Our Competition Judges
FEATURE
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
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

Marion Dayre - writer on Better Call Saul - Six Times Writer's Guild Award Nominee

Alyson Feltes - writer on Ozark - Emmy Award Nominee

Noah Gardenswartz - writer on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Writer's Guild Award Winner

Susan Soon He Stanton - writer on Succession - Writer's Guild Award Winner

Peter Cameron - writer on WandaVision

Ali Vingiano - writer on - The Morning Show







SHORTS


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.