2025 NYWIFT Creative Workforce Summit: Creative Sustainability in the Age of AI

Join us for the 2025 NYWIFT Creative Workforce Summit focused on creating sustainable careers for women across the industry, with a spotlight on AI. 

We will bring together an audience of emerging and established creators from the filmmaking, journalism, science, and public policy communities, drawing on the experience of a variety of leaders whose work is rooted in supporting arts and culture as a career path. The day will feature keynote addresses by media and cultural thought-leaders and panels of filmmakers, funders, industry stakeholders, and experts in various fields, discussing AI through the lens of art, culture and the shifting nature of creative work.

Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025

Time: Program from 9:30am – 5:30pm ET

Location: WSA (161 Water Street, NY, NY 10038, corner of Water St & Fletcher St)

Tickets: NYWIFT Members:$25 / Non-members:$50

NYWIFT Platinum and Leadership Members attend for free!
(Discount is applied after login)

Admission fee includes a light breakfast and lunch!

 

Register

 

Become a member today to receive discounted access: email membership@nywift.org to join!

New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) is a nonprofit organization that energizes creators by illuminating their achievements, presenting training and professional development programs, awarding scholarships and grants, and providing access to a supportive community of peers. To learn more about NYWIFT and our programs, please visit www.nywift.org

 

Schedule and Speaker Bios:

Welcome Address:

Kim Jackson, NYWIFT Board President

Kim Jackson is a celebrated producer and creative as well as a pioneer in entertainment blockchain funding, development, and rights management. She is co-founder of the entertainment studio Evotion Media and has been active on several boards, including the ACE Programs for the Homeless, and The Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities at Simmons University. Jackson began her career working with Disney/Touchstone Television in Los Angeles and then relocated to her first love, New York City, where she founded Streetwise Pictures. Through Streetwise she provided production services and investor relations for numerous theatrical and streaming feature projects. Her work has received Gotham, Spirit, and NAACP Award nominations as well as the Grand Prize at the Deauville Film Festival. One of the films Jackson produced was selected for opening night at New Directors/New Films at MoMA. Her films have been featured in competition at Rotterdam, Sundance, and Cannes. Jackson is a member of the PGA and Producers Union and is proud to serve as the Chair of the Board of Directors for New York Women in Film & Television.

 

Cynthia Lopez, NYWIFT Chief Executive Officer

Cynthia López is an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs. Cynthia is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. Prior to working as Commissioner, Cynthia was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development for 14 years. Her ability to forge strategic partnerships among corporate and public interest media has been a signature of her work. Notable partnerships include: New York Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera Network, Discovery Communications, The Moth, Story Corps, Harpo Studios and ABC News, NIGHTLINE with Ted Koppel. Cynthia is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and is proud to have spent her career collaborating with independent filmmakers across all portions of the film and television industry. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center, NYC & Company, Museum of the Moving Image and the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund Advisory Board. Cynthia currently serves on the Board of Directors for Color Congress, Latino Public Broadcasting, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, and Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI).

 

AI in a Creative Process

For many of us film nerds, AI means HAL and Skynet, or M3GAN and Ex Machina – none of which are forces for good. But for today’s filmmakers, embracing AI tools can lead to a brighter, richer creative process. Join our panel of filmmakers and innovators as they discuss how this rapidly expanding technology is enhancing their creative process and expanding the possibilities, as well as where they think this powerful tool goes next. Your modern creative life doesn’t have to feel like the scariest episode of Black Mirror. Instead, it could be Big Hero 6.

Lorisa Bates is a veteran television and film industry executive with over 25 years of experience working at SHOWTIME and BET Networks, spanning the scheduling, licensing, operations, strategy and development arenas. As a successful content creator, negotiator, and business innovator, she has cultivated relationships with key stakeholders, developed new business opportunities and managed $80+ million-dollar budgets.
For BET, BET+ and BET her, she has greenlit 5 short film initiatives (The Couch, The Waiting Room, Juneteenth, The Lifeline and The Hotline), 4 television shows (Family Business, Family Business New Orleans, Black Hamptons, I Got A Story To Tell), 8 music specials (The Best of Soul Train) and 70+ original movies (Kemba, The Tonesa Welsh Story, Love and Murder: The Lance Herndon Story)
Lorisa, Founder & CEO of Batesville Media, believes in the power of storytelling to connect, transform and uplift. She focuses on relatable concepts that touch the hearts of a wide audience; character driven narratives showcasing profound personal growth and stories that inspire, challenge and spark meaningful conversations.

Lydia Chilton is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University. Her research focuses on human-centered AI — developing principles for combining the best of human and AI abilities to enhance design, innovation, and problem-solving. Projects include AI code synthesis for interactive app creation, interactive animation authoring, creating media for journalism, helping scientists communicate their work to the public, assisting farmers in adapting to climate change, and simulating human behavior to inform social policy decisions.

Cory Choy is a director, an Emmy Award-winning sound mixer, a producer, and the owner of Silver Sound in NYC. As someone who works across many mediums– film/television/video games/fine art/web– he is always exploring new tools and technologies. “AI” is a new category of software that, if wielded properly and ethically, has a lot of promise and potential to enable and accelerate creators’ work. Cory believes that effective, local, open source, non-cloud, implementation of AI tools is essential to the future of freedom of expression.

 

Mutale Nkonde (she/her/hers) is a researcher and policy advisor advocating for policies and practices that reduce the expression of algorithmic bias in the design, deployment and governance in AI systems used in public life.
Since 2020 she has been a member of US Tik Tok Content Advisory Council, advises their Responsible AI Team and assisted the Biden/Harris White House Public Sector engagement team to think through how to create national standards for AI.
She is frequently invited by UN mechanisms to think about the integration of AI at the community level and leads the shareholder activist work at AI for the People, the non profit she founded during the pandemic.
Mutale is pursuing a PhD at Cambridge University, has a BSc. (Hons) in Sociology from Leeds Metropolitan University, a Masters Degree from Columbia University. As well as formally holding fellowships at Harvard, Stanford and the Oxford Internet Institute.

S. Casper Wong (moderator) is an award-winning New York-based filmmaker, technology lawyer, and social entrepreneur with an interest in the convergence of technology, media and storytelling. Her documentary feature debut, The LuLu Sessions, has won 10 international awards and nominations in every major category, with a US broadcast on PBS’s America ReFramed Series and distributed worldwide. She is the Creator of the Peace Pod Project, a multi-media VR/AR/XR dedicated space for facilitating reconciliation between 2 people. She is a two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Screenwriting Grants, winner of the Humanitarian Award from the SASS Foundation for Medical Research, a New York State Council on the Arts Grantee and a Student Academy Award Nominee. She has directed and produced in China since 2005, including an integrative East-West Medicine project with UCLA, and served as the studio executive for Roger Corman’s first co-productions with China.

Prior to receiving her MFA from NYU in directing, Casper was Senior Attorney for IBM General Counsel in Silicon Valley, and is the first woman to receive a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. She is the Founder of Asian American Women Media Makers, and was a two term Board Director at New York Women in Film and Television, leading its Innovation Initiative. She is also a cartoonist and a reiki master.

 

Case Study: Spotlight on Leilanni Todd’s Surrealist Visions

Leilanni Todd is a creative director and digital artist with nearly two decades of experience across advertising, fashion, and emerging technology. She has led award-winning campaigns at agencies including Mother, Droga5, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, and Squarespace, creating work for Apple, Airbnb, Google, and The New York Times.

In 2022, she launched Floam World—a surreal cinematic universe where humor, absurdity, and visual excess collide. Her practice spans experimental film, digital fashion, 3D animation, and world-building. In 2024, her short AI film Everyone is Chair screened at the Tribeca Festival.

Her work has been recognized at major award shows including Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, and The Clios. In 2025, she received The One Show’s inaugural Gold Pencil as Creative AI Pioneer.

She is an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she teaches Generative AI for Virtual Production in the Master of Professional Studies program at the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center.

 

Is AI Coming for My Creative Job?

AI is here to stay – whether it’s ChatGPT, Zoom’s AI Companion, or Google’s AI Overview at the top of every search. So, will the robots eventually replace us? Employers, studios, and financiers are certainly hoping this faster, cheaper workforce tool will be able to produce winning content, but for now, AI still can’t write a joke (at least, not a funny one). A panel of labor experts, creatives, researchers, and industry leaders will discuss what AI can do, what it can’t do, and how to navigate your career in this brave new world.

Rebecca Damon is the Chief Labor Policy Officer and New York Local Executive Director for SAG-AFTRA. As part of the executive leadership team, Damon oversees the Labor Policy & International Affairs department and has oversight of the Locals outside of Los Angeles and New York. A champion for workers’ rights, Damon has advocated for a worker centered trade policy and protections for SAG-AFTRA members in a fast changing technological landscape and increasingly globalized creative industry. Damon’s leadership includes strengthening New York’s right of publicity and digital image rights for the benefit of all members. She has been recognized six years in a row as one of the most noteworthy figures on the front lines of New York by City and State Labor Power 100, and was named to the City and State 2023 and 2024 Power of Diversity: Women 100 list. She has also been recognized three years in a row by amNY Metro and Politics NY as a Labor Power Player. Additional awards include the LaborPress Leadership Award, Irish Echo Connecting America Award, the Leaders of Labor Award, the SAG-AFTRA George Heller Memorial Award gold card, and SAG-AFTRA New York Local’s Joseph C. Riley Award.
Damon served as executive vice president, the union’s second-highest elected national office, and also served as president of the New York Local. She is a fierce advocate for education and empowerment of performers nationwide. During her tenure as Screen Actors Guild New York Division Vice President, she was a founding member of both the SAG President’s Forum for One Union and the joint Group for One Union, helping lead the effort to unite SAG and AFTRA. As co-leader of the Operations Workgroup, Damon was a key architect of the merger.
Outside of SAG-AFTRA, Damon advocates for workers’ rights as a vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO Executive Council and a member of the New York City Central Labor Council. She is a member of the New York City Film and Television Production Industry Council advising on the city’s production policies and programs. She is on the board of PowHer NY, an inclusive statewide network committed to securing economic equality for all women. She is also a vice president of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, an educational, humanitarian and philanthropic nonprofit organization. As the primary liaison for Foundation programming in New York, she oversaw creation of the Robin Williams Center for Entertainment and Media in Times Square.

A.M. Homes is the author of thirteen books including, May We Be Forgiven, which won the UK Women’s Prize for Fiction and the internationally bestselling memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter. Her work has been translated into twenty-two languages and she writes frequently on the arts for publications such as Art Forum, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker and the New York Times. A writer/co-executive producer with David Kelly of Mr. Mercedes, and on USA’s Falling Water, Homes was a writer/producer of the original L Word, and penned the adaptation of her novel, Jack, for Showtime. She has created original television pilots for the major networks and streamers. Additionally, Homes is a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair, Bomb and Blind Spot. She is Professor of the Practice and Acting Director of the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University and lives in New York City.

Christina Karahalios is the Chief Financial and Operating Officer of the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in New York, where she oversees strategy, operations, and innovation for one of the world’s leading cultural institutions dedicated to film, television, and digital media. With over 25 years of experience across various NYC cultural institutions like the Guggenheim Museum, art galleries, and Museum of the Moving Image Christina has built a career at the intersection of art, finance, and transformative leadership. At MoMI, she is part of the team spearheading the launch of the Museum’s first Emerging Technology Lab — a pioneering, public-facing space where artists, students, and visitors can engage with AI, VR/AR, robotics, and other new tools to explore the future of storytelling. Christina frames AI as the “digital camera moment” of our time: not a replacement for creativity, but a powerful instrument to democratize content creation, turning productions that once required $25,000+ into projects achievable at $2,000.
She has led multimillion-dollar capital campaigns, overseen international projects including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and guided institutions through periods of growth and transformation. Christina also taught in the Art Market Master’s program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, is a member of CHIEF and the International Council of Museums, and serves as an investor with Angeles Investors, supporting promising Hispanic and Latinx ventures. A first-generation American of Colombian and Greek heritage, Christina is committed to inclusive communication and diverse representation in the arts and technology.

David Newhoff is a freelance writer and communications consultant with a background in film and video production. Since 2011, he has been an advocate for the rights of creators and is today a thought leader on U.S. copyright law and policy. He has written over 1,000 articles and produced podcasts, primarily on his blog The Illusion of More, which he launched in 2012 in collaboration with Copyright Alliance.
David’s work has been cited in the press, academia, in testimony before Congress, in one brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in all three U.S. Copyright Office reports on artificial intelligence. In 2020, David published the book Who Invented Oscar Wilde? The Photograph at the Center of Modern American Copyright, and in 2021, he co-founded RightsClick, a software suite designed to help independent creators manage their copyright rights.

Maria C. Miles (moderator) is the founder of an entertainment law practice with offices in New York. Maria’s practice focuses on all areas of entertainment law including, film (narrative and documentary), music, literary publishing, and digital media. She has represented award-winning producers, directors, writers, actors, television hosts, multi-platinum recording artists, and corporations in the fashion and sports industries related to their entertainment matters. Maria is the Executive Director of the Hellenic Films Society, USA, and served as Secretary of the board of New York Women in Film & Television. She continues to serve NYWIFT as their legal counsel. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, The School for Visual Arts and Adjunct Instructor at NYU Tish School of the Arts.

 

Storytelling in a New Reality

When culture changes, we look to creatives to articulate and document the moment. AI is that next great cultural shift. So, how do we tell this complex, dynamic, and fast-moving story? How can we educate the public about AI while still maintaining truth in an era when it’s challenging to separate fact from fiction? Documentaries continue to be the most direct path to informal STEM education, but, like all good docs, those exploring AI require a point of view. This panel of nonfiction filmmakers and museum curators will discuss how best to address the wonders and dangers of emerging technologies.

Dorothy Bennett is NYSCI’s Director of Creative Pedagogy, leading research and development efforts to create inclusive museum design activities, digital tools, participatory exhibit experiences, and educational programs centered on computational thinking, human-centered engineering, and creative science learning. Drawing on decades of work with EDC’s Center for Children and Technology, Bank Street College of Education, and Sesame Workshop, her passion continues to focus on how to promote children and families’ agency as designers and shapers of their world through empathic design, making, and play. She is currently leading National Science Foundation efforts at NYSCI to develop human-centered approaches to AI literacy through collaborative work with museums and formal and informal institutions nationwide. Her most recent efforts have been leading the development of AI literacy and youth co-design experiences as official outreach partner for the NSF-funded National Center for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI) at Columbia University.

Theresa Loong is an award-winning director and producer who creates film, games and large-scale interactive experiences using emerging technology. She directed NOVA’s Building Stuff: Change It! and produced games for AMC’s The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. Theresa is directing Game On, a documentary featuring game designer Brenda Romero and Bought/Broken, a VR experience about healing. She produced physical installations, AR/VR/MR games and digital experiences for M+ museum, the New York Hall of Science, and the Tech Museum of Innovation. Theresa was an Oculus Launch Pad and Flaherty Fellow. She exhibited work at SXSW, Galway Film Fleadh and the National Gallery of Art, and received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the SEGD and the American Alliance of Museums. She was an artist-in-residence with the National Park Service on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Theresa graduated from Harvard, received an MFA from Hunter, and teaches in the Integrated Design Program at Parsons.

Michaela A. Ternasky-Holland is a Peabody-nominated and Emmy award-winning director who specializes in creating impactful stories using immersive and interactive technology. She is one of the first directors to create and premiere a short film utilizing Open AI’s SORA platform, which screened at Tribeca Festival. Her first original animated series garnered over 2.2 million views on Youtube within a month of release. As a nominee for the Producers Guild of America’s Innovation Award, she is also a consultant, speaker, and thought leader, who has been recognized as one of the 100 Original Voices of XR and listed as one of Blooloop’s 50 Immersive Influencers.

Maria Agui Carter (moderator) is an award-winning filmmaker and Emerson College Professor at the School of Film and TV, integrating virtual production and emerging technologies such as AI. She’s currently writing and directing the BIRTHRIGHT documentary, a road film about belonging in America supported by NEH and Concordia Studio. Her feature script, SECRET LIFE OF LA MARIPOSA, based on her experience growing up undocumented, was supported by a Sundance lab and is in development. A former staff producer for WGBH Boston’s national productions, her films and series have screened worldwide. Her feature documentary hybrid film REBEL, now on Amazon Prime, won an Erik Barnouw award for best historical films in America. She also served as a director and production advisor on the SCIGIRLS series that received an Emmy nomination. Most recently she directed ROOTED IN JUSTICE, on Waterbear, and was a writer for COLLECTIVE WISDOM; Co-Creating Media for Equity and Justice, published in 2023 by Penguin/Random House. She’s on the Executive Committee of IDA (International Documentary Association) and is a co-founder of the Latine Salon at WGAE (Writers Guild of America, East).

 

Keynote Conversation with Jane Rosenthal (Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Producer, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises)

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” AI is providing behind-the-scenes wizardry that brings films—both new and old—to life. Oscar- and Emmy-nominated producer, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, and two-time NYWIFT Muse Honoree Jane Rosenthal has long been a pioneer in new storytelling formats. The Tribeca Festival, founded in 2001, has consistently been at the forefront of innovation—embracing emerging technologies and championing new modes of storytelling. Now, Rosenthal brings the beloved classic The Wizard of Oz to Sphere in Las Vegas, offering an immersive 4D entertainment experience that incorporates AI to enhance the film for an all-new environment.

In this keynote conversation, Rosenthal will discuss how Tribeca continues to celebrate and incubate the latest technologies, how the creatives behind The Wizard of Oz employed artificial intelligence to thoughtfully augment the movie for modern audiences, and what she sees for the future of content creation.

Jane Rosenthal is an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated producer and the co-founder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, the global media and entertainment company that includes the Tribeca Festival, Tribeca Studios, Tribeca Films, and award-winning production company m ss ng p eces.

With over 50 producing credits, Rosenthal has brought groundbreaking, culturally resonant stories to the screen, including The Irishman (dir. Martin Scorsese), When They See Us (dir. Ava DuVernay), Oscar-winning global hit Bohemian Rhapsody, and the Grammy Award-winning documentary Quincy. She also produced the blockbuster Meet the Parents franchise and has theater credits including Broadway’s A Bronx Tale: The Musical and We Will Rock You. Upcoming projects include the holiday comedy Oh. What. Fun (dir. Michael Showalter) and the fourth installment of Meet the Parents with the original cast.

A pioneer in emerging storytelling formats, Rosenthal is at the forefront of developing original experiential content for Sphere in Las Vegas, including executive producing Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth and The Wizard of Oz.

Beyond producing, Rosenthal has had a transformative impact on the cultural landscape. In 2001, following 9/11, she established the Tribeca Festival with Robert De Niro to revitalize New York City. Since then, it has contributed over $1 billion in economic impact and championed storytelling across film, TV, music, podcasts, games, and immersive experiences. For more than two decades, Rosenthal has been an advocate of emerging and underrepresented voices. Through the annual Tribeca Festival and its artist development programs, she has mentored thousands of storytellers, helping to support and showcase new talent.

A dedicated humanitarian, Rosenthal serves on the boards of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Global Citizen, JR’s Can Art Change the World, Child Mind Institute, Casa Komos Brand Group, and interactive media company Eko.

 

 

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The NYWIFT Creative Workforce Summit is supported by: