Special Guests and Jurors
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Special Guests
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Cloris Leachman
To purchase tickets to An Evening With Cloris Leachman, featuring The Last Picture Show CLICK HERE
For more information about An Evening With Cloris Leachman, featuring The Last Picture Show CLICK HERE
Cloris Leachman is a true Hollywood icon and one of the most accomplished and beloved American actresses of stage, film, and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy® Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award. She also won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress in the film The Last Picture Show, for which she also garnered a BAFTA Award.
Ms. Leachman is one of the most respected comedic actresses of her time. Her long career covers television dramas and comedies from television’s Golden Age in the 1950s until today. In 2011, she was ranked #23 in the TV Guide Network special, Funniest Women on TV. Her television appearances are many, including Lassie, The Twilight Zone, The Muppet Show, and The Facts of Life. Ms. Leachman’s longest running role was the nosy, self-centered, and manipulative landlady Phyllis Lindstrom on the 1970s TV series Mary Tyler Moore, and later on the spin-off series Phyllis. More recently, she recurred on Malcolm in the Middle and can currently be seen on Fox’s Raising Hope. She was a contestant in Season 7 of Dancing with the Stars, so far the oldest competitor in the ABC series.
Her movies include Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History of the World: Part 1, and Spanglish. Upcoming releases include The Fields, with Tara Reid, a remake of the 1966 film; Gambit, with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz; and The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure. Cloris just completed filming Adult World with Emma Roberts and John Cusack.
Ms. Leachman was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011 and has her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She resides in Los Angeles and spends much of her time with her children and her five grandchildren.
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Barry Levinson
To purchase tickets to An Afternoon With Barry Levinson featuring Liberty Heights CLICK HERE
For more information about An Afternoon With Barry Levinson featuring Liberty Heights CLICK HEREAcademy Award©-winning director, screenwriter, and producer Barry Levinson has crafted an enviable reputation as a filmmaker who blends literate and intelligent visions into films. He was awarded the 1988 Best Director Oscar for the multiple Academy Award©-winning Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. In 1991 Bugsy, directed and produced by Levinson, which was nominated for ten Academy Award©s including Best Picture and Best Director. As a screenwriter, Levinson has received three Oscar nominations for …And Justice for All (1979), Diner (1982), and Avalon (1990). Other iconic films, from The Natural (1982) to Good Morning Vietnam (1987) to Sleepers (1996), have been hugely popular at the box office.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Levinson has used his hometown as the setting for four widely praised features: Diner, the semi-autobiographical comedy/drama that marked his directorial debut; Tin Men starring Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss as warring aluminum siding salesmen; Avalon, in which his native city takes center stage through the recollections of an immigrant family; and Liberty Heights, a humorous and touching drama that captures the spirit of change in Baltimore circa 1954, addressing issues of race, class, and religion.
After attending American University in Washington, D.C., Levinson moved to Los Angeles, where he began acting as well as writing and performing comedy routines. He went on to write several television variety shows including The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, The Tim Conway Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. A meeting with Mel Brooks led him to collaborate with the veteran comedian on the features Silent Movie and High Anxiety, which Levinson co-wrote.
With his film career well under way, Levinson returned to Baltimore to film the television series Homicide: Life on the Street. His work on this critically acclaimed NBC drama earned him an Emmy for Best Individual Director of a Drama Series. The series received three Peabody Awards, two Writers Guild Awards, and an Excellence in Quality Television Founders Award for the 1994 and 1995 seasons. Among other accolades, Levinson and his partner Tom Fontana also received the 1999 Humanitas Award for the Homicide: Life on the Street episode titled “Shades of Gray.” The close of 1997 saw Levinson at his most prolific, releasing two films nearly back to back, Wag the Dog and Sphere. Wag the Dog, a political satire written by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet, was nominated for two Academy Awards. Sphere (1998), a science-fiction film adapted from the Michael Crichton novel, stars Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, and marks Levinson’s fourth collaboration with Dustin Hoffman.
Levinson partnered with Paula Weinstein, forming Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures. Together they produced Analyze This (1999), a comedy starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, which opened to instant box office success. Levinson became one of Variety’s “Billion Dollar Directors,” as well as ShoWest’s “Director of the Year” in 1998.
In February 1999, Levinson was honored with a Creative Achievement Award by the 13th Annual American Comedy Awards. Later that year, American University conferred upon Levinson the Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, for his distinguished work in the field of communications and his defining impact on the motion picture and television industry. Levinson was also honored for his commitment to the craft of filmmaking, his dedication to telling insightful stories, his exquisite sensitivity to the details of life as we live it, and his gifts and accomplishments as a director.
Levinson now produces films through his production company Baltimore Pictures, including critically acclaimed releases such as Quiz Show, Donnie Brasco, and The Second Civil War (HBO). In 2000 came the release of An Everlasting Piece, a story about two hairpiece salesmen in Northern Ireland, one Protestant and one Catholic. Filmed entirely on location in Ireland with an Irish cast and crew, Levinson once again tackled a serious issue with his trademark wit and humor.
Bandits, a romantic comedy starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett, opened in 2001 to critical success once again. In February 2002, Levinson received the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the year award honoring his filmmaking career. The following year he published his first novel, Sixty-Six.
Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, under the banner of the Levinson/Fontana Company, executive produced the critically acclaimed HBO television series Oz that aired for six seasons from 1998 through 2003.
With the release of the dramatic comedy Man of the Year by Universal Studios in October 2006, Levinson returned to the theme of politics, while re-teaming with his Good Morning, Vietnam star Robin Williams. The film was written and directed by Levinson, and Williams plays a late-night political talk show host who runs for president and wins because of a computer voting system glitch. The film co-stars Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Lewis Black, and Jeff Goldblum.
In 2007 Levinson lent his voice to the character of Martin Benson in Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie, marking a return of sorts to the other side of the camera. Following that, he directed the adaptation of Art Linson’s Hollywood tell-all book What Just Happened?, re-teaming Levinson with Robert De Niro for their third movie together. The film chronicles the ups and downs of a desperate two weeks in the life of a Hollywood producer, and was hailed as De Niro’s best performance in a decade.
More recently, Levinson has made two documentaries, Poliwood, which looks at the intersection of politics, Hollywood, and media in the 2008 election; and The Band That Wouldn’t Die for ESPN, a Frank Capra-like tale of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band that Sports Illustrated named best sports movie of 2009.
His most recent film about Dr. Jack Kevorkian staring Al Pacino, You Don’t Know Jack, received 15 Emmy Nominations, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Best Director.
The Bay, an eco-thriller/horror about an infectious outbreak that takes over a small town over the course of July 4th, will be released by Lionsgate in 2012.
To purchase tickets to An Afternoon With Barry Levinson featuring Liberty Heights CLICK HERE
For more information about An Afternoon With Barry Levinson featuring Liberty Heights CLICK HERE
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Shorts Jury
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Lauren Wolkstein
Lauren Wolkstein is a NYC based filmmaker who received her MFA in film directing from Columbia University. She was named one of the top twenty-five emerging filmmakers through The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Independent Filmmaker Project’s inaugural Emerging Visions program at the 2011 New York Film Festival. Lauren’s Academy Award qualifying short films have traveled around the world garnering multiple awards. Her latest short film, “The Strange Ones,” premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and continues to screen at over one hundred film festivals. “Cigarette Candy,” her thesis film at Columbia University, received a range of awards at many major festivals. Currently, her first feature film, Cigarette Candy, based on the short, is in development and has participated in IFP’s highly selective Emerging Narrative and No Borders International Co-Production Market. Besides her narrative film work, Lauren has also directed commercials for Gucci and edited several ads for brands such as Juicy Couture, Dickies, and Diet Coke.
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Martin Wendel
Martin Wendel has over a decade of experience in the independent film world, having begun his career at Lot 47 Films. For the past nine years he has been head of print trafficking and advertising at Magnolia Pictures. Over those nine years he has worked on titles such as Let the Right One In, Food, Inc., Melancholia and the Academy Award winning documentary Man on Wire. Upcoming films include Headhunters, Take this Waltz, Two Days in New York, V/H/S, Marley, and The Queen of Versailles.
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Roger Moore
Roger Moore is an award-winning film critic/film writer for McClatchy-Tribune News Service, where his work is syndicated to hundreds of newspapers and websites all over North America. Prior to that, he was film critic for such newspapers as The Orlando Sentinel, The Knoxville Journal, and The Winston-Salem Journal. He has written on film and popular culture for magazines such as The World, Tennessee Illustrated, Vitae, Orlando Magazine, and Spin Magazine.
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Documentary Feature Jury
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Vaishali Sinha
Vaishali Sinha recently co-directed and co-produced Made in India, which won the Grand Jury Awards for Best Documentary Feature at the Florida Film Festival and San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film will have its broadcast premiere on PBS in May 2012. She also co-directed short documentary films “Red Roses” and “Choose Life?” She is currently working on several new projects, including a film on Kashmir, India. Ms. Sinha has worked as researcher and editing associate for filmmaker Richard Wormser at Videoline Productions. She has also worked for non-profit organizations in India promoting women’s voices and has studied film at the New School University in NY. She is from Mumbai, India, and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
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Aaron Hillis
Aaron Hillis is a New York-based film critic, editor of GreenCine Daily, and an ongoing contributor to The Village Voice, L.A. Weekly, Variety, Filmmaker, and Spin. He is also the curator of the reRun Gastropub Theater (Brooklyn, NY) and vice-president of Benten Films, the first boutique distribution label run by critics. Aaron’s co-directorial feature debut, Fish Kill Flea, screened in competition at FFF 2008.
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Harris Dew
Harris Dew has been the Director of Programs at the IFC Center in New York since 2005, booking first-run films, retrospectives, classics, and midnight movies for the theater’s five screens and overseeing marketing for its annual DOC NYC documentary festival. He has worked in film programming and publicity for over 15 years, holding positions at New Yorker Films, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, and Film Forum. He holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and an M.A. in Cinema Studies from NYU.
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Narrative Features Jury
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Steven Rea
Steven Rea is the movie critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a position he has held since 1992. He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics, teaches film studies at Drexel University and is the author of Hollywood Rides a Bike, just out (March, 2012) from Angel City Press. His reviews, interviews, and columns are syndicated widely. He was born in London, raised in New York City, and studied at San Francisco State University and the University of Iowa.
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Paul Marchant
Paul Marchant is the Director of Theatrical Sales for First Run Features, a distributor of documentary and specialized narrative feature films that has released over its 30 plus years such acclaimed titles as Michael Apted’s Up Series, 2010’s Oscar®-nominated Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, and most recently Eames: The Architect & The Painter. Prior to working in distribution, Paul served as Director and Programmer of the Atlanta Film Festival, Athens, Georgia’s Kudzu Film Festival and the traveling Short Attention Span Film & Video Festival.
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Sabine Hoffman
Sabine Hoffman has edited independent feature films for over 15 years. Her credits include Rebecca Miller’s films Personal Velocity (Sundance Grand Jury Award and Best Cinematography winner and also the winner of the John Cassavetes Award), The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. She edited Morgan J. Freeman’s Desert Blue and Hurricane Streets (which won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival) as well as The Day the Ponies Come Back and Harlem Aria (winner of three major festival audience awards). Other credits include the multi-award winning Brother to Brother, Saving Face, and Off the Black. She most recently completed The Happy Sad. She has served as a consultant and story advisor and also edited numerous documentary films, including Academy Award® nominated Ferry Tales, as well as The Party Is Over, and The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela. Ms. Hoffman serves as adjunct professor at Columbia University and is a mentor at Reelworks, a filmmaking program for at-risk teenagers.
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Visiting Celebrity Chefs
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Jeff Potter
A science and food geek, Jeff Potter is the author of Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food, which the Washington Post called “one of the most useful books on understanding cooking.” He has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, CNN International, Food Network, and the Cooking Channel. Jeff has been featured on television newscasts and radio shows throughout the country, spoken at science festivals both in the United States and overseas, and is a trustee and spokesperson for Awesome Food, part of the Awesome Foundation.
Jeff Potter will be present for an exciting panel discussion Saturday, April 14, 11:30AM at Enzian. To learn more about this event CLICK HERE
To purchase tickets CLICK HERE
He will also be present at an exclusive dinner prepared by local Chef Brandon McGlamery Saturday, April 14, 6:30PM at LUMA on Park. To learn more or to purchase tickets CLICK HERE -
Chad J. Galiano
Chad J. Galiano, Chef de Cuisine at Trump International Beach Resort Miami, birth in the culturally rich rural bayou areas of south Louisiana, Bayou Lafourche (which is French for “the fork”), instilled in him—along with a southern/cajun philosophy—an appreciation for all things edible. Seeking to learn more, Chad moved up to Rhode Island to attend Johnson & Wales University and earn a degree in Culinary Arts, followed by a brief return to New Orleans and a longer sojourn to Santa Fe to gain experience with American Southwestern cuisine and a position as sous chef at the St. Francis Hotel where he found an outlet to experiment with new ideas. Chad eventually moved back to New Orleans, continued to work in grand hotels, and married a Taiwanese woman, Shiau-Ming, gaining exposure to an entirely new food culture. Following Hurricane Katrina, Chef Chad was contacted his old friend, Kurtis Jantz, the Executive Chef of the Trump International Beach Resort in Miami, and gained the position of Chef de Cuisine. Chefs Galiano and Jantz felt the synergisitic ambition to boost their food knowledge further and create a contemporary environment for learning. It was during this time that Chad created the blog, Chadzilla (http://chadzilla.typepad.com).
Chad Galiano will be present for an exciting panel discussion Saturday, April 14, 11:30AM at Enzian. To learn more about this event CLICK HERE
To purchase tickets CLICK HERE
He will also be present at an exclusive dinner prepared by local Chef Brandon McGlamery Saturday, April 14, 6:30PM at LUMA on Park. To learn more or to purchase tickets CLICK HERE -
Martha Hall Foose
Martha Hall Foose is a daughter of the Mississippi Delta. She apprenticed at California’s famed La Brea Bakery and trained at a world-class French pastry school before opening Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, Mississippi. She has also served as a food editor for Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks and the Food Professionals Network in Minneapolis. After all these accomplishments, she returned home to Pluto, her family’s plantation. She has since received the James Beard Award for American Cooking and Southern Independent Bookseller’s Award for her first book Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook, which tells the history of the Mississippi Delta and details Foose’s personal journey through life. Martha recently released her new book A Southerly Course: Traveling Foodways Close to Home, her second collection of recipes and vivid stories.
Martha Foose will be present for an exciting panel discussion Saturday, April 14, 11:30AM at Enzian. To learn more about this event CLICK HERE
To purchase tickets CLICK HERE
She will also be present at an exclusive dinner prepared by local Chef Brandon McGlamery Saturday, April 14, 6:30PM at LUMA on Park. To learn more or to purchase tickets CLICK HERE -
Gui Alinat
Gui Alinat is an ACF Certified Executive Chef, food writer, and a culinary instructor at the
Art Institute and the Jacobson Culinary Arts Academy in Tampa Bay. His first book, The Chef’s Répertoire has won a Cordon d’Or International Culinary Award for Best Culinary Literature. He has since published Molecular Cuisine: Twenty Techniques, Forty Recipes and is working on his third culinary book. Born, raised and classically trained as a chef in France, he traveled extensively, working in restaurants around the world to finally settle in Florida. In Tampa Bay, he has catered high-end private events with his own company for the last 12 years. With an exclusive client base, and media recognition, his team became a recognized force in the Tampa Bay culinary scene. Gui regularly contributes to the St. Petersburg Times food section and Creative Loafing’s blog: Daily Loaf. His culinary style can be best described as authentic continental gourmet cuisine with slight influences from Provence and elsewhere. Rustic yet elegant, his food is said to embody simplicity of taste, authentic ingredients, and sharp presentations. He also focuses on sound nutrition and a very natural way of cooking and eating. He lives in Florida with his wife Carissa and their four children.Gui Alinat will be present for an exciting panel discussion Saturday, April 14, 11:30AM at Enzian. To learn more about this event CLICK HERE
To purchase tickets CLICK HERE
He will also be present at an exclusive dinner prepared by local Chef Brandon McGlamery Saturday, April 14, 6:30PM at LUMA on Park. To learn more or to purchase tickets CLICK HERE -
Marcel Vigneron
Dedicated to gastronomy and honing his skills as a chef, Marcel Vigneron lives to express creativity, personality, and passion through his own style of cuisine, coined “Modern Global.” With his new company, Modern Global Tasting, Marcel brings the future of gastronomy to any themed party, event, or venue. The notorious chef has tantalized audiences with Syfy Network’s Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen and infamous appearances on Bravo’s Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars. At an age when most chefs are just beginning, Marcel has traveled and cooked throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States in search of both gastronomic experience and world knowledge. After attending the acclaimed Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York, Marcel served as Sous Chef to Dwayne Lipuma at the school’s award-winning Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici. He has also worked around the globe with world-renowned chefs, including Joël Robuchon, Michael Mina, and José Andrés.
Marcel Vigneron will be present for an exciting panel discussion Saturday, April 14, 11:30AM at Enzian. To learn more about this event CLICK HERE
To purchase tickets CLICK HERE
He will also be present at an exclusive dinner prepared by local Chef Brandon McGlamery Saturday, April 14, 6:30PM at LUMA on Park. To learn more or to purchase tickets CLICK HERE
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Local Celebrity Chefs
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Brandon McGlamery
Brandon McGlamery, Executive Chef at LUMA on Park and Prato, is a graduate of California Culinary Academy and has gained an array of international culinary experiences during his tenure at some of the most prestigious restaurants across the nation. McGlamery has held positions at Stars Restaurant, French Laundry, and Chez Panisse in California; the Ritz-Carlton in Naples; Guy Savoy in Paris; and Bacchanalia in Atlanta. His passion for creating fresh, original, and inspiring cuisine is apparent in every dish he presents at both LUMA and his new restaurant PRATO. McGlamery is dedicated to supporting local farmers, purveyors, and sustainable products. He most recently received an award from the Monterey Bay Aquarium for his support of finding sustainable choices in seafood.
Chef Brandon McGlamery will be preparing an exclusive dinner on Saturday, April 14, 6:30PM at LUMA on Park. To learn more or to purchase tickets CLICK HERE
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