The Jurors for the 2010 Woods Hole Film Festival

FEATURE NARRATIVE  
   
Erika Kao-Haley            Distributor - Multivisionnaire  
Erika Kao-Haley has over 15 years of business experience as creative director for ad agencies, fashion magazine publisher and international film sales agent. She founded MultiVisionnaire Pictures in 2006. To-date, MultiVisionnaire has grown into an internationally respectable film sales agency representing independent filmmakers, with over 50 films distributed worldwide.

Michael Abrams             Manager - Abrams Group

Michael Abrams, was born in New York City but traveled west with the idea of helping young actors and musicians gain that vital first rung on the ladder of success in the worlds of music, film and television. In 1997 he founded The Michael Abrams Group, on the simple belief that ‘we all need someone to help us open that first door”. A hallmark of his very successful company is  his commitment to his artists and his passion in developing and nurturing raw talent.
 
There are a number of current projects in development in Film & TV and he is looking to expand the music end of The Group.An active participant in various charitable organizations, he is particularly active as a Board Member of the Ann & George Lucas Foundation.

Philipe Caland               Filmmaker - “Ripple Effect”
Philippe is currently in post production on “The Guru and the Gypsy” which he was producer, writer and director. In 2007 he also pulled triple duty on the Forest Whitaker starring “Ripple Effect” which won best feature at the Sedona International Film Festival.  Prior to that, he acted as producer or executive producer on a number of films including “The Myersons,” and “Boxing Helena,” which he also wrote. 

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY   
    
Patrick Hubley              Program Director – Salt Lake City Film Center
Patrick has had a life long passion for film, music, literature and the arts.  Upon graduating from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) with a degree in Western Literature and Civilization, he started working for the UWO Entertainment Productions divisions as an event producer and programmer. After leaving UWO in 1996 he worked in a variety of positions, eventually returning to school to complete a Public Relations program. After completing the program in 1999 he worked in various capacities in the Press Offices for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. In 2001, he was hired by Sundance Institute to oversee all publicity and media functions for Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.  He left the Institute in 2007 to begin work on a variety of projects including consulting with the Sundance Film Festival, CineVegas Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, and the SLC Film Center.  In 2009 he was hired as the SLC Film Center’s Program Director. 

Flo Grace                     President – Grace PR

With more than 12 years of public relations experience as a film studio executive, Florence Grace recently founded her own entertainment communications and marketing firm, Grace PR.
 
Grace was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox for ten years.  As Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications, she was responsible for shaping the studio’s overall image and building the profiles of the studio chairmen and other senior level executives.  While there, she managed all press relations and crisis communications for Fox and was the communications liaison to News Corporation and its divisions.  She also represented the public relations interests of production companies and directors based at Twentieth Century Fox.   She oversaw Academy Awards campaigns including the innovative campaigns for MOULIN ROUGE, MASTER & COMMANDER and ICE AGE. She managed the studio’s corporate philanthropy and talent relations programs.
 
After Fox, Grace moved to Sony as Senior Vice President in the Columbia TriStar Marketing Group and also oversaw Awards campaigns for Columbia Pictures films including THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, and MONSTER HOUSE.
 
Melinda Esquibel            Producer – Mundo Maravilla  

Melinda Esquibel is an award nominated producer and encompasses fourteen years of experience in the entertainment industry. Esquibel's current projects include producing and directing a documentary on the famous disappearance case of Tara Calico, producing National Wildlife Federation's Campus Chillout! (campus solutions for the climate crisis), a feature film entitled: PAIS: The Untold Story of Cuban Revolutionary, a feature documentary, and an all encompassing book on the life and death of Frank Pais. Other projects include Shepard Fairey's Vote for Change and Hopes for Change Campaign, FOADAC's Virtual Telethon and Green Means Go (celebrity solutions for greener living). Previously Esquibel worked in the Social Action Team at Jeff Skoll's company, Participant Media, and was the Campaign Manager for the Oscar nominated documentary, Murderball (which included raising $350,000 for program development at the Paralympics for Iraq war veterans who have come home with spinal injuries). Esquibel previously served as the Live-Action Production Supervisor for Fox Family Worldwide, where she also served and was a founding board member on the Diversity Advisory Board at Fox Entertainment Group, one of several like organizations for which she donates her time.
    
SHORT NARRATIVE   
    
Necar Zadegan              Actress "24"

Necar Zadegan starred in the most recent season of the Fox TV series, '24' (starring Kiefer Sutherland) playing the role of Dalia Hassan, first lady and wife of  middle eastern president Omar Kassan, played by Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire).  Necar recently finished filming the movie “Unthinkable" starring alongside Samuel L Jackson and Michael Sheen.  She plays the role of Jehan Younger in the psychological thriller awaiting a release date.  She also just wrapped an independent film, “Elena Undone” where she plays the lead role of 'Elena Winters.' The film premiere’s at Frameline June 2010. In the early summer of 2010, Necar will appear on stage in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in the celebrated play “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by director Moises Kaufman (The Laramie Project).

Necar's other films include Adam Sandler's “You Don't Mess with the Zohan” and the award-winning indie short film “The Touch.”  Her television credits include “CSI: Miami,” “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck,” “The Unit,” “NCIS,”  “How I Met Your Mother” and “Lost” among others.  On stage, she most recently starred in her one-Amazon-woman show at the Powerhouse Theater in Santa Monica.
 
Miranda De Poncier        Producer – Northwood Productions

Miranda De Pencier has worked in film, television and theatre for over 15 years. In 1997 she founded a theatre company, Northwood Productions, and produced the award winning one woman show, Frida K., which played in Mexico City before opening Off-Broadway in New York to critical acclaim. In 1998, De Pencier began running development for True Pictures where she was involved in the development and/or production of several feature films including “A Midsummer Nights Dream” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline. In 2000 she took over as the Director of Development for Robert Redford's company Wildwood/Southfork where she was involved in developing of film projects including “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Spy Game.” A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre (her graduate short film Eva Meets Felix premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999) and an independent producer since 2003, De Pencier has produced several feature films including CAKE, Pu-239 for HBO/Beacon Pictures and executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, and “Adam” which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Fox Searchlight.

Robin Jonas                  Independent Producer (“Swing Vote”, “Mr. Brooks”)

Robin Jonas has been working in the film business for more than 20 years. Most recently, she was overseeing business for Academy Award-winning actor/director Kevin Costner’s multi-million dollar Tig Productions and Treehouse Films – including development, production, film finance and marketing, as well as leading the development and production of television series and online/multiplatform content.
Ms. Jonas has worked on over 300 feature films, including SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, PULP FICTION, CHOCOLAT, CHICAGO, GANGS OF NEW YORK, LITTLE VOICE, THE HOURS, CINEMA PARADISO, MALENA, FRIDA, GOOD WILL HUNTING, LEMONY SNICKET, HUSTLE AND FLOW, THE HOURS, BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY, FINDING NEMO, and OPEN RANGE
 
She is currently producing several films and TV projects including THE EXPLORERS GUILD, SILK, 7 PACIFIC NORTH, THE MACEFIELD PROJECT, BULLY!,  and LEAR.
 
Robin grew up on the East Coast and attended school at Boston University. She has been a nationally-ranked ski racing champion in giant slalom, was named to Who’s Who In America, and is a member of the Women In Film Society and The Producers Guild of America, as well as a board member of The World Is Just A Book Away Foundation.
    
SHORT DOCUMENTARY   
    
Susan Hoffman              Educational Film Distributor - Intermedia

Intermedia started in 1981 as a producer of corporate marketing and educational videos, Intermedia produced and directed a wide variety of "industrial" titles for such companies as Microsoft. In 1986, a title produced for a client titled It Only Takes Once (teen pregnancy prevention) gave Intermedia an insight into the needs of the K-12 market during a transition from 16MM film to video. Intermedia quickly realized that the needs of K-12 during the transition was quite large and decided to focus efforts on production and distribution to this market. Award-winning titles such as He's No Hero (male responsibility) and Know-How (abstinence) followed It Only Takes Once and Intermedia also discovered many high quality programs throughout the country that had been produced but lacked a cohesive marketing and distribution plan. Acquiring these titles along with Intermedia's self-produced titles has been the focus of our company ever since.

Michael Nash                 Director, "Climate Refugees", "Fuel"  

Multi-award winning filmmaker Michael Nash has been honored, along with Steve Wozniak/co-founder Apple computers, John Chambers Founder/CEO-Cisco Systems, Carlos Santana/musician, and Richard Newton/Dean of UC Berkeley, to be the recipient of “The Global Innovation Award”. He also received the 2010 Environmental Visions Filmmaker Award courtesy of Neiman Marcus. Nash has recently directed the global documentary titled, “Climate Refugees,” which premiered at Sundance. A film the United Nations screened in Copenhagen, for world leaders, Nash also participated on panels regarding environmental migration and the human face of climate change. Nash’s first feature film, the critically acclaimed “Fuel” won top feature film honors, The Grand Jury Award in Europe. He has created a digital-video exploration montage for the Getty Museum, been involved in several television programs, development deals, music videos.

Gregg Helvey                Academy Award nominated short film director - "Kavi"  

Helvey wrote, directed and produced "Kavi," the 2010 Oscar® nominated and 2009 Student Academy Award® gold medal winner in the narrative category.  He has traveled the world to film in countries such as El Salvador, China, Kenya and England on projects ranging from National Geographic and BBC1 documentaries to independent fictional films. As a filmmaker, Helvey seeks to combine his passion for social justice with powerful story telling. Helvey's other award-winning work includes the documentary, "Overexposed," which examines how pornography affects men.
    
SHORT ANIMATION   
    
Ramin Zahed                 Editor in Chief, Animation Magazine

Ramin Zahed is the Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles-based monthly publication, Animation Magazine. He has been covering the animation  and visual effects world for over 15 years. Before joining Animag, he was a senior editor at Daily Variety. His articles have also appeared  in Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times and The Christian  Science Monitor. He also wrote and edited Animation Magazine's 20th Anniversary Collector's Book.

Tom Sito                       Animator/Educator  (UCLA/USC)

Tom Sito began as a professional animator in 1975 as assistant on the Richard Williams film Raggedy ANN & ANDY 1977. Since then screen credits include the Disney classics THE LITTLE MERMAID 1989, BEAUTY & THE BEAST 1991, ALADDIN 1992, THE LION KING 1994, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBITT 1988, POCAHONTAS 1995, DINOSAURS 2000 and FANTASIA 2000. Animation World Network called Tom "one of the key players in the Disney Animation Revival" ( January 2001). In 1995 he left a Disney to help set up the Dreamworks Animation unit. He worked on THE PRINCE OF EGYPT 2001, ANTZ 1999, PAULIE 1998, SPIRIT, STALLION OF THE CIMMARON 2002, storyboard supervisor on SHREK 2001, among many other credits. Since 1994 he has been an Adjunct Professor of Animation at USC, Woodbury College, and UCLA, has written numerous articles for Animation Magazine and Animation World Network, and has lectured on animation worldwide.
 
Tom served three terms as President of the Hollywood Animation Guild Local 839 IATSE, and now holds the title of President-Emeritus. He is VP of the International Animator's Society (ASIFA/Hollywood), a member of the Motion Picture Academy and the National Cartoonists Society and Hollywood Heritage. In 2010 he was awarded the June Foray Award from the Hollywood Chapter of the International Animators Society for a lifetime of service to the animation community. ?In 1998 he was named in Animation Magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People in Animation.

Irene Kotlarz                 Founding Director- PLATFORM International Animation Festival 

IRENE KOTLARZ - founding director, PLATFORM International Animation Festival
 
PLATFORM crosses boundaries into other art forms including comics, illustration, and vinyl art toys, as well as taking animation beyond the cinema onto the streets and into galleries as installations, and onto the tiny screen of mobile devices.
 
Early in her career Irene developed a specialized animation history and theory program for Surrey Institute and has written for scholarly, trade, and online journals including Screen, Sight & Sound, Undercut and AWN. In 1985, Irene became Director of the Cambridge Animation Festival in the UK.
 
Irene moved into animation production in 1993, becoming Executive Producer at London`s Speedy Films, producing short animated films, including the award-winning Abductees, a TV pilot for Nickelodeon, and commercials for Britain and the US..
 
Irene relocated permanently to the US in 1997, moving to Los Angeles. In addition to founding Platform she has continued to be involved in producing, consulting, writing and programming animation.