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Talkhouse

Cinqué Lee’s latest film as writer-director, the coming-of-age thriller <a href="https://www.quiverdistribution.com/copy-of-slate/last-ride" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Last Ride</a>, is now available on digital. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lee is a highly accomplished filmmaker and storyteller with over 35 years of experience in independent and narrative cinema. Renowned for a unique creative voice that explores complex human relationships and gritty urban narratives, Lee has defined his career through high-level artistic exchanges with a diverse roster of icons, including Joe Strummer, Iggy Pop, Paddy McAloon, Screamin&#8217; Jay Hawkins, Matthew Barney, Tim Pope, Todd Oldham, and Jim Jarmusch. A versatile artist with deep technical and creative expertise, Lee is a prolific writer of feature films and shorts focusing on authentic dialogue and expert narrative pacing.

Cinqué Lee

Film

A Rare Alignment of Friendship: Notes on Last Ride

Siyou Tan is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker originally from Singapore. Siyou’s short films Cold Cut (2024), Strawberry Cheesecake (2021) and Hello Ahma (2019) premiered at festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto, Locarno, among others. She is an alumna of Berlinale’s Talents Tokyo, Busan’s Asian Film Academy and Universal’s Director Initiative. She studied film and art at Wesleyan University, before going on to a directing fellowship at the American Film Institute. Her debut feature film, <a href="https://tiff.net/films/amoeba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amoeba</a>, has its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9. (Photograph by Danielle Krudy.)

Siyou Tan

2gether forever and frenz 4lyf

Sarah Kambe Holland is a film director based in Los Angeles. She is best known for her debut feature, <a href="https://eggheadandtwinkie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Egghead &amp; Twinkie</a>, which she directed, wrote, co-produced and co-edited. The film, which won the Jury Award for Best Comedy Feature at the 2023 Austin Film Festival, is out now on digital. Holland also directs commercial work for the advertising agency, 21GRAMS. She specializes in branded video content for social media, relying on her background as a YouTuber and TikTok creator. In 2020, Holland developed a viral TikTok campaign to raise funds for Egghead &amp; Twinkie, amassing millions of views and growing the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@eggheadtwinkiefilm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@eggheadtwinkiefilm</a> account to more than 250,000 followers. Holland loves working with emerging talent and developing multi-faceted characters, with a passion for telling queer and Asian American stories. She is currently writing her second feature.

Sarah Kambe Holland

Seeing Myself in Egghead & Twinkie

Gabby Kono-Abdy produced and costars in the romantic drama <a href="https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/wish-you-were-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wish You Were Here</a>, the directorial debut of Julia Stiles starring Mena Massoud, Isabelle Fuhrman and Kelsey Grammer, which is out now through Lionsgate. She is a bicoastal actress who has appeared in series such as Law &amp; Order: SVU, iCarly and Big Time Rush and has roles in such movies as Nighthawks, opposite Chace Crawford, and Agent Game, starring Mel Gibson and Dermot Mulroney. Gabby was the star and lead producer of Baker’s Dozen, a romantic comedic mini-series that premiered on Amazon Prime, and currently is working on several other producing projects with Universal, Lionsgate, and several independent production companies. Gabby recently publicly launched her production company, Little Fishy Films, which has optioned the rights to several bestselling novels and scripts, where various projects are currently in development. Gabby’s mission is to unearth the amazing books and authors who are currently flying under the radar. (Photo by Emma Silke.)

Gabby Kono-Abdy

From New Girl to Bookworm: How High School Loneliness Sparked My Love for Storytelling

Phoebe Nir is the writer-director of the new film Eco Village, starring Sidney Flanigan, Alex Breaux and Lindsay Burdge, which will premiere at the <a href="https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2024/films/eco-village" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam</a> on February 1. She holds a BA from Brown University in Writing for Performance and an MA in Drama Therapy from New York University. Her work in musical theater has been showcased in New York City at Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s 54 Below, LaMaMa Theater, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. As a singer-songwriter, she released two critically acclaimed EPs –Side Hustle and Red Tape Nation – and opened for the Modern English and James Chance &amp; the Contortions at SXSW. Find her @phoebe_devere on TikTok and YouTube to learn more about Oxfordianism, the theory that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the works of William Shakespeare under a penname.

Phoebe Nir

What Dreams Are Made Of: On Lizzie McGuire and the Sexual Innocence of Early 2000s Cinema

Nathan Willett formed Cold War Kids in 2004. Writing, recording, touring and performing has consumed him ever since.

Nathan Willett

The Lying Life of Adults, a Coming-of-Age Story Turned on Its Head

Ryan Spahn is an actor, filmmaker and writer. He has been published by Rotten Tomatoes, Metro Weekly, USA Today, IntoMore, and American Theatre Magazine. As an actor, he can be seen in American Horror Story, Succession, The Bite, Chicago P.D., and Modern Love. Ryan is a graduate of Juilliard and is based in New York City. Go <a href="https://linktr.ee/RyanSpahn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for more info.

Ryan Spahn

How Reality Bites (and My Friend Sadie Grossman) Made Me the Actor I Am Today

28-year-old Los Angeles native Will Wiesenfeld has been making records for over 10 years, and describes his music as “electronic music from a songwriting perspective.” His new record as Baths is called Romaplasm, out now on Anticon Records.

adolescence