Our Competition Judges
FEATURE
PAUL SCHRADER
Paul Schrader is known as one of the cinema’s most successful screenwriters. He is also a film critic and film director. He started his career as a film critic, before he began writing screenplays, hitting the jackpot when he sold his first screenplay, Yakuza, for then-record sum of $325,000, thus establishing his reputation as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters.
He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Paul Schrader has also directed 24 films, including Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) and Affliction (1997).
His three most recent films have been described by Schrader as a loose trilogy: First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021), and Master Gardener (2022).
He has written the screenplays for two 'Best Picture' Academy Award nominees (Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), but would only receive his first Academy Award nomination for 'Best Screenplay' more than 40 years working in the business - he got nominated for First Reformed (2017).
DEDE GARDNER
Dede Gardner is the President of Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment. She was the president since Brad Pitt founded the company in 2001, and then co-president since 2013 together with Jeremy Kleiner.
Dede is a Two-Time Academy Award® Winner. She won Oscars for 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Moonlight (2016). She is the First and Only woman to win two Oscars for Best Picture.
She was also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar five more times with: The Tree of Life (2011), Selma (2014), The Big Short (2015), Vice (2018) and Women Talking (2022).
Her other critically acclaimed films include World War Z (2013), Okja (2017), Beautiful Boy (2018), If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Ad Astra (2019), Minari (2020), Blonde (2022) and She Said (2022).
Her upcoming films include such highly anticipated titles as The Killer (2023), directed by David Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender; Wolfs starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Mickey 17 (2024), directed by Bong Joon Ho and starring Robert Pattinson and Untitled Formula One Racing Movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt.
DAN JINKS
Dan Jinks is an American film and television producer. In 2010, Jinks launched his own film and television production company, the Dan Jinks Company. In July 2011, he signed an overall deal with CBS Television Studios.
Previously, working with producing partner Bruce Cohen, Jinks produced Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn. The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
The pair won the Best Picture Academy Award in 2000 for producing American Beauty. The film won a total of five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Next film was Tim Burton's Big Fish, which was nominated as Best Picture for both the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs.
In television, Jinks and Cohen executive produced the acclaimed ABC series Pushing Daisies, which won eight Emmy Awards.
In the summer of 2008, Jinks and Cohen produced A Timeless Call, a tribute to war veterans that Steven Spielberg directed for the Democratic National Convention.
Jinks produced Nothing to Lose, starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins for Touchstone Pictures, and executive produced The Bone Collector, with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie for Universal.
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WENDY FINERMAN
Wendy Finerman is an American film producer. She is best known for winning the Academy Award for Best Picture for Forrest Gump in 1994. Forrest Gump received critical acclaim for Zemeckis's direction, performances (particularly those of Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise), visual effects, music, and screenplay. The film was an enormous success at the box office; it became the top-grossing film in America released that year and earned over US $678.2 million worldwide.
Further Wendy Finerman won a BAFTA Award for Fairy Tale in 1998. She has also produced such popular films as The Fan starring Robert De Niro; Stepmom starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon; P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler and The Devil Wears Prada starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. She is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and runs her own company, Wendy Finerman Productions.
GARY MICHAEL WALTERS - CEO of Bold Films
Bold Films is a production and finance company dedicated to providing an artistic haven for creative talent and to producing original, studio-quality films with worldwide commercial appeal. Gary oversees all aspects of Bold Films: production, finance, legal, creative, strategy and sales. Gary has produced or executive produced all of its movies. He is a producer of such iconic films as Drive, Nightcrawler and Whiplash! His recent production is Netflix’s film The Guilty with Jake Gyllenhaal.
MIKE MEDAVOY - CEO of Phoenix Pictures
Sample some of the best American films over the past forty years and there's a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many of them. From agent to studio chief to producer, he has been involved with over 300 feature films, of which 17 have been nominated and 7 have won Best Picture Oscars®, as well as numerous international film festival awards. He is a producer of such iconic films as Shutter Island, Zodiac and Black Swan! For the latest he received an Academy Award Nomination. He’s produced for Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and many more...
ROSS KATZ
Ross Katz is an American film producer, screenwriter and director. Ross is a two time Academy Award Nominee, nominated for Academy Awards for producing Todd Field's In the Bedroom (2001), and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003). Katz has had three films in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. He won the best screenplay award from the Writers Guild of America and Best Director from the Director’s Guild of America - both for his 2009 Kevin Bacon film “Taking Chance” (HBO films). He currently runs the production company Sui Generis Pictures.
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MICHAEL LONDON
Michael London is an American film producer and a partner, with Janice Williams, in Groundswell Productions. He has produced over 20 films including Sideways, The Visitor, Win Win, Smart People and Trumbo. Earlier on, before Groundswell was formed, his production company Michael London Productions treated to a Paramount first look deal before 2006. Even before that, he was a producer at USA Films/Focus Features. The film Sideways was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005. On the heels of the Academy nomination, London won "Producer of the Year" in 2006 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2013, Groundswell was scheduled to produce Mona for the studio New Regency, based on the novel of the same name by Swedish author Dan T. Sehlberg. He has a first look TV deal with Fox 21 in 2013. London will be the executive producer of the upcoming HBO adaptation of the novel A Visit From the Goon Squad.
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EMILIE GEORGES - Co-Founder & CEO, Paradise City - Paris
Prior to starting her new venture Paradise City with producer Naima Abed, Georges founded Memento Distribution and Production in 2003 which expanded into Memento International & La Cinefacture (production) in 2004. Georges has been devoted to promoting, producing and supporting high-profile, director-driven independent films such as Laurent Cantet’s THE CLASS (Golden Palm, Cannes 2008); Asghar Farhadi’s A SEPARATION (2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), THE SALESMAN (2015 Academy Award for Best Film in a Foreign Language), Joachim Trier’s LOUDER THAN BOMBS (2013) and THELMA (2017), Wash Westmoreland & Richard Glatzer’s STILL ALICE( 2016); Josh & Benny Safdie’s GOOD TIME (2017). Several directors she repped are now working on the Marvel franchise – Jon Watts, Destin Daniel Cretton or Cate Shortland!
Georges currently runs Memento International alongside her production companies at Paradise City (including ex-La Cinefacture). Her credits include US indie genre films such as Jeremy Saulnier’s BLUE RUIN and Jim Mickle’s COLD IN JULY & WE ARE WHAT WE ARE Sundance winners World dramatic CIRCLES (2014) by Srdan Golubovich & CONTRACORRIENTE (Audience, 2010) by Javier Fuentes Leon; as well as Luca Guadagnino’s Oscar winner feature film CALL ME BY YOUR NAME for which she received an Oscar nomination.
SIENA OBERMAN
Siena Oberman is the founder of Artemis Pictures, a filmmaker driven female run production company. She was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 2022, Variety Top 10 Producers to Watch in 2021, and Diversity in Cannes Top 10 Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2019. She focuses on stylistically bold independent films and female driven stories. She's had feature films in TIFF, Berlinale, Tribeca, Telluride, and Venice. Her films have been acquired by companies such as A24, IFC, Screen Media, Universal, Lionsgate, Hulu, and eOne. Before Artemis, Siena was a Development Executive at Yale Productions. Prior to producing, Siena went to USC and studied Business and Cinema.
ADAM NOVAK
Head of Story Development for WME
Head of Story Development for Hollywood's Top Talent and Literary Agency WME (William Morris/Endeavor)
Born, bred, and buttered in DC, Adam Novak majored in screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinema-Television where he sold his senior thesis script Conversations with a Cannibal before starting his career at the venerable William Morris Agency (now WME) as the exclusive script reader for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Clint Eastwood, and Bruce Willis.
As Head of the William Morris/Endeavor (WME) Story Department for more than 25 years, Novak championed The Blair Witch Project, Promising Young Woman, Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, and Waterworld.
Novak has also published a series of novels about the movie business: The Non-Pro (Salvo Press/2008), Take Fountain (Rare Bird Books/2015), Freaks of the Industry (Rare Bird Books/2017), and Rat Park (Red Giant Books/2022). Novak recently celebrated his 33rd year at the WME agency.
TV PILOT
Susan Soon He Stanton - producer and writer on HBO's Succession - Emmy Award Winner
Susan is a playwright, television writer, and screenwriter based between New York and London. Susan is a producer/writer on HBO’s Succession, for which she has won an Emmy, a WGA and Peabody Award. Upcoming television work includes HBO/Sister Picture’s THE BABY, Amazon’s Modern Love, Amazon/Annapurna’s Dead Ringers, Hulu/Element Pictures/BBC’s Conversation with Friends adapted from the novel by Sally Rooney, as well as several projects in development. She has worked on projects for Amazon, Annapurna, Netflix, and Pixar, among others.
Her plays have been produced internationally and regionally across the United States. In film, she is a co-writer for the award-winning feature film Brooklyn Love Stories. She received a Feature Film Development Grant and Screenwriting Award from the Sloan Foundation.
She has taught playwriting at UT Austin’s MFA Program, SUNY Purchase, New York University, Yale University, as well as various other institutions regionally and internationally.
RULES
Erik Bork - Producer and Writer on HBO's Band of Brothers - Two Times Emmy Award Winner & Two Times Golden Globe Award Winner
Erik is a Two-Times Emmy Award-winning & Two Times Golden Globe Award-winning screenwriter, producer, script consultant, and blogger best known for his work on the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. He got his start in Hollywood as an assistant to Tom Hanks, who gave him the opportunity to help write and produce From the Earth to the Moon, after reading some sitcom spec scripts he had written. Bork has sold series pitches and written pilots at NBC and FOX worked on the writing staff for two primetime dramas, and written feature screenplays on assignment for companies including Universal Studios, HBO, TNT, and Playtone.
He also teaches screenwriting for UCLA Extension, National University and The Writers Store, and offers one-on-one consulting to writers. His multi-category Amazon best-selling book THE IDEA: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage, or Fiction was released in 2018. For more info check his webpage https://www.flyingwrestler.com.
RULES
Ron Leshem - Executive Producer on HBO’s Euphoria - Emmy Award Nominee & Academy Award Nominee
Ron Leshem is a writer, Emmy-nominated producer, TV executive, and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. He is best known for serving as executive producer on HBO's Euphoria and for the film Beaufort, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
He co-created and co-wrote the original version of Euphoria (2012) which HBO’s Euphoria (2019) is based on. In 2018, he joined the American production of HBO’s Euphoria as an executive producer.
He co-created and wrote the television series No Man's Land (Hulu), Valley of Tears, Euphoria, The Gordin Cell, and the film Incitement, in addition to his career as a television executive.
As head of programming and content for Keshet TV, he commissioned and oversaw the development and production of some of the most popular and successful Israeli TV series, including Prisoners Of War (the Israeli original version of Homeland), the A-word, Traffic Light, and Arab Labor.
He is also a bestselling author. He won Israel's top literary award, the Sapir Prize for Literature, and has been published in 22 languages.
RULES
Jamie Lee - Producer and Writer on Ted Lasso - Two Times Emmy Award Winner
Jamie Lee is a stand-up comedian, actor and two-time Emmy award winning television writer/producer. She starred as Ali Reissen, the female lead in the Judd Apatow-produced HBO series CRASHING, opposite Pete Holmes and wrote/starred in “The Viewing Party” episode, which was directed by Judd Apatow and honored by the New York Times in their piece on The Best TV Episodes of 2019.
In December 2016, Lee released her debut book Weddiculous (Harper Collins), which was adapted by Netflix and ITV as a series titled THE WEDDING COACH, hosted and Executive Produced by Jamie and premiered on April 7th, 2021.
Jamie is currently an Executive Producer on the mega-hit Apple TV+ series TED LASSO and has won an Emmy (2x), Peabody, WGA (2x), PGA & Critics Choice Award for her work on the series. Most recently, Jamie served as a Co-Executive Producer on KILLING IT (Peacock) created by BROOKLYN NINE-NINE duo Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici and starring Craig Robinson.
Hartley Gorenstein, P.G.A. - Producer on The Boys - Emmy Award Nominee
Hartley Gorenstein is a renowned producer whose films and TV series have achieved both critical and popular success. He has worked on multiple high-profile film and television projects.
His credits include the Best Picture nominated feature Room (starring Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay) and Emmy Award Nominee The Boys (created by Eric Kripke and Gorenstein produced alongside Seth Rogen, Neal Moritz, and Evan Goldberg). The Boys has been nominated for 6 Primetime Emmys along with multiple guild awards.
Other producing credits include the highly anticipated film Polar, The Grizzlies, Goon: Last of the Enforcers and Pompeii.
For television, Gorenstein produced three seasons of the popular series Man Seeking Woman for FX, as well as the pilot for the breakout hit series The Bold Type. He also produced What We Do in the Shadows, a half-hour comedy series for FX based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s popular mockumentary horror film. The series is executive produced by Clement and Waititi, along with Scott Rudin, Paul Simms, Garrett Basch and Eli Bush.
Olivier Sultan - Literary Agent at leading entertainment agency CAA
Olivier Sultan is a Theater Literary Agent at the leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Olivier represents both established and emerging writers, directors, composers, and designers including Emmy Award Winners and Academy Award Winners. His clients include:
Stephen Daldry - Two Times Emmy Award Winner for The Crown and Three Times Academy Award Nominee
Danny Strong - Two Times Emmy Award Winner for Game Change (2012) and Two Times Emmy Award Nominee for Dopesick (2021)
Florian Zeller - Academy Award winner for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Father
Alexander Dinelaris - Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay for Birdman
Nikole Beckwith - 2012 Nicholl Winner, 2012 Black List for Stockholm, Pennsylvania.
Olivier Sultan also represents Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks and Martyna Majok and Tony winners Stephen Daldry, Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, David Yazbek, Bill T. Jones, David Rockwell and Derek McLan
Chris Overton - Academy Award® Winner for his short film ‘The Silent Child’
Chris Overton is an Academy Award® winning director, producer and a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Chris has been working professionally in the industry for over 20 years.
Chris is the founder and CEO of Slick Films - an Academy Award® winning independent production company who won The Oscar® for Best Live Action Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards. Slick Films’ highly experienced roster of writers, directors and producers are constantly pushing the boundaries of filmmaking in pursuit of starting important conversations and making films with a social conscience. Slick Films tell stories. Stories with heart, stories that entertain and stories that are driven by equality, diversity and change.
SHORTS
(The Silent Child, 2017)
Meghan Ross - Head of Creator Success, Seed&Spark
Meghan Ross is the Head of Creator Success at Seed&Spark and previously worked for VICELAND and SundanceTV. She’s also an Austin-based writer/director/comedian who was selected for 2022 Women at Sundance | Adobe Fellowship and Sundance Episodic Lab 2021-2022 for her comedy Here to Make Friends (also her personal tagline). Her shorts made The New Yorker’s Best Shouts of 2020 list and she was nominated for The Webby Awards for If You Ever Hurt My Daughter, I Swear to God I’ll Let Her Navigate Her Own Emotional Growth, featuring narration by Jon Hamm. Her writing has appeared in Reductress, VICE's Broadly, TV Without Pity, The Toast, and other defunct but beloved sites. She hosted the late night show That Time of the Month for 5 years and the Instagram Live show No One Asked For This for 2 pandemic years. Most importantly, Meghan’s an aspiring stage mom to her rescue pit-lab, Dreidel.
(This Charming Man, 2002)
Martin Strange-Hansen - Academy Award® Winner for his short film ‘This Charming Man’ and Academy Award® Nominee for his short film ‘On My Mind’
Graduated from the Danish Filmschool in 2001, with the Student Academy Award® winning graduation film FEEDING DESIRE. His next short film THIS CHARMING MAN won an Oscar® in the Short Live Action category in 2003. Creator of the first Danish webisode in 2008 the Webby Awards-Honoree PINLY & FLAU. His previous short film JENSEN LIVES HERE gained a nomination nod by annual Robert awards by The Danish Film Academy.
His latest short film “ON MY MIND” nodded an Academy Award® nomination in the Live Action Short-Film category earlier this year.
Chairman for the Danish Filmdirectors Association in 2010-2013, subsequently Vice-chairman 2013-2015. As an avid short film lover, he has acted as head of program at OFF Odense International Filmfestival in 2012, and jury member at numerous short film festivals including the Clermont-Ferrand & Interfilm Berlin.
Martin Strange-Hansen has a long track record of nurturing and developing new talent as Commissioning Editor at Filmworkshop Copenhagen, Filmworkshop Odense and Filmworkshop Aarhus, as well as a mentor for young filmmakers at most Danish Filmschools.
A voting member of AMPAS® as well as The Danish Filmacademy.
Besides writing and directing his own projects Martin Strange-Hansen also acts as a script-writer for fellow directors.
(On My Mind, 2021)
Roberta Munroe - Former Sundance programmer, author and award-winning writer/producer/director of over 40 award-winning short form projects.
Roberta Marie Munroe is a founder and CEO of Captivated Artist Inc., a production services company based in Los Angeles that specializes in budgets $500k and above. She has produced and/or written & directed over 40 award-winning short form and long form projects with budgets ranging from $30K to $1.2M including films, and television pilots, independently, and for companies such as Fox Searchlight, AT&T and the United Nations (UNFPA). Roberta’s work has enjoyed massive success at festivals worldwide, (Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Venice, and Tokyo Short Film Festival), won many “Best Of” awards, and/or enjoyed a theatrical release and television broadcast (MTV, Netflix, CBC).
She is currently the creator of, DETOX, is a half-hour dramedy about toxic masculinity that was selected for the 2020 Canadian Creative Acceleration Program, “Searching For The Next Schitt’s Creek”.
Roberta Munroe is also the author of How Not To Make A Short Film: Secrets From A Sundance Programmer. She wrote the book after screening short film submissions at Sundance for five years. Her latest book, How Not To Sign A Film Contract: Know What You’re Saying Yes To, provides indie filmmakers with an overview of film industry contractual law.
Ms. Munroe has an exceptional eye for story, casting, post-production and target audiences. As is evidenced by her work at the Sundance Film Festival, where Roberta launched the careers of hundreds of filmmakers including, Aurora Guerrero (Queen Sugar), Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Beast Of No Nation), the Duplass Brothers (Togetherness, Room 104), Tiffany Shlain (The Tribe, Connected, 24Six Life), Seith Mann (The Wire, The Walking Dead, Homeland) and Taika Waititi (Jo Jo Rabbit, Hunt For The Wilderbeast, Thor).
Mat Kirkby - Academy Award® Winner for his short film ‘The Phone Call’
Mat Kirkby is an Oscar winning writer/director, directing over 100 commercials & music videos out of Ridley Scott Associates in London, with videos for Adele, Muse, Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim, over 500 million hits on Youtube, and ads for Nike and Playstation. In 2015, he won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for directing The Phone Call, a short drama film starring Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent. Kirkby wrote the film with his colleague James Lucas who both had family who worked on helplines. The short had its world premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, where it also won Best Short Film.
(The Phone Call, 2013)
Basil Khalil - Academy Award® Nominee for his short film ‘Ave Maria’
Basil Khalil is an Academy Award & Palme d'Or nominated writer and director of British-Irish-Palestinian heritage. In 2011 Basil was featured by Screen International Magazine as one of "top 10 Arab filmmakers to watch". Basil's short film Ave Maria (2015) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in official selection and was described by the New York Times as; "The Middle Eastern answer to 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'." Basil is a member of AMPAS and sits on committees that nominate short films and feature animation for the Oscars. His debut feature, A GAZA WEEKEND (2022), starring Stephen Mangan premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2022.
(Ave Maria, 2015)
Maria Brendle - Academy Award® Nominee for her short film ‘Ala Kachuu - Take and Run’
Maria Brendle is an Academy Award® nominated director and scriptwriter based in Zurich, Switzerland. She received her bachelor’s degree in film from the Zurich University of the Arts and her master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience (aon) from the Academy of Neuroscience Cologne. Her short films have been shown and awarded at several international film festivals. She works with a focus on women issues.
(Ala Kachuu - Take and Run, 2020)
Tadeusz Łysiak - Academy Award® Nominee for his short film ‘The Dress’
Tadeusz Łysiak is the graduate of Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw, student of Directing at the Warsaw Film School. Creator of two award-winning short films in Poland and abroad: "Techno" and "The Dress". Participant of the prestigious program FUTURE FRAMES – Generation NEXT of European Cinema within Eastern Promises at the Karlovy Vary Festival. Winner of the "Discovering Eye" award for young talented filmmaker at the Polish Film Festival in Chicago. “The Dress” which brought its creators - among others, victory at the Atlanta Film Festival and a Bronze Tadpole at the Energa Camerimage - has been nominated for an Oscar® in Live Action Short category. Tadeusz is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is currently working on his feature film debut.
(The Dress, 2020)
FEATURE (2021)
Gary Michael Walters - CEO of Bold Films
Bold Films is a production and finance company dedicated to providing an artistic haven for creative talent and to producing original, studio-quality films with worldwide commercial appeal. Gary oversees all aspects of Bold Films: production, finance, legal, creative, strategy and sales. Gary has produced or executive produced all of its movies. He is a producer of such iconic films as Drive, Nightcrawler and Whiplash! His recent production is Netflix’s film The Guilty with Jake Gyllenhaal.
Mike Medavoy - CEO of Phoenix Pictures
Sample some of the best American films over the past forty years and there's a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many of them. From agent to studio chief to producer, he has been involved with over 300 feature films, of which 17 have been nominated and 7 have won Best Picture Oscars®, as well as numerous international film festival awards. He is a producer of such iconic films as Shutter Island, Zodiac and Black Swan! For the latest he received an Academy Award Nomination. He’s produced for Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and many more...
Anurag Kashyap
The LEGENDARY Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. Proclaimed as "The Tarantino of Bollywood" by Deadline. As a filmmaker, he is known for Black Friday (2004), Dev D (2009), Gulaal (2009), That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011) and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). As a screenwriter, he wrote the scripts for the Filmfare Award-winning Satya (1998) and the Academy Award-nominated Canadian film Water (2005). He co-produced the critically acclaimed drama The Lunchbox (2013) which earned him a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Film Not in the English Language.
Celine Rattray and Jenny Halper from Maven Screen Media
Celine Rattray is an Oscar-nominated producer and Golden Globe winner for The Kids Are All Right. She has over 40 independent films under her belt as a producer, including 18 Sundance, 16 Toronto, four Berlin International, and one Cannes Film Festival selections. In 2020, Rattray co-founded Maven Screen Media, a UK development and production company.
Jenny Halper is Maven's Executive Vice President and Director of Production and Development. She has worked on films including The Kids Are All Right, The Whistleblower, Bernie, Still Alice, and American Honey. Jenny is always on the lookout for distinctive stories with strong female characters.
Stephen Woolley
Stephen Woolley is an English film producer and director, whose prolific career has spanned over three and a half decades, for which he was awarded the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in February 2019. As a producer he has been Oscar-nominated for The Crying Game (1992), and has also produced multi-Academy Award-nominated films including Interview with a Vampire (1993), Michael Collins (1996), The End of the Affair (1999), and Carol (2016). He currently runs the production company Number 9 Films with his partner Elizabeth Karlsen.
Debra Hayward
Debra Hayward is an Academy Award nominated British film producer. As Head of Film at Working Title Films, Hayward frequently served as an executive producer for the company's feature films. She produced award winning films Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Senna (documentary), Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Love Actually and Bridget Jones films. Hayward's first solo film as producer was Les Misérables, which went on to win multiple awards, raising her profile and getting her an Oscar nomination. After producing Les Misérables, she started her own production company, Monumental Pictures.
Ross Katz
Ross Katz is an American film producer, screenwriter and director. Ross is a two time Academy Award Nominee, nominated for Academy Awards for producing Todd Field's In the Bedroom (2001), and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003). Katz has had three films in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. He won the best screenplay award from the Writers Guild of America and Best Director from the Director’s Guild of America - both for his 2009 Kevin Bacon film “Taking Chance” (HBO films). He currently runs the production company Sui Generis Pictures.
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Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings is the hottest independent filmmaker of the moment. As the guru of indie filmmaking, he is completely circumventing the system and producing and distributing his films in his own way and on his own terms. His short film Thunder Road (2016) premiered at Sundance winning Short Film Grand Jury Prize and was later remade into a 2018 feature film of the same name winning the South by Southwest Grand Jury Award. Jim also wrote, directed and starred in the 2020 film The Wolf of Snow Hollow. His current film The Beta Test was released in theaters in the United States on November 5, 2021 and is available to stream on demand.
TV PILOT (2021)
Our 7 Judges who have won Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and Writer's Guild Awards will decide this year’s TV Pilot Winner. These are all writers who have written and are still writing for some of the best Outstanding TV series available today.
Top TV Pilot scripts are considered by our unprecedented Emmy Award winning and Writer's Guild Award winning writers, creators and producers. Our jury includes:
Erik Bork - writer on Band of Brothers - Two Times Emmy Award Winner & Two Times Golden Globe Award Winner
Erik is a Two Times Emmy Award winning & Two Times Golden Globe Award winning screenwriter, producer, script consultant and blogger best known for his work on the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. He got his start in Hollywood as an assistant to Tom Hanks, who gave him the opportunity to help write and produce From the Earth to the Moon, after reading some sitcom spec scripts he had written. Bork has sold series pitches and written pilots at NBC and FOX, worked on the writing staff for two primetime dramas, and written feature screenplays on assignment for companies including Universal Studios, HBO, TNT, and Playtone. He also teaches screenwriting for UCLA Extension Writers' Program, National University and The Writers Store.
Marion Dayre - writer on Better Call Saul - Six Times Writer's Guild Award Nominee
Marion is a six times Writer’s Guild Award nominated writer who has worked on Better Call Saul and is the lead writer on Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series Echo. She’s got an MFA in Screenwriting which she acquired at UCLA.
Read our interview with Marion here.
Alyson Feltes - writer on Ozark - Emmy Award Nominee
Alyson is an Emmy award nominated writer and showrunner on shows like Ozark and The Alienist. She is the founder and president of Misou Media LLC which owns and develops properties for traditional, digital and social media. As a writer and producer, Feltes has made a name for herself by building emotional characters within a muscular TV landscape. In addition to her work on Ozark, Feltes is also working on new material based on books by Chelsea Clinton.
Noah Gardenswartz - writer on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Writer's Guild Award Winner
Noah is a New York based comedian and writer. He is a writer on Amazon's Emmy and Golden-Globe winning show, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” for which he’s received a WGA award. He has his own Comedy Central special and was a semi-finalist on NBC's "Last Comic Standing," and has released two chart-topping comedy albums, "Blunt" and "White Men Can't Joke."
Susan Soon He Stanton - writer on Succession - Emmy Award Winner
Susan is a playwright, television writer, and screenwriter based between New York and London. Susan is a producer/writer of HBO's Succession, for which she has won an Emmy, a WGA and a Peabody Award. She has worked on projects for Amazon, Annapurna, Netflix, and Pixar, among others. Her plays have been produced internationally and regionally across the United States. In film, she is a co-writer for the award-winning feature film Brooklyn Love Stories. She received a Feature Film Development Grant and Screenwriting Award from the Sloan Foundation.
Peter Cameron - writer on WandaVision - Emmy Award Nominee
Peter is an LA based screenwriter who has written episodes of Marvel shows like Wandavision, Moon Knight and the upcoming TV movie Werewolf by Night. His Wandavision “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” script was nominated for an Emmy.
Ali is a versatile creator who moves easily between comedy and drama, and film and television. She writes for the Emmy-winning series The Morning Show (Apple TV+), and serves as an on-set producer. Previously, she was a Field Producer for The Daily Show spinoff The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper (Comedy Central). She’s currently developing her first feature film as writer/director with Park Pictures.
Ali Vingiano - writer on The Morning Show - Writer's Guild Award Nominee
SHORTS (2021)
Guy Nattiv - Academy Award Winner for his short film ‘Skin’
Guy Nattiv is an Academy Award®-winning filmmaker from Israel. His first short film in the United States, SKIN, won the 2019 Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short. It was acquired by FOX Searchlight. The feature version od the short film, also entitled SKIN, stars Jamie Bell, Vera Farmiga and Danielle Macdonald, and premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival to significant acclaim, where it won the Fipresci Critics Prize. It’s distributed globally by A24.
A lover of the short form, Nattiv has been crafting award winning shorts for almost two decades. His first short film, The Flood, won the top prize at Berlin in 2002, his next short Strangers won the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and was short-listed for the Academy Awards® that year.
Guy Nattiv’s next feature film ‘Golda’ will star Academy Award® winner Helen Mirren! She will portray Israel’s legendary and only female Prime Minister, Golda Meir.
Travon Free - Academy Award Winner for his short film ‘Two Distant Strangers’
Travon Free wrote and co-directed Two Distant Strangers, which won the Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short Film in 2021. Free is a two-time Emmy winning and Peabody winning television writer, actor, and comedian from Compton, California. He is the creator of "Him or Her" executive produced by Issa Rae. Travon most recently wrote on Showtime’s upcoming "Black Monday" and was a writer/producer for Lena Dunham’s new production "Camping" on HBO.
His recent Oscar winning short film Two Distant Strangers is available to watch on Netflix!
Rachel Shenton & Chris Overton - Academy Award Winners for their short film ‘The Silent Child’
Chris Overton is an Academy Award® winning director, producer and a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Chris has been working professionally in the industry for over 20 years. He is the CEO of Slick Films an Academy Award-winning independent production company where he continues to direct and produce Short Films.
Rachel Shenton is an Academy Award® winning screenwriter, actress, and activist most known for playing Mitzeee Minniver on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks and Lily Summers in ABC Family drama Switched at Birth.
The Silent Child, written by Rachel Shenton and directed by Chris Overton, won the Oscar® for Best Live Action Short at the 90th Academy Awards® ceremony.
Their Oscar-winning short film ‘The Silent Child’ is available to watch on YouTube for FREE! You can watch it here
Farah Nabulsi - Academy Award Nominee and Bafta Winner for her short film ‘The Present’
Farah Nabulsi is an Academy Award®-nominated and BAFTA-winning British-Palestinian filmmaker and human rights advocate.
In 2015, she started working in the film industry. She founded a production company through which she writes, produces and directs fiction films, exploring topics that matter to her.
In 2019, Farah co-wrote and directed the short 24-minute film, The Present. Prior to The Present, Farah wrote and produced 3 other shorts, including Today They Took My Son, that premiered at Edmonton International Film Festival.
Her Academy Award®-nominated short film ‘The Present’ is available to watch on Netflix!
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Jeremy Comte - Academy Award Nominee for his short film ‘Fauve’
Jérémy Comte is a Canadian screenwriter and director. Comte is roused by psychological, raw narratives finding meaningful connections through poetic imagery. Playing over 150 festivals and winning over 75 awards, his short film “Fauve” was nominated at the 91st Academy Awards® for Best Live Action Short Film. Fauve also won a Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival
Comte previously directed two documentary short films Rueda and Paths, and the narrative short film Ce qu'il reste (What Remains).
His Oscar-nominated short film ‘Fauve’ is available to watch on Vimeo for FREE! You can watch it here
Tomer Shushan - Academy Award Nominee for his short film ‘White Eye’
Tomer Shushan is an Academy Award® nominated screenwriter and director, known for his Narrative Short Films White Eye (2019) and A Sight (2014).
His Short Film ‘White Eye’ won the Best Narrative Short Jury Award at SXSW 2020 Film Festival. It was also nominated at the recent 93rd Academy Awards® for Best Live Action Short Film.