2026

IVY FILM

FESTIVAL

April 13th — 19th

  • Held annually since 2001 in a week-long April event, Ivy Film Festival has grown to become the largest student-run film festival in the world. Festival week features advanced screenings of feature films, panels, keynotes, workshops, and masterclasses with some of the most highly regarded professionals in the industry, culminating with the Official Selection of short student films, screenplays, and virtual reality experiences. In 2016, Ivy Film Festival expanded its reach to partner with dozens of universities across the world through its Satellite Film Festival, bringing its world-renowned Official Selection to audiences throughout the globe.

MON4/13
TUE4/14
WED4/15
THU4/16
FRI4/17
SAT4/18
SUN4/19

MONDAY 4/13

11:00AM Information Center

Main Green (merch, filmmaker registration)

7:00PM Escape Screening

Granoff Martinos Auditorium

SCREENINGS

SPEAKERS

BEN SHATTUCK

  • Ben Shattuck's most recent book, The History of Sound (Viking, 2024) was the recipient of the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the Story Prize Spotlight Award, and was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His film adaptation of the title story premiered at the 2025 Cannes film festival. His first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (Tin House, 2022), was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Bestseller, and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is a recipient of the PEN Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Pushcart Prize. He spends time between Brooklyn and coastal Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. 

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BOOTS RILEY

  • Boots Riley is a filmmaker, activist, screenwriter, producer, poet, rapper, and speaker.

    Boots Riley’s directorial debut SORRY TO BOTHER YOU premiered to strong critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival. By embedding messages regarding economic and class critique as well as politically progressive movement building into dystopian science fiction satire, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU brought issues surrounding income inequality into wide public discussion.

    His seven-part series I’M A VIRGO released in summer 2023 to critical acclaim. The absurdist comedy about a 13ft tall Black man who lives in Oakland, California stars Jharrel Jerome (who won an Emmy for his role in Ava DuVernay’s WHEN THEY SEE US), Brett Gray, Walton Goggins, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Kara Young, Olivia Washington, and Allius Barnes with a score by Tuneyards.

    Boots Riley is also is the founding member and lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club featuring Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine on guitar.

    A dedicated community based activist, Boots was deeply involved with the Occupy Oakland movement and was one of the leaders of the activist group The Young Comrades.

    He is the author of the critically acclaimed collection of essays “Tell Homeland Security-We Are the Bomb” (Haymarket Books).

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SHOMI PATWARY

  • Shomi Patwary is a filmmaker, creative director, and co-founder of Illusive Media, a global production studio grounded in design, culture, and storytelling. He began his career during the early development of the internet, initially establishing Illusive as a web design studio before expanding it into a comprehensive creative production house. Patwary’s filmmaking is characterized by instinct, refined visual technique, and a strong engagement with culture, resulting in a diverse portfolio that includes commercial campaigns, documentaries, fashion and lifestyle content, music videos, and film and television projects.

    For more than twenty-five years, Patwary has guided Illusive Media through sustained growth and adaptation, collaborating with producer Punom Patwary to develop a multidisciplinary studio with international influence. His projects have collectively amassed over two billion views on YouTube and have received recognition at major festivals and award platforms.

    Patwary has directed and produced projects for numerous prominent artists, including Beyoncé, A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd, Diplo, Shah Rukh Khan, Kevin Hart, and Mark Ronson. His commercial work encompasses campaigns for leading global brands such as Google, Facebook, UPS, Rolex, Adidas, Pepsi, Disney, and the NBA. His professional engagements have spanned the United States and international locations such as Jamaica, France, and Bangladesh.

    Through Illusive Media, Patwary continues to produce work that demonstrates a commitment to storytelling, cultural relevance, and visual impact, furthering a legacy characterized by consistency, innovation, and engagement with global audiences.

LEE MEYERHOFF

CHAYSE IRVIN

NINA JACOBSON

  • Nina Jacobson has built an extraordinary career spanning over three decades, earning recognition as one of the entertainment industry's most accomplished and influential producers. A former senior film executive at three major motion picture studios, Jacobson founded the independent production company Color Force in 2007. Her first project as a producer – and the first for Color Force – was Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which grossed over $75 million worldwide and spawned three popular sequels. Jacobson went on to produce The Hunger Games franchise based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novels. Collectively, the franchise has grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, featuring, most recently, the prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the upcoming follow-up prequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which premieres this November. Jacobson’s feature-producing credits also include the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, based on Kevin Kwan’s international best-seller for Warner Bros., and Ben Is Back, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. 

    Jacobson, along with her Color Force partner Brad Simpson, made a successful leap into television with The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which they executive produced alongside Ryan Murphy. The show was an instant hit, receiving 22 Emmy® nominations and winning 9, including Outstanding Limited Series, and was nominated for 5 Golden Globe® Awards, winning 2. Its follow-up, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, garnered 18 Emmy nominations and 7 wins, as well as 4 Golden Globe nominations and 2 wins. Jacobson also produced the critically acclaimed series Pose for FX, as well as Impeachment: American Crime Story, Clipped, Y: The Last Man, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez and Say Nothing, a gripping account of the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

    This year, Jacobson and Simpson executive produced the critically and commercially acclaimed limited series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. The dazzling production, which they worked on with Murphy, chronicles the captivating yet tragic romance that remains an indelible part of the American zeitgeist. 

    Jacobson and Simpson are currently working with Murphy on the FX series adaptation of The Shards, the 2003 New York Times best seller from Bret Easton Ellis. The show, loosely based on Ellis’s own life growing up in Los Angeles in the early 1980s will premiere later this year.  

    Prior to forming Color Force, Jacobson was president of the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, where she oversaw script development and film production for Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. During her tenure, 15 of Jacobson’s projects grossed over $100 million domestically, including Pirates of the Caribbean, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Princess Diaries. 

    Before joining the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, Jacobson was a senior film executive at DreamWorks SKG, where she developed What Lies Beneath and originated the idea of DreamWorks’ first animated feature Antz. She also held positions at Universal, Parkes/MacDonald Productions, Silver Pictures and began her career at Disney Sunday Movie.

    A passionate advocate for equity and human rights, Jacobson serves on the board of Freedom House, a non-profit non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. She is a graduate of Brown University and lives in the Pacific Palisades with her wife Jennifer, their three children, two dogs and a cat.

JEFF CRONENWETH

ROBERT HILZTIK