Transgender and non-binary filmmakers

Lana Wachowski and her sister Lilly Wachowski, also known as the Wachowskis, are the duo behind such ground-breaking movies as The Matrix (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2012). Born to mother Lynne, a nurse, and father Ron, a businessman of Polish descent, Wachowski grew up in Chicago and formed a tight creative relationship with her sister Lilly. After the siblings dropped out of college, they started a construction business and wrote screenplays. Their 1995 script, Assassins (1995), was made into a movie, leading to a Warner Bros contract. After that time, the Wachowskis devoted themselves to their movie careers. In 2012, during interviews for Cloud Atlas and in her acceptance speech for the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award, Lana spoke about her experience of being a transgender woman, sacrificing her much cherished anonymity out of a sense of responsibility. Lana is known to be extremely well-read, loves comic books and exploring ideas of imaginary worlds, and was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in creating Cloud Atlas.

Director, writer, and producer Lilly Wachowski was born in 1967 in Chicago, the daughter of Lynne, a nurse and painter, and Ron, a businessman. Lilly was educated at Kellogg Elementary School in Chicago, before moving on to Whitney M. Young High School. After graduating from high school, she attended Emerson College in Boston but dropped out.

Lilly teamed up with her older sibling, Lana Wachowski, and began working on films. Their first script was optioned and formed the basis for the film Assassins (1995). The Wachowskis went on to make their directorial debut with the self-written Bound (1996), which was well-received. They followed this with the smash hit The Matrix (1999) and went on to produce two successful sequels, The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003).

Other projects include scripting and producing the cult hit V for Vendetta (2005), a live-action version of a Japanese anime series; Speed Racer (2008); Cloud Atlas (2012); and the ambitious epic Jupiter Ascending (2015).

Janet Mock is a writer, director and executive producer for the FX series "Pose" and the Netflix limited series "Hollywood." She's also the New York Times bestselling and trailblazing author of two memoirs, Redefining Realness (2014) and Surpassing Certainty (2017) about her journey as a trans woman.

Janet has received Harvard University's Artist of the Year Award in 2019 and was named on of The Hollywood Reporter's "Women in Entertainment Power 100" and included on Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" list -- adding to her Peabody Award, Television Academy Honors, two AFI Awards and Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for "Pose."

Onscreen, she appeared in Jay-Z's music video for "Family Feud," directed by Ava DuVernay, and guest-starred in Alex Garland's FX on Hulu limited series, DEVS. She will make her feature directorial debut with the Sammy Davis-Kim Novak film, "Scandalous." She lives and writes in New York City.

Silas Howard is an award-winning feature film, documentary film, music video, web series and television director and writer, with a longtime focus in telling honest, boundary-shattering narratives filled with groundbreaking characters. His career took off in 2001, when his first feature film, By Hook or By Crook premiered at Sundance Film Festival, ultimately winning Howard five Best Feature awards across the festival circuit. Howard has since directed and written award-winning feature films, documentaries, musical videos, web series and television episodes. Recent television credits include Transparent, The Fosters, Faking It, Hudson Valley Ballers, and NBC's upcoming series This Is Us.

What's next for Silas Howard? San Francisco Film Society, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, has awarded Howard their 2015 Filmmaking Grant, to produce his newest feature film, The Lusty, about the world's first exotic dancers' union.

Silas Howard received his MFA at UCLA in directing and is a Film Independent Directors Lab Fellow, Nantucket Screenwriting Colony Fellow, the 2014-15 Arthur Levitt Fellow at Williams College and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow.

Yance Ford is an Oscar nominated director and producer based in New York City. His debut film Strong Island won the 2017 Sundance U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and the Black Film Critics Circle Award for Best Doc. Strong Island was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards, where Ford made history as the first transgender director nominated for an Oscar. Strong Island won the Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Film and was nominated for a George Foster Peabody Award.

At the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors, Ford became the first nominee ever to win Best Direction, Best Debut, and Best Feature.

His work can be seen in the FX series Pride, the Netflix series Trial by Media, the Apple+ series The Me You Can't See, the Showtime comedy Work In Progress, and the documentary The Color of Care on The Smithsonian Channel. Ford was a staff writer in the HBO mini-room for adapting the bestselling novel The Vanishing Half.

Yance is a former Series Producer at the documentary anthology series POV where, during his tenure with the series, his curatorial work at POV garnered 5 Emmy Awards and 16 Emmy nominations.

Ford is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and Sundance Institute Fellow and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019. His work has been supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Creative Capital, Cinereach, The Ford Foundation, and others.

Ford is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America. His next feature film is a Netflix Original documentary set for release in 2023.

Jake Graf is a London based actor, writer and director who has been creating his own content since 2011. Working independently, Jake has developed a wealth of experience in all aspects of filmmaking, and his extensive catalogue of self-auteured work over that time is testament to his passion and determination. He is a creative and performance-driven director with an excellent eye for detail and knowledge and experience of all stages of the filmmaking process.

His first 9 films have screened at over 100 festivals and won in excess of 60 awards internationally, including 4 consecutive nominations at the Iris Prize Film Festival. All have been used as educational resources in schools, prisons and universities worldwide.

First feature film 'Lavender' is in development with BAFTA nominated MisFits Entertainment ('McQueen', 'Alleycats'). Jake aims to elicit acceptance and understanding through the medium of film and is developing two television drama pilots with strong LGBTQ themes.

Recent roles include ITV's 'Butterfly', DBO's 'Different For Girls' and opposite Keira Knightley in feature film 'Colette'.

He is a patron for Mermaids, AKT and Ditch The Label and a judge for the European Diversity Awards, The Rainbow Honours and the National Diversity Awards.

Selene Kapsaski is a writer, film director, and actress living in Manchester, England. Selene is the director of the cult Horror Musical Spidarlings (2016) released by Troma Entertainment and the upcoming Sci-Fi Film The Moon Is a Hologram.

Selene is the director and a co-creator of the US TV show London Calling (2015) presented by Jeff Kristian. She directed the award winning short film My Head Hurts (2000) as well as several music videos and theatre plays. Selene directed the documentary Laganja's Dance School (2019) featuring RuPaul's Drag Race star Laganja Estranja. Selene also directed a segment for the erotic film anthology Films Confiscated from a French Brothel (2021).

Selene's debut novella 'Nazi Sniper' was published in 2015 by Sleazy Viking Press. She wrote the supernatural horror novel Sisters of Manchester (2021) with pulp author Jeff O'Brien and the mystery thriller To Hell or High Water (2025) with Beth Warburton.

Selene studied Film at the New York Film School, Athens and Sound Engineering at the City of Westminster College. She worked as a production assistant on Dario Argento's Giallo (2009). For several years Selene worked and toured with the theatre ensemble Act Provocateur International. Previous directorial works in theatre include staging 'That Abortion Play' by controversial playwright Greg Moulder (T-Decadence). Selene has also occasionally acted in plays including portraying the role of Ian Brady in an adaptation of Fassbinder's 'Pre-Paradise Sorry Now' (2006). Her writing has appeared in Art Decades, Weng's Chop, Black Giraffe Quarterly (Dynatox Ministries), Mass Movement Magazine, TransLiving Magazine, Scene4 Magazine and Filmrage. Selene also edited and published a xerox-zine called In Punk We Trust Inc.

Selene Kapsaski publicly came out as a trans woman in 2019.

Kimberly Reed is known for Dark Money (2018), Prodigal Sons (2008) and Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr (2024).

Sydney Freeland was born on 29 October 1980 in Gallup, New Mexico, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Drunktown's Finest (2014), Reservation Dogs (2021) and Rez Ball (2024).

Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, cultural producer, and trans woman who breaks down the way we think about gender, sexuality, and seeing. She has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMA PS1, Hammer Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA San Diego, and SF MoMA, among others. Drucker is an Emmy-nominated Producer for the docu-series "This Is Me", as well as a Producer on Golden Globe and Emmy-winning "Transparent".

Rhys Ernst was born on 14 October 1982 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Adam (2019), The Thing (2011) and Transparent (2014).

Ro Haber is known for Ink (2016), New Deep South: House of JXN (2017) and Jellyfish. (2014).

Sam Feder is a Peabody Award nominated film director. Cited by Indiewire as one of the "exciting trans filmmakers shaking up Hollywood", Sam's films explore the intersection of visibility and politics along the lines of race, class, and gender. Sam's filmmaking practice models inclusion and equity in the industry.

Sam's films have been programmed by Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, CPH:DOX, MOMA PS-1, The British Film Institute, The Hammer Museum, and in hundreds of film festivals around the world. The Netflix Original Documentary, DISCLOSURE (Sundance, 2020) is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. KATE BORNSTEIN IS A QUEER AND PLEASANT DANGER (2014), a portrait of trans icon Kate Bornstein, was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by The Advocate, won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and multiple best feature film awards. Sam's work has been supported by Ford/JustFilms, Fork Films, California Humanities, The Jerome Foundation, Perspective Fund, Threshold, IFP Film Week, Good Pitch USA/Doc Society, MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo artist residency.

Andrea James was born on 16 January 1967 in the USA. She is a producer and director, known for Transproofed (2009), Transamerica (2005) and Casting Pearls (2007).

Paper Magazine said it best: " Somewhere between the faded pastels and grainy VHS footage of the '80s and the neo-Dada internet iconoclasm of today lies Dylan Mars Greenberg." Greenberg got an early foothold into the art world; by the time she was 15 she was performing in East Village clubs and dive bars, releasing a full length synth pop album as "Disck" and ending up with a photo spread in NY Times Magazine. When she was 17, she directed her first feature film "Glamarus', produced by veteran art film director and actor Scott Shaw. She followed this with her art-horror film Wakers and then almost immediately began production on another film called Dark Prism, which ended up generating massive press attention in Pitchfork, NME, Flavorwire, SPIN. and the AV Club. Since then she has directed several more feature films and works professionally as a music video director, her work appearing in Rolling Stone, HuffPost, BrooklynVegan Alt Press and European national television. Greenberg's style has been compared to Andy Warhol's factory, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, John Waters, Ryan Trecartin, and David Lynch. She has worked with major figures in the entertainment industry such as Golden Globe winner Michael C. Hall, Mac DeMarco, hip hop legend Schooly D and Matt Katz-Bohen, underground art icons like Lloyd Kaufman, Reverend Jen, and Robert Prichard, and up and coming young people such as Kansas Bowling, Sofe Cote, Blessing C.S., Yolpie Kaiser, Chandani Smith, and Max Husten. Her upcoming feature film Spirit Riser, featuring Michael Madsen, Cherie Currie, Patti Harrison, Dorian Electra and Kate Bornstein, releases soon.

Emmett Jack Lundberg was born on 8 January 1984 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Premium Rush (2012), The Other Guys (2010) and Deception (2008).

Harper Shecter was born and raised in metro Detroit and is a multi-award winning Producer. Her credits include "Five Windows", "The Dark Below" and "Within".

She has been active in film production since 2007. Harper is inspired by her peers in the Michigan film scene and happy to be part of a growing community. Harper is a dedicated Producer whose quick problem solving and endless dedication always gets results.

Harper is just getting started and looking forward to growing in her position and perfecting her art. She works tirelessly in her field and enjoys the unity of the film community.

Ariel Mahler is known for Evan Ever After (2023), Flock (2020) and Death and Bowling (2021).

Joey Soloway was born on September 26, 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. They are a producer and writer, known for Transparent (2014), Six Feet Under (2001) and United States of Tara (2009). They were previously married to Bruce Gilbert, and for writing and directing the feature Afternoon Delight (2013) which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. They have also written two non-fiction books: Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants: Based on a True Story (2005) and She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy (2018).

Reina Gossett is known for Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2017), Mudbound (2017) and Salacia (2019).

Chase Joynt is a non-fiction filmmaker and writer who works at the edges of genre. His documentary feature, Framing Agnes, was named a Best Movie of the Year by The New Yorker after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. The film has played more than 100 festivals internationally and is distributed by Kino Lorber. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed No Ordinary Man, which was presented at Cannes Docs as part of the Canadian Showcase of Docs-in-Progress. Since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, No Ordinary Man has been hailed by The New Yorker as "a genre unto itself" and Indiewire as "the future of trans cinema." The film has won 9 awards on the international festival circuit, including being named to TIFF Canada's Top Ten. For the CW, Chase directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories which are now streaming on Netflix; his episode Elliot from Season 2 won a Telly Award for directing in 2022. He is the co-author of two non-fiction books: the Lambda Literary Award Finalist You Only Live Twice with Mike Hoolboom and Boys Don't Cry with Morgan M Page. At present, Chase is in post production on The Nest, a feature documentary made in collaboration with Julietta Singh, and his next book Vantage Points is forthcoming in Fall 2024 from Arsenal Pulp Press. With Samantha Curley, he runs Level Ground Productions in Los Angeles.

Antonio Yee is known for 3 Verses (2016), Ascension (2018) and Pandora (2016).

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli is known for So Pretty (2019), Marriage Story (2020) and Empathy (2016).

Passionate about storytelling from a young age, Ashley established herself as a filmmaker to watch after crowdfunding two short films. Elijah the Prophet, starring Art Hindle (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) & Melanie Nicholls-King (The Wire) raised over $20,000 on Kickstarter, was named one of the Top 100 International Short Films of 2013 by YoungCuts, and was broadcast on CBC.

The second film, Interview With a Time Traveler, raised 163% of its Kickstarter goal, and stars Eric Johnson (The Knick, Fifty Shades Darker) & Elias Toufexis (Bitten, Smallville). Foregoing a festival run, Ashley opted for an online release. The film has been viewed over 95,000 times [as of 02/2017] and has received praise from sites such as Film School Rejects, Short of the Week, Screen Rant, and First Showing.

Faraz Arif Ansari is known for Sisak (2017), Sheer Qorma (2021) and Bun Tikki (2025).