Film Festival Jury
Fall 2021
Sasheen Artis
Sasheen Artis is a two-time Emmy winning producer with over 25 years of experience developing and producing television, film and live events, including a Prince concert and two national book tours that garnered two New York Times Bestsellers. She has worked with notables such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, actor/director Robert Duvall, actress Cicely Tyson, LA Phil Conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and singer/songwriter Annie Lennox.
As Chair of the Producers Guild of America Power of Diversity Master Workshop, Artis was responsible for the PGA’s flagship diversity initiative. During her term, participants’ success rate increased from 60% to 100% in securing funding, representation, or employment. Moreover, Artis was invited by HRH Princess Rym Ali and the Royal Film Commission to lead a week-long seminar for creatives in Amman, Jordan, where she taught pitching, story development, budgets and schedules, and marketing. Named a Wayfinder Foundation Fellow in 2019, Artis spearheaded the initiative and produced a webinar for creatives “Ground Zero: Narratives on Homelessness” to help change the depiction of the homeless in media.
Getting her start in marketing and creative services at Paramount Home Entertainment, Artis worked on blockbuster campaigns for Titanic, Mission: Impossible, Braveheart and TV series like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Nickelodeon’s Rugrats. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Producers Guild of America, and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Artis is originally from New York City and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Standford University.
John Berger
John Berger is a stage performer, writer and director. His company, Mannheim Road Films, specializes in all aspects of film and video production from concept to final cut. One of his latest short films, YAPP, is a Chicago comedy starring Tim Kazurinsky, Cayne Collier and a hilarious cast of characters.
He is an alumnus of the world renowned Second City Conservatory, which is an advanced program training performers in creating sketch comedy through improvisation. Additionally, Berger studied film writing and directing at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois.
Angela Boisvert
Angela Boisvert is an award-winning television producer whose credits include: Artbound: Lula Washington, Open Your Eyes, Writers
Block Presents: Linda Ronstadt, Lost LA, and Fine Cut: Festival of Films.
Boisvert has worked in the film and television industry for over 15 years and serves as the Director of Production for KCET/PBS SoCal/LinkTV. She is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America as well as the Academy for Television, Arts and Sciences.
Carmine Cervi
Carmine Cervi has produced and directed feature and short documentaries as well as fiction films in both the United States and Italy. A professional actor since the age of ten, and alumnus of Chicago’s improv scene, Cervi graduated from Columbia College before relocating to Rome. In Italy, he co-wrote and starred in a weekly TV series, as well as appeared in commercials and performed voice work at the famed Cinecittà. He went on to produce and edit short background docs for Pupi Avati’s DueA Film and directed his first feature documentary, Sacred Sounds, in Morocco.
Upon returning to Chicago, he partnered with Ilko Davidov at BulletProof Film to produce and direct fiction and non-fiction films, and provide production and post-production services for other independent producers.
Cervi has juried a number of film festivals, and co-founded and was director of the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival (CIMMfest).
Timothy Dillard
Upon Tim Dillard’s love of film began as a toddler when he demanded to attend a second screening of Superman at the age of three, but his love of filmmaking began when he snuck onto the set of Carlito’s Way as a teenager.
After studying directing and acting in college, Dillard spent four years grinding away in the independent film scene of Austin, Texas in the nineties, working in whatever capacity he could on projects that ranged from big budget and prestigious to schlock. A move to Europe in 2002 found Dillard working as a personal assistant, stand in, production assistant, production coordinator, and assistant director on various jobs that brought him to locations across Europe and Africa.
After a chance encounter with six-time Academy Award Nominee Jim Sheridan, Dillard began his professional screenwriting career. He has gone on to have a couple of scripts optioned, a couple sold, and several more to write, pitch, and eventually produce.
“Film is the highest form of artistic expression and there is nothing that compares to being a part of the army of technicians, craftspeople, artists, accountants, caterers and rogues that come together to realize the vision of a director.”
Romell Foster-Owens
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 Kallies
Brian Kallies is an independent documentary filmmaker having produced and/or edited feature docs and docuseries for Showtime, Discovery+, American
Public Television, Apple TV, Amazon, TruTV, other networks and streaming services.
His comedy documentary “Phunny Business” was critically acclaimed by Roger Ebert as “one of the best documentaries of the year.” Kallies’ environmental feature-length documentary directorial debut, Everglades Of The North, inspired a national wildlife preserve and water trail. His editorial and story work on another environmental documentary, Shifting Sands, directly affected legislation to create the Indiana Dunes National Park.
Gustavo Martín Benites Gálvez
Gustavo Martín Benites Gálvez is a Latinx director, screenwriter, and producer based in Chicago. His work has been screened at film festivals around the world and featured on the popular short film website Filmstortage.com.
When not working on personal films, Martín contributes his talents to the ever-growing Chicago film industry as a Location Scout for feature films, television, and commercials. His most recent credits include the films Candyman And The Last Shift, as well as the upcoming Amazon show Paper Girls.
Tony Medici
Tony Medici is an award winning producer/director/cinematographer with a passion for the visual arts. He is driven to utilize these arts as a catalyst to effect change, create dialog and foster new and expanding perspectives. As Marshal Macluhan declared, “The Medium is the message.”
His career has spanned over 40 years and is going strong. During this time, Medici has been contributing to the creation of television programs covering a myriad of genres from news, sports and cable programming, to corporate, industrial, arts, social media, not for profit and short form and feature documentaries.
Documentary production is my life’s work. It is within this genre that he is most driven and finds his greatest fulfillment. Documentaries afford Medici and the people he collaborates with, the opportunity to share diverse subject matter that he hopes enriches viewer’s points of view, as well as motivates conversation on important social issues.
Medici’s documentary work has touched upon a diverse array of topics ranging from Chicago’s Mexican mural movement, rock star Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, arson, the labor movement in Chicago, the history of Maxwell Street, Chicago’s legendary outdoor bazar, Ken Nordine the creator of Word Jazz, “Juke” hip hop, The Chicago “Imagists” and others.
Maja Memišević
Maja Memišević is a Chicago based Bosnian born and raised producer of short films and documentaries. While studying law in Sarajevo, she was an active member of the local film and music industries, which inspired her to pursue a creative arts path. Memišević collaborates with talented filmmakers from USA, Canada, Peru and Brazil passionately seeking to understand herself, and the world around her through film.
When not working on shorts and docs, Memišević contributes her talents and skills to the ever-growing Chicago film industry working in production on feature films, television, reality shows, and commercials for well-known networks such as Netflix, Amazon, Fox, HBO, NBC, etc.
Her credits include The Last Yugoslavs (documentary), The Carbonaro Effect (reality show), Amy Schumer (Netflix specials), What They Had (narrative feature starring Hilary Swank), Hypothetical (award winning short film), The Orange Story (short film).
Memišević has been involved in many film festivals, such as Sarajevo Film Festival, Sundance, Chicago International Film Festival, CIMMfest, and WIFF where she was also selected to be a jury member in 2020 for Mark Boscariol’s 48 Hour Flick Fest.
Dave Moore
Dave Moore graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 1992 and has been working in the film and music world since.
After working with the City of Chicago’s Film Office producing industry conferences and film showcases, he took on the role of Executive Director of The Chicago International Music and Movie Film Festival. CIMMFest became the second largest film festival in Chicago with annual attendance over 10,000.
Koji Steven Sakai
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.p
Abe Scheuermann
Abe Scheuermann is a writer/ producer working primarily in documentary television. Among others, Scheuermann has produced television for History, Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet and TRVL.
After producing two documentary series for History and Animal Planet which used 3D animation, he founded a small, independent video game studio, 800 North, where he developed Dino D-Day, which released on Stream in 2011.
Rana Segal
Rana Segal has worked as director, producer and cinematographer for over 30 years. Her work has aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, and Discovery Health Channel. She is an award-winning Director and has received an Emmy nomination for Painting the Town about a Chicago Mural artist, and as a Producer for Shifting Sands: On The Path To Sustainability, about the Indian Dunes.
Her latest film is called The Light Of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument To Ida B. Wells.
Janice Varney-Hamlin
Janice Varney-Hamlin’s scope of expertise spans entertainment, consumer products, tech and retail industries where she built billion-dollar global brands. She is the founder and CEO of Marketing Immersion, a marketing agency with an expertise and passion for building businesses and brand profitability. Some of their clients include Netflix, Amazon, PBS, PSD Underwear, Mattel, McDonalds, etc.
Varney-Hamlin has been honored by being featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal and was granted the title “one of the movers and shakers of the year” as part of a cover story by HFN. She has appeared in Time Magazine, USA Today, Good Morning America, People, Eye on Business, OC Business Journal, Good Morning America and NPR.
Recently, she was featured in two of four episodes of the Netflix documentary, The Toys That Made Us. In this documentary, Varney-Hamlin was noted for her work on Barbie and for being the creator of She-Ra, the most powerful woman in the universe.
Varney-Hamlin earned an MBA from CSULA and a Master’s in Internet Marketing and Analytics from USF. She is an advisor and member of Arch Angels of Orange County, OSEA, and Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel investment group in the country. She holds board positions on Cuddly.com, and The ACE Fund.
Elizabeth Waller
Most of Elizabeth Waller’s work has been documentary, working with such people as Tom Weinberg, Ron Weiner, Towers Productions, Duke Hillinger, Ben Hollis, D.P. Carlson, and Rana Segal. She has stood on line for 7:00am breakfast at the commissary of PBS behind Bill Kurtis and has done several special projects, such as Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Chicago. She was working in a newsroom on 9/11.
Waller is a born-and-bred New Yorker and traces her interest in film and media to the influence of her Aunt who worked for decades at NBC-TV NY in the days when it was not so easy to be a woman in television.
She studied/produced films in Paris, The Center for New Television, Chicago; produced a talk show under Ron Weiner (Phil Donohue’s original Director) at Columbia College, Chicago. She has worn many hats in the production world, including location/talent scouting, writing, editing, voiceovers, visuals/scripts, tape logs, shooting, pulling/logging tape, producing segments and creative consulting.
She gives a respectful nod to all of this festival’s participants knowing the blood, sweat, and tears that go into it all and looks forward to seeing their names roll in credits for years to come.
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson is an animator with 20 years experience. Most of his work has been in the arena of advertising. Some of the agencies he has worked with under the title of motion director include Leo Burnett, DDB, FCB Draft and HAVAS Worldwide.
Wilson is also a music producer with producer credits on over 10 albums.
Film Festival Jury
Summer 2021
John Diaz
John Diaz has had a successful career in production for some of the major animation studios, which include Hasbro Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Currently, he is a production manager for Trilogy Animation Group.
Romell Foster-Owens
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.
Alexander Gray
An Emmy nominated producer, Alexander Gray has brought his unique perspective on DC Comics and Comic book entertainment to the Warner Bros. brand. First as a studio Executive Producer, with his years of experience through Warner Home Entertainment, to founding and leading the company Studio West Pictures, Inc.
Gray was instrumental at the start of the DC Universe animated movies, by challenging the system to include complex thought-provoking documentaries, which captured the stories and emotion that fans like him were excited to see.
From the first DC Entertainment Animated movie under his watchful eye, Superman Doomsday, to the most current offering, the collaboration between the film studio and Gray has lead the stride to elevated and entertaining special feature documentaries for over 40 feature films in the DC Universe, as well as hundreds of other documentaries and advertising/social content pieces that have encapsulated hit shows such as HBO’s His Dark Materials, HBO’s Lovecraft Country, and HBO’s Watchmen.
With a passion for the American Western, Gray saw great success with A&E’s Longmire television series, as he and his team brought to life the depth of the modern cowboy detective pitted against the backdrop of the open range of Wyoming.
Shuja Paul
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.
Deborah Pratt
Deborah Pratt was the first African-American Drama and SciFi Executive Producer in TV when she co-created, wrote 25, and co-wrote another 15 episodes of the iconic TV series Quantum Leap for NBC. She was Co-EP and head writer for Tequila and Bonetti for CBS and created for TV and Executive Produced The Net series for USA.
Pratt has sold pilots to Paramount, CBS, and NBC. Her sold feature films include Woman for Warner Brothers and the musical prequel to Anastasia for FOX.
She has written new franchises like The Adventures Of Calia Mcquade and stand-alone feature film dramas Heartswear and Chevalier & Antoinette, both currently in development.
Pratt is an award-winning graduate of AFI/DWW and made her directorial debut with Cora Unashamed for Masterpiece Theatre’s The American Collection for BBC and PBS. Pratt is a graduate of the FOX/AFI feature film director’s initiative, and she recently directed the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy. She is a 4-time Emmy nominee, a Golden Globe nominee, and recipient of The Lillian Gish Award from Women In Film, the Golden Block Award, and various festival awards.
Koji Steven Sakai
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.p
Bonnie Spence
Accomplished Senior Creative Executive highly regarded for extensive experience in developing and executing award-winning documentaries and special features, unique marketing, and ad campaigns.
Recognized as a proactive leader, known for the rare combination of highly creative big picture ideation enhanced by success from both a production background and studio executive perspective.
Thrives in collaborative environments, leveraging vibrant strategic storytelling with showrunners, marketing, vendors, and movie and series writers.
Distinguished Warner Bros. product from competitors via fan favorite In-Season Pass, which launched current TV shows and special features across digital platforms next day after air for top DC Arrowverse properties. Replicated protocols for major shows (Supernatural, Big Bang Theory, HBO’s Watchmen, and Westworld) across various platforms.
Danielle Stallings
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.
Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson is the Director, Media and Digital Marketing at Warner Bros. He leads Warner’s operations for linear, online, and social media, including campaign management across the product lifecycle including feature films, DC animation, TV shows, and video games.
In partnership with media and creative teams, Stevenson defines processes that drive return on ad spend. He led the 4K UHD remastering of Warner’s catalog and current film trailers. Stevenson successfully launched a Digital Asset Management tool to transcode and deliver video worldwide.
A high performing team leader, Stevenson prides himself on building, creating, and innovating. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside and a Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications from the University of Florida.
Sue Vicory
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.
Denise Wakeman
Denise Wakeman is a Digital Marketing Consultant, founder of the Marketing Trailblazers community, and Director of Digital Marketing for the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Since 1996, Wakeman has worked with hundreds of professionals, creators, and online entrepreneurs around the world to help them build their business and strategically use digital marketing tactics and tools to get more visibility, traffic, leads, customers, and opportunities.
Todd Waterman
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.
Film Festival Jury
Spring 2021
Vincent Aniceto
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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 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.p
Danielle Stallings
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
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
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.
Todd Waterman
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
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
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, 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, 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.
Film Festival Jury
Fall 2020
Vincent Aniceto
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.”
Lyndon J. Barrois Sr.
As a member of the AMPAS (Oscars) Visual Effects Branch, Lyndon Barrois boasts a 30-plus year career in art and animation. While a master’s candidate at the California Institute of the Arts, his early stopmotion work won accolades for its unique and innovative procedure utilizing chewing gum wrappers as the medium of choice to create “sportraits” of historic athletic figures and events. Barrois continues use of this technique today, with the added component of shooting and editing his films entirely on the iPhone.
In 1990, after officials from the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museums saw an NBC Today Show segment highlighting Barrois’ wondrous work, Ripley’s curators purchased 15 original sculptures, mostly from his Super Bowl series, and since then has displayed his “sportraits” around the world.
Barrois has garnered additional film credits, directing an episode of The PJs, helping to shape the spectacular, ground-breaking CGI visual effects of The Matrix Trilogy, directing sequences in the Oscar-winning Happy Feet, and supervising the nuanced dinosaur performances in the Tree of Life. In addition, Barrois directed a massive team of animators for Alvin and the Chipmunks, vaulting the franchise into a billion-dollar phenomenon. He has been recognized by the Visual Effects Society Awards and nominated for his work on The Thing as well as for his work as a captain and co-author in the VES industry guidebook. Known for his talent in the field of “virtual reality,” Barrois co-founded Blackthorn Media and has exhibited titles at the international film festivals at Sundance and Tribeca.
A native New Orleanian and HBCU grad of Xavier University of Louisiana, he’s on the boards of The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, CalArts, the AMPAS Museum’s Inclusion Task Force, and is an Epic Games Unreal Engine Fellow.
Deborah Calla
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
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.
Karla Kurz Murray
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.
Koji Steven Sakai
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.
Steve Shor
Steve Shor has over 40 years of Industry experience in studio, production and management positions. He has worked in a variety of positions in Hollywood including Columbia Pictures Features and TriStar Pictures Business Affairs Administration. Currently, Shor is an independent producer with a variety of projects in development.
In the past, he was a programmer for the AFI International Film Festival (for ten years). Shor now consults with other festivals – currently an advisor and the programmer to the Sonoma International Film Festival, a programmer/industry liaison for the Newport Beach Film Festival and program director for the Long Beach International Film Festival. Previously, Steve was a programmer for AFIFest, Abu Dahbi Film Festival and the Jackson Hole Film Festival.
He was also a board member of the Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Prize, as well as a sponsor for three years of the Mill Valley Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival and IFFCON. Shor has been a juror or panelist at numerous festivals, including a symposium in Cannes for the Kodak Emerging Filmmakers Group and a two-day symposium for the Toronto Worldwide Shorts Festival. Shor has also been a guest instructor for the USC Professional Writing Program at the USC Film School and worked with students at The American Film Institute.
Todd Waterman
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.
Andrei Zinca
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.