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Melissa (she/her) moved to L.A. to join IDA by way of her native New York, Philadelphia, an earlier brief stint in L.A., Washington D.C., and Chicago--in that order. As such, she no longer has much of an accent, but she does know an unusual lot about regional sandwiches. She holds an M.A. in Public History and became a grant writer quite by happy accident. She loves bookstores, riding her bike, old movies, Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead, and she lives for dogs – especially her super senior basset hound, Sue.

Maria Santos joined the International Documentary Association as the Funds Program Officer in September 2022. She oversees all of the funding grants and provides year-round creative and strategic support to all IDA grantees. Previously, she was the Manager of Labs and Artist Support at the Sundance Documentary Film Program, since September 2020. During her time there, she was the lead on working with International Artists, primarily in Central and South America.

Lilla (she/her) has been with IDA's fiscal sponsorship team since 2022. As of November 2025, she serves as the organization's Acting Fiscal Sponsorship Program Manager. Her responsibilities include onboarding new projects, handling grant paperwork, and managing daily communication with filmmakers. 

Gabriella Ortega Ricketts (she/her) is a Colombian-American actress, multidisciplinary artist, and producer living in Los Angeles with her partner and their three cats, Archie, Hank, and Duke. Born and raised in Los Angeles, with a stint in Bogotá, Colombia, she feels a lot of hometown pride and will argue with anyone who disparages the culture, landscape, and historic architecture of our fair city (criticisms about cops and the city council are encouraged, however).

Abby Sun (she/her) is IDA's Director of Programs and Editor of Documentary magazine. Before joining IDA, Abby was the Curator of the DocYard and edited MIT Open Documentary Lab's Immerse. She has bylines in Film Comment, Filmmaker, Film Quarterly, Notebook, Sight & Sound, and other publications. Abby has served on festival juries for Hot Docs, Dokufest, Palm Springs, New Orleans, and CAAMfest, as well as nominating committees for the Gotham Awards and Cinema Eye.

Anisa Hosseinnezhad (She/They) is an Iranian Artist and Filmmaker. Their film and video work focuses on issues of displacement, immigration, and the militaristic U.S. imaginary. Their research is centered on West Asia, as rendered through by western media. They hold their MFA from Temple University. They live and work in what is known today as Los Angeles with their partner and pet child Spud. At IDA, They are the Membership and Individual Giving program manager, and they are proud to be one of the co-leads of the union Documentary Workers United.

 

Since 2018, Orwa Nyrabia (he/him) has been the Artistic Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film and new media festival. At IDFA, Orwa is a member of the board of directors, overseeing the organization's various programs and offers.
Founder of Iguana Films, and a professor at Emerson College, Maria Agui Carter’s (she/her) recent work includes REBEL: Loreta Velazquez, Secret Soldier of the American Civil War, on Amazon Prime, Erik Barnouw award winner for best historical films in America; and the PBS series SCIGIRLS nominated for a 2019 daytime Emmy. She is a 2021-2 Concordia Studio Fellow with a first-look deal. Concordia is Executive Producing ALLEGED, Maria’s criminal justice series currently in production. She is also a 2022 winner of a Spark grant from the National Endowment for Humanities & Firelight Media for BIRTHRIGHT, an essay film exploring the racialized roots of immigration policy in America. In development is her feature script SECRET LIFE OF LA MARIPOSA, a fable on immigration and climate change based on Maria’s experience growing up undocumented.
Ina Fichman (she/her) has been producing creative documentaries, interactive projects and series for more than 25 years. Recent credits include Fire of Love, Once Upon a Sea, The Oslo Diaries and The Gig is Up. Her company, Intuitive Pictures is based in Montreal. Ina sits on the board of Hot Docs and Chairs the National Board of the Documentary Association of Canada.
As executive vice president, Global Communications and Talent Relations for Disney Branded Television and National Geographic Content, Chris Albert (he/him) is responsible for developing and executing global consumer and trade communications strategies for Disney Branded Television, Disney Original Documentary, National Geographic Content and National Geographic Documentary Films. His purview also includes linear channels, Disney Junior, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Nat Geo WILD and Nat Geo MUNDO. Albert also leads both the talent relations department, which manages internal and external demands of on-air talent, and the events department that works across National Geographic and Disney Branded Television.
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