Aminat Abari
Aminat is a lover of stories and has worked across film and theatre, including with the National Youth Theatre, Fully Focused Productions and Award-Winning documentary production company Lightbox on a (TBA) HBO 3-part series. She has also completed the Writer/Director Ideas Lab at the Roundhouse.
Passionate about bringing stories to life, she’s excited to be a pre-selector for Women of the Lens Film Festival and to discover new stories and voices, while gaining insight into what makes a story truly stand out.
Adeline Curtis
Adeline is a storyteller, activist and cinephile passionate about intersectional feminism and socially-impactful media. Having grown up and studied in several different countries, she is constantly being inspired by people, places and cultures.
Adeline holds a BA in International Studies at Leiden University where she specialised in Latin American culture and politics. Her work experience spans film festivals and community events across the Netherlands, including human rights festival Movies that Matter, Las Americas Film Festival, The Hague’s 070 Film Club and IDFA. Her current work centres around campaigns against online misogyny and inclusive education.
Adeline is thrilled to join Women of The Lens Film Festival as a pre-selector and contribute to a pioneering film festival that champions underrepresented voices and intersectional storytelling.
Fortunata (Tino) Maneti
Tino is an early-career audiovisual researcher, programmer and cultural producer from southern Italy, based in Utrecht (Netherlands). Their work centers on queer filmmaking, intersectional cinema, arthouse & experimental aesthetics, exploring identity, representation and film’s transformative power in cultural discourse. An MA graduate in Film and Television Cultures from Utrecht University, they have been active in screening club programming and the UEFA critics’ group and took part in the Go Critic! program, organized by Cineuropa.
Joining Women of the Lens Film Festival as a pre-selector, is driven by a belief in the importance of supporting intersectional works, particularly those made by non-cis white men, given the persistent lack of such representation in the audiovisual field.
Ziyuan ‘Iris’ Zhao
Iris is a London-based film critic, festival reviewer and emerging programmer working across film writing, selection and cultural production. She holds an MA in Film Studies from University College London, where her research interests included women-led cinema, coming-of-age narratives, cross-cultural storytelling and the representation of marginalised experience on screen.
Her experience spans festival criticism, filmmaker interviews and pre-selection work across UK and Chinese-language film platforms. She has reviewed film submissions and written structured evaluation reports for CathayPlay and Native Spirits Film Festival, alongside covering international festivals including Edinburgh, San Sebastián, London, Tallinn Black Nights and Five Flavours. She has also written extensively on the Women Without Borders Film Festival programme, with a particular focus on women filmmakers, socially engaged cinema and the relationship between personal experience and wider cultural structures.
As a pre-selector for Women Of The Lens, Iris is interested in supporting films by Black women and women of colour with care, critical rigour and openness to perspectives beyond her own cultural experience. She believes programming is not only about identifying strong individual films, but also about creating meaningful conversations between works, audiences and communities.
Pia Madison
Holly Elliott
Holly is an emerging film programmer and artist based in Leicestershire. She holds a BA in History of Art from the University of Warwick, where she specialised in contemporary art criticism, post-internet aesthetics, and the queer moving-image.
In addition to her day job as a receptionist, her industry experience bridges film critique, filmmaking, and pre-selector work. As a student she was her department’s blogger where she wrote on current contemporary art discourse and exhibition reviews. Currently, she continues to hone her critical eye and analytical skills through her Substack where she writes film & art reviews. She has worked with film festivals such as Sheffield DocFest and Mansfield Town Film Festival, where she gained experience as part of a film crew, and as a screener where she built her film programming foundation.
Holly is thrilled to be working with Women of the Lens Film Festival as a pre-selector. With her experience she seeks to support the festival’s mission in building an official selection that champions underrepresented voices, and showcases a diverse range of stories, experiences, and people.
Ishita Sharma
Ishita is a London-based film programmer and researcher focusing on feminism, post-structuralist philosophy, and social change. She is an MA Film Studies student at King’s College London, writing her thesis on intersectional cinema and the films of Celine Sciamma.
Ishita completed her BA at Queen Mary University of London with a study abroad year at the University of Toronto. Her work experience spans international and independent film festivals, including the BFI London Film Festival and London Breeze Film Festival, alongside film writing published by her university.
As a pre-selector for Women of the Lens, Ishita is privileged to contribute to a festival dedicated to championing the work of women of colour, fostering inclusivity and working to build a more egalitarian film community. She believes in the significant social and representational impacts a festival can have through its programming choices. Through her work with Women of the Lens, she hopes to support the discovery and amplification of unheard voices and films that embody the festival’s mission.
Stefany Prince
Hailing from the United States, Stefany is a versatile, multi-talented creative producer, music composer, musician, collaborator, and nationally-recognized singer/songwriter who spent a lifetime overcoming childhood trauma, creating works across genres to influence the mind and enhance moments that take you everywhere you want to go.
Starting on piano by ear before she could reach the pedals, winning a songwriting competition in middle school, and mastering violin to study and perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, music was divinely gifted to her at birth. She sang her gospel song, My Everything, which was selected for the 2025 Thomas Dorsey Convention of Gospel Choirs & Choruses in Atlanta, GA, sang the national anthem at a men’s college basketball game at the KFC YUM! Center, and performed at a private women’s retreat in the Caribbean in 2024.
A graduate of the Youth Performing Arts School, she currently mentors youth pursuing creative careers, speaks and writes on wellness and purpose, sings for church and events, loves photography, and gives to others what music is to her. With layered, intricate vocals and smooth voiceover, she breathes life into art. Whether it’s simple, beautiful classical melodies and dynamic operas, soul-stirring gospel and heartfelt music, cultural, or jazz, Stefany takes you on an impactful journey through human emotion.
0 Comments