Past Jury Judges
Luciana Faulhaber
Judge
Luciana Faulhaber is a first generation Latinx-American actress, filmmaker and activist. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Luciana came to the US with an academic scholarship to study at Fordham University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and later continued her education in international politics at Columbia Graduate School. Now a working actress based in Los Angeles, Luciana has acted alongside the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Sir Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Lopez, Ted Danson, and Justin Chambers to name a few. She now produces and directs her own original content as an outlet to provide opportunities to emerging artists of all cultural backgrounds. Catch her directorial debut, Don’t Look, now on Amazon prime worldwide.
Alan Derian
Judge
Alan Derian has scored over sixty feature films and most recently composed music for five seasons of the CBS hit series “Madam Secretary.” Along with his own films, he has worked with such notable composers as Richard Marvin, George Acogny and John Debney, on such projects as “Years of Living Dangerously,” “Monk Comes down the Mountain,” and “Everyone’s Hero.” His music has been featured in film music concerts and he has been a guest speaker at the Academy of Scoring Arts.
Heather Osborne-Thompson
Judge
Heather is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Fullerton, in the Department of Radio-TV-Film. She teaches courses in the critical study of television, including “Critical Studies: TV” and “Children’s Television,” and is the author of articles on female comedians’ reality series and the history of fake presidential candidates on American television.
RJ Mitte
Judge
RJ Mitte plays Walt White Jr. on AMC’s hit series Breaking Bad, launching into its final supercharged season. He also plays the lead role in the fantasy/thriller “House of Last Things” and is currently in production on the feature film “The Devil’s Ink.” Other TV roles include “Vegas” and “Hannah Montana.”
Patricia Bethune
Judge
Patricia Bethune, is best known for her recurring roles as Dr. Edna on AMC’s Emmy winning show “Mad Men” and on HBO’s hit show “True Blood”. Bethune’s over 50 film and television appearances include “Species III”, “Sons of Tucson”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Without A Trace”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, and “Cold Case”. Patricia is a spokesperson for the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving and co-wrote the handbook “What Can I Do? A guide for family and friends of caregivers.”
Josh Cruze
Judge
Josh is an actor, singer, musician, songwriter, and producer and was a recurring character on Fox’s hit drama series “24”. Other roles include “The Unit”, “Monk” and a series regular on Nickelodeon’s hit comedy “Taina”, which won the ALMA and IMAGEN AWARD for “Best Children’s Show”. His band Bandidos de Amor performed internationally, and his songs have been used in “Two Weeks Notice”, starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock and “Collateral” starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith. He released his 4th CD “Tengo Que Vivir” in July of 2011.
Brittney Powell
Judge
A native of Burbank, Brittney is no stranger to the webisode world. She starred as Dr. Randi Minki on 11 episodes of the comedy web series “Safety Geeks: SVI”. On television, Brittney played Summer Holloway on “General Hospital” with other TV roles including “NCIS”, “Two and A Half Men”, “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Xena: Warrior Princess”. Brittney’s feature films include starring roles in “Devil’s Inside” and “Stacy’s Mom”.
Daniel Roebuck
Judge
Dan is a local Burbank resident and veteran actor. Roles include the hit TV series “Lost”, “Grimm”, “Castle”, “CSI: NY”, with a recurring role on “Weeds” and three seasons on the hit series “Matlock”. Feature films include “The Lords of Salem”, “Halloween”, and Roebuck played Deputy Marshall Bobby Briggs in the “The Fugitive” and follow up hit film, “US Marshalls” with Tommy Lee Jones. Dan also shared a small piece of television history with a role in the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation which resurrected Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock and introduced the new TV series.
Robert Picardo
Judge
Robert played the holographic doctor on “Star Trek: Voyager” and created the role of Richard Woolsey on “Stargate SG1”, “Stargate: Atlantis” and ‘Stargate: Universe”. Other genre TV credits include “Supernatural”, “Smallville”, “The Outer Limits” and “Tales from the Crypt”. Horror films include “976-EVIL”, “Gremlins”, “The Howling” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” video game.
Larissa Gomes
Judge
Larissa starred in “Saw 3D: The Final Chapter”, “Saw VI” and appeared in “Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse” and Miramax’s “Get Over It”. Her many TV credits include “Supernatural”, “CSI: Miami”, “La Femme Nikita”, “Out of Practice” and was a series regular on ABC’s prime time drama “In Justice”. Larissa is also an established singer/songwriter and has toured the world from North America to Europe and Asia.
Gary Graham
Judge
Gary Graham is one of only three actors (besides the series regulars) to appear in all four seasons of “Star Trek: Enterprise”. On TV Gary appeared in “Nip/Tuck” and four seasons of “The Jace Hall Show”. In “Alien Nation: Dark Horizon” and “Alien Nation: The Enemy Within” he starred as Det. Matthew Sikes. Some of his films include “All the Right Moves”, “The Last Warrior”, “Robot Jox”, “Hollywood Knights” and “Hardcore”.
John Billingsley
Judge
John Billingsley, Dr. Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise, graduated from Bennington College where he studied theatre. He moved to Los Angeles and was cast in NYPD Blue and guest-starred on The Practice, Profiler, The X-Files. In l999, Stephen Spielberg cast him in The Others. John’s guest starring work includes The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Star Gate, and Angel. His most recent credits include NCIS, Ghost Whisperer, CSI: NY, 24, and Alan Ball’s True Blood as Coroner Mike.
Bonita Friedericy
Judge
Bonita is familiar to Trek fans as Rooney from Star Trek: Enterprise and can currently can be seen in the television series Chuck as NSA Director Diane Beckman. She has also appeared on Veronica Mars, Bones, The Nine, The West Wing, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in the film Christmas with the Kranks.
Harland William
Judge
Harland Williams’s roles include the films Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, RocketMan, Employee of the Month, The Whole Nine Yards, and more. Harland won ‘Best Improviser’ on NBC’s Thank God You’re Here, and his latest ventures include voicing ‘Monster’ on Nickelodeon’s animated Robot and Monster. Harland can be heard every week on his insanely popular podcast, The Harland Highway.
Larry Hankin
Judge
Larry Hankin is best known for his TV sit-coms like Friends and Seinfeld. Other notable TV credits include “Breaking Bad”, “Vegas” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. Larry’s movie roles include “Escape from Alcatraz” with Clint Eastwood and “Billy Madison”. He had cameo appearances in three John Hughes films.
Jacqui Holland
Judge
Jacqui’s TV credits include “How I Met Your Mother”, “Stacked”, “Suburgatory” and “Desperate Housewives”. Jacqui has also been in numerous independent films, and appeared opposite Kate Hudson in “My Best Friend’s Girl”. Jacqui also produces and acts in her own line of comedic iPhone apps under the brand name “HotNFunny”. In addition to acting and writing, Jacqui enjoys tickling audiences funny bones with her fresh brand of stand-up comedy.
Mark Kirkland
Judge
Three time Emmy Award winning director, Mark Kirkland, has directed more episodes than anyone of TVs longest running animated program, The Simpsons. Mark studied Experimental Animation at CalArts prior to his career in the animation at Hanna-Barberra, before directing for FOX. He has been awarded two Environmental Media Awards for his work on The Simpsons.
Ed Ghertner
Judge
Having worked in both television and feature film animation for Disney, Ed is currently the Director of Animation for the Burbank International Film Festival. He won an Emmy Award for Art Direction and Design for “The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh”, with other notable credits including, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Mulan”, “Atlantis” and “The Lion King” to name a few. Ed is a member of the Review Board/Artistic Leadership for Disney, and serves on the film festival Board of Directors.
Bill Plympton
Judge
Two-time Oscar nominee for animated shorts, and the acknowledged “King of Indie Animation”. Bill is also a former cartoonist for the New York Times, National Lampoon, Playboy and Screw. He has the distinction of being the only person to hand-draw an entire animated feature film (in fact NINE so far!). In addition to being an honoree, Bill is the presenter for this year’s inaugural “Plympton Award for Indie Animation” which will go to an entrant of the Burbank International Film Festival, annually.
Ken Mora
Judge
Writer/director/producer of the animated spoof of Dirty Harry film Magnum Farce, the multiple-award-winning short based on the feature-film script now in production at Bella Fe Films. Ken is executive producer of the documentary Adventures In Plymptoons, whose subject is twice Oscar-nominated indie animator Bill Plympton.
Andrew Lema
Judge
Andrew Lema graduated from Woodbury University with a BA in Animation. He started his career in Visual Effects for the hit TV series “Smallville” and “Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. In 2007 and 2008 he received 2 Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design” for the cable series Sport Science. His continued success includes such feature films as Tron: Legacy, Thor, and most recently Red Tail to name a few. In 2010 along with his older brother Gemmer (also a Woodbury Graduate), they started their own independent production company, Lema Productions which provides Visual FX, Graphic Design and Architectural Drafting services.
John Andrucci
Judge
John started in film and Television in the early 1980s. His career includes working for Learning Corporation of America, an educational film distributor that produced After School Specials: “Summer Switch”, “Out of Step”, “One Too Many”, and others. He then went on to work for an animation company that produced Saturday morning and afternoon cartoons: “M.A.S.K.”, “Inspector Gadget”, “Hulk Hogan’s Rock-N-Wrestling”, “The Littles”, and the animated feature film, “Rainbow Brite and The Star Stealer” among others. John has written and released a number of Children’s/Young Adult novels: “Karate Chop Moms”, “Grandma’s Jeep”, “Merlin’s Daughters”, and “The Emerson’s”. John is currently writing and producing the feature films: “Alfred & Phoebe”, “Night of the Peepers”, and “Supercrew” and is also producing “Descension” for Gothic Pictures.
Silvia Kratzer
Judge
Silvia Kratzer is a professor of Film, Television, and Digital Media and teaches at Chapman University, UCLA, and Pepperdine University. Her background includes work as a screenwriter, webseries producer and professional script consultant for Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Avenue Entertainment, Spirit, ITC, and Disney. Recently, she has expanded her German-Swiss-US transnational film production network as the Creative Producer in charge of the Los Angeles office of Roll Call Pictures and her upcoming Film School: www.NewHollywoodFilmSchool.com
Marlene Kuo-Morinaga
Judge
Marlene has worked in the entertainment industry for over 14 years and comes from an extensive post-production background. She worked for 5 years at Todd-AO and Ascent Media, as well as Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Ms. Kuo-Morinaga project manages high-profile clients like Disney (Pearl Harbor, Walt Disney Treasures, Lion King), and for Fox (Avatar, Ice Age, and much more). Working with major studios has given her rich experience and insight that Ms. Kuo-Morinaga now uses on her own projects. She shares her multi-faceted background and skills by working with UCLA Alumni Association and CAPE (Coalition for Asian Pacifics in Entertainment). She is collaborating with many writers, directors, and producers to create award winning and profitable business endeavors for today’s changing audience.
Tony Soltis
Judge
Tony Soltis is an Executive Producer, writer and co-creator for Network and Cable TV. Writing credits include, “The Shield” (Fox), NYPD Blue (ABC), “Russian Roulette” (Sony Studios), “Who’s More Right?” (ABC Family) and the Discovery Channel docudrama, “Cuff Me If You Can”. Other notable television series writing credits include, “California Dreams”, “Hang Time”, “Malibu Ca”. Tony was nominated for both an Emmy, and Humanities Award for “Outstanding Children’s Series”, “Saved By The Bell” as the Supervising Producer.
Kathryn Boole
Judge
Kathryn Boole wrote her first play at the age of nine. She found the Social Studies Report Presentations by her fourth grade class to be a bit lame, so when her turn came to present a report on Africa, she wrote a “thriller” about a family of American tourists who must flee an African country at war. Kathy’s ambitions evolved into writing and directing. After a year at UCLA studying Music, she had the great fortune to work for director John Boorman. She assisted him for four years, as a script reader, film editor, sound editor and writer’s assistant. Kathryn has been a Literary Rep at Studio Talent Group for the last 19 years.
Tony Soltis
Judge
Tony Soltis is an Executive Producer, writer and co-creator for Network and Cable TV. Writing credits include, “The Shield” (Fox), NYPD Blue (ABC), “Russian Roulette” (Sony Studios), “Who’s More Right?” (ABC Family) and the Discovery Channel docudrama, “Cuff Me If You Can”. Other notable television series writing credits include, “California Dreams”, “Hang Time”, “Malibu Ca”. Tony was nominated for both an Emmy, and Humanities Award for “Outstanding Children’s Series”, “Saved By The Bell” as the Supervising Producer.
Stewart Farquhar
Judge
Stewart holds Screenwriting and Advanced Screenwriting Certificates from the Professional Program at UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television. Stewart has analyzed over 3,900 scripts for both private and studio clients. He is a produced a playwright, active screenwriter and is an in demand lecturer at UC Berkeley. He has been a final story analyst for both Slamdance and theatrical scripts headed to Cannes for financing. He is an active member of The Table, made up of over 2,000 above and below the line talent from all major studios and publishing worldwide (including Oscar, Emmy, Hugo and Edgar winners, as well as New York Bestselling Authors).