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Carl Spence is the artistic director of the Sonoma International Film Festival. Concurrent with his position at Sonoma, Spence is the Co-Founder, Co-director, and Chief Curator of the Orcas Island Film Festival in the San Juan Island Archipelago, North of Seattle, Washington.

As a film festival subject matter expert, Spence serves as a consultant to key industry companies including Eventive, an enterprise solutions provider specifically for the film festival ecosystem; FilmFreeway, the film submission platform used by filmmakers globally; and other film companies, filmmakers and film festivals worldwide.

Carl Spence’s more than 28 years of experience in the film festival world includes longtime leadership roles with the Seattle International Film Festival as Artistic and Co-Director. During his 23 years with Seattle, the festival grew to one of the largest attended and most prominent North American arts nonprofits, transforming from a once-a-year festival to a vital year-round presenting arts organization acquiring multiple cinema venues under his guidance. Other prominent industry positions include leadership roles with the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Director of Programming 2003-2008; Lead Programmer 2008-2016); the Miami Film Festival (Senior Programmer 2017-2022); and with the San Francisco International Film Festival (Director of Programming 2001-2003).