November 5 - 10, 2024 • Las Vegas

2020 Speaker Bios

2020 Speaker Bios D-F

Anthony D'Alessandro

Anthony covers box office, breaking film news, awards-season features and festival news. His first job in the film industry was at Savoy Pictures’ headquarters in New York where he worked in film distribution. In the summer of 1999, he was hired by Variety and moved to Los Angeles, and remained in the newsroom covering numerous parts of the industry, including box office, for about a decade. Prior to arriving at Deadline in the fall of 2011, where he co-edited the site’s sister publication Awardsline, Anthony covered the box office beat for Indiewire’s Thompson on Hollywood. He also co-produced Matt Walsh’s film “A Better You.”

Nicole d'Avis

Nicole d’Avis is the Managing Director of Berklee’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship, leads the Open Music Initiative, a 300+ music industry member consortium focused on streamlining metadata and payment tracking for artists, and is a co-founder of RAIDAR, a blockchain based music licensing platform built BY and FOR Berklee students. She designed Berklee College’s minor in Creative Entrepreneurship, including teaching a course on Music + Blockchain, and directs its annual Silicon Valley Student Trip, the Berklee-Brown Summer Program, executive ed programs with ESADE Business School and numerous Berklee Artist Residencies for Grammy-Award winning artists. Nicole has led the formation of the Open Music Initiative into a member-supported non profit organization, and has stewarded the first stage of Open Music’s Berklee / MIT technical project. Nicole’s speaking engagements include the Beatvyne Music x Tech Conference in Dublin, Ace Hotel Artists Workshop in London, the Unclaimed Royalties Symposium at the U.S. Library of Congress and the MIT Connection Science / Forbes Imagination in Action event at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos. For the last 15 years, Nicole’s work has straddled the intersection of technology, creativity, value and education, working with thousands of young creators and makers globally to use emerging technology and the arts as tools for social justice and career sovereignty.

Rebecca Davis

Rebecca Davis is Variety’s first China Bureau Chief.

Davis covers a land that boasts the world’s second-largest movie market and a burgeoning television industry and that has developed extensive ties with Hollywood in recent years. Formerly a reporter with Agence France-Presse, Davis is based in Beijing, and has long had a professional interest in and personal fascination with the Chinese entertainment scene.

At Agence France-Presse, Davis covered breaking news on topics ranging from politics to natural disasters, such as earthquakes and landslides in Sichuan, and has written features on culture and lifestyle, including the dashed Oscar hopes of a Chinese documentary about an activist fighting on behalf of sexually abused children. A fluent Mandarin speaker, she has also worked in the Beijing offices of The New York Times and Le Monde.

Davis graduated from Columbia University’s Barnard College with a degree in comparative literature. Besides Mandarin Chinese, she also speaks French and Spanish.

Tasha Day

Tasha Day is the Manager of Special Events and Filming for the City of Long Beach. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Sociology degree and has been with the department for the past 21 years and in the events industry for over 25 years.

Tasha is the current President of the Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS).  As Manager of Special Events & Filming, the office was awarded the 2015 Outstanding Film Commission of the year, beating out the Chicago Film Office, Film in Iceland, Oregon Governor’s Office of Film & Television, and Royal Film Commission of Jordan.

The City of Long Beach Special Events and Filming Office issues approximately 500 film permits per year, which include recent feature films such as “Top Gun,” “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood,” “Ford v. Ferrari,” and “Lucy in the Sky,” as well as television shows “9-1-1,” “LA’s Finest,” “Malibu Rescue,” “NCIS: LA,” “Animal Kingdom,” For All Mankind,” “Sneaky Pet,” “All American Grand Hotel,” and “The Politician.”

The office also permits over 400 events annually.  Most notably, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Long Beach Marathon, several Music Festivals, Dew Tour, the Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade and Festival, and the popular Beach Streets events.

Audrey Delaney

Audrey Delaney is an entertainment industry veteran, having served as a high-level senior executive for a number of sales and distribution companies, where she has handled the worldwide acquisition, distribution and marketing of many high profile independent films She currently heads up worldwide marketing and distribution for Blue Fox Entertainment, an independent US distributor and worldwide sales company. She held similar roles previously at Myriad Pictures, Lightning Entertainment, and Media 8 Entertainment. In these roles she has overseen many acclaimed independent films including The Lost Husband starring Josh Duhamel, Summer ’03 starring Joey King, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby starring Jessica Chastain and James MacAvoy, You’re Not You starring Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum, and Monster directed by Patty Jenkins, for which Charlize Theron won an Academy Award. She has served as an executive producer on many films including Standing Up, Falling Down starring Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz, The Parts You Lose starring Aaron Paul, and The Queen of Spain starring Penelope Cruz.

Audrey is also the founder of StarMetrics, an entertainment analytics platform and suite of tools, recently featured in TechCrunch. StarMetrics is bringing the next generation of analytics tools to the front lines of the streaming revolution. Using proprietary algorithms, StarMetrics empowers content creators, distributors and advertisers to discover the right creative talent before production to maximize the global value and reach of their content. StarMetrics also provides data on global streaming trends and content to further empower independent filmmakers and content creators in decision-making.

Audrey received a BA from Yale University, an MBA with honors from the USC Marshall School of Business, and attended the MFA film program at Columbia University (New York).

Janaé Désiré

Janaé Désiré is a Media Finance Executive at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).  Désiré is based in the Los Angeles office and focuses on client projects in early stages of development. Désiré began her career in the unscripted space while working at RadicalMedia on Dean of Invention for Planet Green. From there, she worked at ABC News All Media as an Associate Producer on news magazine shows for TLC, Discovery I.D., and OWN Networks. In 2014, Désiré joined Participant Media and transitioned to the narrative film and television space. She joined CAA in 2019. Désiré graduated from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey with a degree in Communications and a double minor in Africana Studies and Women & Gender Studies.

Cameron Douglas

Cameron Douglas is Vice President of Home Entertainment for Fandango, and heads the company’s transactional video-on-demand services, FandangoNOW and Vudu. A marketing veteran with over 20 years of experience within the entertainment industry, Douglas oversees content and merchandising for FandangoNOW and Vudu, offering hundreds of thousands of movies and next-day TV, along with an extensive library of 4K and HDR titles, to buy or rent without a subscription.

In 2018, Douglas was elected Chairman of OTT.X (formerly the Entertainment Merchants Association/EMA), the trade group for the home entertainment industry.

Douglas previously served as SVP of Content for M-GO, prior to its acquisition by Fandango and rebranding as FandangoNOW in January 2016. He has held senior positions at top entertainment media companies including DreamWorks, Paramount, Fox, and Disney.

FandangoNOW curates entertainment options for every occasion and works with Rotten Tomatoes to help consumers with their viewing decisions. The service is available on more than 200 million devices, including Smart TVs from Samsung, LG and VIZIO; over-the-top (OTT) streaming players including Roku and Chromecast; Xbox One video game systems; iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets; Movies Anywhere; and online at FandangoNOW.com. Consumers can watch Movies and TV series on FandangoNOW anytime, anywhere, whether at home or on the go.

Vudu is a leading video-on-demand streaming service from Fandango offering over 150,000 titles to rent or buy, including the newest releases, and thousands of titles for free. Serving millions of entertainment fans daily, Vudu has created compelling video entertainment experiences, including the ability to create custom Lists from their movies & TV library, purchase exclusive Mix & Match bundles, access digital copies of their physical films, and much more. Consumers can watch the latest movies & TV shows anytime, anywhere, on their favorite smart TV, over-the-top (OTT) streaming player, Android and iOS device, game console, and Blu-ray player. Streaming or downloaded, Vudu delivers a premium experience with the latest digital video technology, including 4K Ultra High Definition, Dolby Vision, HDR, and Dolby Atmos Cinema Sound

Douglas is a Stanford University graduate and earned an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Malik Ducard

Malik Ducard – VP of Content Partnerships at YouTube, overseeing business development efforts for the platform’s Learning, Social Impact, Family, Health, Film & TV partnership areas. Prior to joining YouTube, he served as senior vice president of digital distribution for the Americas at Paramount Pictures and oversaw distribution of content to digital platforms.

Prior to Paramount, Malik led Lionsgate’s Home Entertainment Acquisitions group, executive produced a stand-up comedy series for Showtime, led MGM’s Home Entertainment’s Acquisitions and Business Development division, and drove several successful new business pitches at Young & Rubicam Advertising in New York.

A native of the Bronx, Malik earned his B.A. degree from Columbia University and his MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He currently serves on the Los Angeles Mayor’s Council on Technology and Innovation, is on the board of the Digital Diversity Network, and is Board President of LA Makerspace, a non-profit organization that brings STEAM education to youth throughout LA.

Malik is also author of “Henry’s Big Win”, winner of the Jessie Redmon Fauset Award for Best Children’s Book.

Bruce David Eisen

Bruce David Eisen is a veteran entertainment attorney and media executive. Eisen’s legal practice focuses on the intersection of new and traditional media and the technology powering them. Eisen’s current and recent clients include Comcast, AMC Networks, Shout! Factory, RLJ Entertainment, Brainstorm Media, Shoreline Entertainment, Sobini Films, Stargazer Films, Xumo, Viant, Wurl, Nagra/Kudelski, OTT.X and a number of independent producers, among others.

Eisen’s services include structuring, drafting and negotiating film development agreements, content acquisition and distribution agreements, film finance agreements, technology agreements, production legal services as well as and providing general legal/business affairs services for film, television, new media, technology and other clients. Other recent activities include M&A legal work on multi-million dollar deals representing the Hollywood Film Awards in its sale to dick clark productions and representing Shout Factory and Ace Film HK Company Limited in their acquisition of Roger Corman’s library of films and television shows.

Eisen regularly advises companies regarding the new California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), drafting privacy policies and terms of use that adhere to the CCPA and working with clients to ensure that their business practices are CCPA compliant.

Individuals and companies that Eisen has recently negotiated with on behalf of his clients include Allison Janney, Sean Hayes, James Cromwell, Bruce Dern, Bret Easton Ellis, James Franco, Cross Creek Pictures, Palm Star Media, Grindstone Entertainment, Voltage Pictures, Netflix, Fandango, Tugg, The Orchard, Vudu, Hulu, Redbox, inDemand, Vubiquity, Verizon, Amazon, PlayStation Network, Showtime, Starz, HBO, Vimeo, Brightcove, Comcast, DISH, Oracle, ComScore/Rentrak, TiVo, OperaTV and Zype.

From 2009 through 2012 Eisen was the Vice President Online Content Development & Strategy for DISH Network where he negotiated agreements with most of the major television networks on behalf of DISH, licensing over 20,000 television shows for distribution and acquiring on-demand rights from the major Hollywood studios including VOD/EST/SVOD rights for distribution of their content across multiple platforms including set-top boxes, DishOnline.com, iPad, iPhone and Android devices. In addition, Eisen negotiated agreements with various partners for DRM and other technology services including Synacor and Adobe.

Eisen was one of the principals who started CinemaNow in 1999 and, as the company’s general counsel, negotiated financing for the company in excess of $40 million, negotiated CinemaNow’s agreements with over 200 content licensors including all of the major Hollywood studios as well as agreements with local ISPs, portals and film distributors to bring CinemaNow to the U.K., the Netherlands, Taiwan, Philippines, Latin America, and Singapore. In addition, Eisen was instrumental in creating CinemaNow Japan, Inc., an affiliated entity that raised over $15 million in funding.

Eisen structured the strategy and business aspects of CinemaNow’s technology requirements to enable the efficient, cost-effective distribution of content on a worldwide, video-on-demand basis and, in that regard, licensed all required technology including agreements for content delivery network services, data services, data hosting, geo-targeting, recommendation engines, web analytics, network storage and customer relation management with companies such as Akamai, Limelight, Savvis, Intel, Microsoft, EchoStar and Qwest.

Eisen started his career as the head of Legal and Business Affairs for Trimark Pictures where his responsibilities included negotiating the company’s distribution agreements with companies including the Walt Disney Company, Miramax, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Columbia Pictures, HBO and others. Eisen also negotiated and drafted Trimark’s development agreements as well as its production legal agreements including those with such talent as Samuel L. Jackson, Renee Zelweger, Peter Jackson and Jim Belushi. In addition, Eisen structured the company’s relationships with the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America and was instrumental in negotiating Trimark’s $25 million line of credit with Bank of America and Trimark’s $75 million line of credit with The Chase Manhattan Bank as well as numerous production financing agreements with various lenders and bond companies.

Eisen received his J.D. from the University of Southern California and his B.A. cum laude with high honors in Philosophy from Clark University.

Cassian Elwes

Cassian Elwes is an expert in producing, arranging financing and finding distribution for independent films. He began his producing career with 1984’s “Oxford Blues” starring Rob Lowe and Ally Sheedy and quickly went on to make another 29 films, including “Men At Work,” with Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, and “The Chase,” again with Sheen. In 1994, Elwes joined William Morris and headed William Morris Independent Film for 15 years. He arranged financing for indie hits such as “Slingblade” and “The Apostle,” both of which were nominated for multiple Academy Awards. “Monster’s Ball” was their historic follow up as Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. In the end he had arranged financing and distribution for 283 films during his tenure at William Morris. Since leaving William Morris 10 years ago, Elwes has either produced or executive produced more than 70 films such as David Lowery’s “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”, which was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Feature, Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, for which Williams was nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards, and the hit period drama “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” which featured an all-star cast headed by Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. He also executive produced J.C. Chandor’s “All Is Lost” starring Robert Redford and executive produced and arranged financing for the Academy Award winning hit “Dallas Buyers Club” directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, starring Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner. Most recently, Elwes produced both the multiple Academy Award nominated “Mudbound”, directed by Dee Rees, which Netflix distributed, and Dee Rees’ latest film, “The Last Thing He Wanted,” starring Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck and Willem Dafoe, which Netflix will distribute. “Dreamland,” starring Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, and Evangeline Lilly, and “Best Sellers,” starring Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza, are in currently in post-production.

Clay Epstein

Clay Epstein

Clay Epstein is the President and Owner of Film Mode Entertainment, a worldwide sales and distribution entity with a producer friendly initiative. The company has gained a significant market share in a competitive marketplace, with such films as HOOKING UP starring Brittany Snow and STAGE MOTHER starring Jacki Weaver and Lucy Liu. Upcoming releases include CHICK FIGHT starring Alec Baldwin and BREACH starring Bruce Willis.  Film Mode also represents Screen Media’s 600 title library and has a first look deal with Bondit, a production and lending facility.

Prior to Film Mode, Clay was SVP Sales & Acquisitions at Arclight Films. He was instrumental in acquiring and representing high profile films such as Paul Schrader’s DOG EAT DOG starring Nicolas Cage, and the Spirig  brother’s PREDESTINATION starring Ethan Hawke. Earlier in his career, Clay represented prestigious titles such as TSOTSI (2006, Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language,) and THE LAST STATION (2010, Academy Award Nominee for Best Performance by an Actress.) Clay earned a BA in Fine Arts, from California State University, Northridge majoring in Film Production and minoring in Italian Language.

Clay is an Executive Producer, an instructor at UCLA Extension, and a frequent lecturer at film festivals worldwide. He is the Vice Chairperson of Independent Film and Television Alliance, a member of IDA, FIND, BAFTA LA, PGA and the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts.

Liliana Espinosa

Liliana Espinoza

Liliana Espinoza is currently the Projects Director at the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), where she oversees the various programs and departments including the Latino Lens Incubators, Latino Media Market, NALIP Media Summit, Diverse Women in Media Forum and Emerging Content Creators Inclusion Initiative, targeted to advancing Latinx and diverse creatives across all media platforms. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara and was part of the UCLA Professionals Program focusing on Film & TV.

Elissa Federoff

Elissa Federoff is the President of Theatrical Distribution for NEON and has been with the company since its inception in January 2017.  Federoff oversees the company’s release strategy across all its titles, positioning NEON as a major theatrical player with both the commercial chains and art circuits. Recently, she has been instrumental in ramping up NEON’s direct-to-consumer capabilities with virtual cinema. She previously held stints at The Orchard, boutique label RADiUS, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Lionsgate.

Federoff has been a cornerstone to NEON’s success since its launch and under her leadership NEON made history with four Academy Award® wins for Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which grossed over $53 million at the box office becoming the third highest grossing foreign language film ever released in the US. In just three years, NEON has garnered 12 Academy Award® nominations, 5 wins, including Best Picture, grossed over $150M at the Box Office, and amassed a library of over 50 films with noteworthy releases such as: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov’s award-winning and record-breaking Honeyland, which is the first non-fiction feature to land Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film in the same year; Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, the highest grossing documentary of 2019; Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling which surpassed $13M at the box office; and Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya, which garnered multiple Academy Award® nominations, one win for Allison Janney and amassed over $30M in box office in North America.

NEON continues to be an impressive force, with recent acquisitions such as:  Venice’s Grand Jury Prize Winner Michel Franco’s New Order; Night of Kings, Philippe Lacôte’s Ivory Coast Oscar Submission; Pablo Larraín’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart; Pig, starring Nicolas Cage; Francis Lee’s romantic drama Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria with Tilda Swinton; and the documentary Gunda directed by Viktor Kossakovsky and executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix.  Recent releases include: Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor; Max Barbakow’s sought after Palm Springs starring Andy Samberg, which NEON acquired with Hulu; Amy Seimtz’s SXSW critical sensation She Dies Tomorrow; Josephine Decker’s Shirley starring Elisabeth Moss; Matt Wolf’s highly acclaimed Sundance documentary Spaceship Earth across an innovative footprint of both traditional and non-traditional venues; The Painter and the Thief directed by Benjamin Ree; the critically acclaimed Cannes hit Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes® and Independent Spirit Awards; Alejandro Landes’ cinematic thriller Monos (the Colombian selection for the Academy Awards®); Julius Onah’s Luce starring Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer; Tom Harper’s Wild Rose starring Jessie Buckley; John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm; Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency starring Academy Award® Nominee Alfre Woodard; and the electrifying documentary about Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace.

After their successful collaboration on I, Tonya in January 2018, 30WEST (Dan Friedkin’s and Micah Green’s strategic venture) partnered with NEON’s Tom Quinn (Founder & CEO) and Tim League (Co-Founder) to become majority investors in the company.

 

Feldman, Randi

Randi Feldman

For the past 35 years, Randi Feldman has been working in the film industry as a script supervisor/film teacher/producer. Randi has been a member of Local 871 since 1992, working on motion pictures and commercials.  She also is a producing partner for World Wide Artists since 1986.

Randi has been teaching workshops and lecturing since 1996 at:  AFI, UCLA, NYFA, Santa Fe Community College, “F.I.T” Film Industry Training Program, and Detroit, Michigan. She is the founder of CINEMA WORKSHOPS (1998), teaching the “The Craft of the Script Supervisor” – beginning and advanced courses to aspiring and working script supervisors. She also teaches Blocking Strategies and The Rules of Continuity to aspiring directors at colleges and in workshops offered at CINEMA WORKSHOPS.

Alex Ferrari

Alex Ferrari is an author, blogger, speaker, consultant, the host of the #1 filmmaking podcast on iTunes Indie Film Hustle Podcast and an award-winning writer/director with 25 years of experience in the film industry. As a director his films have screened in over 500 international film festivals. Frustrated that his fellow filmmakers were being “chewed up” by the film business Alex decided to start Indie Film Hustle® a website dedicated to educating filmmakers and artists on how to survive and thrive in the film business. He also launched a podcast focused on filmmaking called The Indie Film Hustle® Podcast. Within three months of its start date. the show became the #1 filmmaking podcast on Apple Podcasts. He’s also the host of the popular screenwriting podcast Bulletproof Screenwriting® and the filmmaking business podcast Filmtrepreneur®. His new book Rise of the Filmtrepreneur® How to Turn Your Indie Film into a Money Making Business rocketed to the top of the Amazon charts and became a #1 Best Seller as well.  Alex currently lives in Los Angeles with his lovely family. He is a devoted practitioner of meditation and how it aids in the creative process. He also speaks regularly at screenwriting and film events, festivals and conventions.

Denis Février

After an experience as company finance in an industrial environment and driven by his entrepreneurial spirit, Denis focused on supporting start-ups & medium-sized companies, thus extending his fields of proficiency to related to operations, human resources and legal issues. He recently cofounded Polkatulk to address the issues of copyright management and digital distribution, with a first proven use case : Scenso.tv An avid musician and photographer, curious and self-assumed geek, he is fully convinced of the foremost role of cultural products in the economic development, if only due to digital transformation. Since October 2020 he is also Vice-President of Tënk, a documentary focused VoD platform available in Europe and Canada, and part of the Board of Directors of EUROVOD as Treasurer.

Jon Fitzgerald

Jon has twenty-five years of experience in the independent film, internet and film festival communities. As a filmmaker, he has produced a number of award winning documentaries; and as a consultant, he has guided many independent film projects through the maze of festivals and hybrid distribution models.  As a co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival (1995), he led the event the next two seasons before being named the Festival Director for the prestigious AFI Film Festival in 1997. After running AFI Fest for three years (1997-1999), he created a consulting business, guiding the launch of numerous film festivals (Bahamas, Lone Star, Orlando), directing several others (Santa Barbara, Naples and Abu Dhabi), and consulting to dozens more.  In October of 2012, Jon authored his first book, entitled Filmmaking for Change: Make Films That Transform the World.  In 2015, Jon founded Cause Cinema, connecting audiences with social impact films with blogs and podcasts. And in 2019, Jon founded iGEMS.tv, as a guide to engaging movies and series. iGEMS added a Pro division in 2020, to provide resources and a directory to assist independent filmmakers with festivals and distribution.

Richard Fletcher

Richard is the Managing Director of New Zealand based production company Libertine Pictures. With more than 20 years’ experience in international film and television production he has produced and executive produced a range of feature films, documentaries and TV series, including Mystic, The Letter for the King, Rhys Darby: Big in Japan, The Legend of Baron To’a, Griff’s Great Kiwi Road TripDaffodilsYellow is ForbiddenBelief: The Possession of Janet MosesWild SurvivorWalking with Dinosaurs 3D, The Last OceanBoyUnder the Mountain and River Queen. His productions have played at major international festivals including Berlin, Busan Melbourne, Shanghai, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto and Tribeca film festivals and he has worked with a range of partners including the ABC, BBC, CBBC, Disney, ITV, National Geographic, Netflix, Network Seven, Network Ten, Sky, TVNZ and Twentieth Century Fox.  

 Richard previously worked at the New Zealand Film Commission as Head of Business Affairs and in distribution in Australia for Beyond Films and in the UK for the Feature Film Company. 

 He has extensive domestic and international relationships across all sectors of the screen production industry. He has practical experience of film and television drama and factual production, financing and distribution in multiple jurisdictions. In addition, Richard has considerable experience in successfully managing the requirements of government funders, private investors and distributors.  He is Co-President of the New Zealand producer’s association (SPADA) and is a former member of the New Zealand Film Commission NZSPG Certifying Panel. In 2009, he was the recipient of the SPADA Independent Producer of the Year award and in 2017 he received the SPADA/Data Book/SCREENZ Industry Champion award.

Stephen Follows

Stephen Follows

Stephen is an established data researcher in the film industry whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Evening Standard, Newsweek, The New Statesman, AV Club and Indiewire. He acted as an industry consultant and guest on the BBC Radio 4 series The Business of Film, which was topped the iTunes podcast chart, and has consulted for a wide variety of clients, including the Smithsonian in Washington.

Kimberly Fox

Kimberly Fox is a partner in MadRiver Pictures, and together with Vincent Maraval runs MadRiver International, a foreign sales joint venture between MadRiver and Wild Bunch International.  Recent MadRiver International titles include LAST LOOKS, starring Mel Gibson and Charlie Hunnam, Scott Z. Burns THE REPORT, THE FORGIVEN, starring Ralph Feinnes and Julienne Moore, and the upcoming animated THE SILK ROAD RALLY. In addition to MadRiver International, Fox also oversees Annapurna International, the sales arm to Annapurna Pictures.  At Annapurna, Fox handled multiple Academy Award nominated pictures VICE, starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carrel and Sam Rockwell and IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK directed by Barry Jenkins alongside the upcoming the Cate Blanchett starrer WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE directed by Richard Linklater.  Previously at Annapurna she handled Academy Award nominees ZERO DARK THIRTY, AMERICAN HUSTLE, HER, FOXCATCHER, as well as DETROIT from Kathryn Bigelow.  Fox was formerly the president of International Sales at Inferno International, where she sold such films as KILLING THEM SOFTLY, KILLER ELITE, and THE GREY and prior to her tenure at Inferno, Fox was executive vice president of International Distribution at QED International where she handled DISTRICT 9 AND W., among other films.

Patrick Frater

Coming Soon.

Steven Friedlander

Coming Soon.

Gabe Friedman

Gabe Friedman co-wrote, produced, and edited multiple Troma classics before producing for E!, G4, Discovery, Tru TV, Cinemax, and more recently, in the branded content space. In his spare time, he is taking Lloyd Kaufman’s advice to ‘Make his Own Damn Movie!’