2023 Jury

Adam Montgomery

Adam Montgomery is senior manager of programming for the Sundance Film Festival, where has overseen the selection process since 2005, with over 14,000 submissions received annually. In addition to programming feature films and documentaries, Adam also programs the Festival’s Midnight section and lends his past experience in television development to Sundance’s Indie Episodic program. Prior to joining the Institute, he spent five years at Imagine Entertainment, where he worked on acclaimed series such as Arrested Development and 24. From 2014–2017, he served as director of programming for CIMMfest, a film and music festival based in Chicago.

Angelo Hatgistavrou

Angelo Hatgistavrou, or Angelo “Hat” for short, is a Los Angeles-based animation director, producer, and writer. He has worked as a supervising director for series at Netflix and Amazon and as a consulting director for Fox. His work has been nominated at the Annie Awards and has been shown at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Other notable studios he has worked with include Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, Comedy Central, and Disney. Outside of the animation industry, he enjoys making his own absurd animated films, one of which was recently licensed by FX. Through his production company, Ionian Productions Inc, he plans on developing original content by himself and others, with an emphasis on harnessing and expanding personal experiences

Anthony Yooshin Kim

Anthony Yooshin Kim, a Korean American storyteller hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, is presently in digital programming and curation at American Documentary, the producer of the critically acclaimed nonfiction film series ‘POV’ and ‘America ReFramed.’ Anthony earned a doctorate in Literature from the University of California, San Diego where his research focused on documentary cinema at the intersection of historical crisis and change, and he previously served as visiting faculty in American Studies at Williams College. In his spare time, Anthony is an avid long-distance runner and can out-Sinatra anyone under the table at karaoke.

David Derks

David Derks is an executive at Paramount, working alongside Paramount+, Showtime, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, TV Land, CMT, Awesomeness TV, and Nickelodeon. A member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Society of Composers and Lyricists, David is producer of digital content for EuroPacific Films. He is also currently the CEO and president of the La Mirada Symphony and vice president of ASIFA-Hollywood. He was previously at Twentieth Television and ABC Studios and was on the studio teams for projects such as Desperate Housewives, LOST, Alias, Grey’s Anatomy, According to Jim, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Divorce Court, Judge Alex, The New Ricki Lake Show, and Dish Nation, as well as television miniseries like Muppets’ Wizard of Oz and Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital. Additionally, David’s online Web comic String Theory Cartoons looks at the lighter side of life.

Hugh O’Gorman

Hugh O’Gorman is an actor, director, author, and teaching-artist active in professional theater for over 30 years. Since 2002, he has been the head of acting at California State University Long Beach, where he oversees the BA, BFA, and MFA actor training programs. Hugh is the author of Acting Action: A Primer for Actors and The Keys to Acting. He is a faculty member of MICHA: the Michael Chekhov Association, as well as MCE Michael Chekhov Europe, and he runs his own acting studio in Los Angeles, The Praxis Studio. He is a co-executive director of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. Hugh has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and at over a dozen of the nation’s regional theaters and Shakespeare festivals. He is a founding member of New York City’s Mint Theatre Company. Hugh portrayed Jeff Singer on AMC’s Remember WENN. His other television appearances include John Adams, Still Standing, That’s Life, The 10th Kingdom, Law & Order and ER, and his films include Killers, Upstate, and The Bend. Hugh earned a BA from Cornell and an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington. www.hughogorman.com

Jenna Suru

Jenna Suru is an auteur and programmer based in Paris. Suru kickstarted MIP x Canneseries Connection and runs the Paris International Film Festival (PIFF). In six years, Jenna has grown PIFF to an eight-day annual celebration of cinema at Le Champo, screening more than 100 films and television series from around the world. Under the label of her company Belle Époque Films, Jenna has created scripted and unscripted comedy content, working with actors such as Robert Sheehan and distributors such as StudioCanal and Pathé Films. Jenna’s auteur debut, L’Age d’Or screened at Cinequest in San Jose, California. parisintlfest.com

Jose Garcia Moreno

Jose Garcia Moreno (1961) was born in Mexico City and studied at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). He completed his education with an MFA at UCLA. During the 1980s, he was the producer and creative director of radio stations in Mexico City. His films have been screened and awarded in film festivals around the world, and he has received the Fulbright Scholarship and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant. He has served as chair of the animation department at Loyola Marymount University, and in 2012, he was appointed to the Loyola Marymount University Strategic Planning Committee and also chair of the Strategic Committee for Internationalization. In 2020, he was appointed director of the Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination (ACTI) at Loyola Marymount. In 2023, his film Long Is the Way to Heaven was programmed at the Annecy International Film Festival “as part of the history of Mexican animation and its legacy.”

Valorie Massalas

Valorie Massalas co-produced and cast the acclaimed Gods and Monsters, nominated for three Oscars, including Ian McKellan for best actor, Lynn Redgrave for best supporting actress, and Bill Condon for best screenplay. The movie also won Best Feature Film of the Year from Independent Spirit Awards. In Chaplin, Massalas cast Robert Downey Jr., who received an Oscar nomination. For her work on Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story produced by Barbra Streisand and Glenn Close, she won the Artios Award, the Casting Society of America’s highest honor. In Amazing Stories, Massalas cast for various directors including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Clint Eastwood. Soon after, she cast Sharon Stone in Total Recall directed by Paul Verhoeven. In 2005, Massalas joined with Ron Digman to cast feature films, including Obsessed, Walking Madison, Into Temptation, and the TV movie, Outlaw Prophet, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

Michael F.X. Daley

Michael F.X. Daley is a television writer whose credits include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Reaper, for which he wrote the series finale. He’s worked for Netflix on Maniac, HBO on The Leftovers and Big Love, ABC on Secrets and Lies and Resurrection, TNT on Murder in the First, STARZ on Boss, NBC on Crossing Jordan, Comedy Central on That’s My Bush! And FOX on The X-Files. Michael has an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University, where he now teaches screenwriting and serves as the graduate director for the Writing and Producing for Television program. He’s writing a book titled The Writers Took Television, interviewing TV show runners including Norman Lear, Carol Mendelsohn, Chris Carter, Damon Lindelof, Tom Spezialy, and Vince Gilligan. He originally hails from Syracuse, New York, where he got his BA in English Communication from Le Moyne College.

Patricia K. Meyer

Patricia K. Meyer, a screenwriter, producer, and educator, has sold and written numerous feature screenplays, from dark comedy to true crime drama, for Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and major studios. In addition, she has written network miniseries and movies-of-the-week, as well as an original drama pilot for CBS. Meyer launched her career by optioning Gloria Naylor’s novel, The Women of Brewster Place, which she produced as mini-series starring Oprah Winfrey. Next, she executive produced Nora Ephron’s feature directorial debut, This Is My Life. Following a decade teaching screenwriting at the AFI Conservatory, Meyer has enjoyed serving for seven years as associate clinical professor and graduate director of screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television. In 2019 she was named one of the top film educators in the country by Variety. Meyer is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She earned a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Boston University. www.patriciakmeyerwriter.com

Richard Ray Pérez “Rick” Pérez

Richard Ray Pérez “Rick” Pérez (he/him/his) is the former executive director of the International Documentary Association (IDA), where he oversaw all IDA programs and operations, including filmmaker services, funding, educational programs, and the IDA Awards. Prior to leading IDA, Pérez was director of creative partnerships at Sundance Institute, where he developed, designed, and led artist-based filmmaking programs. As a filmmaker, Pérez directed and executive produced the feature documentary Cesar’s Last Fast, a project that premiered in US Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and which the New York Times recognized as one of 20 essential films that capture the Latinx experience.

Sunil Sadarangani

Sunil Sadarangani is a Mumbai-born, Los Angeles-based producer and writer with more than 15 years of experience in the global film and series industry. He’s worked with top studios in the United States, India, Sweden, Germany, Lebanon, France, Australia, and the United Kingdom, including First Look Media, Al Jazeera, Shorts T.V., and Swedish and German National T.V. He founded the Ojai Short Film Festival, curated and programmed diverse films focusing on South Asian and female filmmakers, and included Oscar-nominated and winning works. Sunil serves on the programming committees of Outfest and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. He’s a member of the Programmers of Colour Collective and was on the jury of the 2019 Los Angeles Greek Film Festival. Sunil also co-founded Omagination Pictures, securing content and forging industry relationships.