CREATIVE TEAM
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Paul Bronisław Kmiec
Paul is an award-winning filmmaker and educator, terminally in love with Central Coast and Northern California. Paul is an alum of SCFF, having won Best Short Film in 2013 for his film Magi, when he was 21. He earned his BFA in Filmmaking from the SUNY Purchase Film Conservatory in New York and his Master's in Film & Television from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is the resident Acting for Film Instructor at the International Theatre & Dance Project in Greece and serves as a judge for the San Francisco Greek Film Festival. Paul has written and directed six short films; each of his films have screened and won awards at festivals nationwide and abroad. Paul is currently producing a feature film in NYC starring Alec Baldwin and Karen Allen. The film is the first place winning screenplay of the Golden Script Competition (2023) and a two-time semi-finalist at the Sundance Institute Writer’s Lab.
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Paul has over 15 years in arts education including designing and leading the pre-college filmmaking institute at Purchase College for six years. He has Guest Lectured at the University of Amherst, Massachusetts and at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in NYC. Additionally, Paul has redesigned the summer film institute at Education Unlimited, which he directed at Stanford and UC Berkeley. He is also a Co-Founder and the Admissions Director for 48 Hills, 24 Frames, an innovative film institute in San Francisco, designed by the filmmakers behind the 2019 film, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Alanna Lee Nickles
Alanna Lee Nickles is a Cinematographer, Gaffer, and Experimental Film Artist from Charleston, South Carolina and holds a BFA in Film Production from Emerson College with a focus in Cinematography. In 2021, she began working as a video producer in the corporate sector for the global film equipment retailer B&H in NYC, before pivoting to freelance commercial and indie film production. Active in NYC, San Francisco, and the Southeast, her commercial clients include Dior, Fendi, The Juilliard School, Boeing, and Mercedes-Benz.
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Alanna has contributed to numerous award-winning short and feature films that have screened at renowned festivals including Sundance, NZIFF, and The Armory Show. She has also installed numerous analog-based experimental solo shows in Boston and NYC galleries.
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Currently, she is producing an art-house video game for NYC based indie game developer SoftEthix, co-founded and oversees the Tokyo based Numanohashi Artist Residency, and is an active member of the Black Hole Film Lab in Oakland. She also continues to teach traditional and experimental film production workshops in the Greater Monterey Bay Area.
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PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR
Logan Walker
Logan Walker has proudly served as the Santa Cruz Film Festival’s Director of Programming since 2014, overseeing film selection and scheduling.
In addition to his work with the Santa Cruz Film Festival, Logan curates the Dante Alighieri Society of Santa Cruz’s series of contemporary and classic Italian cinema. He is a frequent guest speaker at film screenings and festivals, including the Scotts Valley Hitchcock Festival, and is a published author on integrating film festival studies into university pedagogy.
Logan is a lecturer in film studies at UC Santa Cruz and San José State University, where he teaches courses on film analysis, film history, and media theory. He holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Emory University and an M.A. in History of Consciousness from the UC Santa Cruz.
