Portland-based screenwriter Isaac Adamson has written film and TV projects for Netflix, Lionsgate, Fox, AMC and a host of others. His script “Bubbles” was the #1 screenplay on the 2015 Black List and he’s the author of five published novels. He’d rather be playing soccer, though, or noodling around on guitar, or doing just about anything besides writing.
Eric Adkins is a Portland born and raised, accomplished cinematographer with a diverse filmography. His recent work as Director of Photography includes “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” which earned an 2023 “Oscar” nomination for Best Animated Film… And won the 2023 ASIFA’s “Annie” Best Independent Animated Feature Award.
As Directory of Photographer, Eric Adkins is also known for HDFEST winning Postcards from the Future, Inheritance, The Truth… Is Always Complicated, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow — a groundbreaking film, lauded by Todd Gilchrist as “a technological marvel that ushered in the era of the ‘digital backlot’.”
Eric’s extensive work in stop motion animation includes sequence work as an Lighting Cameraman on “Wendell & Wild,” and “The Boxtrolls,” and Supervising DP work on “The PJ’s,” “Hell and Back,” “SpongeBob SquarePants: Halloween Special,” and most recently on the 2023 Annecy Film Festival Jury Prize winning TV series, “Shape Island.” His VFX work includes “Mars Attacks!,” “Captain Underpants,” “We Own the Night,” and five seasons of “House M.D.”
He also boasts an impressive roster of commercial work including cinematography for brands such as Honda, Nissan, Ford, Mini Cooper, Coca-Cola, Bacardi, Miller/Coors, Planters, Converse, Fila, Reebok, Nintendo, Mattel, ESPN, NBC/NFL, and many others.
Rahne Alexander is an intermedia artist and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is a 2021 graduate of the Intermedia+Digital Arts MFA at UMBC, and a 2021 Baker Artist Prize Awardee. Her works in video, performance, music, and painting have been exhibited across the U.S. and around the world, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, and MIX NYC. She performs music as 50’♀ and formerly fronted the bands Santa Librada and The Degenerettes. Her writing appears in publications such as BmoreArt, The Hopkins Review, UMBC Magazine, the light ekphrastic, flux, Come Sail Away, OnCurating, and the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica. Alexander’s 2019 OutWrite-award-winning chapbook of collected essays Heretic to Housewife was published by Neon Hemlock, and she publishes a weekly blog, Paradise Is Not For Sale.
Eric Bear is an actor, writer and producer who created and starred in the award-winning performance capture series “Belonging” on Apple TV. Bear played a recurring role in Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel “1883” on Paramount+ and began as a child actor with a memorable line in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” Born in New York City, Bear grew up performing in theater and dance, deeply influenced by Deborah Hay. This early training in embodied movement established a foundation as a kinesthetic artist, tapping emotion and relational awareness to inform performances and ways of being in the world.
In addition to filmmaking, Bear is a tech entrepreneur known for creating award-winning interactive media; hailed as “one of the most thoughtful and provocative interface and interaction designers working in the field.” Bear’s patented innovations have been licensed by all major movie studios in the USA, and products based on other of his 100+ inventions are used every day by millions of people.
Johnny Castuciano is a Filipino/Canadian Storyboard Artist and Director in animation. Originally from a small town in Alberta, Canada he first received his degree in Graphic Design, he then relocated to Vancouver in 2005, with big dreams of working in the animation industry. He attended Vancouver Film School and completed the Classical Animation Program is 2006. Having worked in the Vancouver animation scene for over 12 years, he has storyboarded and directed on such productions as “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, “The Adventures of Puss in Boots”, “Kung Fu Panda: Paws of Destiny” and “Sausage Party”. In 2017, he moved to Los Angeles to work with Disney Television Animation, working on “Big Hero 6: The Series”, “Ducktales”, and “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder”. In 2022, Johnny was nominated for Outstanding Storyboarding Achievement on “The Ghost and Molly McGee”. Johnny is currently living in Los Angeles with his family, and volunteers coaching his kids’ teams, and mentors young artists.
Eric Cotten is the President and Founder of the Baltimore Filmmakers Collective, a 501 (c)3 organization focused on developing the cinematic voice of the underrepresented voices in the Baltimore community. Since 2013, he has been involved with the Maryland Film Festival. He has been a Programming Associate at the Maryland Film Festival since 2018 where he has screened over 400 features and shorts for each 5-month submission phase. He has also been a screening member for the Austin Film Festival and Tampa Bay Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Festival Coordinator for the Baltimore International Black Film Festival.
As a filmmaker, Eric is a Baker Award Finalist and has written, directed, or produced 28 short films that have screened at numerous festivals across the country including the Sundance Film Festival and BronzeLens. In 2023, he received the Johns Hopkins Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund.
Michael Cordova brings 20 years’ experience in visual effects to LAIKA, where he serves as Compositing Supervisor. Prior to joining LAIKA in 2011, he worked for 12 years at Industrial Light & Magic. He was nominated by the Visual Effects Society for his work on ParaNorman (Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation, 2012) and was a member of the compositing teams for the Oscar®-winning Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Best Visual Effects, 2004) and the Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA® Award-winning Kubo and the Two Strings (Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Film, respectively, 2016). His most recent credit is LAIKA’s Golden Globe®-winning Missing Link (Best Motion Picture – Animated, 2020), and he’s currently working on LAIKA’s latest and most ambitious animated feature, Wildwood. In addition to his role at LAIKA, Michael serves on the Visual Effects Society’s Oregon Chapter Board of Managers. He graduated with a degree in Media Arts and Computer Science from The Evergreen State College.
Ezra Edmond is a writer, director, producer, and the creative mind behind the heartwarming animated short film, “Blewish.” Born from Ezra’s passion for storytelling and inspired by his own background, “Blewish” captures the journey of a young biracial Jewish boy as he navigates his unique identity and seeks a sense of belonging. Through vibrant animation and dialogue-free storytelling, “Blewish” explores themes of friendship, self-acceptance, and the power of embracing one’s true self. The film has touched the hearts of audiences worldwide, having been featured at over eighteen film festivals. Ezra’s next project is a children’s book, My Friend LeVar, scheduled for release this October from Charlesbridge Publishing. The book highlights Ezra’s deep love of reading and how LeVar Burton and his classic book-feature television series, Reading Rainbow, helped inspire and foster that love.
Leslie Hope’s directing credits include: LOST IN SPACE, STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS, VAN HELSING, GHOST WARS, DEVIL IN OHIO and THE ORDER. She directed multiple episodes over 3 seasons of SNOWPIERCER and was also a producer on Season 4. Leslie directed the WWII mini-series A SMALL LIGHT for Disney+ and NatGeo, MURDER IN A SMALL town for FOX, and several ep’s in the LAW AND ORDER franchise. Most recently she directed THE BETTER SISTER starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks for Amazon Prime.
Leslie produced and directed WHAT I SEE WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES, a documentary following the street-living kids of Cambodia. Her film won several awards, was the official selection of over 30 film festivals and sold to Moviola, The Short Film Channel. EYES was invited to screen at “V-Day” and The American Visionary Arts Museum. Leslie wrote and directed the comedy short GAYKEITH, directed and exec produced BURIED TREASURE and with Jon Eskenas she served as Executive Producer on THE BLING RING.
Leslie produced the feature film LIE EXPOSED and she recently formed PARALLILA PICTURES with Tina Vacalopoulos. PARALLILA is committed to making films as seen through the eyes of female filmmakers.
Rick Mischel currently is an Executive Producer at Sony Pictures Animation and CEO of Artists Animation Studio. Prior to his current role, Mischel served as CEO of Bardel Entertainment. For Bardel’s work on RICK AND MORTY, Rick received a 2020 Emmy award as an Executive Producer on the show. Prior to his work at Bardel, Rick was SVP & GM of Sony Pictures Imageworks, launching the animation & vfx facility in Vancouver behind such hits at HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, SMURFS, and the SPIDER MAN animated academy award winning feature INTO THE SPIDERVERSE. Previously Rick was EVP, Animation and Interactive Services at Technicolor.
Kitty Norton (aka Lickety Glitz) left her job as an assistant editor for NBC in Los Angeles, CA for her hometown of Portland, OR to walk, stumble, crawl with her dementia mother to death’s door. After her mother Gloria passed away in 2021, Kitty decided it was time to tell the tales of dementia family caregivers, hired a film crew, and lumbered around the U.S. in a promotional monstrosity of a well-used motorhome, meeting (in person for the first time!) those Stumped Town Dementia readers who had profoundly impacted her own family’s dementia journey with their unconditional support.
Her feature length documentary, Wine, Women, & Dementia, tells the story of dementia life through intimate, humorous, heartfelt conversations between seasoned family caregivers. In 2023 Wine, Women, & Dementia has won the Audience Choice Award for Feature or Narrative at the Julien Dubuque Int’l Film Festival. And received the Jury Choice Award for Best Documentary, and the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival.
Perrin is President & Owner of Worlds Beyond VR, a company that is based on the passion for exploration and experiences. His company was inspired by the dreamers in less fortunate situations that deserve the opportunity to actively engage in wondrous, awe-inspiring experiences that they may have not gotten the opportunity to experience, otherwise.
Wendy Willis once drove over Laurel Canyon topless at 6 am after having to sleep off a sake tasting from the night before. She’s been a sex worker, dated a famous boxing coach, interviewed a rebel army general in the jungles of Burma and has only been in one fight in her life when she was about 8 years old. She was shot in the face with a fire extinguisher by a dear friend and got too drunk on the first date with her now husband, the love of her life. She also does stuff where she produces animated TV shows and films, including the 2020 Oscar-winning short animated film, Hair Love, the Adult Swim animated series OMG Yes! and the upcoming anime, Yoppaman.
Akiko Ashley is a Producer/Writer and Entertainment Executive at Luminetik Productions. Akiko started her career working in the video game industry as an executive in Japan and the US, and later became a record industry executive in NYC. She has been writing & the acting editor for many magazines for over 20 years in the technical, entertainment, creative, and architecture industry working for Film Festival Today, Post Magazine, and Architosh. She served on the Board of HDRI 3D &Keyframe for several years. Akiko has a huge social media following and 100,000 readership in magazines. At Luminetik, Akiko designed the creative pipeline for the company with IBM, Apple and AMD, and built the relationships with agents to work on commercials and technical animations & VFX for movies. She has built liaison relationships with companies like Apple, AMD, IBM, Autodesk, Side Effects and NVIDIA, who sponsored some of Luminetik’s projects. Akiko was a VFX Producer on “Two Weeks Notice” and “National Geographic” Snake Wrangler and VFX Producer on multiple “Arm & Hammer” commercials. Akiko helped sponsor the first DV Expo in NYC. It is under her leadership at Luminetik Productions they completed the CGI short film, “Kuriocity” with a huge financial investment. Akiko helped recruit top talent, with Eric Durst’s and Manager David Guc’s help to complete on “Kuriocity”.
Signe Baumane is a Latvian born, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and animator. She has made 17 award-winning animated shorts but is best known for her first animated feature Rocks In My Pockets which premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014 where it received a FIPRESCI Prize. The film went on to over 130 international festivals. It opened theatrically in the U.S. through Zeitgeist Films.
Signe’s new animated feature My Love Affair With Marriage (2022) tells the story of a spirited young woman’s quest for perfect love and lasting marriage. It premiered in June 2022 at Tribeca Festival and has screened at over 80 festivals winning twelwe awards. It was nominated by European Film Academy as Best Animated Feature.
Signe is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow in Film for New York Foundation for the Arts. She has a degree in Philosophy from Moscow State University.
Matilda Szydagis was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and holds a degree in Anthropology from The University of Chicago. She penned and produced three award-winning short horror films (The Hoosac, The Ruins, The Dam) and is currently writing a feature-length horror film called Residue. She’s an award-winning New York-based actress known for Yaryna on The Sopranos and Zelda on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
As a director of photography I have been a close collaborator with stop motion legends Henry Selick on ‘Wendell & Wild‘ and Tim Burton on the Academy Award nominated ‘Frankenweenie‘.
My first involvement with stop motion feature movie production was as a lighting camera man on Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’. This successful collaboration led to me being invited to join ‘Coraline’ at Laika, again as a lighting camera man where I got to shoot the incredibly fun theatre sequence.
My latest project was with Aardman Animations. I had the pleasure of working and collaborating with an incredible team of artists on the Sam Fell directed ‘Chicken Run 2 – Dawn of the Nugget‘.
46 Features, 29 Series, over 180 TV credits, David Winning is a US/Canada Dual Citizen and veteran film & television Director and Producer. He has experience in all genres including sci-fi, horror, drama, action, theatrical release, movies-of-the-week, episodic, romance, westerns, Christmas movies, comedy, family, kid’s series, live audience multi-cam, situation comedies, web-based, etc. Started 2017 on the Netflix/SYFY Channel action series VAN HELSING, a post-apocalyptic take on the vampire rising based on a graphic novel, directing multiples including the third Season Finale and opening the explosive fourth season. He has directed 26 Christmas and family films for the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime, including 3 Films in the popular Blake Shelton TIME series, 2 final Films in the FATHER CHRISTMAS series, a top #5 NEW YORK TIMES PICK: THE TREE THAT SAVED CHRISTMAS and UNLEASHING MR. DARCY, which broke the Network record on social media with 47 million tweets. He has worked for NETFLIX, HALLMARK, SYFY CHANNEL, LIFETIME, NICKELODEON, PARAMOUNT, MGM, 20TH CENTURY FOX, HBO, LIONSGATE, among others and has directed in locations including Scotland, Budapest, Vancouver, Montreal and Los Angeles.
More information is available at www.DavidWinning.com.
