Faculty Directory

Crickett Rumley

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The founder and Senior Director of the New York Film Academy’s Film Festival Department, Crickett Rumley received her MFA in Film at Columbia University. She has guided filmmakers to official selections and awards at festivals ranging from Sundance to Bronzelens and to nomination and shortlisting for the Student Academy Awards, the BAFTA Student Film Awards, and the College Television Awards.

Crickett has moderated both live and virtual events for the school, including Q&A’s with NYFA alum Mohamed Diab (director of Marvel Studios/Disney+ series Moon Knight) and TV writers Boo Killebrew and Gail Lerner as well as panels with staff from festivals such as New Filmmakers LA, Hollyshorts, Austin, and Reel Sisters of the Diaspora. Most recently, she hosted the Winter Film Awards International Film Festival’s Education Day on the NYFA campus in New York, presenting workshops on “Social Media for Creatives” and “How to Craft the Low Budget Screen Story”.

A regular juror for the Forum on Life, Culture, and Society’s International Short Film Competition, Crickett also sat on the jury for the 2021 Tallgrass Film Festival, one of MovieMaker Magazine’s 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee. She now serves as their Panels Director.

Dr. Mary Samuelson Dean of General Education; Chair of Liberal Arts & Sciences

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Dr. Mary Samuelson received her Ph.D. and MA degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and completed her undergraduate work in Cinema-Television and English Literature at the University of Southern California (USC). For the past four years, Mary has taught courses and advised students in the Cinema and Media Studies and Writing Programs departments at UCLA, the Cinema-Television department at Los Angeles Community College (LACC), and here at the New York Film Academy (NYFA). Her essays “Radical Moment: The National Recovery Administration and Hollywood’s ‘New Deal’” and “Wartime News Flow: Government and Studio Newsreels, 1941-1945” will come out in collections focusing on film and the law (September 2016) and the U.S. newsfilm (June 2016), respectively. Mary’s dissertation “The Patriotic Play: Roosevelt, Antitrust, and the War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry” is slated for book publication in Spring 2017.

Eduardo Santa-Maria

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Eduardo Santa–Maria, more commonly known as “Eddy Moon”, is a Caribbean-American Latino director & creative producer based in Miami, FL. His work is heavily inspired by the Hispanic multiculturalism of Miami, and the playfulness available to storytellers via the medium of cinema.

He holds a B.F.A. in Filmmaking and an M.S. in Global Communications.

His work has screened at festivals around the world, including The Miami Film Festival, Inside Out Toronto, HBO’s NY Latino, San Francisco Latino, Tokyo Short Shorts, New Orleans, amongst many more. Alongside screening his works at festivals, he has also helped program festivals for organizations like Slamdance.

A founding member of the White Elephant Group (WEGFilms), a Miami film collective known for its ability to tell local stories in unique ways, while also advocating for filmmaking in South Florida. In his free time, he mentors young artists in Miami through the WEGFilms non-profit, ASFI.

Yoselin Solórzano

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Yoselin Solórzano is an Ecuadorian filmmaker based in South Florida. She holds a Master’s Degree in Producing form New York Film Academy. Yoselin has more than 10 years of working in the Ecuadorian television industry where she has functioned as a Content Producer and as First Assistant Director for unscripted and scripted shows. After moving to Miami, she currently teaches several producing courses for the filmmaking department and filmcraft courses for the acting for film department of NYFA Miami.

Luisa Ibanez Suarez

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Luisa Ibañez is a P.G.A Senior Content Film and TV Producer and member of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in the US and LATAM media industry, including an overall of 1000 hours of content produced in different formats for diverse audiences and three International Emmy nominations for projects premiered on the US primetime. From this journey, she understands the expectations of diverse audiences in Latin America, Spain and Latinos in the US. Credits as Development Producer, Line Producer, and Supervising Producer on the successful Hispanic TV Series and telenovelas from NBC Telemundo, Univision, Televisa, and Movistar prove her high-quality deliveries in projects distributed in more than 100 countries and over 35 languages.

Dr. Mark Woods

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Dr. Mark Woods holds a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the Film School for Wales and a B.A. in Liberal Studies / Film Studies Certificate from Florida International University, F.I.U., ‘cum laude.’ He is a qualified British lawyer, holding the LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law ‘with Distinction’ from Glamorgan Law School and the British Graduate Diploma in Law. Dr. Mark Woods serves on the faculty of the New York Film Academy (NYFA), South Beach Campus, having previously lectured abroad for 13 years, on the faculty of the British Creative Skillset Screen Academy, Cardiff, U.S.W., the F.I.U. Czech Film Study Abroad Program – Prague, and on the faculty of the University of Molise, Italy. He is an External Examiner for the International Baccalaureate in Film (IB) in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Woods has worked with the Miami International Film Festival and served on boards including IFP/Miami, Outshine Film Festival (formerly MGLFF).

Lori S. Wyman

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Lori S. Wyman, CSA, one of the most prominent Casting Directors in the southeast, has been casting films, television shows, and commercials in South Florida since 1979. Lori attended the University of Miami and she graduated with her Bachelors Degree in Speech and Communications and her minor in Education. She received her Master’s Degree from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) with a concentration in Drama Therapy. She pursued this degree in order to help actors with Audition Anxiety.

Upon graduating with her undergraduate degree, she aggressively pursued a casting career and immediately started working for ACT I Talent Agency. At the time, ACT I was the biggest talent agency in the State of Florida. Quickly building a reputation as one of the most outstanding talent agents in the business, she was asked by the company that was handling the Miami Vice casting if she would be one of their staff casting directors. While there, she worked on the Principal casting for “Miami Vice” during the 2nd and 3rd seasons. At the end of the 3rd season, she was approached by one of the producers of “Miami Vice” and asked to come work for them directly and head up their entire casting division. She did that for the duration of the series.

When “Miami Vice” wrapped, she was immediately asked to head up the casting offices of the Burt Reynolds series, “BL Stryker” and to cast the Florida episodes of Stephen J. Cannell’s “21 Jumpstreet” and “Wiseguy.” After these 3 series, Lori decided to make the lucrative move to commercials and feature film casting. In 1989 Lori was invited to become a member of the Casting Society of America, the professional organization of casting directors in the U.S.

She opened her own offices in North Miami Beach in the spring of 1990. With her own studio space, offices and equipment,
she was able to expand her business opportunities and provide a wider variety of services. Lori has also served on the Miami-Dade County Film, Print and Broadcast Advisory Board, helping to make decisions regarding the Film industry in Miami-Dade County. Lori is also a past vice-president of WOMPI, Women of the Motion Picture Industry, to whom she has contributed her casting services for many of their not-for-profit films that the organization produces for the good of the community.

Some of Lori’s more recent casting credits are MARCEL by Warner Bros on Apple TV, The Right Stuff on Disney Plus, HBO’s Ballers, Bloodline for Netflix, USA’s Burn Notice, The Glades and Graceland, and Starz’s Magic City. Lori is an EMMY nominee for HBO’S Recount and she has been nominated for 8 Artios and has won the prestigious Artios casting award 2 times for HBO’s Recount and Bloodline on Netflix.