Special Guests & Jurors

Special Guests
- Emma Stone
  
  With her striking beauty and sincere talent, Emma Stone is claiming her role as one of Hollywood’s most sought out actresses. Gracing the cover of the March 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, Emma was listed as the new face of Hollywood. Emma’s most recent films are Easy A, Zombieland, and Paper Man. In praise of her Paper Man performance, The Hollywood Reporter details, “Stone is an attractive young actress who shows considerable depths of emotions in portraying a troubled teen with a disturbing past.” Emma recently wrapped Marmaduke as voice of “Maize,” adding it to other film credits including Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The House Bunny, The Rocker, and Superbad. Stone’s television credits include Drive and the VH1 series, In Search of the Partridge Family. She’s also guest-starred on series such as Malcolm in the Middle, Medium, Lucky Louie, and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.
- Kieran Culkin
  
  A talented and spirited young actor, Kieran Culkin has already made a formidable impression on film audiences worldwide as one of the most talented actors of his generation. Kieran recently wrapped shooting on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and performed onstage in Kenny Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger. Culkin won critical acclaim for the title role in Igby Goes Down. Other recent film credits include The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys, Lymelife, The Cider House Rules, The Mighty, and The Music of the Heart. Upcoming films include The Other Side, Margaret, and Paper Man. .Kieran appeared on stage in Suburbia, This Is Our Youth, and The Moment When. Kieran appeared in his first motion picture as Fuller McAllister in the John Hughes international mega-hit Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. His other early films include She’s All That, Nowhere to Run, It Runs in the Family, and Father of the Bride Parts 1 & 2.
- Samm Levine
  
  Samm Levine has appeared in over 30 different television shows and numerous films, but he is perhaps best known for his roles in Freaks and Geeks and Inglourious Basterds. For the last five years, he has performed in Acker & Blacker’s monthly comedy show in Hollywood, The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour, an homage to the old-time radio show era. Following the acclaimed Tarantino picture, Samm joined two diverse office comedies. The Masterson Brother’s Made for Each Other and Drones, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, is screening in this year’s Florida Film Festival, and will be having its Los Angeles premiere in April 2010. In Drones, also co-written by Acker & Blacker, Samm plays Clark (or Clarf if you can pronounce it to his satisfaction). Samm can be seen in the upcoming film Columbus Circle and the webseries Vamped Out by Kevin Pollak and Jason Antoon. He is also featured in two other webseries: Held Up with the Sklar Brothers, and the weekly Kevin Pollak Chat Show.
- Gena Rowlands
  
  Two-time Academy Award-nominated actress, Gena Rowlands appeared in Broadway in the late 1950s, and made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. In 1961 she starred in the well-received television series 87th Precinct. However, once she teamed with her husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, they began a collaboration that reinvented the independent film in America. The works they created together include A Child Is Waiting, Faces, Gloria (Academy Award nominee), Minnie and Moskowitz, Opening Night, Love Streams, and A Woman Under the Influence (Academy Award nominee). In recent years she has appeared in Mira Nair’s HBO movie, Hysterical Blindness, starring Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis. Also, she received high praise for her recent performance in The Notebook, which was directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes.
  
  Catch Gena Rowlands at the Florida Film Festival at A Cassavetes Evening with Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, featuring Faces.
  
  Gena Rowlands appears courtesy of the Visiting Artists Program of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
- Seymour Cassel
  
  In 1968, Cassel was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Chet in John Cassavetes’ Faces. Cassel went on to co-star alongside Cassavetes in Nightside and A Very Special Place. At this point a recognizable talent in Cassavetes’ company of extraordinary actors and creative collaborators, he played supporting roles in three more Cassavetes films: Minnie and Moskowitz, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night. Having also appeared in major Hollywood productions such as Dick Tracy and Indecent Proposal, Cassel has always been very supportive of the American independent film community, especially in the wake of Cassavettes’ death. Cassel appeared in three films by Wes Anderson: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and T_he Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou_.
  Catch Seymour Cassell at the Florida Film Festival at A Cassavetes Evening with Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, featuring Faces.
- Dale Dickey
  
  Dale Dickey, who gives a stirring performance in Winter’s Bone, has been in over a dozen feature films, including Changeling, The Pledge, Domino, and A Perfect Getaway. She has worked on a long string of independent films, including The Yellow Wallpaper, Leaving Barstow (FFF 2009), Trailer Park Of Terror, Take, and Our Very Own. She is familiar to television audiences for her recurring role as “Patty, the daytime hooker” on My Name is Earl, and has recurred on Breaking Bad, Sordid Lives, and Christy. Dale has also guest-starred in Bones, Life, The Closer, Cold Case, Ugly Betty, ER, Gilmore Girls, Numbers, CSI, Frasier, City of Angels, and The X-Files. A veteran of the stage, her work on Broadway includes The Merchant of Venice with Dustin Hoffman and extensive work with the Signature Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, and Manhattan Punch Line’s Improv Theatre. Dale now resides in Los Angeles, where she continues her work on the stage, and has won two L.A. Ovation Awards for her work in Del Shores’ T_he Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife_ and Southern Baptist Sissies. She was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- Michele Mulroney
  
  Michele Mulroney is a Los Angeles based screenwriter. She worked as a script doctor on numerous movies, such as Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Poseidon, The Lakehouse, and Mirrors. She’s currently writing the sequel to WB’s Sherlock Holmes for director Guy Ritchie, a project for director Ron Howard and Imagine Entertainment, and a movie musical for Overture Films. Paper Man, which she developed with her husband at the Sundance Labs, marks the Mulroneys’ directorial debut.
- Richard Gladstein
  
  Appearing at the Florida Film Festival for an intimate panel discussion on Friday, April 16, will be the prolific, two-time Academy Award®–nominated producer and Quentin Tarantino collaborator, Richard Gladstein. He served as Executive Producer on Tarantino’s first three films; Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and _Jackie Brown. In all, Gladstein’s films have received 22 Academy Award® nominations and 4 wins, as well as numerous Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild, and BAFTA nominations and wins. Gladstein’s most recent projects include Paper Man, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Finding Neverland, The Cider House Rules, and The Bourne Identity. Get the best advice an inexhaustible Hollywood producer can provide during The Art of the Producer forum on April 16 at 11:00 a.m. at Enzian. This event is FREE and open to the public.
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Shorts Jury
- James Ponsoltdt
  
  James Ponsoldt was born and raised in Athens, Georgia, received a BA in English from Yale, and an MFA in directing from Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. Ponsoldt’s short films and debut feature as a writer/director, Off the Black (which premiered at Sundance ’06, starred Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Trevor Morgan, and was theatrically distributed by THINKFilm), have played at more than 100 festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Tribeca, Florida, Stockholm, Clermont-Ferrand, Edinburgh, Cork, Seattle, and Hamptons. His screenplay, Refresh, Refresh, was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, received the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship, was a finalist for the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award, and was included in the Hampton’s Screenwriters’ Lab, Film Independent’s Fast Track program, No Borders at IFP’s Independent Film Week, and Rotterdam’s Cinemart. The film will shoot late in 2010. In September 2009, an adaptation of Ponsoldt’s screenplay for Refresh, Refresh was published by Macmillan as a graphic novel. In addition to being a regular contributor to Filmmaker magazine, Ponsoldt is currently adapting the novel City of Refuge for acclaimed producer Jeff Sharp (You Can Count on Me, Boys Don’t Cry).
- Brian Newman
  
  Brian Newman is the founder of sub-genre consulting, helping filmmakers and organizations to distribute content and connect with audiences through innovative uses of new technology. Brian was most recently CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI), where he conceived and launched the Reframe project, a unique initiative that is digitizing and make available thousands of films for DVD, streaming and video on demand. He speaks regularly on new media, audience development and the future of the industry, and contributes irregularly to a blog on these subjects at Springboardmedia. He previously served as executive director of Renew Media; was executive director of IMAGE Film & Video Center, producer of the Atlanta Film Festival; and has held positions at the IFP and the South Carolina Arts Commission. He was born in North Carolina and has an MA in Film Studies from Emory University.
- Sylvia Caminer
  
  Sylvia Caminer is an Emmy Award-winning director-producer, with extensive credits in theatre, film, and television. Sylvia recently produced Love ‘n Dancing starring Amy Smart, Tom Malloy, Billy Zane, and Rachel Dratch; Order of Redemption starring Tom Berenger, Busta Rhymes, and Armand Assante (both released in 2009); Doorman, directed by Stephen Leeds; and Aftermath starring Anthony Michael Hall, Chris Penn, Frank Whaley, Leo Burmester, Lily Rabe, and Tony Danza. Previously Sylvia produced the critically acclaimed feature romantic fable Blue Moon, starring screen legends Ben Gazzara and Rita Moreno, directed by John Gallagher. She has also teamed with Gallgher on the popular cult comedy The Deli (Gretchen Mol, Ice T, Heather Matarazzo, Debi Mazar, Michael Imperioli, Iman) and Men Lie (Frank Vincent, Aida Turturro, Nicholas Turturro, David Faustino, Michael Imperioli, and Catherine Scorsese). For television, Sylvia won the Emmy Award for directing the popular Discovery/Travel Channel program Great Hotels. She earned a third Emmy nomination for directing Passport to Europe for Discovery/Travel Channel, and produced and directed Passport to Latin America (all hosted by Samantha Brown). Sylvia is currently directing/producing two feature documentaries: Tanzania A Friendship Journey and Angels Among Us.
Documentary Feature Jury
- Peter Van Steemburg
  
  Peter Van Steemburg is the Director of Acquisitions at Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing. Prior to Magnolia, Peter assisted in International Distribution and Operations for Miramax Films and worked for the Film Finance department at Cinetic Media, run by John Sloss. He is a regular attendee to festivals and markets worldwide scouting for material and participated in the negotiation of such films as Bronson, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. He graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in Art History.
- Ashley Sabin & David Redmon
  
  Sabin & Redmon have produced, directed, edited, and photographed Mardi Gras: Made in China, Kamp Katrina, Intimidad, Invisible Girlfriend, _and _Fresh (tba). Mardi Gras: Made in China won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2005 Florida Film Festival, was nominated for the Grand Jury award at the Sundance Film Festival, and premiered on the Sundance Channel and several international TV stations. _ Kamp Katrina_ and Intimidad both premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and—along with Invisible Girlfriend_—screened on The Documentary Channel, Link TV, Free Speech TV, and European stations (as well as Dubai and New Zealand). _Kamp Katrina and Intimidad opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, followed by a brief theatrical run. Sabin and Redmon started the distribution branch of their production company Carnivalesque Films that distributes their films and also other gems, including Orphans; Manhattan, KS; Holy Modal Rounders; Bound to Lose; The New Year Parade; Woodpecker; and October Country in theaters, on TV, and DVD. Redmon is the recent recipient of a 2010 Radcliffe Fellowship in film and video at Harvard.
- John Anderson
  
  John Anderson is a regular film critic for Variety, the Washington Post, and Newsday. His work appears regularly in the New York Times, and he has contributed to the W_all Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Film Comment, Artforum, the Village Voice,_ and Schizophrenia Digest. He is a past member of the selection committee of the New York Film Festival and the author of Sundancing (Avon), Edward Yang (University of Illinois) and, with Laura Kim, I Wake Up Screening (Billboard Books). With David Sterritt, he edited The B List, the most recent book by the National Society of Film Critics. He is a member and two-time past chair of the New York Film Critics Circle and a member of the National Society of Film Critics.
Narrative Features Jury
- David Zellner & Nathan Zellner
  
  Siblings David and Nathan Zellner have made numerous shorts which have played at festivals worldwide, including many at the Florida Film Festival: Quasar Hernandez (2004), Foxy and The Weight of The World (2005), Redemptitude (2006) and Aftermath on Meadowlark Lane (2007). Their feature, Goliath, premiered at Sundance 2008 and played in the Narrative Feature Competition at the Florida Film Festival the same year. It has recently been released on DVD by IFC Films. Their latest work, Fiddlestixx, features the crazy adventures of a very special monkey, and is playing in the FFF 2010 Midnight Shorts program.
- Cambria Matlow
  
  As the director of non-theatrical programming at Film Movement, Cambria Matlow leads nationwide distribution and outreach efforts for international and American independent documentary and feature films; recent titles include Lake Tahoe from Fernando Eimbcke and Munyurangabo from Lee Isaac Chung. She’s also worked in development and production with social issue media organization Arts Engine on documentaries including the upcoming Rose and Nangabire. In 2005 Cambria co-founded Birdgirl Productions to support her first feature, Burning in the Sun, a documentary which she is co-directing and co-producing. The film was selected for IFP’s Documentary Rough Cut Lab and Independent Film Week’s “Spotlight on Docs,” has shown with Rooftop Films, and at festivals including the New York African Film Festival and the Santa Barbara Int’l Film Festival. Cambria holds a certificate in Film Production from Burlington College in Vermont and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Columbia University. She has driven across the United States six times, lived in Spain and New Zealand, and traveled abroad extensively, including time spent in Morocco, Singapore, Central America, Mexico, and Eastern Europe.
- Rob Lynch
  
  Robert Lynch is President of Eammon Films, a full service distribution and consultant operation specializing in the theatrical distribution and ancillary sale of independent films across all platforms, including 6-8 theatrical releases per year. Working closely with client Screen Media Films, he has theatrically released, among others, such narrative films as Lymelife, Women in Trouble and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee in addition to documentaries Bustin’ Down the Door and Skid Row. In current release is the film Formosa Betrayed. Upcoming releases include the Merchant Ivory film City of Your Final Destination and La Mission. Prior to founding Eammon Films, Lynch was a Producer’s Rep and Sales Agent at Lantern Lane Entertainment, where he was involved with the licensing, distribution, and/or consultation of over 100 films, including cable television premieres. While there he worked on the theatrical release of Poolhall Junkies, Things about My Folks and When Do We Eat as well as directly released Aileen: Life And Death of a Serial Killer, Seeing Other People, Maze, and Something to Cheer About. In addition he executive produced the films Vampires Anonymous, The Hazing, and Foreign Exchange. In a prior life Lynch was an actor and trained at the Groundlings School of Comedy. He is a graduate of Cornell University.