith community together through film and conversation. The film has reached and involved communities and organizations including but not limited to, the CounterNarrative Project, Positive Impact Health Centers, Calvary Church UMC, Whet Ink Productions, and more. His work has also been highlighted in the Black Wall Street Times, the Portia Show, VoyageATL, the 2024 CounterNarrative Project Media Summit, and the 2024 Healing Arts ATL Conference.