KC FIlmFest InternationalÂ
Producer-Director-Professor
Joy Millana is an award-winning producer-director and associate professor of film production at Missouri State University.
Her most recent feature film as producer and director, Jacob, Broken by God (2022), has won seven industry awards including a Gold Telly and has recently been picked up by Bridgestone Multimedia Global Distribution. Her directorial feature Profiled aka Premeditated (2014) has been picked up for rerelease through Leomark Studios Distribution (2019). Production begins in June 2023 for her third feature as director, When Three Become One.
In 2017, Anti-Hero Film Studios produced her Silver Telly-winning short film Dojo Girl, which has had a successful run at film festivals throughout 2018, including the Bentonville Film Festival and Moonfaze Feminist Film Journal.
She is also the producer of Dave Mack’s Cold Monsters (2023) which is currently being shopped for distribution.
Develoment Director-Film Festival Executive Director
Cliff Froehlich is the retired executive director of Cinema St. Louis, where he served from 2001-03 and 2006-22. Cinema St. Louis annually presents the St. Louis International Film Festival and other film fests and events. Between his CSL stints, Froehlich worked as the arts-and-entertainment editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Before joining CSL, he served in a variety of editorial capacities (including executive editor) at the Riverfront Times, where he started in 1983 as a film critic, and as managing editor of St. Louis Magazine. Since 1984, Froehlich has taught courses in film history as an adjunct professor at Webster University. He’s currently the development director of the nonprofit River City Journalism Fund.
Screenwriter
Jeffrey Field is a six-time Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist, a Screencraft Fellowship winner, and the only two-time winner of a Missouri Stories fellowship. His screenplay DON’T GO THERE was named the overall winner of the 2018 Tracking Board Launch Pad Feature Competition. He has written or co-written scripts that have won first place at the Nashville, Omaha and Destiny City film festivals and the Screencraft Science Fiction competition. After a long career in television and digital newsrooms, he now works as a communications coordinator at one of the Midwest’s top medical schools.
writer-Producer
Grace Albers Smith is a writer and producer who has worked on several short films and television series. After many years in Los Angeles, they recently began a position as the coordinator for the Missouri Film Office, bringing their passion for film and television back to their home state. They love filmmaking for its ability to connect people across all walks of life, and they believe there is nothing quite like the shared experience of 200 strangers in a movie theater, being transported to new worlds together. Grace is also a KCFF alum, their short film Austen Girls was a part of the 2021 festival.
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