The distinguished 15th annual Archer Film Festival will feature three entertainment industry insiders (including one of its founding members).
Academy Award-winning President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Lynette Howell Taylor Battle after battle Producer Sarah Murphy and director Nastassia Popoff are booked to share the stage inside Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater in West Hollywood on April 17. Their panel discussion, “Women Behind the Camera: Transforming Power in Film,” aims to examine “how power evolves in the entertainment industry” while commenting on how it “reshapes the stories we tell and the systems that make them come to life.”
The Archer Film Festival is an entirely student-led, organized effort that seeks to empower women filmmakers and amplify underrepresented voices. In addition to the Q&A, the festival will screen a selection of finalist films. More than 300 student-produced films were received from over 50 countries. Event sponsors include Boardwalk Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, Mark Gordon Pictures, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Paramount, Campfire Studios, Apache Digital, and Jack Tar Pictures.
Taylor serves as Academy President and continues to work as an active producer with credits including Accountant 2, Roof man, A Star Is Born, The Accountant, Big Eyes, The Place Beyond the Pines, Half Nelson, Blue Valentine and I know this is very much true.
Murphy recently won the Academy Award for Best Picture for Paul Thomas Anderson’s production of the film Battle after battle. Her other credits include Licorice Pizza, Rarely Sometimes Always, Anima, If Beale Street Could Talk, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and History of sound.
Popov is a director and writer with a distinctive quality, foolishwas acquired by Utopia after its world premiere at SXSW 2025. Popoff, an alumna of the Archer School for Girls, was a founding member of the Archer Film Festival.
