Biography

Director of Programming

Derek Horne

Derek Horne is the Director of Programming for the Annapolis Film Festival. Derek started his festival career in the Filmmaker Services Department at the Sundance Film Festival and has since programmed dozens of other festivals from coast to coast including Newport, R.I. to Newport Beach CA. Previously he was the Director of Programming for the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (an Oscar-qualifying festival) and is currently the Director of Shorts Programming for the Santa Fe International Film Festival (which became Oscar-qualifying under his tenure) and the Director of Programming for the Tampa Animation Festival. Derek also worked in film acquisitions with Shortbuzz.com, iCast.net, and Atom Films (the first wave of streaming platforms long before the dawn of YouTube and Netflix).  Derek was the founding editor of Kodak’s student filmmaking magazine and has also written for IndieWire and FilmInk. He  was the inaugural Film Coordinator at Chapman University’s film school for 11 years and currently he is the Distribution Coordinator at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, which is ranked the #1 film school in the world. (As reported by Hollywood Reporter two years in a row)