AFI FEST Team

Todd Hitchcock, Director of AFI FEST and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Director of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center Todd Hitchcock leads the national AFI team programming AFI FEST. In his previous role as Director of Programming at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Todd oversaw numerous international film festivals, retrospectives, first-run engagements and special events, including planning, programming and producing the AFI Latin American Film Festival, the AFI European Union Film Showcase and the New African Film Festival, and classics in Noir City DC (co-presented with Eddie Muller’s Film Noir Foundation) and the Silent Cinema Showcase. Todd began his career at AFI in 2003 working on the inaugural edition of SILVERDOCS before joining AFI Silver’s year-round programming team, and has also served as the Silver’s Associate Theatre Director for the past ten years.

Ethan Caldwell, Director of Operations

Ethan Caldwell oversees the planning and execution of AFI’s exhibition activities, including AFI FEST. He has been working in exhibition cinema and operations for the past two decades. During that time, he has contributed to several theater renovations and system infrastructure projects. With a passion for customer satisfaction, he strives for unique programming and excellent presentation and has a vast range of experience, including the coordination and production of private events, film and television premieres, specialty screenings with artist Q&A sessions and large-scale film festivals. Ethan most recently served as the Director, Theater Operations at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, CA.

Abbie Algar, Director of AFI Programming

Based at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Washington, DC, Abbie leads an incredible team of world-class film programmers (see the rest of this page!) in curating and planning AFI FEST, as well as the AFI Silver’s year-round programming, which includes a bounty of special events, repertory series, first run engagements and large-scale festivals such as the AFI Latin American Film Festival and AFI European Union Film Showcase. Prior to joining AFI in 2016, Abbie was Curator of Film at the Honolulu Museum of Art, where she led the film and performance programs at the museum’s Doris Duke Theatre, overseeing a slate of annual festivals, as well as curating year-round repertory series, special screenings and exhibition-related programming. Abbie has a degree in History of Art and Italian from the University of Reading and has worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art and National Portrait Gallery in London and Great North Artists Management in Toronto. As a relatively new mum, Abbie is also looking forward to guiding her two-year-old son through the filmography of his namesake, Ennio Morricone.

Nichole Young, Associate Programmer, Short Films & Programming Coordinator, AFI FEST

Nichole Young is a Taiwanese American film programmer whose goal is to merge her understanding of cinema with her passion for highlighting and supporting diverse stories. Once the AFI FEST programming intern, she has remained with the Institute since 2018, programming for both AFI FEST and AFI DOCS. Today, she oversees the entire Shorts Program, Screening Committees and Jury. Nichole has programmed for several festivals including Seattle International Film Fest, Palm Springs ShortFest, Indian Film Fest LA, and Big Sky Documentary Film Fest; was a panelist at Atlanta Film Fest and NALIP; and acted as a judge for Nashville Film Fest along with several student-run festivals. Nichole also assisted in the success of hundreds of film organizations while working at the online platform, Eventive. She holds a BFA in Broadcast Journalism from Chapman University and a master’s degree in film and media studies from Arizona State University. Nichole currently resides in Phoenix, continuing her arduous search for the state’s best breakfast burrito!

Josh Gardner, Senior Film Programmer, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Josh Gardner is a Detroit-based film programmer. In addition to his role at AFI FEST, he is the Senior Film Programmer and Public Relations Manager at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, where he enjoys working on the AFI Latin American Film Festival, AFI European Union Film Showcase and the New African Film Festival. He is also the founder of Cinema Lamont, a nonprofit that fosters cross-cultural understand through the power of world cinema. There he produces and programs annual series including Cine Mexico Now, a festival of contemporary Mexican cinema; Skin City: Erotica on Screen and a series highlighting puppets on film. He moonlights as a Film Festival Correspondent for Cinema Tropical, where he interviews Latin American filmmakers on the circuit.

Javier Chavez, Film Programmer, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Javier Chavez is a Cuban American film programmer based in Washington, DC. In addition to curating feature films for AFI FEST, he is a programmer for the AFI Silver Theater, which presents over 700 films a year, ranging from first run to repertory and several festivals, including the AFI Latin American Film Festival and AFI European Union Film Showcase. He serves as Secretary of the board of Art House Convergence and was previously Associate Director of Coral Gables Art Cinema and a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant Panelist for Media Arts. He holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Outside the world of cinema, he is a self-taught computer programmer who hopes to fully automate his workday – a task not yet accomplished – and is an avid gamer whose favorite games include XCOM, Hollow Knight, and Metal Gear Solid.

Eli Prysant, Assistant Programmer, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Eli got his start in the theater exhibition field as an Operations Lead for ArcLight Cinemas, working his way to Operations Manager at the Bethesda, Maryland location. He joined AFI in the fall of 2019 and became the Short Films Associate Programmer for the Washington D.C. International Film Festival in 2021. Eli’s biggest passion outside of film is music, and he can typically be found compulsively listening to at least twenty new releases a week. His top three bucket list concerts are currently Björk, Bosse-de-Nage and HAAi.

Mimi Brody, Features Film Programmer, AFI FEST

Mimi Brody is the Features Film Programmer for AFI FEST. She has worked with the American Film Institute for both AFI DOCS and AFI FEST, as well as the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, among others. She specializes in world cinema, documentary and archival/classic cinema. She enjoys travel, vintage shopping and seeing films on celluloid whenever possible.

Julia Kipnis, Associate Programmer, AFI FEST

Julia Kipnis is an LA-based cinephile and film programmer. She has programmed features for AFI FEST since 2018 and documentary features for the Nashville Film Festival since 2022. Julia also programs documentaries for Mountainfilm Festival and short films for RiverRun International Film Festival. She has curated film series in collaboration with the Alamo Drafthouse and Womxn in Windows and received her BFA in Film from Syracuse University.

Anna Li, Associate Programmer, AFI FEST

Anna Li is a film programmer and visual artist born and raised in Hong Kong, now based in Los Angeles. She holds a BFA in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design and worked in the animation industry before pivoting to the film festival circuit. Additionally to her involvement with AFI FEST since 2018, she has contributed to Outfest LA, San Francisco International Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of LA and guest curated for OutMuseum. In her free time, Anna can be found cataloging her cherished physical media collection.

Travis Weedon, Associate Programmer, AFI FEST

Travis Weedon has programmed with AFI FEST since 2024. He is the Director of Festivals and Non-Theatrical at Visit Films, a US-based international film sales company with a catalog of over 250+ titles. He is the former program director for the White River Indie Films Festival and currently programs with the Ojai Playhouse Film Festival and the Vermont International Film Festival. He has also been a jury member at the Calgary International Film Festival. Travis earned a Master of Arts from the University of Oregon and enjoyed a career as an educator and a film critic before turning his focus to programming. When not scouring the current cinematic landscape for the newest festival titles, he maintains a strict diet of MGM musicals with his daughter.

Daniel Crooke, Associate Programmer, Short Films, AFI FEST

Daniel Crooke is a film programmer in Los Angeles who aims to amplify filmmakers from around the globe and connect their work with audiences. In addition to his role at AFI FEST, he currently serves as the Senior Programmer at Outfest, Programming Manager at the Overlook Film Festival, and Associate Programmer at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where he also produces the annual narrative and documentary filmmaker retreats. He has contributed programming across leading arts organizations in North America such as the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Atlanta Film Festival, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, NewFest, Palm Springs ShortFest, and TCM Classic Film Festival.

Payton Ewalt, Associate Programmer, Short Films, AFI FEST

Another AFI FEST intern-turned-programmer, Payton Ewalt has worked with the AFI FEST team since 2021, helping curate the Shorts Program each year. After graduating from USC last year with a bachelor’s degree in cinema and media studies and gender and sexuality studies, she has taken on a full-time position working at premieres throughout Hollywood. When she’s not watching shorts and helping put on events, you can usually find her watching mid-century movies or catching up on reruns of CHEERS.