Festival program

Ann Marie Fleming is an award-winning Canadian writer, director, and visual artist working across film, animation, and media. Born in Japan and of Australian and Chinese heritage, her work explores themes of family, history, and memory. Her latest feature Can I Get a Witness? premiered at TIFF 2024, was named to the TIFF Top 10, and received multiple awards including from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle and the Leo Awards. Fleming has premiered 18 films at TIFF, with several Top 10 selections, including the acclaimed animated feature Window Horses, which won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature.

Bringing a wealth of experience, leadership, and a commitment to fostering artistic excellence, Ryan has been part of the production teams for some of the industry's most recent and iconic projects, including WandaVision, HBO’s Watchmen, John Wick: Chapter 4, The Handmaid's Tale, 1923, and Priscilla. As Head of the Toronto Rodeo FX studio, he supervised many of its latest creations, including Mark Wahlberg's The Family Plan 2, Bob Odenkirk’s Normal and the upcoming Hershey movie.Throughout his career, Ryan gained invaluable on-set experience serving as the Head of Production, Head of Operations, and Managing Director. His tenures at various high-profile studios gave him a deep understanding of virtual production, an affinity for leadership roles that challenge the status quo and a contagious enthusiasm.

Katerina Cizek is an influential figure in international media, with over 25 years of experience as a Peabody- and Emmy-winning documentarian, author, producer, and senior leader working with collective processes and emergent technologies. She is research scientist, artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio, she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom (MIT Press 2022), and she is the co-founder, director of WORLDING, and she co-leads the AI + Documentary Working Group. She designs co-creation workshops, research, delegations and fellowships fusing art, documentary and journalism together with emergent tech and science through the practice of collective creation. She holds a PhD in Visual Culture from University of Westminster, London, U.K. She is currently the chair of Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards and sits on the Canadian Federal Advisory Panel to modernize the Screen Sector.

As an intellectual property lawyer at Dipchand LLP, Zach Nickels helps innovators and creators protect what sets their businesses apart through strategic advice, enforcement, and litigation when necessary. Drawing on both his technical background and legal expertise, Zach understands his clients’ businesses and objectives, and delivers advice that is practical, tailored, and personal. He has extensive litigation experience before the Ontario Superior Court, the Federal Court, and the Federal Court of Appeal, and is known for empowering his clients while advocating for them with tenacity.

Ryan Patterson is a video producer and award-winning AI filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. He has over a decade of video production experience in advertising and communications and is the co-founder of Queen One Studios, a leading AI-powered production studio. Ryan is also a director at GRAiL and a creative partner with generative AI companies Runway, Luma, Kling and Dreamina. He has spoken at the Toronto International Film Festival and Adobe MAX and was named a Top 100 AI Creative on LinkedIn in 2024.

Laura Mingail is the founder of Archetypes & Effects, where she helps entertainment and technology companies connect their content, experiences, and emerging technologies with the right audiences through strategic marketing and business development.
She is a media contributor, SXSW Advisory Board Member, and speaker at leading events and institutions including CES, Tribeca Festival, SXSW, Series Mania, Augmented World Expo, University of Toronto, and Mensa Canada. Laura’s work and insights have been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, NBC News, Ad Age, Adweek, and UploadVR. She has also contributed to projects recognized by organizations such as Cannes XR, Venice Film Festival, and the Webby Awards.

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Michelle Wyndham-West is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University, Toronto, where she also holds a tenured Associate Professor position in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She received a PhD in Anthropology from York University. Her research spans health, public policy, co-design methodologies, and the structural conditions of professional education and emerging technologies.

Fayeque M. Townsend-Rahman is a Canadian Filmmaker, advertising Creative Director and Managing Partner at Oomaflo, an AI consultancy helping organizations bring emerging tools into strategy, creative work, efficiencies and commercial growth. A true global citizen, educated across Europe and North America, his first film Necessary Illusions screened internationally, opening at the 22nd Torino Film Festival and earning the Visionary Award at the Washington DC Independent Film Festival for "highlighting a new form of racism that is permeating our society." Today he works at the intersection of brand storytelling, technology, and human-led AI. For him, AI is the next camera