Building Tomorrow’s Television Directors: Announcing the 2026 Film Independent Episodic Intensive Fellows
In an industry where connections and insider knowledge can be the difference between landing your first directing gig and watching opportunities pass you by, programs like the Film Independent Episodic Directing Intensive are invaluable. They democratize access to mentorship and insights that typically come from years of hustle and luck.
The Episodic Directing Intensive, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, connects an exciting cohort of talented filmmakers with the greater television industry. This year’s program, which ran February 18-20, brought together six Fellows with some outstanding mentors.
This year’s guest speakers included some seriously impressive names: Andrew Ahn, Robert Baltazar, Thembi Banks, Adam Bernstein, Ante Cheng, Ben Eisenberg, Gloria Fan, Hilarie Holt, Liz Kelly, Shari Page, Julio C. Perez, Jeremy Podeswa, Beth Schacter, Brian Tee, and Daniel Willis.
According to Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs at Film Independent, the program was built to set up the Fellows for future success. “We are thrilled to support this incredibly talented cohort of directors as they work to build careers directing television,” she explained. “With this program, we equipped them with the knowledge necessary to move into the space with confidence.”
The curriculum went deep, addressing practical and strategic topics. “We spoke to episodic directors, showrunners, editors, actors, cinematographers and executives about collaboration, prepping for episodes and career planning,” Vazquez said. “The Fellows were prepared for each session and engaged with guest speakers with incisive questions.”
If you want to know whether a program like this actually moves the needle, just ask the Fellows themselves. According to Chelsea Christer, “I feel like the mystery of breaking into television has been completely dispelled and I now have a better understanding of how to navigate the next steps in my career as an episodic director. Connecting with my cohort was another major highlight.”
Another Fellow, Jacob Combs, echoed the sentiment: “The Episodic Directing Intensive was inspiring, eye-opening and incredibly informative. A true 360-degree perspective on the state of TV directing and how to move toward landing that elusive first episode.”
We have a feeling this cohort will be directing their first episodes, and many more, very soon.
Speaking of this year’s Fellows, let’s go ahead and meet the cohort:
Alex Heller
Alex Heller is a writer/director working between Los Angeles, Chicago and Norway. Her debut feature film The Year Between, an autobiographical comedy about bipolar disorder that stars J. Smith-Cameron and Steve Buscemi, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. It then sold to Peacock and received praise from The New York Times, Variety, RogerEbert.com and NPR. Heller’s recent short film Debaters (starring J. Smith-Cameron and Kenneth Lonergan) premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, was selected for the Sundance Short Film Tour and is a proof-of-concept for an upcoming feature film of the same title.
Chelsea Christer
Originally from a horse ranch in Colorado, Chelsea Christer began her filmmaking career in San Francisco. Her work centers on character-driven narratives, often exploring themes of human connection, ambition and identity. Her feature-length debut, the award-winning music documentary Bleeding Audio (2020), released to critical acclaim and screened at nearly 20 film festivals, including Slamdance. Her most recent film, the short dark comedy Out for Delivery (2025) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at SXSW. She also directed the unscripted comedy series Nobody Asked (2024) for Dropout. She now resides in Los Angeles with her husband and their dog.
Christopher Nataanii Cegielski
Christopher Nataanii Cegielski is a Navajo director, writer and DGA member. He recently developed and co-directed the 10-part docu-series People of the West with Boardwalk Pictures and Pechanga Creative Studios, telling California’s history from a Native perspective. He made his television debut co-directing the History Channel docu-series Sitting Bull from executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio. Through his commercial work, he has partnered with clients including the FDA, ABC, United Airlines and Google. His narrative work has screened at festivals such as the Berlinale, SXSW and imagineNATIVE, and he is an alumnus of Sundance Native Lab and Film Independent’s Project Involve.
J.M. Harper
J.M. Harper is a Brooklyn-based director and father of two. His debut feature, As We Speak (Paramount+), premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024, and his sophomore documentary Soul Patrol premiered there in 2026 and was awarded The Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. A multi-hyphenate documentarian, Harper has edited four feature films, including the Emmy-nominated series jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogyand received a Peabody Award as an executive producer on Daughters. In 2024, he was named to DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” list and is a recipient of the 2025 Concordia Fellowship and Film Independent Amplifier Fellowship.
Jacob Combs
Jacob Combs is a Los Angeles-based director, writer and producer whose work blends humor and heart to explore characters bridging conflicting worlds. He was a 2025 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow and Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship recipient, directing the satirical, dark comedy short Tradwife as part of the program. His previous film, the intergenerational queer short The Orange at the Seder, screened at the Seattle International Film Festival, BFI Flare London LGBTQ+ Film Festival, HollyShorts and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Combs’s previous episodic projects include Netflix’s comedy Blockbuster, as well as Pixar’s Dream Productions and the Emmy-nominated series Inside Pixar.
Stefon Bristol
Stefon Bristol hails from New York with a distinctive voice in independent cinema. Inspired by his Guyanese heritage, his work blends genre storytelling with humanistic social commentary and cultural specificity. Bristol co-wrote and directed the time-travel movie See You Yesterday, produced by Spike Lee, which premiered at Tribeca before launching on Netflix to critical acclaim. The film earned Certified Fresh and won Best First Feature Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. His latest dystopian thriller, Breathe, stars Jennifer Hudson, Milla Jovovich, Common and Sam Worthington. Bristol graduated from Morehouse College and earned his MFA in Film from New York University.
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