Film Festival Jury
Spring 2021
Vincent Aniceto
Producer
Vincent Aniceto is a producer who has worked on multiple animated series for Hasbro Studios and Cartoon Network. Currently, he is producing The VeggieTales Show, a modern revival of the beloved and classic children’s series, for Trilogy Animation Group.
Aniceto is known for his work on Transformers: Animated, The Powerpuff Girls, and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, which he was nominated for 2 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Animated Program.”
David Bloom
Writer, Podcaster, and Consultant
David Bloom is a writer, podcaster, and consultant focused on the transformative collision of technology, media and entertainment. Bloom is a senior editor for Forbes, weekly columnist for Tubefilter, and frequent contributor to TVRev, among other publications.
He is a producer and host of the Bloom in Tech podcast, and has consulted on content and communications strategy with a wide range of corporate, government and non-profit organizations.
He also was Vice President of Communications at MGM, and associate dean and CCO at the USC Marshall School of Business. He has taught digital media at USC School of Cinematic Arts, and is a frequent guest lecturer at UCLA, Boston University, Syracuse, Pepperdine and Chapman.
Bloom has previously worked as an award-winning staff writer and editor for publications such as Variety, Deadline, Red Herring magazine and the Los Angeles Daily News.
Bloom graduated with honors from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Deborah Calla
Writer/ Producer and Activist
Deborah Calla is a writer/ producer and activist. She produced the 2020, 2019, 2018 Media Access Awards featuring such talent as Simon Cowell, Jimmy Kimmel, Selma Blair, Whoopi Goldberg, Marlee Matlin and Jane Lynch. Calla also produced Chicano Artists (HBO Latino), an exploration of the contemporary trajectory of Chicano art in Los Angeles, A Beautiful Life (Showtime) a feature film with Jesse Garcia, Debbie Mazar and Angela Sarafyan, You Got Served: Beat the World (Sony), Carnival in Rio (Travel Channel), Lost Zweig (TV Cultura), and Dream House (Paramount) with Justin Theroux. Calla is the writer of Romeo & Juliet (MOW) for Freeform, adapted the limited series Stolen Love (Globo International) for the U.S. market. She co-wrote the film A Beautiful Life (Showtime).
Calla served as the chair of the Producers Guild of America Diversity Committee from 2004 to 2018, co-founder (with producer Lydia Dean Pilcher) of the Producers Guild of America Women’s Impact Network, and the Brazil Chair of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. She is also the CO-CEO of the Media Access Awards a non-profit created by Norman Lear, with the goal to advocate for greater inclusion of people with disabilities in media.
Prior to writing for film and television, Calla wrote two health and fitness books for Putnam and one for Scholastic. She has also written for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and had a column in the Huffington Post for many years. She has lectured, created workshops and presentations on film production and screenwriting in the U.S., Jordan, Brazil and Taiwan among other countries.
Romell Foster-Owens
Filmmaker, Producer, Director, and Writer
Romell Foster-Owens is an award winning Filmmaker, Producer, Director, and Writer of television series, shorts, commercials, and independent feature films. A 20 year veteran of TV and film, Foster-Owens has produced over 100 hours of television, produced 30 films and directed the feature films, Reach For The Skies and The Three Muscatels, both distributed by SONY.
Foster-Owens has the rare distinction of three films, that she produced, being “Official Selections” of the Cannes Film Festival. Other festivals include Sedona, Palm Beach, Pan African International Film Festival, Dances With Films, and the Milan, Madrid and Cleveland International Film Festivals.
Additionally, she produced The Lift, winner of Best Film and Best Director at the Madrid International Film Festival and My Mom And The Girl, winner of the Best Picture and Jury Award at the Connect Film Festival. She produced feature films, First Love and The Lonesome Trail.
Foster-Owens’ numerous awards include an EMMY Award, NAACP Image Award, and the Black Filmmaker’s Hall of Fame Award for Best Independent Film, the National Council of Christians and Jews Humanitarian Award and the Platinum Aurora Award for Best In Show. She also the winner of three Gold Aurora Awards, four Telly Awards, four Addy Awards and the Women In Film Spotlight Award for Outstanding Achievement as a producer.
Foster-Owens is a graduate of the prestigious American Film Institute (Directing), San Diego State University (Theatre), the Producers Guild of America’s Power of Diversity Workshop and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca All Access Program. Foster-Owens is a member of the Alliance Of Women Directors, Women In Film, and Board Member of the Gang Alternatives Program and a Board Member Emeritus of The American Film Institute’s Center for Advance Film Studies. Foster-Owens is the President of Jowharah Films.
Brian McLaughlin
Producer and Co-President of Emerald Elephant Entertainment
As a producer and co-president of Emerald Elephant Entertainment, Brian McLaughlin has produced four feature films – all acquired for distribution, two on Amazon Prime Video. He has several in development, a few of which are currently being shopped around. He’s a member of the Producers Guild of America and is on its Education, Mentoring, and Asian American Pacific Islander committees, as well as a mentor in its Power of Diversity Master Workshop and One-on-One Mentoring Program. There was an article about McLaughlin and his work with veterans in the PGA’s Produced By magazine October/November 2018 issue. He is an active member of Veterans in Media and Entertainment and its Producers Guild Liaison.
McLaughlin has written two feature film screenplays, one of which was a quarter-finalist in the prestigious PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and selected for the PGA’s Diversity Workshop. He’s a member of Imagine Entertainment’s invitation-only Impact Community, 500 writers out of 20,000 applicants. McLaughlin is an alumnus of the Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project and continues as a volunteer in that training. He’s been published in The Hollywood Reporter and Produced By magazine.
McLaughlin was a visiting film producer at Notre Dame and instructor at the Los Angeles Film School. He is a former Army major who commanded a paratrooper unit, served in Afghanistan in special operations, and later returned to Afghanistan as the media production advisor to General Petraeus. McLaughlin has a business degree from Notre Dame and an MBA from Boston University. Notre Dame honored him with an Exemplary Asian Pacific Alumni Award.
Keyonna Monroe
Teacher of Emotional & Spiritual Wellness, Mental Health, and Race Relations
Keyonna Monroe teaches extensively on emotional intelligence and collaborates with several companies and institutions including Microsoft, Wells Fargo, IBM, Whole Foods, Obama Foundation, NAACP, and DOVE. Monroe discusses topics around emotional & spiritual wellness, mental health, and race relations. She has spoken at national and international conferences, companies, and universities such as WAGS, NYU, USC, Loyola Marymount, Misericordia University, Berkely and UCLA annually, and is tapped by companies such as Job Corps, Boys and VyStar Credit Union, Raytheon and Boeing to share her unconventional insights on leadership, and business.
Certified in well-being, Contemporary Theory in Mental Health Services, Neuro-linguistic Programming and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She believes that the therapeutic relationship is vital to success and is respectfully attentive to cultural factors and the unique history and circumstances of each client.
Additionally, she produced The Lift, winner of Best Film and Best Director at the Madrid International Film Festival and My Mom And The Girl, winner of the Best Picture and Jury Award at the Connect Film Festival. She produced feature films, First Love and The Lonesome Trail.
Keyonna Monroe is a survivor of child trafficking, and often speaks about preventing/Identifying/healing in terms of overall wholeness. Keyonna Monroe is the CEO and Executive Director of Pretty2Me.org, a nonprofit organization that teaches mental and emotional health in the form of self-love to young girls. With a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Communications, as an alum of both Spelman College and USC, Keyonna worked in marketing & advertising before making her way to major television networks as an editor and journalist.
Karla Kurz Murray
Manager/Executive
Karla Kurz Murray just wrapped working on one of the very first Warner Brother’s features filmed during the 2020 “covid-19 pandemic” titled No Sudden Move, directed by Steven Soderbergh and produced by Casey Silver. The feature set in 1955 Detroit has an all-star cast including: Don Cheadle, Benecio del Toro, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Brendan Fraser, Bill Duke, Frankie Shaw and Matt Damon.
From 2010-2017, Murray served as International Manager of Film Detroit. She was influential in attracting the largest budgeted film of 2015, Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice, and co-creating the Detroit Film Initiative with the City of Detroit.
Previously, Murray was an Executive at Dreamworks Studio’s based Remote Control Productions, partnered with Academy-Award winning film composer Hans Zimmer. Prior roles included working with mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer at Paramount Pictures and award winning directors Tony and Ridley Scott at their production company, Scott Free, developing films such as Crimson Tide with Denzel Washington and Domino with Kiera Knightly
Murray began her career working with cult director/ filmmaker Sam Raimi (Evil Dead/Spiderman 1,2,3) on Crimewave, co-written by Sam Raimi and Joel & Ethan Coen. In 2014, Murray was named Tech Week’s Detroit “Tech 100.” Currently, Murray’s involved with Michigan Independent Film Industry Association to create a film tax-incentive for Michigan.
Simone Nelson
Creator, Creative Executive and Producer
Simone Nelson is a master at developing impactful, newsworthy remote and onsite events, conferences, performances, experiences, partnerships, marketing, public relations and communication strategies, and content with and for high profile and iconic companies and organizations. These include: Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Disruptors & Virgin Airlines, Disney, Sony, Paramount, Pixar and Array Studios, as well as NBA, Digital Hollywood, SAG-AFTRA, Masterclass, Dolby Labs, Adobe, Facebook (Oculus), The Screen Actors Guild, The Television Academy, The Motion Picture Arts & Science’s Academy, Yale University, London’s Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal Court Theatres, San Francisco Opera, The International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Mill Valley Film Festival/California Film Institute, Film Arts Foundation, Global Film Initiative, The California State University system, Women In Film, The LA Mayor’s Office, and The Global Social Change Film Festival in Bali, Indonesia, The Los Angeles Economic Development Fund (LAEDC). The DreamlandXR Festival at CES, and many more (including the earliest incarnation of Holiday Channel with founder Reesa Ryder).
Additionally, Nelson has served as a creative executive and producer to award-winning industry leaders including the former head of Disney Studios, Animation & Theatrical, Peter Schneider, writer/director Rebecca Miller, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain.
Nelson was the original producer on the Berlin Film Festival award-winning LGBTQ+ documentary film, City of Borders, and the critically acclaimed Sundance Film Festival Award Winner, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Nelson began her career as an actor and vocalist. She has a B.S. in Theater from Northwestern University and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.
Sean Palsgaard
Producer
Sean Palsgaard is a producer with over a decade of experience in film and television. He has served as a producer on various successful television series, such as It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Silicon Valley, and Mythic Quest. Recently, Palsgaard worked with actor/ producer Charlie Day on his feature directorial debut, El Tonto.
Palsgaard started his career working in the development department at Silver Pictures (Die Hard, The Matrix, V for Vendetta), where he learned what makes a screenplay successful and turned into a major motion picture.
Palsgaard is a graduate of The Los Angeles Film School and the Producers Guild of America’s Power of Diversity Master Workshop.
Shuja Paul
writer/director
Shuja Paul is a writer/director. In 2011, he was among eight writers selected to pitch his script Tie the Knot at the American Film Market, which led to its production and a Netflix deal with worldwide distribution.
Paul transitioned to filmmaking after managing global business development for ten years at ABB, a large multinational power and automation corporation.
Shuja is also a trained SAG actor with credits including HBO TV show Brink, TNT TV show Murder In The First and Lifetime TV show Help What’s Killing Me.
Paul directed an international team in Laos and Thailand
for the production of Waiting To Explode, a documentary based on danger zones of unexploded ordinances. He has also directed four annual TV shows for Sony Pictures Entertainment with guest celebrities Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors and Sunil Gavaskar.
Additionally, Paul has three TV series and six feature films in development including Unusual Assets, a story based on Paul’s travels to over 25 countries.
Shuja studied filmmaking at New York Film Academy, where he directed several short films before his first feature film.
Koji Steven Sakai
Writer/Producer
Writer/Producer Koji Steven Sakai is the founder of Little Nalu Pictures LLC. He has written seven feature films that have been produced, including, The Commando, a feature film starring Michael Jai White and Mickey Rourke; Haunted Highway (2006), The People I’ve Slept With, Santa & Me, #1 Serial Killer, and Dying to Kill.
Most recently, Sakai wrote and produced a feature film, Last Girl, which is in post-production. The film was the directorial debut of Arsal Asal and stars Jeanne Lau, Stephen L. Wilson, Sarah Wong Thompson, and Christopher Dionne. In addition, his screenplay, Romeo, Juliet, & Rosaline, was optioned by Amazon Studios.
Sakai has also produced a one-hour comedy special on Starz, Dwayne Perkins: Take Note; Comedy InvAsian, a television series featuring the nation’s top Asian American comedians, and Brash Girls Club, a limited comedy series, which premiered on Tubi TV. He produces and hosts three podcasts; Guy Code; Best OR Worst Podcast with M. Martin Mapoma; and Midnight Watchers with Quentin Lee and Jennifer Field.
A graduate of the University of Southern California’s Masters of Professional Writing program, Sakai is currently a screenwriting instructor at UCLA Extensions, New York Film Academy in Burbank, and Chapman University.
Danielle Stallings
Producer/ Director
Danielle Stallings is a producer/ director who began her career as a professional stage actor. After earning her BFA at USC’s School of Cinema & Television and an MFA in film production from Loyola Marymount University, she went on to a successful career in Hollywood working with some of the most famous negotiators in the entertainment industry. Stallings held managerial positions in legal and business affairs at SAG/AFTRA, Turner Networks, Sony Pictures Television and two top-tier entertainment law firms.
As a writer/director, her award-winning films have played at festivals worldwide including several prominent sci-fi and horror festivals in the USA, UK, Europe and Asia. Her 16mm short, Porn Queens of the 70’s was honored by the Directors Guild of America. Recent achievements include two 35mm films based on classic literary pieces.
Stallings has a 14-year history of animal welfare activism. She is most proud of having served as the point-person and facilitator of the negotiations between Chris DeRose of Last Chance For Animals and HBO for the ground-breaking documentary Dealing Dogs.
Stallings has proudly executive produced over 500 short films and 20 PSA’s delivered to non-profit clients. She currently holds the position of residential faculty in film production at the Scottsdale School of Film+Theatre.
Ken Tullo
Producer/ Writer
Ken Tullo is an Emmy-nominated producer/writer with over two decades of producing experience. He has worked predominantly for companies, such as NBA Entertainment, NFL Network, Fox Sports, Tennis Channel, Audience Sports (AT&T/DirecTv), E! Entertainment and Imaginary Forces.
Tullo has a proven track record of high quality content execution, development, and delivery, as well as creative team leadership, editorial supervision, and design visualization.
Tullo is a member of the Producers Guild of America and he also serves as a mentor to its Power of Diversity Workshop. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a Master’s degree in Mass Communications from Syracuse University, and a Master’s degree in Radio, Television and Digital Communication from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications.
Sue Vicory
Film Director, Writer, Producer and Executive Producer
Three-time Telly Award winning filmmaker, Sue Vicory has been a film director, writer, producer and executive producer for the past 15 years. She has filmed across the country, as well as Europe and Africa.
She created Heartland Films, Inc., a 501(c)(3) to create films which inspire and educate. Her first documentary film, Homelessness & The Power Of One, premiered in 2005, screened coast to coast, won multiple awards and raised $200,000 for shelters.
Vicory’s second film, Kansas City Jazz & Blues; Past, Present & Future, a feature documentary aired on PBS. In 2015, Vicory created Team XX, an all female cast and crew of 25 for the San Diego 48 Hour Film Project, and completed a film titled Down Stage. It was nominated for the Spirit of San Diego Award.
Vicory has been an Emmy judge both regionally and nationally. She has spoken on panels around the world, including Sundance Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. Vicory has been a producer, presenter and judge for the San Diego Film Awards multiple years.
She is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors. Vicory received a Master’s degree in Computer Resource Management from Webster University.
Todd Waterman
American Animator, Director, Producer and Storyboard Artist
Todd Waterman is an American animator, director, producer and storyboard artist. He is currently the executive producer/ showrunner and supervising director spearheading a modern revival of The VeggieTales Show (2019), the beloved and classic children’s series.
Waterman is recognized for directing Hasbro Studio’s animated series Transformers Prime (2010-2103), and Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2013-2016), which he was twice nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Directing in an Animated Series.” He is known for working at such major studios as MGM Animation, Fox Studios, Sony Pictures, Nickelodeon, and at Walt Disney Animation Studios where he was an animator on Mulan (1998), and The Tigger Movie (2002).
In 2018, Waterman was hired by Trilogy Productions, as Executive Producer. Waterman has since formed Trilogy Animation Group, where he is responsible for all animated content and production on all new episodes of The VeggieTales Show (2018 – present). Trilogy Animation Group plans to expand with multiple projects currently in development.
Matthew Watts
Show Runner, Producer, Director, and Writer
Matthew Watts is a show runner, producer, director, and writer for television series and independent feature films. Currently, he is in development on the feature film, Greed, starring Tim Simons (Jonah from Veep).
Watts is known for being an executive producer/showrunner for Killer Siblings (2019-2021), 22 episodes, and an executive producer/director for Method Of A Serial Killer (2018), a two hour special, both aired on Oxygen Network. Other projects include executive producer/director for Epic Mysteries (2015-2016) and Footsteps in the Snow (2014), which aired on Lifetime Movie Network, and Dahmer on Dahmer: A Serial Killer Speaks (2017), which debuted on Oxygen Network. He directed the feature film Mutual Friends (2013) and wrote Swamp People Season 4 (2013), a reality TV show which aired on History Channel.
Watts has a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Media Studies from SUNY Albany and an MFA from Columbia University in New York.
Andrei Zinca
Director/Producer
Andrei Zinca is a leading international Director/Producer with more than 1,500 hours of television in the United States Hispanic and Latin American markets. He studied directing and film production at the University of Southern California (USC) and, previously, film and TV photography in Romania. In Bucharest, he was a Camera Operator for eight features prior to making his directorial and producing debut with Rosa de America, a 6 hour period TV mini series shot in Peru.
In 1988, Mr. Zinca moved to the U.S., where he established himself as a leading Director/ Producer for the TV Hispanic U.S. and Latin American markets. In 1991, he was nominated for an Emmy Regional Award for a Special Program about Pope John-Paul II and the Vatican, which he directed and co-produced. In 2006, Mr. Zinca returned to Romania as a Line Producer for Mirrors, a New Regency/20th Century Fox production. He also directed a local version of ER, which won two Romanian prestigious awards for Best Series.
In 2013, he directed, co-wrote and co-produced Puzzle For a Blind Man, his first theatrical feature. The U.S.-Romania co-production was awarded for best picture, script, lead actors and photography at independent film festivals in the U.S.; and has been sold to various European countries, Turkey and U.S.
His second feature is also a U.S.-Romania co-production, So, What’s Freedom?, won the Audience Choice Award for Best Romanian movie at TIFF Cluj-Napoca 2020 and is scheduled to premiere in 2021. Zinca is currently producing a U.S.-Germany-South Africa feature documentary shooting in South Africa. Zinca is the co-founder and CEO of Voxx Studios, a Los Angeles based audio post-production studio. and is a member of Film Independent LA, IFP NY and NALIP.