September 26 – 29, 2024

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2023 Jurors

Past Jurors

2023 Jury Awards

Past Jurors

I was blown away by every aspect of this festival - from the curation of the bands and films that played there, to the hospitality of the staff and the town of Bay City, to the well-organized parties and panels. My film RELATIVE looked and sounded great in the historic State Theater, a true movie palace. I greatly hope to return!
Michael Smith
Filmmaker
I was blown away by every aspect of this festival - from the curation of the bands and films that played there, to the hospitality of the staff and the town of Bay City, to the well-organized parties and panels. My film RELATIVE looked and sounded great in the historic State Theater, a true movie palace. I greatly hope to return!
Michael Smith
Filmmaker

Adam Schartoff

Founder / Host of Filmwax

Founded Filmwax, a Brooklyn-based film series that shows independent films throughout locations in NYC. Filmwax Radio, hosted by Adam, consists of “Filmwax Interviews with sundry folks from the indie film scene in Brooklyn, NY and beyond. With Filmwax Radio, each 30-minute episode includes an interview with a personality from the indie film scene.”

Adam also contributes to blogs tribecafilm.com, pov.org, hammertonail.com and his own blogwax (blog.filmwax.com). As his bio on Filmwax Radio says, “Most importantly, Adam is Dad to Jacob.”

Jasmine McGlade

Filmmaker

In 2011, Jasmine wrote and directed her first feature film, “Maria My Love,” which screened at HHM 2011 as our opening night film. “Maria My Love” stars Independent Spirit Award nominee Judy Marte (“Raising Victor Vargas) and Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominee Karen Black (“Five Easy Pieces”).

After growing up in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and England, Jasmine went to Harvard University (graduated in 2007) where she produced the feature-length musical “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” which premiered at Tribeca in 2009, won the Special Jury Prize at the Torino Film Festival, was nominated for a Gotham Award, and was released in theaters the next year. The Village Voice, Film Comment, Time Out New York, and The Boston Phoenix named it one of the ten best films of the year and one of the best thirty by The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

Damien Chazelle

Filmmaker

Damien Chazelle wrote and directed his first feature, “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” at Harvard University, the film which Jasmine produced while also attending school there. “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, was released in theaters in 2010, and was named one of the best films of the year by many publications.

Chazelle appeared in the 2010 Black List for his screenplay “The Claim” and in 2012 with his script “Whiplash.” His short film, also titled “Whiplash,” won the Short Film Jury Prize for U.S. Fiction at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He also wrote the screenplay for “The Last Exorcism Part II” Currently, he is developing the feature-length version of “Whiplash” with producers Jason Reitman and Jason Blum.

Adam Busch

Actor

Adam Busch is known best, perhaps, for his role in the ’90s hit show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as Warren Meers, part of “The Trio” in Season 6, and for his role for the new show “Men at Work” as Neal, one of the four feature characters. Film festival goers may recognize him from one of the lead roles in the short film “The Dungeon Master,” which screened in 2011 at HHM and was written and directed by brothers Rider Strong and Shiloh Strong.

Adam also sings in a folk rock band called Common Rotation. The members include Eric Kufs (singer/guitarist), Adam (harmonica, vocals) and Jordan Katz (trumpet, banjo, bass). The band plays all around Los Angeles, New York, and the UK. The band’s latest album “Keep an Open Gallery” was released Fall 2011.

Geoff Marslett

Filmmaker

A Texan who took a circuitous path to filmmaking, studying mathematics, philosophy, art, science, and languages at St. John’s College (1996) before returning home to pursue an MFA in filmmaking at UT (2001). In addition to making films, Geoff teaches in the RTF Department at The University of Texas at Austin.

He is probably best known for directing the two feature film, “MARS” (2010) and “Loves Her Gun” (2013), but he is also a producer on the award winning documentary “Yakona” (2014), director of a dozen short films including the classic “Monkey vs. Robot” (2000), and an actor in Josephine Decker’s festival hit “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely” (2014).

Rider Strong

Actor / Director / Writer

He is an actor and director, known for Boy Meets World (1993), Cabin Fever(2002) and The Dungeon Master (2011). He has been married to Alexandra Barreto since October 20, 2013. They have one child.

Joey Kern

Actor / Director

Studied at New York University where he earned a BFA in Drama. He then went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. His professional acting career began on stage with various companies including the Atlantic Theater Company, New Group Theater and Theatre for a New Audience, where he played the title role of “Troilus” in William Shakespeare‘s “Troilus and Cressida”.

He then made his feature film debut in the indie flick The Virgin (1999), followed by a guest appearance in the HBO television series Sex and the City (1998). Next, he played a college boy in the feature film Super Troopers (2001), then landed small roles in three more indie films: Love the Hard Way (2001) starring Adrien Brody, XX/XY (2002) and Garmento (2002). His career took off when he landed lead roles in two films given wide release: Grind (2003) and Cabin Fever (2002). Kern has also appeared on ABC’s Wonderland (2000). Joey Kern attended Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival in 2012 with his film Alter Egos where he starred as super hero C-Thru.

W.A.W. Parker

Filmmaker

Adam grew up in Montana and studied film at Harvard University with Robb Moss, Alfred Guzzetti, and Ross McElwee. Adam worked in the editorial department of “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” (directed by 2013 HHM Jury member Damien Chazelle), “Maria My Love” (directed by 2013 HHM Jury member Jasmine McGlade), “For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism” (directed by Gerald Peary), and the web series “Turbo Dates” (directed by Jocelyn Stamat, Terry Rossio, Paul Hernandez, and Bill Marsilii). Currently, Adam lives in Los Angeles and is the assistant to Jocelyn Stamat (Turbo Dates) and Terry Rossio (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean).

Adam also sings with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, can be heard singing backup on the title track of Weezer’s next album, and volunteers for the Opera League of Los Angeles.

Leslie Raymond

Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival

Leslie Raymond has served as Ann Arbor Film Festival as Executive Director for the past two years. Prior to that, she was a teaching media artist for 14 years and founded a New Media Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio as an Assistant Professor of Art. Raymond has also promoted contemporary expanded cinema practice through special projects such as the Live Cinema Summit at Columbia College in Chicago in 2010. As an expanded cinema artist, she has performed as Potter-Belmar Labs for the Aurora Picture Show Media Archeology Festival (Houston TX), SUNY Brockport Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester NY), San Antonio Museum of Art (San Antonio TX), Sheldon Memorial Museum (Lincoln NE), Artpace (San Antonio TX), the McDonough Museum, (Youngstown OH), and many other venues.

Mark Covino

Filmmaker

Originally from Queens, New York, where he fell in love with film at an early age. By the time he was a student at Eastern Suffolk B.O.C.E.S., he was honing the skills he would need to make the leap from high school student to filmmaker. Soon after, Mark moved to Vermont to attend college, earning a BA in Cinema Studies and Film Production in 2006. While Mark was working towards his undergraduate degree, he became heavily active in the Vermont filmmaking community. He worked on several productions such as “Unless a Death Occurs: Hazing Examined” for PBS, “Rally-Nation” (a pilot optioned for ESPN 2), as well as the highly acclaimed Black Panther documentary, “What We Want, What We Believe.” In 2012, Mark’s first feature film, “A Band Called Death,” premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and subsequently won the Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013. The film was acquired by Drafthouse Films shortly thereafter and was released to rave reviews around the world. It currently has a 95% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Michael Dunaway

Filmmaker

Produced and directed the New York Times Critics Pick 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER, starring Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Zac Efron, Jack Black, and many others. He also produced and directed the PBS documentary THE MAN WHO ATE NEW ORLEANS. He is the Movies Editor of Paste Magazine (5 million monthly readers), the Creative Director of the Sarasota Film Festival (one of the ten largest in the US), and the host of The Work podcast. He is currently in post-production on his first scripted feature, 6 LOVE STORIES, starring Peter Bogdanovich, Carrie Preston, Alicia Witt, Matthew Lillard, Stephen Tobolowsky, and others.

Joel Potrykus

Filmmaker

The american writer/director resides in Grand Rapids, MI USA where he continues to work with his filmmaking band, Sob Noisse. BUZZARD (SXSW, 2014) is the final installment in his Animal Trilogy, following the 2012 feature film APE (winner of Best Emerging Director, Locarno Film Festival) and the 2010 Super 8 short COYOTE. Along with production, Potrykus teaches screenwriting at Grand Valley State University and writes for an annual film criticism publication

Filmography: Gordon (2007, short), Coyote (2010, short, Ape (2012, feature), Buzzard (2014, feature), The Alchemist’s Cookbook (2016, feature)

Jeff Meyers

Filmmaker

An Ann Arbor-based screenwriter, director, filmmaker and journalist. He has been a film critic at Detroit’s Metro Times since 2004 and penned nearly a thousand reviews, can be found on Rotten Tomatoes, and won the Excellence In Journalism: Criticism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists (2009, 2010, 2011). Jeff is also a founding member of the Detroit Film Critic’s Society and served as its president from 2011-2013. He is also a contributing writer at Moviemaker Magazine. Jeff’s latest short film, The Blood Of Love, has been an official selection of over 30 film festivals and has won several awards.

Jon Lindstrom

Filmmaker

As an award-winning, Emmy nominated actor, director and screenwriter, Jon has crossed all mediums and worked with many of today’s major names.  He was one of 5 finalists in the prestigious New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Director Competition (along with Equity director, Meera Menon) at the 2013 St. Louis Int’l. Film Festival for his debut feature, How We Got Away With It.

 

As a screenwriter he co-authored (among others) the aforementioned How We Got Away With It and The Hard Easy, starring Vera Farmiga, Bruce Dern and Peter Weller. Primarily known for his acting career, he was recently seen throughout HBO’s True Detective and the recent God’s Not Dead 2. He’s been honored with numerous acting accolades, including the Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series and won the Angel Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the Monaco Int’l. Film Festival.

Cynthia Canty

Host of "Stateside"

Cynthia Canty is the host of Stateside, the public radio talk show focused on Michigan news and policy issues as well as culture and lifestyle stories. Stateside airs on Michigan Radio (91.7 FM Ann Arbor/Detroit/91.1 FM Flint/104.1FM West Michigan) Monday-Friday from 3–4 pm (10-11pm repeat). Cynthia is a veteran Detroit radio personality and Emmy Award winning news anchor. She served as a news anchor and morning show personality with Jim Harper at WNIC-100.3 FM, WDTX-99.5 FM and WMGC-105.1 FM from 1980-2011. She’s also hosted public affairs programs at WKBD-TV, and was a reporter and anchor on WKBD’s “Ten O’Clock News.” Her reporting and writing have earned her many awards, including an Emmy and honors from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, the Associated Press and the Detroit Press Club.

Aaron Milan Wertheimer

Filmmaker

Aaron’s debut feature was the 2015 offbeat comedy Wedgerino, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Currently he is prepping his second feature, Skippers. He works as an assistant director and production manager on indie films and commercials, and was formerly a production coordinator at the TV network Viceland. Also spending time as a freelance writer, he won a 2011 Lisagor Award for Best Arts Reporting & Criticism for an article on Henry Miller. Aaron recently relocated from Brooklyn to Evanston, Illinois.

Russell Sheaffer

Filmmaker

One of Variety magazine’s “110 Students to Watch,” Russell Sheaffer is an experimental film and documentary filmmaker who received a Master’s Degree from NYU’s Department of Cinema Studies and is currently working on his PhD in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University. Most recently, his short experimental documentary “Acetate Diary” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was named one of the “12 best shorts” of Tribeca by Film School Rejects. His experimental work has screened at numerous venues and festivals including MoMA, Inside Out, Anthology Film Archives, MIX NYC, and Queer Lisboa. In addition to his own experimental work, he has worked as a producer for documentary and fiction films, including Josephine Decker’s “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely,” which premiered in Forum at Berlinale in 2014, and ESPN’s “The Diplomat,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013.

Jess Levandoski

Filmmaker

Jess Levandoski is an independent film producer and commercial director with over 75+ short films and commercial projects under her belt. She is currently in development on the all-female helmed project, ‘Flower Girls’, which is slated to start production in St. Petersburg, Florida late fall of 2016,  after that she begins on directorial debut of the western she wrote, ‘La Plata’, starring Krisha Fairchild. Jess is also the director of the Middle Coast Film Festival, programs for the the Adirondack Film Festival and sits as a Juried Panel Member at The Sparrow Film Project in Queens, NY.  She’s got 2 great little humans she raises in Chicago with her Cinematographer husband, Matthew Levandoski.

Tom Hall

Executive Director - Montclair Film Festival

Previously, Hall held the position of Director, Artistic Director and Director of Programming at the Sarasota Film Festival (2005- 2014) and Programming Director at newportFILM in Newport, RI (2009-2011). In addition, Hall was Programmer for The Nantucket Film Festival in Nantucket, MA (2002-2005) as well as a former Director of New Media for Bravo/The Independent Film Channel (1997-2000). He has also worked in the Industry and Guest Services Offices at The Hamptons International Film Festival (2002-2003). In January of 2010, Tom was named one of Spring Board Media’s 20 under 40 in Film. Tom has directed short films for Bob Mould’s Carnival of Light and Sound Tour and was an inaugural member of the indieWIRE blogging community with his blog The Back Row Manifesto, which is now a standalone website. A graduate of the University of Michigan (’94), Hall resides in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and two sons.

Lela Meadow-Conner

Tallgrass Film Festival Executive Director

Often described as a wicked good kid from Boston, Lela has been with the Tallgrass Film Festival since late founder Timothy Gruver invited her to Wichita in 2003 to serve as festival producer and co-founder. She lived in Los Angeles, Chicago & Denver before touching down in Wichita full-time in 2011 to take on the role of TFA Executive Director. In 2016 she hung up that hat to focus on the Tallgrass brand, marketing and communications. She currently serves as the Acting Executive Director for the Film Festival Alliance, which serves 100 member film festivals from across North America, and as the Filmmaker Relations staff for the Woods Hole Film Festival. In addition to 10+ years of experience in the entertainment industry in Hollywood, including marketing and publicity, she also holds a degree in the culinary arts. In her spare time, she can often be found in her kitchen producing, marketing and publicizing her culinary creations for her film festival compadres (@toastchick.) How do you like them apples?

John Kapelos

Actor / Producer / Director

John Kapelos is a Canadian actor and producer from London, Ontario known for his roles in The Breakfast Club, Roxanne and Sixteen Candles. An alumnus of The Second City, Chicago, John Kapelos’s theatrical work spans eight years from Second City’s Touring Company (1978–1982) to six revues as a member of the famed Resident Company (1982–1986), and finally Second City’s critically acclaimed return to off-Broadway in Orwell That Ends Well at the former Village Gate in New York City Other film works include Garry Marshall’s Nothing in Common, opposite Tom Hanks, and Touchstone’s Stick It show his improvisational and comedic timing skills. Whereas roles in The Boost, with James Woods, and Internal Affairs with Richard Gere, present his adaptability for dramatic roles.

Douglas Schulze

Motion Picture Institute Co-Founder / Film Director

Award winning filmmaker and Motion Picture Institute co-founder Douglas Schulze brings twenty-eight years of real world experience to the classroom. His first feature film credits include Hellmaster (HBO and Cinemax) 1993, Dark Heaven (ThinkFilm) 2004, Dark Fields (Lionsgate) 2011, Mimesis Night of the Living Dead (Anchor Bay) 2012, The Dogs’ Fighter (Amazon Prime) 2013, The Dark Below (featuring Veronica Cartwright) 2015 and is currently directing the comedy tv pilot The Monster Show. Doug’s tenure in the film industry has included collaborations with a wide variety of Hollywood professionals including Michael Goi (former ASC president/DP of American Horror Story), Academy award winning special effects artist Chris Walas (the Fly) and the late David Carradine (Kill Bill). He is currently developing Mimesis 2. Doug holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Cinematic Arts from Eastern Michigan University.

Laura Heberton

Film Producer

Laura Heberton is a producer of award-­winning, ground-breaking narrative features as well narrative and doc shorts that have premiered at top festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and London BFI. Notable features include Jonathan Lisecki’s “Gayby“, Matt Porterfield’s “I Used to Be Darker“, Josephine Decker’s “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely“, Lance Edmands’ “Bluebird“, Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-­Beck’s “God Bless the Child” and Alison Bagnall’s “Funny Bunny“­­.  She currently is producing Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-­Beck’s (“God Bless the Child”) third feature, “When She Runs” as well as their short, “Mother, Mother” and Jennifer Reeder’s short, “All Small Bodies“. Projects she has worked on have received support from numerous organizations such as IFP, the SFFilm/Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Sundance Institute, Cinemart, the Polish Film Society, the Tribeca Film Institute and Rooftop Films. She serves on the boards of New York-based Union Docs and Pittsburgh-based Silver Eye Center for Photography, and task forces at a number of arts organizations. She has been on multiple film festival juries and is also a writer of screenplays and fiction.

Violet Lucca

Digital Producer Film Comment

Violet Lucca is the Digital Producer of Film Comment magazine and host of The Film Comment Podcast. In addition to creating content for the online and print versions of the magazine—interviews, reviews, features, and multimedia pieces—she regularly contributes writing to Sight & Sound. Lucca studied film and film production at the University of Iowa, graduating with honors, and received her master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University in 2009. She has also worked at the Watermill Center, Macmillan Publishers, and WNYC’s The Takeaway.

Caleb Ward

The Orchard Acquisitions Coordinator

Caleb Ward is the Acquisitions Coordinator for The Orchard on the Film & TV department.  In addition to his work in distribution he programs for festivals such as Cucalorus, Seattle International Film Festival, and SeriesFest where he runs his annual Late Night program.  Caleb is based in Los Angeles.

Cady McClain

Actor / Director

Cady McClain is a two-time Emmy Award winning actor and two-time Emmy nominated director who has worked professionally for over 30 years. Directing credits include Seeing is Believing: Women Direct (Winner Audience Award, SOHO International Film Festival, Winner Best Short Doc Burbank, Glendale, and Geneva Film Festivals. Jury Award Best Short Doc, Newport Beach Film Festival); Paint Made Flesh (a full length play filmed multi-camera sponsored by Sotheby’s); the short film Butterflies (Winner Best Short Film/Best Actress in a Short Film, Philadelphia Film Festival); Venice the Series (2017 & 2018 Daytime Drama Web Series Emmy nominations); the short film The World of Albert Fuh (Winner Best Comedy Drama Short, Indie Gathering Festival, Honorable Mention Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Review, Honorable Mention Best Director: SaMoIndie FF); the short film Flip Fantasia (Official Selection Macon Film Festival); the short films The Missing Piece and The Last Day, for Kids in the Spotlight, a FOX Studios supported program for foster youth (Winner Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actress, 2017 Movies By Kids Awards); and the web series Split starring Olympia Dukakis, releasing in August 2018. McClain was honored to receive the 2017 International Matrix Award from the Association of Women in Communications for her work related to raising awareness of women who direct. She currently volunteers for the Alliance of Women Directors (AWD).

Dan Moore

Indy Film Fest Executive Director

Dan Moore is the Executive Director of the Indy Film Fest which just celebrated its 15th year, and was drawn to the fest by his love for film nearly a decade ago. He has served as executive director of the all-volunteer festival since 2016.  By day, he’s a software engineer and lives with his two cats in Indianapolis, IN.

Chelsea O'Conner

Director / Actor / Producer

Chelsea O’Connor has worked in New York and Los Angeles’s entertainment industry for over 12 years as an Actress, Director, and Producer of both film and live entertainment. O’Connor has acted professionally in 13 films, 2 commercials, and 15 plays. Some New York theatre credits include Hamlet (off-Broadway), The Tempest, and MCC Theatre’s 7 Ways to Mourn the Dead.  She also co-starred in the feature film Bilal’s Stand, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.  Since moving to Los Angeles, Chelsea transitioned from performing to directing and producing. In 2016, she wrote, directed, and produced Susie Sunshine, an award-winning sci-fi short film, for which she was the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant. In the last eight months, Chelsea created and led a two-day female filmmaking intensive in Los Angeles, produced an attraction for a new theme park in Malaysia, produced a live awards show at the Disneyland Ballroom, and is currently producing a new short film, Don’t Say Yes. Chelsea is also a proud Bay City, Michigan native and University of Michigan alumni.

Doug Purdy

Actor / Director

Doug Purdy has worked steadily as an actor in film, television and stage. Quality Problems, which he starred in and co-directed with wife Brooke Purdy, was an audience favorite on the 2017 festival circuit. A Los Angeles native, he studied under famed teachers Janet Alhanti, Arthur Mendoza and Improv Olympic. Television credits include Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Monk and Steven Bochco’s Raising the Bar. On stage he has acted in or directed numerous plays including Blitzkrieg, The Deep Blue Sea and Plunge. Film work includes The Feels, And Then There Was Eve, Come Simi, Forgiving the Franklins and Least Among Saints. He recently starred in Miles Underwater (currently in post-production) and is in pre-production of The Lingering, attached as writer and director.

Patty Willamson

Central Michigan University Associate Professor, School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts

Patty Williamson is an Associate Professor in the School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts at Central Michigan University, teaching courses on film theory, history, genre, and criticism. Patty is currently the Festival Director of the Central Michigan International Film Festival. She earned her PhD in Mass Media at Michigan State University in 2007. Patty’s research focuses on film censorship and the MPAA film ratings. She is currently in post-production on a documentary about women in the radio industry. Patty worked at radio stations across the state of Michigan for a decade in the 1990s before returning to school for her graduate degrees.

Samm Levine

Actor

Samm Levine is an actor and comedian, whose breakout role came as a member of the “geek” half of the short lived 1999-2000 cult hit, Freaks and Geeks.

The next year, he rejoined Freaks and Geeks creator, Judd Apatow, for another widely-praised coming-of-age series, Undeclared. Following that, Samm made his feature debut in the raucous teen spoof, Not Another Teen Movie. Since then, Samm has appeared in over 100 films and television series including Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, Drunk History, Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer, and the Academy Award-winning Quentin Tarantino epic, Inglourious Basterds. 

In addition to his ever growing catalogue of television and film appearances, Samm has served as co-host and producer to Kevin Pollak’s renowned celebrity interview show, Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, since its inception in 2009. He is also a regular panelist on Doug Benson’s popular comedy podcast, Doug Loves Movies, and host of DC Universe’s news and talk program, DC Daily.

Matt Enlow

Director / Producer / Just Shoot It Podcast

Matt Enlow is an Emmy nominated director, writer & media-type living in Los Angeles. His work has been seen all over the world, and amassed millions of views. Enlow fuses witty dialogue, comedic timing and visual flair to deliver visually comedic work for networks like Comedy Central, Vh1, CBS and TruTV. He’s helmed series for Facebook Watch and Verizon and done ad campaigns for places like Netflix, Funny or Die, College Humor, and Google to make commercials, music videos, digital series, and probably some other stuff thats harder to categorize (or explain to his parents).

Rebecca Green

Producer

Rebecca Green produced two of the top-grossing and critically acclaimed independent films of 2015, IT FOLLOWS and I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, which generated a combined box office total of $30 million worldwide. A 2017 Women at Sundance Fellow, Green was named one of Variety’s ’10 Producers to Watch’ and was nominated for the Producer’s Award at the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards. She serves as the Creative Advisor for the Film Independent Producing Lab and is a member of the Academy of of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Green founded and is Editor-in-Chief of Dear Producer, an online community where producers share their experiences and provide mentorship for the next generation of filmmakers.

Oren Kaplan

Director / Producer / Just Shoot It Podcast

Oren Kaplan is a film, TV, and commercial director. Oren’s comedic sensibilities, strong sense of narrative storytelling, and technical abilities led him to directing.  Oren worked on a campaign with 20th CENTURY FOX for the Maze Runner sequel, The Scorch Trials, that was seen over 2 million times the week it was launched and was written up in over 60 national media publications. Oren’s debut feature, THE HAMMER, premiered at the AFI Film Festival, winning the Breakthrough Film Award and a theatrical distribution deal. The movie was based on the life of UFC Fighter Matt Hamill and featured a cast of primarily Deaf actors. It went on to win seven consecutive audience awards before its national release on over 120 screens. On Netflix, it was the 2nd highest rated sports film of all time. Between directing jobs, Oren dabbles as an award-winning Visual Effects Artist. He also hosts “Just Shoot It”, a podcast about storytelling and directing. In his downtime he reminisces about his days as a semi-professional aggressive inline skaters in Israel.

Claire Taylor

SeriesFest Director

Claire Taylor is a proud member of SeriesFest since Season One, Claire Taylor currently serves as the Director of Programming where she oversees all programming for year round initiatives and the festival including the Digital Short Series, Late Night, Storytellers Initiative, and Independent Pilot Competitions. Before joining the SeriesFest team, Claire focused on applying her passion for storytelling through producing theater and television for Triptyk Studios based in NYC (An American In Paris, Amelie: The Musical, Xanadu).

Natalie Metzger

Producer

Natalie Metzger is a Spirit Award nominated producer whose films have premiered at top festivals around the world including Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, SXSW, Tribeca, and Locarno. She is known for Josh Ruben’s WEREWOLVES WITHIN, Jim Cummings’ THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW, Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe’s GREENER GRASS, Jim Cummings & PJ McCabe’s THE BETA TEST, and SXSW Grand Jury Award winner THUNDER ROAD, among numerous others. 

Her feature writing/directing credits include LGBTQ sports documentary ALONE IN THE GAME (AFI Docs, Outfest) and medical documentary SPECIAL BLOOD (Dolores Huerta Award for Best Director – Long Beach Indie; Best Feature Documentary – CWFF). She has directed numerous award-winning commercials and short films, including a short film adaptation of IMMORTAL, which won Best Narrative Short at Eastern Oregon Film Festival, Best Set Design at Trans Stellar Film Festival, and screened at 17 film festivals including the Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival. Her psa TOPLESS WOMEN TALK NFL was also featured in the Washington Post and Huffington Post and won an Aurora Award (Platinum Best of Show) and a Telly Award. 

Metzger is also an alum of CoverFly’s Endorsed Writers Program and Eastern Oregon’s Filmmaker Residency. Her feature script IMMORTAL won the Grand Prize in Screencraft’s Sci-Fi Screenplay Competition and the Gold Prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards, and is in the top 1% of Coverfly’s Red List.

Metzger holds an MFA from CalArts and is a Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Emory University, where she received the Sudler Award in the Arts and the Pioneer Award. www.nataliemetz.com

Cameron McAllistar

Festival Professional

Cameron McAllister is a film festival professional, writer, film critic and filmmaker. Since 2014, he has been a part of the Atlanta Film Society, where his work as Associate Director has helped propel the 45-year-old Academy Award-qualifying Atlanta Film Festival to its place as one of the nation’s premiere independent film showcases.  He also formerly served as Executive Director for the Rome International Film Festival from 2016 to 2018. 

In 2011, Cameron founded Reel Georgia, the first press outlet dedicated entirely to Georgia’s film industry. Reel Georgia was acquired by Georgia Entertainment News in 2017. Also in 2011, Cameron founded the Georgia Film Critics Association (GAFCA). Cameron’s written work has been featured in Paste Magazine, Oz Magazine and Southern Distinction. As a filmmaker, Cameron has helped produce both short and feature content. CLEAN SLATE, a feature-length documentary directed by Jared Callahan, and CONGRATULATIONS (MABROOK), a narrative short film directed by Asad Farooqui, are both recently completed and currently on the film festival circuit.

Sav Rodgers

Filmmaker

Originally from Kansas, Sav Rodgers is a filmmaker and writer whose work often centers on telling highly specific, surprising stories involving queer characters. He is the director of Chasing Chasing Amy, an upcoming feature documentary about the controversy of Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy among LGBTQ+ people and the profound, lasting impression on his own life. Sav delivered a TED Talk on the subject titled, “The rom-com that saved my life.” In 2017, Sav graduated from the University of Kansas. He is an alumnus of the Outfest and the LA LGBT Center’s OutSet Fellowship, TED Residency, and the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium. His short films have screened at festivals like Slamdance, the Cleveland International Film Festival, and the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. Sav is the Founder and Executive Director of the Transgender Film Center, a nonprofit aiming to help trans creators bring finished films to audiences around the world. 

Clayton Scheibel

Acquisitions Coordinator

Clayton Schiebel serves as Acquisitions Coordinator for both Entertainment Studios and Freestyle Digital Media. His passion for independent film led him to pursue a career in film acquisitions, where he works with/alongside the acquisitions and distribution teams to evaluate film submissions, projects for development, and to inform potential partners regarding FDM’s film distribution services. Clayton has previously worked in talent representation at Buchwald talent agency and 11:11 Entertainment. He is based in Los Angeles and holds a bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mallory Martin

Artistic Director

Mallory Martin is the Artistic Director of the Cleveland International Film Festival. Now in its 47th year, CIFF presents hundreds of feature and short films every spring. Since joining CIFF in 2010, Mallory has traveled the world in search of the best films to bring back to Cleveland, participating in various juries, panels, and pitch sessions. She is also a co-founder of rePRO Film, a film series centered on reproductive justice. Mallory began her career by working for the Athens International Film and Video Festival, producing public media broadcasts, and writing and directing short films. 

Carlos Aguilar

Film Critic / Journalist

Originally from Mexico City, Carlos Aguilar is a journalist and film critic whose work has appeared in prestigious publications such as Los Angeles Times, Variety, The New York Times, The Wrap, Indiewire, Vulture, RogerEbert.com, MovieMaker Magazine, among others. He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) and the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC).

Joseph Beyer

Film / Festival Professional

Joseph Beyer relocated to his native Michigan from Los Angeles in 2018, and briefly worked as Executive Director to the Traverse City Film Festival, followed by Director of Audience Engagement and Brand Strategy to MyNorth Media, a two year run as Executive Director to Michigan Legacy Art Park, a thirty-acre outdoor sculpture experience and nonprofit cultural organization in Benzie County, and most recently as Executive Director to Parallel 45 Theatre, overseeing the Cultural Comeback Summer of 2021 and the safe return of live performances following the pandemic.

In California, Beyer was a staffer to the storied Sundance Institute for more than 14 years, lastly as Director of Digital Initiatives where he led creative development and operations of digital content and special Institute projects, traveling globally and producing events for creators. Later he joined The Redford Center as Director of Marketing and Distribution.

 He’s currently a contributing writer to Northern Express based in Traverse City, covering arts and culture and he co-hosts a seasonal segment on music and culture with Dan Wanschura for Interlochen Public Radio. Locally Joe has volunteered on the Traverse City Arts Commission Art Selection Panel, the Collection Committee of the Dennos Museum Center, and is a regular contributor to The Boardman Review. He lives and works from a small farm on Old Mission Peninsula with his partner journalist Beth Milligan and two very cool cats.

Bill Stertz

Producer

Bill Stertz is a Michigan-based award-winning producer who has had both narrative and documentary feature films in numerous  major festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and more.  

In the last two years alone, Bill has produced three narrative features films, including I LOVE MY DAD written and directed by James Morosini, starring Patton Oswalt, Morosini, Claudia Sulewski, Rachel Dratch, and Lil Rel Howery, which was released by Magnolia Pictures in theaters across the country after taking home the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at its SXSW premiere last Spring.  

Bill also produced the Steve Buscemi directed feature THE LISTENER, starring Tessa Thompson from a script by Academy Award nominee Alessandro Camon, which was selected to close Venice’s Giornate degli Autori this year.

Bill Stertz’s career has been defined by straddling the creative and business issues of filmmaking, with experience across every aspect of development, production, post-production, distribution, and business affairs.

Erin Brown Thomas

Filmmaker

Erin Brown Thomas is a multi-hyphenate filmmaker whose work spans comedy, drama, and dance.

Her vivacious comedy “Rekindled” played twelve Oscar-qualifying film festivals, winning fourteen awards. She was selected as an Artist in Residence at the 2019 Palm Springs International ShortFest for “But First…” which also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, was curated by Vimeo, and won a jury prize at Cinequest. Her for-hire work involves eight episodes of Peacock Kids’ “Teensy Tiny DIY,” three episodes from season two of “Adopted,” and the pilot “A Question of Service,” which won Best TV at Hollyshorts Film Festival in 2022. Erin’s training includes Judith Weston’s directing labs, a decade’s long involvement with Upright Citizen’s Brigade, and various director shadows, including Nickelodeon’s “All That.” Erin was selected as a 2019 workshop participant in the AICP and DGA’s Commercial Director Diversity Program and was a 2020 finalist for Shondaland’s Women-In-Film mentorship through SeriesFest. Her YouTube channel “Versatile Assassins” has ninety thousand subscribers and thirteen million views.

Erin’s screenplays and teleplays have advanced at Sundance New Voices, Sundance Development Lab, Nicholl Fellowship (top 2.5% of 5500), BlueCat Screenplay competition (top 1.5% of 4400), Austin Film Festival, SeriesFest, Ron Howard’s Imagine Impact, ISA Fast Track, Scriptapalooza, ScreenCraft Comedy, and many film festival writing contests — several first place wins.

Erin co-founded Salute Your Shorts Film Festival in 2017 where she currently serves as Artistic Director. Curation has deeply impacted her voice and curiosity as an artist, and has resulted in meaningful educational collaborations with GIRLS showrunner Jenni Konner, SXSW and Sundance Winner Jim Cummings, and Academy Award-winner Ben Proudfoot, to name a few. She’s also had the pleasure of serving on the comedy jury for Indy Shorts Film Festival.

Erin is currently taking bets on which of her two lauded feature screenplays will go into production first. If you have a magic eight-ball, please tell her. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband (and secret screenplay structure weapon) Jake and their three needy cats.

AMANDA RENEE KNOX

AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR

Amanda Renee Knox is an award winning director whose work is supported by Film Independent, Panavision, The Caucus and The Annenberg Foundation. In 2022, Amanda participated in Panavision’s New Filmmaker Program with her film The Errand, she was in consideration for a 2019 Live Action Short Academy Award and was awarded a Student DGA Jury Award for her short film Night Call that screened in over 85 festivals worldwide winning 42.

Additionally, Night Call has aired on PBS, locally and nationally and had a limited theatrical run curated by Washington Post Chief Film Critic, Ann Hornaday. In 2020, she participated in the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative and was named a Finalist in the NBC Female Forward program in 2022.

Nate Kohn, Ebertfest Director, describes her work as “really well made, powerful work”.

She is set to direct a feature film under her company, Full Gallop Films, addressing climate change in 2024 and is represented by Rain Management Group.

ALEX SCHMIDER

FILM PRODUCER

Alex Schmider is an Emmy®, Peabody, and Critics Choice Award recognized film producer and the Director of Transgender Representation at GLAAD where he advises media and entertainment industry leaders, and consults with production companies, editorial teams, brands, and corporations on how best to approach transgender and nonbinary characters, storylines, marketing, social impact campaigns, and broader gender inclusion on digital platforms. His producing credits include Chasing Chasing Amy (Tribeca 2023), Changing the Game (Hulu), Disclosure (Netflix), Framing Agnes (Kino Lorber), and The Leo Baker Story (Netflix). A member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy, he is also a Board Member of the 19th Newsroom and on the Advisory Committee for the Ad Council.

ALRIK BURSELL

FILMMAKER, VIDEO PRODUCER, PODCASTER

Alrik Bursell is a filmmaker, video producer and podcaster with over fifteen years working in film and video production and post production. Alrik has written and directed seven short films and his feature film Red Snow, which he produced, came out on digital and DVD in December of 2021 and his feature film which he produced, wrote and directed, The Alternate came was released on digital and DVD in the fall of 2022 and won over fifteen awards at film festivals worldwide and both films have fresh ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. In addition to Alrik’s producing/directing work on feature films, he has crewed up on eight feature films working as post production supervisor, assistant editor, script supervisor and production coordinator as well as other roles. 

Alrik also has also worked in commercial film, working with brands like Comcast, HBO and the NFL and has post produced long form investor facing content for a wide number of big brands including Rent The Runway, Poshmark and Squarespace. 

Lastly Alrik has been the co-host of the popular filmmaking podcast Making Movies is Hard!!! for over 400 episodes, which has aired once a week since June of 2015, garnering thousands of fans and a five star rating on apple podcasts.

CARA OGBURN

MILWAUKEE FILM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

With twelve years experience teaching at the college level and seasonal roles in education for two festivals prior, Dr. Cara Ogburn joined Milwaukee Film’s full time staff in 2013, overseeing the organization’s education efforts serving youth, filmmakers and general audience enrichment. Since then her role has expanded to include oversight of all programs on and off screen and in 2020 she was named Artistic Director. Cara is the immediate past president of the Board of Directors of the Film Festival Alliance.

GINA CUOMO

CINEMA OPERATIONS CONSULTING

Originally from Queens, Gina began her love of cinema as a little girl. She started working in multiplexes as a teenager in Denver, CO before moving her way into the non-profit world. In 2006, she began working at the Denver Film Society where she spent the next 16 years as the Director of Operations, running the year-round Sie FilmCenter and operating many film festivals under their umbrella, including the Denver International Film Festival, Women+Film Festival, SeriesFest, and the Stanely Film Festival. Having a passion for film exhibition, Gina has been involved with the Art House Convergence, a mission-driven collection of art houses, since 2011 and resided on the Transitional Working Group for the organization. 

Gina started Cinema Operations Consulting in 2022 and began advising for Coral Gables Art Cinema and ran operations for Vidiots Foundation in LA, where she helped open their year round cinema and video store. She now sits as the Gables Cinema’s Interim Director of Operations and continues to consult other cinemas remotely from Denver.  

Aside from her love of the cinematic experience, Gina is an avid baseball fan and a loyalist to the hit television phenomenon LOST.

LIZ MANASHIL

INDEPENDENT FEATURE FILMMAKER

Liz Manashil is an independent feature filmmaker (Bread and Butter, Speed of Life) who works in artist support. She managed Sundance’s Creative Distribution Initiative during its entire tenure and now consults with her fellow filmmakers (independently and through The Film Collaborative) on how best to navigate the labyrinthine-like world of distribution. She is incredibly proud to have contributed to both the Distributor Fact Sheet and the Distributor Report Card and is in the process of making her third feature – a horror comedy called BEST FRIENDS FOREVER- as well as her second child. This child may or may not be born by the time you read this bio. Liz lives in Los Angeles with her partner, son, and the fetus/infant slowly growing inside or outside of her.