Film

PIETRO PINTO

DEPARTMENT CHAIR

Pietro Pinto, MFA, is an award-winning Italian filmmaker. His thesis film, Adam, debuted at the Venice Film Festival, competing in Venice Critics’ Week, and his short film The Golden Gate earned Best Narrative and Best in Show at the CSU Media Arts Festival. Pinto teaches directing and producing at San Francisco Film School and is the founder of an original masterclass series featuring leading industry professionals, developed in partnership with UCLA, CalArts, USC, the Berlinale, and the Locarno Film Festival.

pietropintofilms.com

Emma Scully

Assistant Chair and Faculty Coordinator

Emma is a San Francisco–based filmmaker with a background in production design, arts administration, and education. Originally from London, she has worked across commercials, music videos, and independent short films, and served as Assistant Producer for acclaimed artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson. Emma previously worked at the San Francisco Film School as Online Learning Coordinator, where she helped launch a hybrid filmmaking program. She is passionate about collaborative storytelling and supporting the next generation of filmmakers. In her spare time, Emma channels her love of detail into crafting miniature books and stop-motion puppets.

Andrés Gallegos

Faculty | cinematography & Sound

Andrés Gallegos is a Chilean filmmaker and cinematographer based in San Francisco. He holds a BA in Filmmaking from Uniacc and an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. His directorial debut, From Mexico to Vietnam, won the Audience Award at the Riverside International Film Festival, while his short documentary Guy Hircefeld, a Guy with a Camera became an Academy Award qualifier in 2019. As a cinematographer, his work has screened at the Cannes Film Festival, IDFA, and Raindance Film Festival, earning Best Cinematography honors at the Santiago and La Serena Film Festivals. Gallegos is dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices through high-end visual storytelling.

Yinan Du

Faculty | DIRECTING & Experimental Cinema

Yinan Du is a multimedia artist and educator. She holds an MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts and a BFA in Media Arts from Duke University. Her work challenges conventional narrative boundaries while seeking to depict the world in its raw, unmediated form, blending techniques across film, animation, and fine art. She has three years of teaching experience in experimental filmmaking, fine arts, and animation. Her films have screened at festivals and prestigious institutions globally, including the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Shanghai Pride Festival.

Finnian Griffin

Faculty | Screenwriting

Finnian Griffin is a character-driven and performance-focused filmmaker based in Los Angeles who has lived half of his life in Australia, working in the independent film scene in Melbourne and directing student theater during his undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy. Drawn to screenwriting as a collaborative tool with performers, Finnian honed his scripting practice while completing an MFA in Film Directing at CalArts, where he assisted in teaching courses on screenwriting, realism, and cinematic lighting, gave lectures on the work of Maurice Pialat, and ran distribution workshops with fellow students. His feature film, One Minute in the Year, was selected for the Long Forms Showcase at REDCAT in 2026.

Siddharth Lal

Faculty | EDITING

Siddharth Lal is an LA-based filmmaker and editor with a passion for telling authentic stories. He holds an MFA in Editing from the renowned American Film Institute Conservatory, where his thesis film, Patakha — which he edited and co-wrote — qualified for the $50,000 UN grant and earned a nomination from the Television Academy in the Best Scripted Series category. His filmmaking journey began in Bhopal, India, where he started creating vlogs and short films for his YouTube channel. Through his work, Siddharth aims to contribute to films that have the potential to change people’s lives.

Giuliana Tambellini

Teaching Assistant | Cinematography & Sound

Giuliana Tambellini is a Brazilian cinematographer based in Los Angeles and a recent MFA graduate in Cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Her work has been recognized by the Brazilian Society of Cinematographers (ABC) and centers on narrative filmmaking across short and feature formats, with films screening at festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, and the Havana Film Festival. She is a recipient of the Women in Film Fellowship 2025 and brings extensive experience as a camera assistant across narrative, documentary, institutional, and brand campaign productions, including work for Netflix, Disney+, and major global brands.

Sydney Lawson

Teaching Assistant | Cinematography & Sound

Sydney Lawson (she/her) is a queer cinematographer from Ohio, currently based in Los Angeles, where she recently completed her MFA in Cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory. She has shot four feature films, more than 15 short films, and a range of commercial projects. Her educational background includes studying film at The Ohio State University, as well as completing the AFI Cinematography Intensive for Women and the ASC Masterclass.

Saskia Yland

Teaching Assistant | Cinematography & Sound

Saskia Yland is a documentary filmmaker with a background in cinematography and producing. Originally from New York City, she earned her BFA in filmmaking in Berlin and continued working there, as well as in Romania, Italy, and the UK, on various feature and reality television productions. She later moved to Los Angeles on a scholarship to pursue an MFA in Producing at Chapman University. She now works as a 1st AD on commercials and music videos, a UPM for a documentary production company based in Nashville, and has recently launched her own production company producing her first feature, Green River Drift. Her work has received awards from the Berlin Indie Film Festival, Los Angeles Short Film Festival, New York City Indie Film Festival, New York City Art House Film Festival, and NaSTA. She also has studio system experience through her work at MGM in development.

Yi Yu

Teaching Assistant | Directing & Experimental Cinema

Yi Yu (she/her) is a Cantonese documentary filmmaker and photographer from Guangzhou, China, based in Los Angeles. She is an MFA candidate in Documentary Directing at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Her work explores history, embodiment, memory, and human relationships through visually driven nonfiction storytelling, with a strong emphasis on creative sound design. Her recent projects include Drift and A Lapse of Reason. She has also mentored emerging filmmakers through UCLA classroom and production settings.

Uday Misra

Teaching Assistant | Screenwriting

Uday Misra (he/him) is a first-generation Maryland-born filmmaker. He incorporates elements of narrative fiction, interview-based nonfiction, and sensory cinematic techniques to craft experiential still and moving-image works that illuminate the contemporary lived experiences of neurodivergent South Asian American children of immigrants. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Film Directing at CalArts, set to graduate in May 2026. His short film Odyssey Baby, which he wrote, directed, and edited, was selected to screen at the REDCAT Theatre in Los Angeles as part of a juried curation for the CalArts 2024 end-of-year showcase. Uday was also one of 20 filmmakers invited to the 2022 cycle of the Rickshaw Film Foundation Writer’s Room and is currently a development intern at Bona Fide Productions.

Yasmine Xu

Teaching Assistant | Editing

Yasmine (Yuanying) Xu is a multimedia artist and educator based in Los Angeles. Her practice spans animation, experimental film, and mixed-media art, with a focus on hand-drawn animation and material-based image making. Her work explores themes of memory, perception, and visual storytelling while challenging conventional narrative structures. She has teaching and workshop experience in animation, experimental filmmaking, and visual arts, supporting students in developing personal narratives and exploring diverse techniques across traditional and digital media. Her films have been awarded and screened at international festivals, including the Animart Festival, Big Cartoon Festival, and the Beijing Feinaki Animation Festival.