Mission Forward — A Free Community Panel
Investing in film can be as thrilling as the movies themselves. This panel pulls back the curtain on funding models, market trends, and the balance of risks and rewards in both studio and independent projects. Industry experts will share what investors look for, how data and algorithms shape decisions, and why financing films remains both an art and a business.
Moderator: Steve Alexander
Steve Alexander is a producer and actor best known as executive producer of The Secret Art of Human Flight (Tribeca Film Festival, 2023), in which he also appeared. He and his wife and actress, Idylia Hachi, are founding partners of AHA Productions, where their next project is The Species with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Charlotte Rampling. Alexander is executive producing the upcoming film Nuur (2025), directed by Lula Ali Ismaïl and adapted from Hassan Ghedi Santur's novel, The Youth of God. He is the executive producer of the documentary, My Elephant Odyssey (2025), produced and directed by Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell and Timothy Rodwell. In 2025, he joined the board of The Museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York, on the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair.
Alysha Haran, Producer, Director and COO Chula Vista Entertainment Center, Alysha's career started in theater before moving to LA where she produced commercials and music videos. After a change in plans spared her from the events of 9/11, she spent 17 years serving as a US Navy Officer. A member of the Dramatist Guild with degrees in Directing and Creative Writing, she has been a senior manager for ABC Studios at Walt Disney Television
for the past 5 years
The Coronado Island Film Festival (CIFF) welcomes makers and lovers of film from all over the world to the storied seaside village of Coronado, California to celebrate the magical art of visual storytelling. Coronado’s enduring love affair with Hollywood began more than a century ago.