Next-Gen Filmmakers Discuss Shaping the Future at Variety and Adobe Sundance Panel

At the “Shaping the Future – Voice of Next-Gen Filmmakers” event presented by Variety and Adobe at the Sundance Film Festival, a panel of up-and-coming filmmakers whose work has been supported and nurtured through Adobe’s creative programs sat down with Variety’s Angelique Jackson to discuss their creative processes. The group included Daniel Chavez, documentary editor of “American Pachuco”; Stephanie Ahn, writer and director of “Bedford Park”; Giselle Bonilla, director of “The Musical”; Anooya Swamy, director of “Pankaja”; and Vera Miao, writer and director of “Rock Springs.”

The panel spoke about their experiences making it to Sundance’s last festival in Park City, some of them newcomers to the scene. “This is my first Sundance, so I don’t know what to compare it to, but the energy and the magic here is incredible,” said Ahn. “We all know the Sundance legend and the support you get from this community, but you don’t really know it until you’re here.”

The group went on to discuss the short film community, which Bonilla referred to as “super tight.” “I’ve seen all of my closest friends make their movies and take risks. If they can do it, I can do it. It’s possible,” said the director, who added that she met many of her colleagues and friends through the Ignite mentorship program, calling it a “great launching pad for 18-to-25-year-olds.”

Like Bonilla, Chavez also received the 2025 Gloria Schoemann Editors Fellowship funded by Adobe and aimed towards Latinx editors.

“It just feels so empowering to be able to talk to people that are already in the industry that share your experiences. We need to get out of that impostor syndrome [mindset] because we have the talent, but it’s just a matter of believing in our work, especially as filmmakers of color,” he said.

The panel explored the filmmakers’ personal and cultural ties to their projects, with Ahn stating that many of the Asian American stories she saw at Sundance felt “very cliche” and eventually realized if she wanted a story that felt representative, she would have to create it herself. Similarly, Swamy, originally from Bangalore, India, wanted to depict her home the way she saw it in “Pankaja.”

“More often than not, a lot of these films about the poverty in India are super desaturated,” said Swamy. “I grew up around walls that are pink and orange, and I remember the memory of home in extreme saturation, and I just hadn’t seen that [in film].”

A fan of horror, Miao wanted to pay homage to the history of the first Chinese people in the United States, eventually coming across the story of the Rock Springs massacre, which would become the foundation of her film “Rock Springs.” Chavez also drew inspiration from history for “American Pachuco,” looking into the legend of Chicano filmmaker Luis Valez.

“I have a 5-year-old son who’s Mexican American, and I don’t want him to grow up in a country where he feels like a second-class citizen,” said Chavez. “Art is effective in changing mindsets and is an act of resistance. That’s why we need to keep doing what we do.”

A fellow Mexican-American, Bonilla said she sobbed throughout the premiere of “American Pachuco,” stating, “I was doing all of my stupid press all day yesterday, and then I learned that another person had been killed. It makes everything else feel like bullshit. It makes it really hard to do this kind of shit. It’s really inspiring that people are standing up for the community.”

Miao seconded Bonilla’s statements, saying, “I woke up yesterday morning to the news about another protestor shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis, and I was a wreck and had to get myself together to come to a panel about creativity and healing. Oftentimes, particularly in moments like we’re in now, [the situation] can be posed as a binary resistance or healing. I think storytelling, creativity, imagination, and art explodes that binary. It’s both at the same time. And the thing that I love most about making films.”