Team
Dana Harris-Bridson
Editor in Chief & Senior Vice President
Dana Harris-Bridson is a veteran journalist who has covered the entertainment industry for more than 25 years. She joined IndieWire as its editor in chief in 2012, and has overseen its growth from an indie film site to one that covers film and TV in all forms, and platforms, with a strong focus on issues relating to diversity and inclusion. You can follow her @TheKnife.
James Israel
Publisher & Senior Vice President
James Israel is the Publisher of IndieWire. He is responsible for all IndieWire revenue, overseeing advertising and sponsorship in addition to leading sales development and business strategies. Under his leadership, IndieWire has seen record revenue growth in the entertainment, consumer, awards, and event space. He began his career at IndieWire in 2001 as Managing Editor for IndieWire’s daily coverage of the Sundance Film Festival. Originally from South Carolina, James is based in Los Angeles.
Anne Thompson
Editor-at-Large
Born and raised in New York, IndieWire Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, the Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety and deputy editor of Variety.com, where her daily blog, Thompson on Hollywood, launched in March 2007. Anne was the Deputy Film Editor at the Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film-industry column “Risky Business” for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate. A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, she has taught film criticism at USC and hosted “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension. In 2014, HarperCollins published her book, “The $11 Billion Year: From Sundance to the Oscars, an Inside Look at the Changing Hollywood System.” Follow her @akstanwyck.
Kate Erbland
Editorial Director
Kate Erbland is the New York–based Editorial Director at IndieWire. She manages and directs all of IndieWire’s features and reviews teams (including film, TV, and awards), oversees editorial strategy on all fronts, leads the rollout of the site’s original stories, and writes and edits daily. Her award-winning work places a special emphasis on female filmmakers, in-depth interviews, and awards season coverage. She has worked at IndieWire since 2015. During her time at IndieWire, she has shaped the site’s coverage and strategy on everything from film festivals to interviews, shaped and guided the incredibly popular biannual IndieWire Honors ceremony and coverage, curated numerous packages (including robust end of the year efforts, ’90s Week, and other signature pieces), and somehow lived through six evenings spent backstage in the Oscar trenches.
Her previous work can be found at Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, The Dissolve, Vulture, New York Daily News, Mental Floss, amNY, MTV.com, Details.com, Film School Rejects, MSN Movies, Boxoffice Magazine, and Film.com. She has served on juries and nominating committees for the Gothams, the Critics Choice Awards, the Cinema Eye Honors, the SXSW Film and TV Festival, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, DOC NYC, the Sarasota Film Festival, the Nantucket Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest, among others. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Art History from Loyola Marymount University. She is a member of the NYFCC and the BFCA, and can frequently be found moderating panels and Q&As. Follow her @katerbland.
Christian Blauvelt
Digital Director
Christian Blauvelt is the Digital Director of IndieWire. In addition to managing IndieWire’s social and curation teams, he’s responsible for facilitating editorial-sales collaborations, analytics-based strategy, and broader organizational goals that reflect the overall site health. Blauvelt is a frequent presence on TV and is the author of the book “Cinematic Cities: The Big Apple on the Big Screen” about New York City’s history in movies for Hachette’s Running Press imprint and TCM, as well as “Hollywood Victory,” about the American film industry’s role in World War II. In 2021 he won a Southern California Journalism Award from the LA Press Club, and a National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award in 2023. Before joining IndieWire, he was Deputy Editor at BBC Culture. He’s given talks and led panels at South by Southwest and San Diego Comic-Con and has been a regular moderator of post-screening Q&As for BAFTA and SAG-AFTRA. Follow him at @Ctblauvelt.
Ryan Lattanzio
Executive Editor
Ryan Lattanzio is the Executive Editor for IndieWire, where he oversees all film features and festival coverage. He has written about film for more than 15 years, having previously served as IndieWire’s Deputy Film Editor (2024-2025), Deputing Managing Editor (2021-2023), and Weekend Editor (2019-2021), and, before that, Staff Writer/Editor for the IndieWire blog Thompson on Hollywood, covering festivals including Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance. He also served four years as Editor of Communications at the American Film Institute, supervising AFI’s editorial production and authoring donorship-oriented books on Diane Keaton, George Clooney, and John Williams. Previously, he wrote for Bay Area newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and SF Bay Guardian, and was The Daily Californian’s Film Critic. He holds a BA in English Literature. Follow him @ryanlattanzio.
Mary Pelloni
Executive Producer, Video
Mary Pelloni is the Executive Producer of Video for IndieWire and has been an integral part of the PMC family for several years. She has served as the showrunner and executive producer for The Hollywood Reporter’s “Golden Globes: The After Show” on Twitter and launched the digital series “Billboard News.” Additionally, she has produced Billboard’s Grammy pre-show specials, Billboard Women in Music specials, Billboard red carpet coverage, the Lexus-sponsored History of Hip Hop series, and the Latin Heritage Month special. She also executive produced and directed Billboard Latin Music Week.
Before joining the PMC family, Pelloni built a distinguished career as a television showrunner, executive producer, and director, known for her work in reality television and comedy. She earned a Gold Telly Award for her role in showrunning and directing the horror shock doc “The Curse of Lizzie Borden,” currently streaming on MAX, and has also produced BET’s “Curvy Style,” TLC’s “Secret Princes,” and “DC Cupcakes.” Pelloni is celebrated for creating the format for “Bridezillas.”
Beyond her extensive television work, which spans reality shows, documentaries, sketch comedy, stand up comedy specials and more, Pelloni’s film credits include executive producing the award-winning short film “Own The 8-Count,” recognized at Cannes and the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival. Her leadership continues to influence both television and film production.
Chris O’Falt
VP, Features Strategy
Chris O’Falt contributes to the site’s craft and special projects teams, and hosts the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. Previously, he covered the indie and doc film beat for The Hollywood Reporter. When he’s not writing about the innovation of today’s leading filmmakers, Chris is helping train the next (and hopefully more diverse) generation of filmmakers through a non-profit he co-founded in NYCHA’s Gowanus Houses. Follow @cofalt.
David Ehrlich
Reviews Editor and Chief Film Critic
David Ehrlich is the Reviews Editor and Chief Film Critic of IndieWire, where he oversees all of the site’s film reviews coverage. Previously, he worked as a Staff Writer at Rolling Stone, the Associate Film Editor of Time Out New York, the Editor-at-Large of Little White Lies Magazine, and the Senior Editor of Film.com. As a freelancer writer, he has contributed to Slate, Vanity Fair, the Guardian, the Dissolve, the A.V. Club, and other outlets. He co-hosts the Fighting in the War Room podcast, and his annual video countdowns of the year’s best films have been viewed more than 2 million times. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow @davidehrlich.
Marcus Jones
Awards Editor, TV & Film
Marcus Jones is the Awards Editor, TV & Film, at IndieWire. A Maryland native, Marcus started his writing career at New York Magazine, primarily working on projects for Vulture and The Cut. He has also held positions at BuzzFeed News and Entertainment Weekly, where he wrote cover stories, moderated panels, produced video content, and appeared on various podcasts. When he is not catching up on as many Emmy and Oscar contenders as possible, he is likely crafting the perfect lunch order. Follow Marcus @marcus_jones.
Ben Travers
TV Critic
Ben Travers is the TV Critic at IndieWire, where he writes reviews, covers the most prominent festivals, and provides extensive awards analysis related to today’s vital television projects. Prior to joining IndieWire, Ben served as an Assistant Editor of PopMatters for nearly five years, worked as a production assistant for Walt Disney Pictures, and copy-edited various publications. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Ben holds degrees in both journalism and cinema. Follow him @BenTTravers.
Christian Zilko
Senior Editor
Christian Zilko is IndieWire’s Los Angeles-based Senior Editor. A lifelong cinephile and sitcom junkie, he began his career as an editorial intern at IndieWire. He went on to work for JamBase, and held various positions in the music industry before returning to his roots in film. He holds a BFA from Emerson College. Follow him @TangledUpInNews
Jim Hemphill
Features Writer, Film
Jim Hemphill is an award-winning filmmaker and film historian who writes about filmmaking craft for IndieWire. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, American Cinematheque, and other festivals and venues, and his writing on cinema has appeared in American Cinematographer, Film Comment, Variety, Filmmaker Magazine, and elsewhere. He is the author of the book “The Art and Craft of TV Directing: Interviews With Episodic Television Directors,” and he has contributed scholarly audio commentaries to dozens of Blu-rays released by the British Film Institute, Kino Lorber, and other labels.
Sarah Shachat
Craft Editor
Sarah Shachat is a writer from New Orleans, now living in New York City. She is Craft Editor, where she looks at the artistic choices behind building great television series and films. She also helps produce the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast and other special projects.
Alison Foreman
Features Writer
Alison Foreman is a features writer for IndieWire. The D.C. native cut her teeth as a freelance political reporter at CNN: fact-checking the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election for live broadcast. She worked in New York City as a production assistant before joining Mashable as an entertainment journalist and film, TV, and games critic in 2018. Her reporting on the Black Lives Matter reassessment of police procedurals won Best Online TV Feature at the 2020 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, presented by the Los Angeles Press Club. She was nominated twice more in 2021. In 2022, Alison was briefly staffed as an Associate Editor at The A.V. Club, before joining IndieWire as its West Coast News and Curation Editor. She is a proud member of GALECA: The Society for LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, as well as the Writers Guild of America, East. Follow her @alfaforeman.
Wilson Chapman
Curation Editor
Wilson Chapman is Curation Editor for IndieWire, where he leads the site’s evergreen-content team. Wilson coordinates IndieWire’s best-of lists, explainers, guides, and more. He also helps with breaking news coverage for the site and contributes film reviews and analysis pieces. Prior to joining IndieWire full time in 2023, Wilson interned at Variety in 2022, where he worked as a news writer and later as part of the publication’s film team. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, graduating in 2020.
Brian Welk
Senior Reporter, Business
Brian Welk is the Senior Reporter for IndieWire’s business team, covering entertainment industry news and analysis along with festival and awards coverage, primarily focused on the movies. Prior to joining IndieWire, Welk spent six years at the Hollywood trade publication TheWrap, eventually working his way up to the role of Senior Film Reporter. In that time, he’s attended and covered the Oscars, Sundance, TIFF, SXSW, the Golden Globes and more. He’s also served as a moderator for industry panel discussions at SXSW and elsewhere and appeared as an expert on “Good Morning America,” BBC News, and for other outlets.
Trevor Wallace
Video Producer
Trevor Wallace is a video producer, director, and editor overseeing IndieWire’s craft video series such as Craft Considerations and Filmmaker’s Toolkit. To Trevor, making these videos about the artistry of movies honors his childhood binge watching DVD bonus features, which kicked off his own filmmaking journey. His credits include producing and editing the Austin Film Festival audience award winning horror film “CRAM” and is currently in pre-production on a feature film with Radical Rhinoceros Pictures. Trevor is a graduate of Wesleyan University with a major in Film Studies. He now resides in Queens, NY. Before moving to the Big Apple (NYC) he grew up in the Small Potato (Boise, Idaho) where he developed a lifelong love of backpacking and skiing.
Jordan Snyder
Social Media Producer
Jordan Snyder serves as IndieWire’s Social Media Producer. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Jordan began his career at The Gersh Agency and Peter Berg’s production company before spending over five years as creative producer to visual director and choreographer JaQuel Knight. In addition to developing film and television projects and crafting social strategy for the company, he worked in production across music videos, visual albums, and Super Bowl halftime shows — contributing to projects for Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, and more. Rooted in both storytelling and design, his work includes collaborations with global brands on social campaigns and crafting visual identities.
Grace Cornejo
Director of Events
Grace Cornejo is IndieWire’s Director of Events, currently living and working in Los Angeles (and is a rare Los Angeles born and raised native). A creative and strategic person by nature, she is a seasoned industry professional with over ten years of experience doing events that combine brand strategy with overall vision and a large sprinkle of fun and creativity. Her roster of accomplishments and notable events range a wide variety of experiential activations, consumer and B2B events, red carpet premieres, award shows, media centers, festivals and tours all over the globe (including, but not limited to notable premieres in London and India).
Alisa Sultan
Sales Manager
Alisa Sultan is the Sales Manager for IndieWire, responsible for pre-and post-sale management as well as growing revenue opportunities. Prior to joining IndieWire, Alisa was on the HBO/MAX account at Omnicom’s Hearts & Science, working on an extensive slate of titles such as Succession S3, The Last of Us, Peacemaker, Selena + Chef S4, 100 Foot Wave, The Staircase (a true crime enthusiast!) and more. Alongside working on HBO/Max’s tune-in campaigns, she has also worked on the FYC team during her time at the agency. A graduate of Wheaton College (MA), Alisa holds a BA in English Literature. During her free time, you can catch Alisa binging hours of reality TV, making homemade tomato soup and trying new workout classes all around the city! She currently lives in New York City.
Joshua De La Rosa Isaac
Associate Sales Manager
Josh is an Associate Sales Manager at IndieWire where he is involved with both digital media sales and live events. Previously, he has worked as an Inside Sales Associate with AEG, where he handled group and premium sales across a number of events and venues such as Crypto.com Arena, the Peacock Theater, and Dignity Health Sports Park. Josh also has experience working as a producer (and many other odd jobs) within independent film. A graduate of the University of Kentucky (Go Cats!), Josh holds a BBA in both Finance and Management. You’ll most likely catch Josh watching one of his favorite sports teams, skating along the beach, or enjoying one of the many street taco stands in the city during his free time.
*Portraits for Dana Harris-Bridson, James Israel, Anne Thompson, and Ben Travers were taken by photographer Daniel Bergeron.
