2022 Jury Judges
Bruce Locke
Judge
Born in Portland, OR, a former nationally ranked tennis player, Congressional aide and US Naval Academy and Pitzer College alumnus, Bruce holds degrees in Mathematics and Economics. He began a career in acting right out of college. Notable among his film credits are THE SHADOW, BLACK RAIN and ROBOCOP 3, which Bruce portrayed Robocop’s nemesis, Otomo. Among his three TV Pilots as a series regular, most recognize him from MORTAL KOMBAT CONQUEST (MKC). In MKC, Bruce portrayed the sorcerer, Shang Tsung. In other TV roles of note, Bruce portrayed the controversial FBI sniper in the Emmy nominated CBS mini- series based on the real life Ruby Ridge incident. He also guest starred on other award winning series, NYPD BLUE and MURDER SHE WROTE. Other guest star roles of note include appearances on Huff, The Agency, ARLI$$, Cold Case, Hawaii Five-O, NCIS LA, NCIS. Most recently, Bruce portrayed General Yamori in Season 4 of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, Ren Kido in Season 2 of Impulse, and General Tsengjun in Space Force on Netflix. Voice work: video games, animation, TV commercials, Film narration, Documentary narration, Voice replacement In Film, Voice Dubbing into English.
Douglas J. Eboch
Judge
Douglas J. Eboch is a screenwriter best known for writing the original screenplay for SWEET HOME ALABAMA, starring Reese Witherspoon, which set a box office record for a September opening. With his sister, Kris Bock, he co-wrote the prequel novels FELONY MELANIE IN PAGEANT PANDEMONIUM and FELONY MELANIE IN THE BIG SMASHUP about the teenage adventures of the characters from the movie. He also wrote the original novel TOTALLY RAD WORMHOLE. He has written videogames (NIGHTMARE COVE), plays (SLEEPOVER AT THE STABLES, MAGI ROAD TRIP), and has had short stories published in such magazines as “The Colored Lens” and “Science Fictionery.” Doug is the author of the non-fiction books, THE THREE STAGES OF SCREENWRITING and co-author, with producer Ken Aguado, of THE HOLLYWOOD PITCHING BIBLE.
George Larkin
Judge
George Larkin is a Professor and Chair of Filmmaking at Woodbury University. He's a graduate of Yale University, has an M.A of Shakespearean Studies from the University of Birmingham (England), and has Ph.D. in Film & Media Studies at the University of California-Berkeley. Routledge Research published his book, Post-Production: the Invisible Revolution of Filmmaking, in 2018.
He was the head of development and post-production supervisor on two of David O. Russell's films (Spanking the Monkey & Flirting With Disaster) as well as Manny & Lo, The Last Good Time, and Wigstock: the Movie. They starred Patricia Arquette, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Téa Leoni, Adrian Pasdar, David O. Russell, and Ben Stiller among others. The films premiered at the Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, and Avignon Film Festivals and were distributed by Miramax, New Line, Sony Classics, and Samuel Goldwyn.
​Jerome Courshon
Judge
​Jerome Courshon, renowned Film Distribution Expert for the past 15 years, has taught & consulted over a thousand Directors / Producers / Filmmakers, helping them place their movies into the marketplace successfully. Now the CEO of the distribution company, Lion Heart Distribution, Courshon is actively seeking movies and full-length documentaries for distribution in the U.S. & Canada. Achieving good distribution is a road filled with many landmines. Landmines of corrupt distributors. Landmines of bad contracts. Landmines of not capping the expenses in your contract. And so on. If you’ve talked to colleagues about distribution, you no doubt have heard at least a few horror stories. This is a broken “distribution model” and it’s time for a new way. Very few distributors have embraced this new way -- which is to honor you and assist you with having the best success possible for your movies. And where you earn the majority of the revenues for your movie or documentary. For more info about Lion Heart Distribution, visit: http://www.LionHeart.LA
Lili Bordan
Judge
Lili Bordan is a Hungarian/ American stage and screen actress located in New York City. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with concentrations in theatre, history, and philosophy. Lili began her career with a guest starring role on Law and Order: SVU, and went on to act in over 60 studio and independent film and TV productions around the world including FBI: International (ABC), Inventing Anna (Netflix), Book Club (Paramount) and Silent Witness (BBC). She wrote, produced and directed her first short film “One Night Only” while pregnant with her first daughter. Curtiz, a feature film out of Hungary that she acted in and helped produce, won Best Foreign Film at Burbank International Film Festival in 2019 and was consequently bought by NETFLIX for world-wide streaming. Her latest projects include short film “You and Me,” which she starred in and co-produced alongside acclaimed Moldovan filmmaker Natalia Shaufert, and the role of Queen Elizabeth of Prussia in Hungarian feature film, Hadik.
Paloma Rush
Judge
Paloma Rush is a Mexican Californian recording artist, vocal coach and Youtube show host. Her bilingual songs have been featured on shows and films that include MTV’s “Real World,” FOX’s “Bones,” E!’s' “Keeping up With The Kardashians,” The CW’s "Jane the Virgin," Oxygen’s “Bad Girls Club," E!’s "So Cosmo,” FX’s “Pose,” Lionsgate’s feature film “Hunter’s Moon,” and most recently on FOX’s “Our Kind of People.” Rush’s vocal coaching firm boasts an accomplished clientele including label-signed and independent up & coming artists, Broadway Actors, ESPN sports announcers, and E-Sports casters. Some of her current roster include talent from Jojo Siwa’s new girl-group XOMG POP!, Frida Guzman, the recent winner of Season 25 of “Tengo Talento,” and she herself was featured on NBC Universo’s, “The Riveras,” coaching Jenny Rivera’s younger brother, Johnny Rivera.Paloma also hosts the music interview show, “The Right Track,” where she interviews artists, producers, and music executives about their careers and what it takes to be a professional in the music industry. You can find Paloma’s music on all platforms with streams into the hundreds of thousands.
Joe Russell
Judge
Joe Russell is a Los Angeles-based producer and actor. His production company, Joe Russell Productions, has produced more than 250 projects since 2011 including the Netflix Original film XOXO and the short film Laboratory Conditions starring Marisa Tomei and Minnie Driver. After working with filmmakers Terry Rossio and Jocelyn Stamat on multiple projects for over a decade, Joe joined Chameleon Productions in 2022. Chameleon Productions' objective is to combine ambitious storytelling with compelling visual techniques and world-class creative talent to produce genre feature films with wildly imaginative characters, featuring heartwarming stories for audiences of all ages. On every production, Joe strives to partner with kind collaborators who value the on-set experience as much as the finished product.
Ingrid Rogers
Judge
After a long career in front of the camera as an actress starring in TV shows and films such as All My Children, Carlito’s Way and Amazon’s BOSCH to name a few, Ingrid has recently transitioned to producing. Her years as an actress give her a rich and unique
point of view on storytelling.
She runs Pull The Pin Productions with her husband, Robert Munic. Their focus is developing and producing dynamic, entertaining and uplifting content. Ingrid is also
an advocate for diversity and inclusion in Hollywood.
In her spare time she enjoys interior design and crafting a beautiful home. She recently launched @ingridrogersliving on Instagram to inspire others in the art of living.
Maia Glikman
Judge
Maia Glikman is a Los Angeles based producer whose body of work spans numerous areas of the entertainment industry. Highlights as an executive include several years at ABC Network, Lucasfilm (under Kathleen Kennedy) and Sony Pictures Television (development and current). Most recently, Maia was the Head of Development at Amore & Vita Productions and head of scripted projects for MSM/Tollin Productions. Her work has resulted in the acquisition of original projects including sales to Fox, CW, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Spotify to name a few. As a creative producer, Maia’s mandate is the production of high-quality content that resonates with today’s audience, most especially those that champion female and underrepresented voices.
Sara Elizabeth Timmins
Judge
Sara Elizabeth Timmins established Life Out Loud Films in 2008 to create quality, inspiring impact films that champion women. Her films have been seen in theatres, HBO, The Hallmark Channel, Starz, Showtime and internationally. She has worked with Oscar & Emmy winning talent like Jane Seymour, Ellen Burstyn, Chris Cooper, Josh Lucas and Mackenzie Foy and writers like NY Times Best Selling Author David Baldacci. Every film has featured award winning talent and secured international distribution. She field produced the Emmy nominated HBO docu series McMillions for Mark Wahlberg’s company which premiered at Sundance 2020 and is in development on several feature films and series. She is also a film consultant/coach, founding NO FILM SCHOOL. NO TRUST FUND. NO PROBLEM. in 2020 to create community, education, inspiration and motivation for indie filmmakers and has produced national campaigns for companies like Meyer Natural Foods & Laura's Lean. Sara Elizabeth believes she has a responsibility through film to spark conversations, that inspire action, that ignites change. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Xavier University.
Adam J. Yeend
Judge
Adam J. Yeend is an actor, writer, and producer born in The Blue Mountains, Australia where his acting career and love of film began. He moved to Los Angeles in 2008 and quickly found success in various areas of the film and television industry. As an actor, Adam has worked extensively on stage and on camera — his credits including Liz & Dick for Lifetime Network, and he gave a riveting performance as the lead actor in the Los Angeles production of Holding the Man for The Australian Theater Company, directed by Larry Moss. Adam is also an actor and producer of the horror anthology series Scary Endings and the multi-award-winning short films Skypemare and Brentwood Strangler which combined have over 18 million views on YouTube. He co-produced the 2012 indie feature Lust for Love starring Dichen Lachman, Beau Garrett and Fran Krantz, and has worked as an On Camera Oscar winner’s stage escort at the 74 th Annual Academy Awards.
Adam is a film connoisseur and some of Hollywood’s biggest studios have taken notice of Adams extensive knowledge of film. He spent five years at 20 th Century Fox Home Entertainment as a Title Manager on Blu-Ray and 4K UHD titles bringing older films to life with updated technology. Adam has also worked in the test screening industry, where studios screen their unfinished films for market research, and he spent time movie marketing at the trailer house, Trailer Park. An avid cinephile, Adam currently works as a Project Manager at Pixelogic Media, one of LA’s premiere compression and authoring facilities, on releases for The Criterion Collection. Adam’s writing career is also getting noticed! He’s a contributing writer for Dark Horizons and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ digital publication, A. Frame.
Jennifer Taylor
Judge
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey and raised in Florida, Jennifer Taylor made her film debut
in “Wild Things” portraying Matt Dillon’s girlfriend. She then appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy “The WaterBoy.” But she is most well known for her work on the hit sit-com, “Two and A Half Men” where Jennifer played Charlie Sheen’s fiancée for nearly 40 episodes before Sheen left the show. Completing Season 1, she stars in “Saved By Grace”, an original television series by PureFlix.
Since moving to Los Angeles she has had recurring roles on numerous series such as “Burn Notice”, “Shameless”, and "The Young and the Restless". Jennifer has also starred in multiple Lifetime movies like “A Deadly Deed” and “Twisted Twin”. You can also see her in “Hostage House” on Netflix.
Taylor leads a multi-faceted life when she’s not acting. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science, enjoys do-it-yourself projects, and books. She resides in Los Angeles
with her husband and two children where she loves to cook from scratch and spend time with her family.