Rio Contrada

Rio Contrada is an award-winning filmmaker and aspiring flower child from Northampton, Massachusetts. He was raised by journalists and quickly learned how many questions in a row are too many (it’s four).

A queer Italian Jew and community organizer, his work explores intersectionality in a dramedic, surrealist tone. His writing has placed in premier competitions such as Austin Film Festival, Screencraft and the Black List’s Top Pilots List. He holds a degree in Writing for Film & Television from Emerson College and is a 2025 graduate of the Writers Guild Foundation’s training program, which holds a 1% acceptance rate.

Rio’s debut feature film Splinter, starring his former Grey’s Anatomy boss Debbie Allen, premiered at Dances with Films in June, garnering rave reviews and multiple distribution offers on the festival circuit. He produced the Boston crime drama How to Rob, which won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at New Hampshire Film Festival and IFFBoston. He has written, directed, or produced 10 short films, screening at over 40 festivals globally.

He currently resides in West Hollywood where he can be found waxing poetic about New England autumns or rejecting party invitations to stay home and write.

Peter Horgan

Peter Horgan is a writer/director/producer born and raised in Massachusetts who has worked on films in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Greece. 

After graduating from Emerson College, Peter started off his indie filmmaker career by directing music videos for rappers around Boston. Since then he’s switched his focus towards mainly writing and directing or producing and assistant directing narrative fiction. His last film, PUT YOUR FEET UP, premiered at IFFBoston in 2019 and went on to screen at Provincetown, Woods Hole, South Dakota and Cinekink among other festivals. 

Peter’s feature length screenplays have placed As quarter-finalists and semi-finalists in acclaimed screenwriting competitions such as ScreenCraft Drama and Horror, BlueCat and Shore Scripts.