PRESENTED BY
Chris Albert is founder and chief executive office of ALBERT MEDIA GROUP, INC. (AMG) a Washington, D.C. based marketing, communications, and production firm.
Prior to forming AMG, Albert had a storied 20+ year career at National Geographic, most recently serving as executive vice president, marketing and communications. Albert spent much of his time at the revered 135-year-old brand shaping the public narrative and keeping it in the cultural conversation. Known for his creative, strategic (and scrappy) communications campaigns, Albert and his team developed a reputation for driving innovation and delivering results time and time again.
At National Geographic, Albert was responsible for developing and executing global consumer and trade communications strategies as well as consumer marketing strategies for all National Geographic Content under the National Geographic Documentary Films banner, as well as content premiering on National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Disney+ and HULU. Additionally, he oversaw communications campaigns for the flagship magazine and all of the brand’s digital properties (including Nat Geo’s social media footprint, where it is the largest brand on social media). Also under his purview were the awards team, the network’s talent relations department, and the events department.
He oversaw the launch series of 20-time Emmy-nominated GENIUS franchise, LIMITLESS WITH CHRIS HEMSWORTH, DOG WHISPERER, CESAR MILAN plus winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for FREE SOLO and delivering four Academy Award nominations in the past six years.
Sarah’s film career spans from Alaska to the Far East of Russia, with experience producing in the U.S. industry. As a producer of both scripted and non-scripted content, she has a strong passion for impact-driven storytelling. Sarah is making her directorial debut with ORCA: Black & White Gold, an award-winning docu-thriller about the marine mammal entertainment industry.
Her professional career includes lecturing on film production at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. She has served as the chairwoman of the board for the International Screen Institute and is part of the 2024 Inside Pictures cohort, Europe’s leading film and TV business training and leadership development program.
Robin Smith is currently the CEO of Blue Ice Docs Inc. – a distribution and equity funding company dedicated to funding, acquiring and distributing the best non-fiction work from around the world.
Robin brings a strong background of over 28 years of film, video and arts-related work to the marketplace having worked at a variety of distribution companies including The National Film Board of Canada, Alliance Films, Lions Gate Film Entertainment, Seville Pictures, Capri Releasing and levelFILM. Robin has recently also been brought aboard to advise a variety of companies such as the Vancouver International Film Festival and Vortex Media. Robin also programmed the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema for its first 10 years of operation.
Notable releases managed and navigated by Robin include such hits as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, AWAY FROM HER, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, BLACKFISH, UP THE YANGTZE and KEDI.
Robin has also acted as Executive Producer on a variety of award-winning documentaries including the Oscar-nominated ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL (dir: Steve James), the Emmy-Award winning SOLITARY (dir: Kristi Jacobson), the Emmy-Award winning ADVOCATE (dir: Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche), the commercial hit A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX (dir: Rodney Asher) and the 2023 SXSW documentary THE HOBBY (dir: Simon Ennis).
Laura Kutnick grew up around the world, but raised her own family in a small green community in rural Connecticut. Graduating in film studies from Dartmouth College, she went on to pursue film theory at the Sorbonne and later business and communications at the U of Penn. She went on to work as communications consultant for the Aspen Institute and then on several of ABC network’s Emmy award winning documentaries before becoming health producer on CBS nightly news. Her drama examining the fragility of nuclear disarmament ran briefly in 2018 and her biography of her parents’ contemporary art collection was released by Sotheby’s the same year. Currently, Laura is president of the Dale and Laura Kutnick Foundation which has been pivotal in the success of many non-profit initiatives which address climate change.
Alex Rivest is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained PhD Neuroscientist. His research has been published in two of the most highly renowned scientific journals, Science and Nature Neuroscience. Alex grew up in an environment where curiosity and question-asking were highly valued, and he has dedicated his life to helping teach others about the wonders of the world. As an educator, he received the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at MIT, and founded the non-profit Blue Kitabu, which built a sustainable primary school in central Ghana. As a filmmaker, Alex’s videos have accumulated over 70 million views online and have been featured everywhere, from billboards in Times Square to installations in science museums and even in an opera production of “Das Rheingold.” Alex produced and co-directed CANARY, the documentary film about Lonnie Thompson that recently premiered on over 160 screens across the USA, was featured in the NYTimes “What to Watch” section, was screened at NYC Climate Week and COP28, was hosted by the National Academy of Sciences at the DC Environmental Film Festival, and won best “Feature’ at the Jackson Wild Media Awards.
Ingrid Jean-Baptiste was born in Paris, she is a journalist, actor and the Founder/ Director of the Chelsea Film Festival in New York, that was created in 2013 to promote the work of emerging filmmakers. Her goal is to present impactful stories that make our world a better place by engaging diverse audiences. Being a member of the POC2 (Programmers of Color Collective), she takes great responsibility in selecting content from underrepresented communities. 1000+ short, documentary, feature films, TV series and virtual reality content have been selected in competition. CFF has now become an international hub for up-and-coming artists and was selected in the “Top 10 Best Film Festivals in North America” by USA Today. Jean-Baptiste’s work and impact has been recognized by many local and international publications such as the New York Times, Bella Magazine New York, Fox5 NY, AM New York, BFM TV Business and more. She is also passionate about Kundalini yoga & mindfulness, and currently resides in Manhattan with her husband.
Jason Reisig is currently a tenured professor of Animation at University of Southern California, where he teaches both advanced 3D character animation as well as the MFA Thesis class, overseeing the animated short projects of the graduate’s final year. Jason was the co-director on the 2018 Warner Brothers feature animation Smallfoot. With over 20 years in feature animation, Jason spent most of his career with DreamWorks Animation. He was the Head of Character Animation on Home and the final chapter in the Shrek series, Shrek Forever After. For the latter he was nominated for a VES Award in the category of “Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture”. Concurrently, as the Animation Department Chair at DreamWorks, he worked on the interaction design of DreamWork’s NextGen character animation software, Premo, for which he recently received a SciTech Technical Achievement award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Jason was also a supervising animator on the animated features, Trolls, Kung Fu Panda 3, Kung Fu Panda, and Over the Hedge as well as many holiday specials, shorts and other ancillary projects.
Kathleen Charlotte McInerney, also known by her stage name Veronica Taylor, is an American voice actress known for her dubbing work in English-language adaptations of Japanese anime , in particular for voicing Ash Ketchum and his mother Delia in the Pokemon anime for its first eight seasons. Other voices she has done include Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun from Slayers, Sailor Pluto from Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal, Nico Robin in the 4kids dub of One Piece, April O’Neil in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and has voiced video game characters like Cosmos from Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Dissidia Final Fantasy, and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. Additionally, using her real name, she is a narrator for various audio books, such as the Omen of the Stars arc from the Warrior series.
With over 25 years’ experience in kids and family brands, Julien Borde is President of Mediawan Kids & Family. Previously he was Managing Director of Mediawan Animation.
Until 2018, he was Head of Kids and General Entertainment Channels at WarnerMedia for France, French-speaking territories and Africa. Between 2005 and 2015, he created France Télévisions Kids department at and established it as the leader of the European animation industry. He was appointed Secretary-General of France 3 in 2012, then Head of Digital Programming with responsibility for AVOD/TVOD/SVOD. He started his career at Disney in 1997, where he remained until 2005, as Deputy Director then Executive Director for Programmes and Production at Disney Channels France.