Hi Everyone, my name is Diane Becker and I'm one of the programmers here at the Jackson Hole Film Festival. On behalf of the programming staff, I want to welcome you to our blog! We are thrilled to be here and a big thanks to everyone at indieWIRE for getting us up and running. I was a member of the indieWIRE tribe many moons ago when I lived in New York and I can't think of a better home for us.

Last year I had the good fortune to be part of the screening committee for the festival, so I'm even more excited this year to come back as a programmer. We have an terrific lineup of films from all over the world. Each member of the programming staff will be a part of this blog, so stay tuned, because if there's one thing I can wholeheartedly say about us as a collective, it's that we all have large (loud), passionate (loud), and varied (loud) opinions. The result of which can be fully appreciated in the lineup of all of our films this year.

Since this is the place to get to know all that is Jackson Hole (and the crew that supports it), let me take a brief moment to fill you in on my background. I spent almost ten years in New York after college working as a photographer and graphic designer. One of my oldest and dearest friends from that time is Eugene Hernandez - we worked at ABC Television together in the dinosaur (pre-Disney) years. It was during that time that indieWIRE was created and we spent many years going to Sundance covering the festival, etc. I loved being around the film industry but the real truth was I wanted to so much be a part of it. I relocated to Los Angeles, gave up an amazing life with lots of friends and just started over. No one told me it would be at a turtle's pace or that I'd end up in grad school at the American Film Institute, but it's been an amazing journey - one I wouldn't change for anything.

I came to Jackson Hole through Melanie Miller, the Artistic Director of the festival. We had the chance to co-produce a short together a few years ago and have been friends ever since.

What I love about being a programmer is having the chance to see so much amazing talent that doesn't always have the support of the commercial world. It's great to see independent work being made, and careers being forged. For as much as I love making movies, I have to say that I love watching them even more.