Albert Tholen is a creative producer and editor based in New York City. He produced concert film RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS (dir. Neo Sora, Venice International Film Festival 2023), co-produced feature film BRUISER (dir. Miles Warren, TIFF 2022, Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Performance Nominee), and has produced a number of short fiction films that have premiered at major international festivals, including BRUISER (dir. Miles Warren, Sundance 2021, SXSW 2021), THE CHICKEN (dir. Neo Sora, Locarno 2020, NYFF 2020), and THE RAT (dir. Carlen May-Mann, Sundance 2019).
Albert edited the BRUISER short and THE CHICKEN and has cut for media outlets and commercial clients, including CNN Digital, Great Big Story, Google, YouTube, and Etsy. The latest short film he produced and edited is SUGAR GLASS BOTTLE (Dir. Neo Sora, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Best Narrative Short).
Currently, Albert is in post-production on HAPPYEND, with THE CHICKEN writer-director Neo Sora, and in development on Miles Warren's next feature, THE DEVIL WOMAN.
Albert is a 2023 IFFR Rotterdam Lab Fellow, a 2022 Sundance Institute Producing Summit Fellow, and 2017 Sony Pictures Classic’s IFP Marcie Bloom Fellow in Film.
Aiko Masubuchi is a film curator, producer and translator based in Tokyo and New York. After working at MoMA’s Film Department and at the American Museum of Natural History, she was the Senior Film Programmer (2013-2018) at Japan Society in New York where she also organized JAPAN CUTS, the largest film festival of Japanese films in the Americas. She has guest-programmed at venues such as MoMA, Film Forum and Anthology Film Archives.
She has produced short films such as THE CHICKEN (dir. Neo Sora, Locarno 2020), WHAT IS IT THAT YOU SAID? (dir. Shun Ikezoe, New York 2021) and SUGAR GLASS BOTTLE (dir. Neo Sora), currently in post-production. She is producing a feature documentary currently in production about the Japanese Communist Party and HAPPYEND, the debut feature film by Neo Sora currently in post-production.
Aiko is an alumna of IFFR Sessions, Rotterdam Lab, VIPO Producing Lab and EAVE/Ties That Bind. She is also part of a team of producers and programmers who are opening a new arthouse theater in Tokyo in late January 2021.
Neo Sora is a Tokyo-based filmmaker, artist, and translator. He wrote and directed THE CHICKEN (Locarno 2020, NYFF 2020), a short film adaptation of a short story by Naoya Shiga, which was critically praised in publications such as Variety and Cahiers Du Cinéma. Recently, Filmmaker Magazine has named Neo one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.
Neo’s latest short film, SUGAR GLASS BOTTLE, premiered in 2022, winning Indie Memphis' top short film price, Best Narrative Short.
An alumnus of the 2017 Berlinale Talents Tokyo program and a 2022 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs Fellow, Neo is in post-production for his debut feature as a writer-director, HAPPYEND.