Andrea Passafiume

Andrea Passafiume is a Programming Associate for the Athena Film Festival and a veteran film programmer, consultant and writer based in the Washington DC Metro area. She is currently an Assistant Programmer of documentary features with the Tribeca Film Festival, Lead Programmer for the Seattle Deaf Film Festival, and Documentary Features Screener for the Sundance Film Festival. Previous Programming positions include Head Programmer of AFI DOCS, Programming Consultant for the Washington DC International Film Festival (Filmfest DC), and member of the Screening Committees for DOC NYC and Camden International Film Festival. Andrea has regularly served as a judge for the Gracie Awards, a juror and moderator for a variety of film festivals, and a member of the nominating committees for the Cinema Eye Honors and IDA (International Documentary Association) Awards. In 2022, she was appointed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to serve as a consultant for the Academy Foundation’s In Frame project, which seeks to build an open access database of filmmakers and films across broad areas of focus related to disability, ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, and social and cultural identities. Andrea serves on the disability committee, specifically contributing to d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing topics.

Prior to moving to the Washington DC area, Andrea was part of the AFI FEST Programming team in Los Angeles, where she coordinated screening events for the monthly Cinema’s Legacy series at the Skirball Center, monthly Directors Series screenings at the ArcLight Hollywood, as well as AFI’s weekly 100 Years…100 Movies series. She has taught a variety of college film history and culture classes, and spent eight years at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta where she held the position of Media Services Supervisor for Turner Classic Movies.

Andrea received her B.F.A. and M.A. in Cinema Studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In May 2023, she earned a Certificate in ASL (American Sign Language) from Montgomery College.