ERSI DANOU (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK) co-founded Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF) in 2006. A Tisch School of at the Arts (NYU) and American Film Institute graduate, a filmmaker and an entertainment writer, Ersi has served LAGFF in various roles, including Director of Programming, Artistic Director, Director of Development, and Development Consultant. in 2013, she helped establish Discovery Days with the idea to nurture international film exchange and offer screenplay development opportunities to international filmmakers. She recently collaborated on the initiation of Global Greek Film Initiative (GGFI) in order to further cultural exchange, bilateral collaborations and the promotion of Greek film and culture in Los Angeles, the US and the Hellenic Diaspora. Ersi has been a member of Golden Globes Foundation (formerly known as Hollywood Foreign Press Association) for two decades and has been an active member in several committees including the Non-English Language Film Committee and the International Festivals Committee. Currently, she has several creative projects in development.
GARETH ELLIS – UNWIN (JURY) is an Academy and BAFTA award winning producer, best known for the film THE KINGS SPEECH, for which he picked up a Best Picture Oscar in 2011. Now living and working in Greece, Gareth is bringing his 30 plus years of international filmmaking experience to a new venture within the Antenna Group and Village Cinemas, the market leading Greek cinema operator. During his 60 minute masterclass Gareth will reflect on his career to date, a journey that saw him go from being an assistant director all the way to picking up his Oscar and BAFTA Award, and discuss practical advice on pitching, developing and producing movies. He will also share detail on the new venture in Greece, the values and ambitions of the new company in shaping Greek filmmaking, and most importantly how they will be looking to work with Greek talent from around the world.
JOEL GARBER (ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS / DISCOVERY DAYS – Independent Collaborator) is a filmmaker from Milwaukee based in Los Angeles. As a Writer/Director, his films have screened widely including at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, Miami International Film Fest, San Francisco Shorts, Wisconsin Film Fest and at NewFilmmakers New York and LA. Joel collaborated, as Consulting Producer, with Director Araceli Lemos on the critically acclaimed feature film HOLY EMY, which premiered internationally at the Locarno Film Festival, at AFI Fest in the US, and was distributed by MUBI. HOLY EMY received numerous accolades including a nomination for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards and a leading 15 nominations at the 2022 Hellenic Film Academy Awards. He is currently developing the feature film BIG BABY BETTY, co-written with Araceli Lemos, which recently received development funds from the Greek Film Center and will participate at the Mediterranean Film Institute’s Script 2 Film Workshop 2024. As an editor and producer, Joel
has worked extensively on fiction and non-fiction films and television programs for platforms that include Amazon, Disney+, HGTV, and CBS. He is a producer at DISCOVERY DAYS, an annual workshop for European films in development at the LA Greek Film Festival, and he holds degrees in cinema from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BA) and San Francisco State University (MFA).
KI JIN KIM (ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS) is a Korean filmmaker based in Los Angeles. As a filmmaker of color and a proud Asian immigrant, Kim’s work revolves around community-based projects that highlight marginalized ethnic communities in the United States and Europe, focusing on their diasporic experiences. Kim is a founding member of the independent production company Nonetheless Productions and has contributed as a producer and cinematographer to award-winning feature films such as THE WEDDING BANQUET, BITTERROOT, HOLY EMY, DRIVEWAYS, COLUMBUS, and SPA NIGHT. Kim’s accolades include a nomination for the 2018 Piaget Producers Award and winning the Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award and an LA-Emmy.
ARACELI LEMOS (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK / DISCOVERY DAYS – Co-Founder / Advisor) is a film director, writer and editor based in Athens and Los Angeles. Her debut feature HOLY EMY, a Greek / French / US co-production, had its world premiere at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival in the Cineasti dei Presenti section, where it received a Special Mention Award from the Jury for First Features. Variety described the film as an “excellent debut about faith, mysticism and displacement.” HOLY EMY screened at festivals worldwide, including AFI Fest, Goteborg, Thessaloniki, New Orleans, Seville, and Sun Valley. It was nominated for two 2023 Independent Spirit Awards (Someone To Watch and the John Cassavetes Award), 15 Hellenic Academy Awards, where Araceli won Best Director, and was distributed by MUBI. As an editor and producer, Araceli has frequently collaborated with the filmmaker Panayotis Evangelidis on his documentary portraits of intimate relationships. Their latest feature film, IRVING PARK, won the Mermaid Award at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. As an editor, Araceli’s work also includes the documentary THEY GLOW IN THE DARK (dir. P. Evangelidis), which received the Hellenic Film Academy Award for Best Documentary, and LOST LA (Season 2) for the Los Angeles based public television station KCET, which was nominated for a regional Emmy Award. Her 2012 graduate thesis film from CalArts, the dark comedy short MIGUEL ALVAREZ WEARS A WIG, screened at festivals worldwide including Tampere, Drama, Leeds and Outfest. Araceli is the founder of Discovery Days (formerly the International Project Discovery Forum), an annual development lab for Balkan and Southern European feature filmmakers, held annually in LA in conjunction with the LA Greek Film Festival. She holds an MFA in Film Directing from CalArts and is an active member of the underground comedy scene in LA.
ROSITA LAMA MUVDI (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK) is a Colombian born director/screenwriter whose visceral films explore the monster within all of us. After working in Colombia’s film industry for several years, Rosita attended the American Film Institute Conservatory where she graduated with an M.F.A. in Directing. Her films have been featured on platforms like ALTER, DUST, and CRYPT TV, and have won awards at multiple festivals worldwide, including the Grand Jury Award at Dances With Films and the Mary Shelly Award at Other Worlds Austin. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she’s a directing professor at the American Film Institute Conservatory.
PATRICK PICARD (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK) born in Virginia, studied philosophy at the College of William & Mary where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Master of Fine Arts as a Directing Fellow from the American Film Institute. His debut feature, THE BLOODHOUND (2020), received critical acclaim, appearing on BFI and PASTE’s “Best Poe Adaptations” lists and described by the Hollywood News as an “impressively stylish and intellectual debut” and by Variety as having “an idiosyncratic air all its own.”
DANIEL RAGUSSIS (AV WORKSHOP) wrote, directed and produced his first feature, IMPERIUM, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Toni Collette, which was released by Lionsgate and became a New York Times Critics’ Pick; Entertainment Weekly hailed it as “a tense, chilling thriller… Radcliffe is brilliant.” He is the founder of Notes for Execs, a workshop for development executives that has served clients from Disney, Fox, Warner Brothers, Universal, and Netflix. He was Head of Development at Lucas Foster’s ANVL Entertainment for two years; and Atomic Features, the company Ragussis co-founded, recently secured financing for its own development fund, announcing multiple new feature film projects.
ORLY RAVID (ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS) is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of The Film Collaborative, an entertainment attorney at her law firm, Creative Arts Legal, and the Associate Dean of the Biederman Entertainment, Media, & Sports Law Institute at Southwestern Law School. Orly has over 25 years of experience in independent film as an acquisitions and business affairs executive. She’s served as a Documentary Programming Associate at Sundance Film Festival and a programming consultant at Palm Springs International and the Middle East Film Festival. A regular panelist, educator, and blogger about digital distributing, splitting rights, and distribution in general at film festivals worldwide, Orly has also contributed to indieWIRE, TFC’s blog, and Sundance’s Artists Services. Orly launched TFC’s Digital Distribution Guide and other distribution related educational initiatives as part of TFC’s free resource, Distripedia™.
THEO SALTER (ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS) Theo (Tay-o) is a Los Angeles based script consultant. Beginning his career in New York City he was the Artistic and Managing Director of two off-Broadway theatre companies (2008-2012). After moving to the west coast, he worked for several years at the Gersh Talent Agency in both their TV and Feature departments vetting hundreds of potential scripts of both new and seasoned writers. His company, NomadLit, assists writers and directors with honing finished scripts, adapting potential I.P. and navigating the shifting Hollywood marketplace.
BARBARA STEPANSKY (ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS) is a WGA Award winner, a Nicholl Fellow and an award-winning independent film director. Having received two masters in film production at USC and AFI, she garnered the DGA Diversity Award, the Student Emmy and was featured on the Black List. FLINT, a film about the Flint Water Crisis for Sony/Lifetime with Queen Latifah, was nominated for a Critics Choice and won the WGA Award for Best Longform. She is a co-creator of the Netflix/ORF TV Show WOMAN OF THE DEAD (“TOTENFRAU”) and a writer/producer on the Sony/Starz TV Show OUTLANDER.
JOHN STEPHENS (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK) is a Script Reader, Editor, and occasional Script Doctor with a background in English Literature. Formerly an English Language and Literature teacher, he now specialises in screenwriting and story development. He has led workshops in Greece, North Macedonia, and Armenia, including the A-Z Filmmaking Lab, KineNova, Across the Lake, and the Armenian Cinema Development Initiative. Since 2015, he has tutored at the Drama International Short Film Festival Pitching Lab and has served as Film Selection Coordinator for KineNova. He is honoured to serve as a script mentor for the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival for the first time.
JEFF STOCKWELL (GROUP INTRO) is a screenwriter whose produced credits include Sundance film THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS (dir. Peter Care), BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (dir. Gabor Csupo) and A WRINKLE IN TIME (dir. Ava DuVernay) for Disney, Writers Guild Award- nominated WILDER DAYS (dir. David Mickey Evans) for TNT and, most recently, IVY & BEAN (dir. Elissa Down) for Netflix. He has done uncredited work on a range of films including ARTEMIS FOWL and PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF. Jeff has worked as a consulting writer for major animation companies, including a year’s residence at Pixar. He has a range of unproduced projects in various stages of development – from “happening soon – we promise!” to “stored in that warehouse somewhere next to the Lost Ark.” Jeff is a longtime active instructor/mentor for labs and programs sponsored by Film Independent, Global Media Makers, USC’s American Film Showcase and the Writers Guild of America.
ELIA URQUIZA (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK) is a Spanish filmmaker, writer, and creative producer whose work spans fiction, documentary, and television. She is one of the founding partners of La Panda Productions, a creative collective specializing in international independent co-productions for the Spanish-speaking market. La Panda has co-produced acclaimed titles such as Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 KM and ANCHOR AND HOPE, Julia Solomonoff’s NOBODY’S WATCHING, Koldo Serra’s 70 BINLADENS, and Lila Avilés’ LA CAMARISTA—Mexico’s official Oscar entry. After four years in the U.S., La Panda expanded its operations to Spain in 2016, helping bridge the gap between Hollywood and the Spanish film industry. As a screenwriter, Elia recently wrote two episodes of MINIMUM WAGE, a new Paramount+ series directed by Julia Solomonoff, and co-created the upcoming limited series THE EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN with Mexican director Patricia Riggen. Her documentary NEXT, exploring the world of aspiring child actresses in Hollywood, won the Special Jury Prize at the Málaga Film Festival, and her short film BFFS received the prestigious Women in Film grant. Elia has worked as a director on series such as VINTAGE (Brutal Media), VANDA (Legendary TV / Hulu), and LOST L.A., which earned a nomination for a Los Angeles Emmy. She is a prolific script doctor specializing in narrative structure, tone, and character development in fiction and nonfiction formats. With a strong background in experimental and narrative filmmaking and a passion for storytelling from underrepresented perspectives, Elia brings versatile expertise to her mentoring work with other screenwriters.
ALESIA WESTON (JURY) ran Sundance Institute’s Int’l Feature Film Program for a decade, spearheading the international labs and grants program for emerging filmmakers from the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Asia. In 2013, she was appointed Executive Director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Cinematheque and Archives where she oversaw the international festival and year-round programming. She has since been a guest curator for the Beirut Int’l FF and New Zealand Int’l FF. She is one of the founders and Chief of Creative of Floodlight, an organization that bridges filmmakers and journalists to support adaptations of investigative journalism. She is also an advising consultant to the Doris Duke Foundation Building Bridges Program.
DANIELLE WOLFF (JURY) has written and produced numerous television series, including Marvel’s ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, AND MARVEL RISING: PLAYING WITH FIRE. She has also written for prime-time dramas WICKED WICKED GAMES and AMERICAN HEIRESS and for films and web series. Her work on an alternate reality game for the series KYLE XY received an Interactive Media Programming Emmy nomination. She is currently working on television projects in Poland, Italy, and Canada and her action-drama series Syros is in development in Greece. Danielle has been a guest speaker at film festivals and universities in the US, the UK, Cyprus, and Greece.
JONATHAN WYSOCKI (SCREENPLAY FEEDBACK) is a queer writer, director, and producer of independent films. His latest feature, the award-winning festival hit DRAMARAMA, is distributed in over 20 countries. Wysocki is a Fellow of the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs as well as an Advisor for Sundance Co//ab. His short, A DOLL’S EYES, screened at 50 festivals on 6 continents. The film was his 5th award-winning short. Previously, Wysocki worked as a feature programmer for the LA Film Festival, as a producer on the features THE HAMMER and THRASHER ROAD, and for major studios such as MGM and ABC. Wysocki is a UCLA alumnus, a Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent, a Berlinale Talent Campus alum, and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Production at Loyola Marymount University.
YORGOS ZOIS (JURY) is a Greek director born in 1982 and based in Athens. He studied applied Math & Nuclear Physics at the NTUA and film direction in UdK Berlin. He started his career working as an assistant director to Theo Angelopoulos and with a scholarship by Costa Gavras. His body of work, four shorts and two feature films, has been selected at A – festivals worldwide (Cannes – Semaine de La Critique, Berlinale – Encounters, Venice – Orizzonti, Rotterdam, Telluride etc.) and has been acknowledged with numerous awards and distinctions worldwide including a European Film Academy nomination. In Greece he won best short film director and best newcomer feature film director from the Greek Film Academy. His films have raised internationally acclaimed reviews about their meta aesthetics and daring narration and have been broadcasted by ARTE, Canal Plus and prestigious platforms like Criterion. Last he was also a member of the official Jury “Lion of the Future” at the 74th Venice IFF. His second feature film ARCADIA premiered in Berlinale 2024, won the best male actor award in Hong Kong IFF, the Best Director award in Sarajevo IFF and was included in the final list of the EFA nominations, while the festival tour goes on.
