2026 GUEST FIlmmaker workshops and panels
Lindblade: Cutting Edge Q&A | THURSDAY | OCT 1 | 9PM
Join us after the screening of Lindblade: Cutting Edge for a Q&A with filmmaker with Ray cole (Executive Producer), Jim Kierzner (Director), and the Man of the Hour, George Lindblade
Ava and Isabella Acres | Saturday | OCT 3 | 12pM
Workshop Title: The Craft of Acting
Workshop Description: Explore acting as a business as well as an art form with Ava and Isabella Acres. You will also obtain tips and advice on self-confidence, creating your own opportunities, and managing the director-actor relationship.
Filmmakers Roundtable | SATURDAY | OCT 3 | 5:15pm
A signature film fest event, meet our guest artists and professional filmmakers as they come together for a discussion and Q&A about the process of creating films.
Aimee Garcia | saturday | OCT 3 | 7:00PM
Spend an evening in conversation with AIMEE GARCIA, an award-winning American actress, director, writer and producer.
2026 Festival Guest Artists
Ava Acres
Ava Acres is an award-winning actress, director, producer, and screenwriter from Los Angeles. She has 19 years of experience working professionally in the film industry, earning over 100 acting credits, 3 directing credits, and 3 producing credits, with multiple projects currently in development. Ava’s acting credits include 4x Emmy Award-winning TV series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, 17x Emmy Award-winning series “American Horror Story,” 9x Emmy Award-winning series “Family Guy,” and Casting Society Award-winning film “Happy Feet Two”. She has worked with acclaimed directors throughout her career such as Demi Moore, Michael Goi, Brad Bird, David Wain, and Gregg Araki. She is also heavily involved in the independent film scene, starring in numerous indie films and developing multiple independent projects, with her most recent short film in post-production under her company “Memento Films”. Ava’s behind-the-camera credits include a Major League Soccer campaign, a Crocs commercial, the upcoming “Minecraft 2” movie, and she recently production coordinated a series of commercials/campaigns for the international brand “got2b”. Ava’s work as a filmmaker is driven by a belief in cinema’s ability to offer new perspectives, challenge assumptions, and create greater understanding between audiences. Whether working in front of or behind the camera, Ava is a passionate filmmaker who devotes her life to the craft and business of film.
Ava holds 4 awards for her acting work (“Breakthrough Performance”-Twin Cities Film Fest, “Rising Star Award”- Vail Film Fest, “Best Supporting Actress”- Richmond Film Fest, and “Best Actress”- Giddy Island Film Fest. Her directing work has won the award for “Best Music Video”- Anchorage Film Festival 2025.
Isabella Acres
With 19 years of professional experience in the film industry, Isabella Acres is an actress, screenwriter, and filmmaker with a deep fascination for the human condition and a commitment to character-driven storytelling. Isabella’s experience includes acting roles across film, television, animation, and voice over.
In her first major role, Isabella played series regular Rose Crisp on ABC’s ‘Better Off Ted’. She then landed a recurring role on FOX’s ‘Touch’ starring Kiefer Southerland, recurred in ABC’s award winning ‘Desperate Housewives’, and starred as Mirabelle in the Amazon original series ‘The Kicks’. Isabella has guest starred in ‘Station 19’, ‘Into the Dark’, ‘The Middle’, and several others spanning multiple networks. Throughout her career, Isabella has shared the screen with many Hollywood legends including Sally Field in the feature film ‘Hello My Name Is Doris’, Tim Robbins in IFC’s ‘The Spoils of Babylon’, and Bradley Cooper as the lead in Zoe Saldano’s directorial debut short film titled ‘Kaylien’. Isabella’s extensive voice over credits include ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Family Guy’, ‘Phineas and Ferb’, ‘Frozen II’, ‘Wreck It Ralph’, ‘Horton Hears a Who’, and she continues to voice the character Jade on Disney’s ‘Sofia The First’.
After nearly two decades of on-set experience, Isabella has expanded her craft behind the camera as a writer and producer. She frequently collaborates with her sister, Ava Acres, to develop a variety of independent projects. The Acres sisters recently co-created, produced, and starred in the comedy spec pilot ‘Hot Girl Summer,' and they have several other projects in development.
Aimee Garcia
AIMEE GARCIA is a SAG Award nominee who starred in José Padilha’s RoboCop opposite Michael Keaton, The Addams Family with Oscar Isaac and headlined Netflix’s Christmas With You (which reached #3 in the US and #1 in 80 countries). Currently, the multi-hyphenate stars on The Walking Dead, Netflix’s Strip Law with Adam Scott and Chasing Summer opposite Iliza Shlesinger, which premiered at Sundance 2026. Other credits include Netflix’s Lucifer, where she starred as fan-favorite “Ella Lopez,” Showtime’s Dexter, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K, Family Guy, Criminal Minds, How To Train Your Dragon, Supernatural and ABC’s The George Lopez Show, which earned her an Impact and ALMA Award.
On the writing front, Garcia penned a Wonder Woman: Black & Gold story for DC Comics and wrote and directed a short film, Aimee Comes First, that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival starring Alfred Molina, Tony-nominated Olga Merediz and Emmy-winner Lamorne Morris. Her feature script for the project was rated top 1% on The Black List. Currently, she is co-writing a $40 million movie for Toei Animation with New York Times Bestseller AJ Mendez. The duo wrote Universal’s Blade of the 47 Ronin and comics GLOW, Dungeons & Dragons and their original comics Day of the Dead Girl. Recently, the duo teamed up with Lucifer showrunner Ildy Modrovich to create the upcoming original comic series East Side Saints. Garcia and Mendez founded Scrappy Heart Productions to elevate diverse stories with universal themes.
A Chicago native, Garcia graduated from Northwestern University with degrees in Economics, Journalism and French. She works with Lurie Children’s Hospital, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and MOSTE, a non-profit that mentors girls from underserved communities. Aimee has 2.5 million engaged fans across Instagram (@aimeegarcia4realz), X (@Aimee_Garcia) and Tik Tok (@aimeegarcia4realz0). Garcia is repped by Verve and Atlas Artists.