Festival co-director Quentin Lee has announced the promotion of Melissa Dawn Johnson to festival co-director, where she will now run the festival alongside Lee. In addition, Yale alumna and producer Emma McAteer has joined the team as a programmer for Yale in Hollywood Fest.
Since the festival’s inception in 2000 as a virtual global film festival, Johnson has played a key role in shaping its programming, working closely with Lee and and longtime collaborator Hannah Ruth Earl, who stepped back from the festival last year.
A budding film producer, McAteer is an Irish-born, Los Angeles–based filmmaker whose work spans feature films, short films, music videos, and commercials. A graduate of Yale University with a degree in Economics, she brings a rare blend of creative vision and strategic insight. After beginning her career in Sony Pictures’ Worldwide Marketing division, she founded Lána Glas Productions, a company dedicated to bold, human-centered storytelling and amplifying underrepresented voices.
McAteer previously co-wrote and produced the short film Not for a Few Miles, which screened at Yale in Hollywood Fest last year.
“Since Hannah stepped back last year, it’s really been Melissa and me holding the fort,” said Lee. “Melissa connected Yale in Hollywood Fest to Jennifer Beals, who received our 2025 Career Achievement Award, and that momentum helped make our 2025 edition the festival’s strongest year yet. Serendipitously, I met Emma at our opening party, where she expressed interest in joining the festival’s executive team.”
Yale in Hollywood Fest 2026 will mark the festival’s seventh edition and will run December 3–5.
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