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ADFF TEAM

Kyle Bergman

Festival Director & Founder  

Sunena Maju

Festival Coordinator  

Ruth Somalo

Senior Programmer  

Fred Schmidt-Arenales

Technical Director  

Sara Griffin

Public Relations  

Naomi Kriss

Toronto PR, Naomi Kriss / Kriss Communications  

Amit Gupta

ADFF:MUMBAI CO-Festival Director  

Samta Nadeem

ADFF:MUMBAI Co-Curator  

Jigyasa Sharma

ADFF:MUMBAI Producer  

Leah Mallen

ADFF:Vancouver Co-Producer  

Anne Pearson

ADFF:Vancouver Co-Producer  

Mahasti Eslahjou

ADFF:Toronto Partnerships  

Chris Mecham

ADFF:NY Venue Manager  

Ian Stewart

Box Office Manager  

Jean Orlebeke

Graphic Designer  

Higgin Ko

Webmaster  

Kyle Bergman

Architect Kyle Bergman founded the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in 2008 and serves as its festival director. He has always recognized the strong connection between architecture and film and ADFF provides a unique opportunity to educate, entertain and engage people who are passionate about the world of architecture and design. Mr. Bergman also serves as vice president on the board of Pacific Rim Parks Organization whose mission is to use the process of designing and building parks as a tool to connect communities around the Pacific.

Kyle Bergman has been involved with design/build education since 1994 when he created and moderated an architectural lecture series about the design/build process for the Smithsonian Institute. An entrepreneur at heart, Mr. Bergman founded Alt Spec in 1999, a publishing company that produced a visual resource of unique and alternative products for architects and designers. He also produced a play entitled The Glass House, about the design and construction of two famous homes, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Phillip Johnson’s Glass House.

Sunena Maju

Sunena Maju is an architect, writer, researcher, and curator with a background that weaves together architecture, design, and art. She has worked with organizations including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and STIRworld, where her work has centered on design histories, radical architectural practices, and cultural narratives. Sunena holds an MA in History of Design and Curatorial Studies from Parsons School of Design, where her research explored decolonizing design and curatorial practice. She is passionate about creating platforms that connect diverse audiences to design, architecture, and visual culture.

Ruth Somalo

Ruth is a Spanish visual artist, filmmaker, curator, researcher and educator based in New York. She works as Senior Programmer at DOC NYC, DocumentaMadrid, The Architecture and Design Film Festival and the DOCMA monthly screening series at Cineteca Matadero  de Madrid. As a filmmaker, her documentary and experimental work has been shown in theaters, festivals and museums internationally.

Ruth holds a PhD. in Cultural Studies by Autonomous University of Madrid and is a member of the international research group Hist-Ex (Anthropology of Experience) at the Spanish National Research Council, currently working on a project that re-evaluates gesture as a form of community building and as a mark of political distinction. Ruth also works as a mentor and seminar Instructor for Union Docs Center for Documentary Art and as a creative advisor for non fiction films. She was the President of The Flaherty Board of Trustees and currently serves as the chair of their Programming Committee.

Fred Schmidt-Arenales

Fred Schmidt-Arenales is an artist and filmmaker. His projects attempt to bring awareness to unconscious processes on the individual and group level. He has presented films, installations, and performances internationally at venues including SculptureCenter and Abrons Arts Center, New York; Links Hall, Chicago; The Darling Foundry, Montreal; LightBox and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; The Museum of Fine Arts, and FotoFest Houston, Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz, and Kunsthalle, Vienna. Fred was a 2022-23 Core fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

Sara Griffin

Sara Griffin is a strategic communications and public relations consultant working with design, architecture, and cultural businesses and organizations worldwide. She has more than a decade of experience launching and cultivating communications programs for cultural organizations, businesses, products, and exhibitions, specializing not only in media relations but in collaborating on creative and business strategies that align around core values and big-picture goals.

In her solo practice, Ms. Griffin has coordinated major global design explorations for Lexus, helped launch an arts foundation, and represented major architects, design brands, and institutions including Vitra, Suchi Reddy, and the NY Botanical Garden, securing features in Architectural Digest, Cultured, W, and the front page of the New York Times. During her time at Camron PR, she led a team to launch the art and design fair Object & Thing, guided international communications for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, ran a major campaign promoting the city of Quito, Ecuador, and coordinated media campaigns for retail brands including MUJI and EQ3.

Prior to Camron, she worked with visual arts firm Resnicow and Associates, developing communications campaigns for museums, foundations, and arts organizations worldwide, including Frieze Art Fairs and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier, Ms. Griffin was an associate at Sean Kelly Gallery and an assistant in Kehinde Wiley’s studio.

Naomi Kriss

Amit Gupta

Founder and Editor-in-Chief STIR, Amit is a creative thinker and curator in the field of architecture, design and art. He has worked over 3 decades breaking down barriers between creative disciplines while inventing ways to encourage cross-disciplinary debate, discourse and collaboration. He founded STIR as a media house and curatorial agency that strives to examine and amplify creativity of courage, diversity and respect, from world over.

Samta Nadeem

Samta’s interdisciplinary background equips her with a keen perspective on creative cultures and how they intertwine with contemporary complexities. She is passionate about engaging with issues of social and environmental justice through design and discourse.

 

Jigyasa Sharma

Enable creative agency through collective solidarity.

Leah Mallen

Leah Mallen is a producer of over 20 years of internationally acclaimed content. Her films have screened all over the world, and she has seen much success in documentary, scripted and kids content.  She heads up the Vancouver-based production company All in Pictures in Vancouver.  Her content has garnered several international awards as she continues to develop, finance and produce critically acclaimed films and series.  She is on the board of Vancouver’s Cinematheque and continuously mentors many emerging filmmakers through her position at Crazy8s Film Society and her work with Telus Storyhive. She is passionate about stories that feature innovation, design, and unique perspectives on the world.

Anne Pearson

Anne Pearson is a co-producer of ADFF: Vancouver and also the owner of the design shop “Vancouver Special”. She is highly active in the Vancouver design community: as an alumna of the School of Architecture at the University of British Columbia, where she often participates as a guest critic and thesis committee member, and also an ongoing guest critic in the department of Industrial Design at Emily Carr University. Anne is passionate about all facets of design from architecture, interiors, and furniture, especially the design traditions of Scandinavia and Japan. She is constantly researching, teaching, and traveling in order to provide an inspiring and constantly evolving product mix.

Mahasti Eslahjou

Mahasti Eslahjou is a Toronto-based business development and marketing strategist specializing in the architecture and design industry. With over a decade of leadership at AZURE Media, she has driven growth through strategic partnerships, sponsorship development, and large-scale experiential programming. Known for building high-impact industry alliances, Mahasti connects brands with architects and designers through thoughtfully curated experiential and networking initiatives, creating platforms that elevate brand presence and deepen engagement.

Chris Mecham

Ian Stewart

Ian Stewart is an event and ticketing specialist in the music and film festival industry. Hailing from GA, he has traveled around the US and internationally to deliver exquisite service and lasting experiences. He has worked with various companies like Netflix, HBO, SFFILM, and SXSW to name a few.

Jean Orlebeke

Higgin Ko

Higgin is the web developer / webmaster of the Architecture and Design Film Festival. He has been supporting Mr. Bergman’s projects including Pacific Rim Parks and The Glass House Play. He has developed numerous commercial websites, non-profit organizations sites, and social network sites. He has worked with every web and multimedia technology such as HTML, DHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, JavaScript, Ajax, web broadcasting, etc. He specializes in developing dynamic and interactive web pages. He’s been developing websites with “Mobile First” design concept using responsive/adaptive frameworks as well as WordPress.

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Sumbit Films

Submissions for the 2025/26 season are now closed.
We will begin accepting submissions for the 2026/27 season in January 2026.

ADFF Team