Letter from the founder

Today’s teenagers live in an age that poses unique challenges for their sense of worth and sense of common humanity. Teenagers are inspiring in the freedom they inhabit and their declarations and inventions. But, being young right now often means being one, invisible person in an ever-growing, digitally-connected population of millions of invisible people. With endless technology and thousands of impersonal “interactions” as a result, our young people seek connections which build their compassion, personal engagement with and understanding of their peers, their world. We live in a time of constant communication, and so too do we live in a time of greater distance and anonymity that is depriving our youth of a vital need to connect.

By sharing each other's human stories in person, through film, the common threads and feelings of growing up will help teenage, devoted storytellers see familiarity in those around them and consider others a compliment to themselves.

Through Scout, through storytelling and celebration, we remind our youth they are individually unique and talented, their creative stories can empower them, and we can reassure them that they are collectively responsible for the legacy of their generation - through their lens.

I invite you to support and enjoy stories that will entertain you for a few moments and impact you for life. And I extend a special invitation to those teen and emerging filmmakers out there with ideas to share; your film is your voice and we hear you - please inspire and connect us.

Local Love, Global Love


About Anna Colavito

Founder and Executive Director

A resident of Stowe, Vermont—Anna Colavito has focused her entire professional career in project and creative management and production in advertising and film.  A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Anna triple majored in photography, anthropology, and English.  She is an independent film lover dedicated to supporting the open expression of young artists. Scout Film Festival is the culmination of Anna's personal and professional experiences combined with her belief in offering a dynamic venue for young people to focus their energy. Within her 14 years in advertising, Anna worked at acclaimed agencies Arnold Worldwide in Boston and Fallon, BBH and J Walter Thompson in New York City. She managed creative projects from initiation through production, guiding schedules, budgets, art and production, creative and technical processes. Anna became the Associate Director of Project Management and Creative Manager responsible for 20 project managers and over 100 creatives (art directors, designers, copywriters).In 2002, Anna joined the GenArt Film Festival as Producer and Tech Screener. In addition to screening hundreds of submissions, Anna served as a liaison between GenArt, the filmmakers, and theaters, scheduling and managing tech screenings with filmmakers and projectionists to ensure perfect technical outcomes for the premiere.In building the Scout Film Festival, Anna engaged the Creative Media Art and Design department of Green Mountain Technology and Career Center in Hyde Park, VT as a sounding board, think tank, and creative team. She then joined the Advisory Board as an ongoing opportunity to positively affect and learn from the exact target of her project.


About Adriana Teresa Letorney

Co-founder and Executive Producer

Adriana Teresa Letorney is the Co-founder and Executive Producer at Scout Film Festival. She is also the Founder & CEO of Visura.co, the go-to networking platform for publishers to discover freelance visual storytellers worldwide. 

Adriana Teresa is dedicated to studying the systematic challenges of sourcing professional freelance visual content creators and their content. Her mission is to elevate media literacy by highlighting the work of diverse freelance visual storytellers worldwide. 

As a writer, she has contributed interviews, columns, feature essays, and profile stories for the New York Times, and Huffington Post, amongst other publications. 

She has been a guest lecturer at numerous educational institutions, including the Fashion Institute of Technology, Missouri School of Journalism, The S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, The School of Visual Arts, and The New School in NY.

Throughout her career, Adriana Teresa has served as a publisher, producer, and co-producer. She was the publisher of Visura Magazine, producer of The FotoVisura Pavilion (2008-2013), and co-producer of the inaugural GuatePhoto International Festival (2010).  She was also guest curator for the New York Photo Festival (2008-11), Lucie Awards (2010), Photoville (2012-13), and GuatePhoto Festival (2010-2015), amongst others.  In 2011, Honorable Charles B. Rangel of the New York State House of Representatives added Adriana Teresa's Dia Exhibition to the Congressional Records in recognition of the impact it had in honoring the Puerto Rican photographers who documented their community in New York from 1960 to 1980.

Numerous publications have highlighted her career, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, NY Daily News, The Daring Magazine, SevenDays, amongst others.

Adriana completed a BA in Anthropology (2001) at the University of Puerto Rico and a BFA in photography (2007) at the School of Visual Arts NY. While attending the SVA, Adriana worked at Harper’s Bazaar Magazine (2006), Bruce Silverstein Gallery (2006), and Rolling Stone Magazine (2007); as well as, served as personal assistant to Sylvia Plachy, Suzanne Opton, and Donna Ferrato.

In 2021, she completed a Master's in American Journalism at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. The same year, she joined NYU's Entrepreneurship Institute, where she completed the LaunchPad, an award-winning immersive 9-week accelerator for scalable startups led by NYU students. 

Born & raised in Puerto Rico, Adriana Teresa lives between Vermont and New York with her son.
Currently, she is an NYU Female Founder Fellow, and Founder in Residence.

Scout Film Festival

Scout Film Festival (Scout)—is a 501c3 non-profit organization that produces an annual international event celebrating emerging filmmakers - aged 24 and under - through film.
Website via Visura

Scout Film Festival is integrated to:
Visura site builder, a tool to grow your photography business
Visura's network for visual storytellers and journalists
A photography & film archive by Visura
Photography grants, open calls, and contests
A newsfeed for visual storytellers
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