Award-Winning Filmmakers Derek Garcia, Daniel Feighery, and Eden Martinez to Curate 15th Annual Art of Brooklyn Film Festival

​For its signature Guest Festival Director program, Art of Brooklyn Film Festival invites different filmmakers each season to take the reins of curation — ensuring its programming is always fresh, exciting and diverse. It is our pleasure to announce that for 2025 we have invited the award winning filmmakers Eden Martinez (Narrative Shorts), Daniel Feighery (Documentary Shorts and Features) and Derek Garcia (Narrative Features) to be the Guest Festival Directors working in tandem for our 15th season.

Daniel Feighery (rhymes with Theory) is a dual citizen New York/Toronto based director and cinematographer in documentary and scripted filmmaking. He has worked on Oscar award winning movies, multiple U.S. presidential campaigns, Sundance documentaries, Clio awarded commercials, and MTV VMA winning music videos. He was honored in the American Society of Cinematographers Vision Program 2022 and has worked alongside fiction film directors Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, Spike Lee, Noah Baumbach and nonfiction directors Kirby Dick, Morgan Neville and R.J. Cutler. Daniel’s films have screened at dozens of festivals and won awards of Best Short Documentary for his film “Birdfeeder,” Best Cinematography for his short doc "Inner City Fencers," and Best Music Video for “Heaven.”  He currently teaches filmmaking and cinematography at New York Film Academy and is happily married to the amazing actor Natalia Payne. 

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Derek Shane Garcia is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Derek got his start as a Tribeca Film Fellow at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009. He was accepted to SUNY Purchase's Film Conservatory, where he graduated with a BFA in Film in 2013. Derek has been nominated for and won several awards at various film festivals. His feature film A/way had its world premiere at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival in 2024, where it won Outstanding Narrative Feature Film, Outstanding Performance, and Best Director. A/way is expected to be released in the summer of 2025 on major streaming platforms. Derek is also well-rounded in documentary filmmaking, having made two films for CBS Sunday Morning News and Channel Thirteen for Ken Burns projects that have aired nationally.

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Eden Martinez (they/them) is a Latinx queer filmmaker from New York City who brings women, LGBTQ+, and POC communities to the forefront with a jubilant and visually striking lens. Drawing inspiration from visionaries like Steven Spielberg, Hirokazu Koreeda, and bell hooks, they craft bold, identity-driven stories that celebrate intersectionality. Their filmmaking journey began at twelve when they picked up a camera for the first time, launching a career shaped by mentorships, collaborations, and hands-on industry experience with HBO Max, Google, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and working with talent like Rosie Perez, Susan Sarandon, Jes Tom, and MJ Rodriguez. Currently, Eden is developing their first feature film, After Closing, directing Late Stage Live! (YouTube, 20K+ subscribers), and championing gender equity in film as a Board Member of Moonshot Initiative and a member of Filmshop. 

THE ART OF BROOKLYN is an award-winning international film festival centered in Brooklyn’s vibrant indie film scene. Now in its 15th year, AoBFF has produced film events in a dozen neighborhoods across the borough of Brooklyn, bringing the film industry to diverse filmmakers and audiences, and democratizing the film festival experience. As of 2024, 35 Art of Brooklyn premieres have received distribution and one became an HBO series.

AoBFF’s 2025 call for entries is open until May 1st, and the festival runs in the first two weeks of June (dates TBD).

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