Industry Panels

Lion’s Den

Charles Morris Jr.

VP Development & Acquisitions, Global Genesis Group

Charles has been the executive producer and a screenwriter on dozens of feature films and TV series.

David Josh Lawrence

Head of Acquisitions, Glass House Distribution

David Josh Lawrence has over 17 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and represents both independent investors along with his own production company. As the Head of Acquisitions at Glass House Distribution since 2017, he plays a pivotal role in their feature length & television development and acquisitions.

James Costa

Founder, Bird Street Productions

Executive Producer of the Emmy nominated film, Delikado. Co-Producer of the critically acclaimed and multi award winning film, Welcome to Chechnya.

Actor’s Panel

Apollo Dukakis

Award-Winning Theatre, Film & TV Actor

Apollo Dukakis has been a professional actor in theater, film, and television for over fifty years. He has appeared in many prestigious regional theatres throughout the country, co-starred in numerous television shows including SEINFELD, E.R., and LA LAW, and was seen in feature films alongside Jeff Bridges, Lee Remick, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has received acting awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics, the Ovation Awards, and film festivals in Los Angeles and London.

Deirdre Frie

Award-winning Film & TV Actress

Raised in New York, Friel’s career began on the theatrical stage. She stars as ‘Greta’ in Apple TV’s PHYSICAL opposite Rose Byrne and Rory Scovel. The dark comedy series follows the journey of Sheila Rubin (Byrne), a tortured San Diego housewife, as she discovers an unconventional path to power through an unlikely source: the world of aerobics. Friel is one of the most memorable series regulars as Sheila’s best friend ‘Greta Hauser’, who plays a key role in Byrne’s road to self-discovery while also finding her own confidence within. This summer, Friel will reprise her role in the third and final season of PHYSICAL, which premiered on August 2nd.

International Director’s Panel

Yusuke Hayamizu | 速水雄輔

Japanese Director

Yusuke Hayamizu is an award-winning director who has lived and worked for TV stations in Sydney Australia.He founded a production company ACTRS. At IFF Milan, he received BEST DIRECTORS AWARD in FOREIGN FILM CATEGORY in 2015. He is also a co-founder of the Japanese Cinema Movement, TOKYO CINEMA UNION.

Ashley Avis

American Director

Ashley Avis is an award winning filmmaker of six feature films in addition to hundreds of commercials to date. She recently wrote, directed, as well as edited Disney’s BLACK BEAUTY starring Oscar winner Kate Winslet, along with the critically acclaimed 2023 documentary WILD BEAUTY: MUSTANG SPIRIT OF THE WEST. Her next projects include writing and directing CITY OF ANGELS for Warner Bros., along with THE LAMB for MBC. A passionate advocate for horses, Ashley is the Founder & President of 501c3 nonprofit The Wild Beauty Foundation.

Gábor Klacsán

Hungarian Director

Gábor Klacsán began his career as a cinematographer spanning several decades. Soon moving into musical direction helped him develop his skills as an award-winning film director.

Federico Gatti

Italian Director

Federico Gatti (1991) is a director, screenwriter and producer. He began to work in industry as assistant director for commercials and TV documentaries. His first micro budget movie “307-r” (2015) has run into several indie festivals among them the first edition of Prisma in Rome. His taste for surrealism and his desire to experiment with the codes of audiovisual language led him to a specific vision of cinema in which different genres are mixed. In 2019, together with Valerio Ambrogi and Andrea Conti, he founded ANIMA, a production company based in Italy, interested in producing high-quality products for the market. Actually ANIMA is producing the documentary “I am not God but I am Michelangelo Antonioni” and the feature movie “Un polpo”.

Producer’s Panel

Fanny Veliz Grande

Producer

Fanny Grande (Former Fanny Veliz) is a Venezuelan-American award-winning filmmaker, actor, and director with more than 20 years of experience in the entertainment business. Grande, who was born in the US, grew up in Venezuela performing from a very young age. A three-time Imagen Award nominee, she has received several recognitions for her work both in front and behind the camera. She was one of 8 fellows selected by Geena Davis for her See it, Be it fellowship. 6 years ago, she co-founded Avenida Productions with her husband Nelson Grande. Avenida is a production firm that specializes in empowering independent media content creators with a focus on diversity. In March of 2022, Avenida launched a crowdfunding platform for creatives and it opened a production facility in the heart of Los Angeles. Grande also served as a vice chair of Nosotros, the oldest Latino Non-Profit in the entertainment business and it was founded by Ricardo Montalban. She was recently a member of the Sandford LBAN business accelerator. Her feature documentary My DACA Life which was produced under the Avenida umbrella was released in 2022.

Nelson Grande

Producer

Grande has been in national and regional commercials and has done guest spots on several TV shows including the critically acclaimed HBO show Eastbound and Down. Although he continues to thrive as an actor, he felt the familiar strain many actors of color experience in Hollywood. He found that the majority of the roles he was offered were rife with stereotypes and thick accents, a problem that many Latino actors face. He refused to let this deter or distract him from pursuing his career. However, it was the birth of his daughter that served as the spark that ignited his need for a change. He no longer wanted to depend on Casting Directors or Producers to give him opportunities. He wanted to create opportunities both for himself and other actors of color. The opportunity to create this impact on a local, national and global level came when he and Fanny Véliz founded Avenida Productions in 2016.

Danny O’Malley

Producer

Danny O’Malley is a grammy nominated and James Beard nominated film director. Best known for his work on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, where he serves as executive producer and a director. Danny has worked filming with bands across the US including Tegan and Sara, The Rentals, The Decemberists, Kraftwerk, and more. His documentary, ‘States’, from Tegan and Sara’s release ‘Get Along’ was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Long Form Music Video. Danny made his mark in documentary television to work as a story producer where his work has aired on Netflix, Fox Sports One, and NBC. On Chef’s Table, Danny is a key driving force behind the character-driven storytelling that is the show‘s signature. Danny and his directing partner Alex Rivest PhD, won the Alfred P Sloan development grant in 2017, which led to the creation of his first documentary feature ‘Canary’ which plays in over 150 theaters in September.

Cybill Lui Eppich

Producer

Cybill is a veteran indie producer with a track record of producing commercial, high-quality films. Through her banner Anova Pictures, she produced global smash hit THE SILENCING, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Annabelle Wallis and Hero Fiennes Tiffin directed by Robin Pront. Released across all platforms in the summer of 2020, Indiewire called it a “breakout success” with Variety reporting the “hit” as the top grossing new film release. It opened with the highest per-screen average across 80 USA theaters and was the #1 rental for weeks, opening to #1 in Canada for Mongrel Media and continuing to top the charts two months into its domestic release. The film then went on its international run as Universal Pictures’ top performing PVOD title and then landing on Netflix’s Top Ten across 48 countries. Slated for a World Premiere at SXSW2020 in the Midnighters program but cancelled due to COVID-19, the film was nominated for Best Picture in the Official Fantàstic Competition at the Sitges Film Festival 2020.

Gato Scatena

Producer

Gato Scatena is a filmmaker/financier, and holds the title of Managing Director at Scatena & Rosner Films (S&R), an independent film finance, sales, and distribution company. Since 2010, Scatena has produced, financed, and released over 80 feature films. Some of the company’s he and his organization working with directly and have released through include Paramount, Lionsgate, Amazon, Hulu, Saban, Sony, A&E, and Netflix.

Producer’s Panel

Kirk D’Amico

Executive Producer and Founder of Myriad Pictures

Award-winning producer Kirk D’Amico founded Myriad Pictures in 1998 and has positioned the company as a leading sales and distribution home for diverse films and emerging talent. D’Amico has produced or executive produced over 60 films and Myriad has distributed hundreds of films worldwide. The current release slate includes April Mullen’s SIMULANT starring Sam Worthington and Simu Liu and Luke Sparke’s BRING HIM TO ME starring Barry Pepper, Sam Neill, and Rachel Griffiths. D’Amico produced DEAD FOR A DOLLAR starring Christoph Waltz, Rachel Brosnahan, and Willem Dafoe and is serving as Executive Producer on TIFF Industry Select film, Rebecca Snow’s THE BOY IN THE WOODS.

In 2010, D’Amico also co-founded Canadian distributor and production company Photon Films. Based in Toronto, Photon has released a diverse slate of bold films in Canada both theatrically and across all platforms. Notable films include THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER starring Tilda Swinton, SOUND OF METAL starring Riz Ahmed, and THE HATING GAME starring Lucy Hale.