Best in Fest

Patrick Rizzotti, is a veteran film producer and founder of Crossroad Productions.
Crossroad's finds projects that can crossover to multiple entertainment platforms during its lifespan.

Rizzotti originally co-founded Fortress Features in 2004 - 2017 and developed over 100 feature film and television projects during the next 14 years. The goal of Fortress was to create a environment where filmmakers could develop material outside of the studio system.

Rizzotti has produced major internationally successful films including the critically acclaimed "Pride" (Lionsgate), starring Academy Award Nominee Terrence Howard (Empire, Iron man) and Bernie Mac (Oceans Eleven, Charlie's Angels). "The Collector", co-written and directed by Marcus Dunstan (co-writer of Saw 4-7), spawned a sequel called "The Collection", both of which were released wide theatrically. "The Super", a psychological thriller starring Val Kilmer (Top Gun, The Doors) and financed by television producer Dick Wolf and most recently "Malicious" starring Josh Stewart (The Dark Night Rises, The Collector), Delroy Lindo (Heat, Get Shorty) and Bojana Novakovic (i-Tonya, Shameless).

McKenzie is a filmmaker, actor, and poet based in Chicago. Driven by a revolutionary sensibility, her work uses rich imagery and a deeply personal lens to explore the lives, relationships, and dreams of those who experience marginalization based on their identities, frequently returning to themes around longing and ambition, with her storytelling rooted in sensuality, everyday magic, and the beauty of the ordinary.

She was recently named IFA Chicago’s inaugural Breakthrough Voice Award recipient, and is a 2021 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab Fellow with her next feature A Real One, currently in late development. 

She is also the writer, producer, and lead actor of Olympia, which premiered at the 2018 LA Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the 2019 Bentonville Film Festival. 

She recently made her stage directing debut with ALAIYO by Micah Ariel Watson at Definition Theatre.

As an actor, her on-camera credits include recurring and guest star roles on the FOX series The Big Leap, ABC's Will Trent, CBS’s The Red Line, and others. Onstage she has worked with Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatres, The Second City, Woolly Mammoth, Definition Theatre, and others.

Corey Grant was born in Joliet, Illinois. He attended Norfolk State University and Virginia where he received his BA in Communications. After graduating and working for NBC, he decided that film was his ultimate goal and he moved to Washington, DC to attend Howard University to receive his Masters in Film. While attending Howard, he founded New Breed Entertainment and wrote, produced and directed his first feature film, HIP HOP TASK FORCE. The film was picked up fro domestic distribution after a limited theatrical run all funded by scholarship money. It proved successful and set up the next step in advancing both Grant and New Breed Entertainment. After graduation he moved to Hollywood to take his film career to the next level. He wrote, produced and directed the follow up to Hip Hop Task Force with the sequel STUDIO which was picked up by Warner Bros Home Video and released in 2007. Looking to take things to the next level, Corey wrote and and directed DYSFUNCTIONAL FRIENDS, his third feature which was released theatrically and has garnered rave reviews and success on DVD and VOD. The movie has gone on to cult hit status among African Americans for the all star cast and it's high end comedy with lightly placed drama. His follow up BIGFOOT: THE LOST COAST TAPES, saw Grant go in a completely different direction as he entered the mainstream horror arena. The found footage thriller was received well as it was picked up for worldwide distribution and was released in the fall of 2012. This filmmaker prides himself on quality, commercial stories that are cutting edge and original

LANETT TACHEL IS A PRODUCER, WRITER, AND ACTRESS FROM PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY MARYLAND. SHE RECEIVED HER BFA FROM HOWARD UNIVERSITY AND MOVED  TO LOS ANGELES WHERE SHE MET LEGENDARY WRITER/PRODUCER, ED WEINBERGER (TAXI, THE COSBY SHOW) WHO ASKED HER TO SERVE AS A CONSULTANT FOR THE 6 EPISODE SERIES, BELLE’S, STARRING KEITH DAVID AND ELLA JOYCE. AFTER CONSULTING ON THE PILOT WHERE SHE LATER EARNED A TITLE ROLE,  LANETT QUICKLY LEARNED THAT THE BEST WAY TO KEEP WORKING WAS TO CREATE THE WORK HERSELF. 

FOLLOWING THE SERIES, LANETT PRODUCED AN AWARD WINNING SHORT, SISTER SISTER SISTER FOLLOWED BY A SERIES OF NARRATIVE DRIVEN MUSIC VIDEOS FOR A UNIVERSAL RECORDING ARTIST.  SHE THEN TEAMED UP WITH COREY GRANT AND WITH THEIR PRODUCTION COMPANY, “NEW BREED ENTERTAINMENT” SHE WENT ON TO WRITE AND PRODUCE FEATURE FILMS SUCH AS THE SUSPENSE/THRILLER -ILLICIT (AMAZON/BET 2017), I GOT THE HOOK UP 2 (2019 THEATRICAL RELEASE) AND MOST RECENTLY SHE HAS PRODUCED AND COWRITTEN  THE BRAND NEW SCRIPTED SERIES, PUMP, WHERE SHE ALSO STARS ALONGSIDE RAY J, JENNIFER FREEMAN, MICHAEL JAI WHITE AND MORE. THE SERIES RELEASED TO A STREAMING PLATFORM TO RAVE REVIEWS AND IS CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF RE-RELEASING TO A NEW, LARGER PLATFORM LATER THIS YEAR.

Grant Garry is a filmmaker, actor, and owner of the production company Wesley Curtis Productions. He is the director of the new documentary Meet Me Where I Am - Which explores the topic of grief through individual stories of loss, love, and hope. 

Grant earned his degree in Theatre Arts from Loyola Marymount University. He has studied improv at The Groundlings School, acting in musical theater with Jason Alexander, and is a Certified Grief Educator. He has a passion for singing, long-form conversations, nonfiction literature, meditation, writing, coffee, and cars. 

He previously produced and acted in Black Cat, currently available on Amazon Prime. Other acting credits include NCIS: Los Angeles, Night of the Living Deb, Sweeney Todd, and Cinderella. His upcoming documentary film, Room for Cream: The Coffee Experience, will explore how humans experience coffee. 

Heidi Nyburg

After a career in tech as a product manager for Netflix, Heidi pivoted to screenwriting
for television and film. A 2022 HUMANITAS finalist, & WIF top 10, Heidi’s writing focuses on female-driven dramas and dark comedies that explore themes of
motherhood, having/not having it all, and sometimes, murder. She’s won several
respected contests, has been featured on The Blacklist for pilots & has two scripts in Coverfly’s Top 1% of all time. She’s also a mother and a director, and those two things feel the same most of the time.

Kristin Tegtmeier Higgins
 
is an independent film producer having discovered a passion for making movies after growing up with her family’s rural movie theater business. She began to makefilms alongside raising a family and a successful career in enterprise software marketing in Silicon Valley.

Kristin studied screenwriting at UCLA and finally film production at San Francisco Film School. She has gone on to make multiple short films and now the narrative feature film, ClearMind, as well as directing and producing a feature documentary on the topic of women and ultra running, which is in post production.  

Naida Valencia originally hails from the West Coast of the US, but holds a strong identity within her Chilean and Colombian heritage. A theater virtuoso from the age of 9, she attended The Northwest School of the Arts, as well as the acting division of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. Since then her career has been an eclectic mixture of marketing, management, writing, event planning and overall industry involvement. She currently works as a marketing manager for Whatevergroup, a production company in Northern Finland. 

Whatevergroup is a TV and film production company based in Oulu, Finland. The company was initiated in 2011 and is run by three writer producers: Antti Kaarlela, Antti Kairakari and Aleksi Puranen. A modest, yet dynamic team runs the engine of this enterprise, setting the course for unique and ambitious horizons. Whatevergroup sets itself apart as one of the primary industry players within the northern regions of Finland. Brandishing an eclectic profile of enthralling pieces, such as the Evilside thriller series for Elisa Viihde and the family feature Susikoira Roi for Cmore MTV3.

Mark Salyer is an award-winning producer and director whose work in the arts and multi-media explores intergenerational themes, stories and mythology of the Appalachian Mountains where he is from and the LGBTQ+ experience.

As an actor and director in the theater, Mark has won numerous awards and performed across the country and abroad. His Hedwig in the Atlanta premier of Hedwig and the Angry Inch was both a critical and commercial success. He performed in the ruins of Delphi for the International Symposium on Greek Drama playing a gender-fluid Electra in Sophocles’ tragedy. In Los Angeles, he co-created the four part
harmony drag show She Haw which enjoyed a long run at Largo. Directing highlights include Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, Madama Butterfly, Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Cabaret, An Evening with Stephen Schwartz starring Ben Vereen and Corbin Bleu and the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center’s gala opening performance of Big River.

In 2012, he created NewStages, a dynamic and ground-breaking performing arts program for and about LGBTQ+ seniors. NewStages has reached thousands in the Los Angeles queer community through dynamic classes and workshops, innovative intergenerational projects and an annual Pride Arts Festival production featuring the seniors of the LA LGBT Center in a performance of music, theater, and dance
inspired by their remarkable life stories.

In 2016, he co-founded ARAY Productions with his co-Appalachian Melissa Palmer. Since then, ARAY has produced projects that are by and about the people of Central Appalachia, including the award-winning short Ladies Most Deject directed by Martha Elcan and starring Conner Wharton.

Mark lives in Palm Springs and in Los Angeles with his husband of 31 years. He is currently working on a
book about art and aging.

Today Leslie has on John Wayne S III, Tyawanna Smith, Kristine McPhearson the creators of the sports documentary "Ballin' Aboard" to talk about how to market a film in todays industry.

Ballin Aboard is the journey of five Champion and top-tier American athletes playing basketball in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and Euro-Leagues.

Marianna Vargas Gurilieva was appointed Film Commissioner of the Dominican
Republic Film Commission (DGCINE) in 2021, a position dedicated to regulating,
developing, and promoting the Dominican film industry.

A Magna Cum Laude graduate in Law of the Pontificia Universidad Católica
Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), Vargas continued her studies obtaining a L.L.M. in
Business Transactions at Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2021, she completed
a master's degree in Legal Strategy from the OMG Institute of Santo Domingo.

Prior to her appointment as Film Commissioner, Vargas served as a Senior
Director of the Business Department at OMG, a legal firm in the Dominican
Republic. From 2011 to 2016 she worked as Director of Business and Legal
Affairs for Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios, where she acted as in house
counsel for the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the production team in
international and national productions directed by the studio.

Furthermore, Vargas participated as a representative of the Film Studios at the
Intersectoral Commission for Promoting Cinematographic Activity in the
Dominican Republic (CIPAC) and collaborated in the preparation, revision, and
modification of Law No. 108-10 to promote Cinematographic Activity in the
Dominican Republic and its applicable regulations. She has extensive knowledge
and a well-established background in Corporate and Commercial Law,
specializing in legal planning and entertainment.

Julia Morizawa is a writer/producer with over 20 years of experience in film, television, new media, theater, and fiction podcasting. Produced projects include JESUSCAT (OR HOW IACCIDENTALLY JOINED A CULT) (feature film), SIN & LYLE (short film), TWENTY-TWO (play), and AMERICAN COMEDY HORROR STORY: ORPHANAGE (fiction podcast). Her current project, DRAGONFLY (animated short film), was awarded Best Short Screenplay by Scriptation Showcase and Screenwriting Master in 2019 and will be premiering at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film
Festival in May 2023. She is currently in development on a feature, SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIDE, which placed in the Top 5 Features in Roadmap Writers’ 2022 JumpStart Competition. Julia started her career as an actor with credits including JUDAS KISS (feature film), SCANDAL (TV), SEAL TEAM (TV), MASHA NO HOME (stage), STAR TREK: ODYSSEY (new media), and THE BRIGHT SESSIONS (fiction podcast). Julia is also a freelance script analyst, the Short Film Fund
Coordinator at Shore Scripts, and the proud mom of two tiny superheroes.