Francesca Panetta,
Curator,
Sheffield DocFest Alternate Realities Programme
Francesca Panetta is an Emmy award-winning immersive director and industry leader in the world of experimental storytelling. She has pioneered new forms of documentary and journalism leading teams in newsrooms and universities harnessing emerging technologies for social impact. She is currently Curator of Sheffield DocFest’s Alternate Realities, and was a Creative Director at MIT where she made flagship AI work such as In Event of Moon Disaster. Before that she worked at the Guardian for over a decade pioneering new forms of journalism, including setting up and running the in-house virtual reality studio. Her works have won critical acclaim – receiving awards around the world, and touring the White House, Tribeca, Cannes, Sundance, and more. She was a 2019 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University
