Mike Flanagan and Lucia Aniello join DGA mentorship class: who is paired with whom

The Directors Guild of America’s Women’s Steering Committee has announced its seventh WSC Squad mentorship class, according to Variety’s October 22 report. Lucia Aniello, Mike Flanagan, Boots Riley, Karyn Kusama and Lesli Linka Glatter are among the mentors paired with mid-career women and nonbinary directors.

Variety lists 12 mentor–mentee pairs. Aniello is paired with Carmen Angelica, Flanagan with Anna Halberg, Riley with Tiffany Johnson, Kusama with Kate Sullivan and Glatter with Mallory Thompson. The program runs for nine months, with a curriculum built around collaboration and discussions of challenges women directors face.

Who else is in the seventh WSC Squad class?

The mentors work across film and television. Aniello’s credits include ‘Hacks’ and ‘Broad City,’ while Kusama directed ‘Jennifer’s Body’ and ‘Girlfight.’ Riley’s work includes ‘Sorry to Bother You,’ and Glatter, a former DGA president, has directed ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Homeland.’ Variety also identifies Flanagan with ‘Carrie’ and the upcoming ‘The Exorcist: Martyrs.’

How does the DGA mentorship program work?

The WSC Squad Mentorship Program began in 2021, Variety reported. Its nine-month format pairs established directors with mid-career women and nonbinary directors and brings the group together to discuss career challenges. The DGA described the 2025–26 group as its sixth mentorship cycle, making the newly reported class the program’s seventh.

Program co-leaders Karla Braun, Jess Brunetto, Tiffany Frances and Alexis Ostrander said in a joint statement quoted by Variety that their mission is to ‘cultivate and strengthen the careers of our SQUAD cohort.’ They said the directors deserve opportunities to reach the next level and described building the group’s community as particularly meaningful amid an industry contraction.

Braun, Brunetto, Frances and Ostrander lead the program alongside WSC co-chairs Shaz Bennett, Jade Jenise-Dixon and Valerie Weiss, and alternate co-chair Liz Ryan, according to Variety. Bennett also appears in this year’s pairings as Abe Sylvia’s mentee.