Best in Fest

Do you want tips from someone who's responsible for producing major motion pictures in Hollywood? In this episode, Leslie sits down with acclaimed producer Jennie Lew Tugend to discuss how to secure funding for a film during the pandemic, strategies for an exceptionally strong pitch, how to create the perfect log-line, writing for a budget, trends in the industry, adapting a book into a screenplay, when and how to attract a producer to your film and much more.

JENNIE LEW TUGEND has produced and co-produced some of the industry’s most memorable franchises:  The Free Willy trilogy, Lethal Weapon 1,2,3, and HBO’s Tales from the Crypt. 

As former Co-President of Kadokawa Pictures USA, Tugend was a producer on One Missed Call, a WB release and two episodes of Showtime’s “Master of Horror”. 

Producing credits include Local Boys starring Mark Harmon and Star Kid, which received an Award of Excellence by the Film Advisory Board; and for MGM, the romantic comedy, Return to Me starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver; Radio Flyer for Columbia Pictures and Scrooged for Paramount Pictures starring Bill Murray, and was instrumental in the development and production of The Goonies and The Lost Boys.

Currently, Tugend and her partners are developing the feature film adaptations of NY Times best selling novel, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” with Oscar and Emmy nominated director Bing Liu, and the popular Japanese manga “MPD Psycho”.  In 2020, Tugend Executive Produced the independent feature film “Albatross”, directed by award-winning writer/director Myles Yaksich.  Tugend and Yaksich previsouly collaborated on two award-winning short films, “Poppies” and “Erin”.

Tugend is an active member of the Producer’s Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.  Tugend was a mentor in the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at USC and is currently teaching a producing class at UCLAx and is a Creative Thesis Mentor at the American Film Institute Conservatory (AFI) and an Advisor in the Screenwriting Workshop at the Sundance Institute.  

Get ready for some incredible Independent film marketing tips as Leslie and Ivana discuss navigating the film circuit, getting your film funded, short film vs. feature film marketing strategies, the structure of filming a documentary and how to create social revolution through filmmaking.

Ivana Todorović is a director of short, socially-engaging films in Belgrade and New York City. Her fiction film "When I'm at Home" (2019, Belgrade) won the Best Narrative Short at LA Women's Independent Film awards, Best Narrative Short at Socially Relevant Film festival in NYC. Future Film Award at IFFBH Festival in  Paris, Best Student Film Award at the Short to the Point Festival in Bucharest, Best Woman Film Award at the Independent Shorts Awards Festival in Los Angeles in Bucharest, and Honorary Mention at the South Eastern European Film Festival in Los Angeles. The documentaries "When I Was a Boy, I Was a Girl", "A Harlem Mother", "Rapresent", and "Everyday Life of Roma Children in Block 71" were screened at more than 150 international film festivals -- such as the 63rd Berlin Film Festival-Berlinale Shorts competition program, Traverse City, IFF Rotterdam, Palm Springs International Shorts. They have won over 20 awards such as Best Balkan Documentary Film at Dokufest in Prizren, Best National Documentary at the March Festival in Belgrade, Best Short Film at the South Eastern European Film Festival in Los Angeles. They were screened at the Anthology Film Archive, the Center de Cultura Contemporiana de Barcelona and the "A Harlem Mother" film is part of The New York Times online library. 

From Actor to Writer to Producer, Raeann Giles has done it all... or at least a lot. In this episode, Leslie and Raeann discuss how to find representation, tips to launch on Amazon, how to find your audience, casting challenges and choices, tragedy in filmmaking, leveraging into future projects, the structure of a film, the writing process and much more.

Raeann Giles is a multi-ethnic writer/actor, graduate of UCLA’s MFA School of Theater, Film and Television in Screenwriting and the creator of the award winning digital series, “Playdates Anonymous” and “Stay At Home Mom” which she wrote produced and starred in, streaming on Amazon and the Comedy Dynamics Network.  She made her directorial debut in 2020, in the feature film, “Angel,”which she wrote and starred in, currently screening in the festival circuit.  Raeann is a Sloan Winner for her comedy feature, “Designer Kids,” a Sloan finalist for her romantic comedy “Fluke,” the recipient of the Felicia D. Henderson Screenwriting Award and the Havas 18-LA Production award.  The busy mother of four, also holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law, as well as degrees in Molecular Biology and Neuroscience Psychology from the University of Colorado. www.raeanngiles.com

There is a massive push for diverse talent at Sony through the diversification and inclusion program run by VP, Creative Programming, Diversity & Inclusion Brett King.  If you are trying to break in to Hollywood, this episode is packed with information as Leslie and Brett discuss Sony's Diverse Writers Program and Diverse Directors Program, what types of writers and directors Sony is looking for, mentorship and development opportunities, how to craft a personal narrative and much more...

Brett King is Vice President, Creative Programming, Diversity & Inclusion for
Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he works with both Sony Pictures Television
and the Motion Picture Group to identify and advantage opportunities for
inclusion throughout the studio.

King oversees the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directors Program as well as
the television studio’s Diverse Writers program, both designed to provide
opportunity for women and ethnic minorities in scripted episodic television. Prior
to working with Sony, King was a producer as well as a Program Consultant for
HBOAccess and for Disney/ABC Television Creative Talent Development,
working to find the next generation of content creators.

A television veteran with oversight of literally hundreds of hours of television
under his belt, he has been a senior level executive at BET, The WB, Paramount
Television Studios and 20th Century Fox Television. His executive career
followed his work in New York, where he was a staff producer of the commercial
parodies at Saturday Night Live as well as a producer of innumerable music
videos, commercials and promos, all while moonlighting as a DJ in some of the
city’s seminal downtown clubs.

King is a proud father of two.

There is the dream of finding funding for your film and then there's the reality of how it happens.  In this episode, Leslie and Sonya break down the process of making a documentary, discuss historical Jewish stories, working in Afghanistan, finding the right editor and much more.

SONYA WINTERBERG is an award-winning writer and documentary director with roots in Finland and Germany. For most of her career, her work focused on women and children in armed conflicts and post-war situations. Sonya reported on major news events such as the aftermath of the war in Bosnia, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, Hurricane Katrina and the resettlement of refugees and IDPs to villages across Afghanistan. She has been involved in a number of German television events such as the acclaimed ARD television documentary series “Kriegskinder” (Children of War, 2009) for which she co-authored the companion book. She was also on the team that conceptualized and wrote the online special for the international award-winning series “14 – Diaries of the Great War”.
 Her latest works include “Dark Business. Child trafficking in the heart of Europe” (2018) and “Made in Auschwitz. The Untold Story of the Women of Block 10” (2019) that won the Best Documentary Award at LA FEMME. For the past three years she has worked on a documentary on the late AP-photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Anja Niedringhaus who was killed on assignment in Afghanistan in 2014. Sonya lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

The world was largely unaware that there is a large Indian community in South Africa... until Judy Naidoo. In this episode, Leslie and Judy discuss feature film distribution, the film festival circuit, independent film grants,  the virtues of being a proactive filmmaker and much more.

Judy Naidoo is a South African independent filmmaker. She holds a Masters Degree in Producing from the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the United Kingdom. She was the recipient of two scholarships that enabled her to pursue this degree: the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Award and later the Trevor Jones Scholarship. Judy also holds a BA (Dramatic Arts) Honours Degree from Wits University (majoring in Directing and Television). 

Under the umbrella of Ladybug Films (a company Judy had established in 2002, previously named Black Heat Productions), she had the opportunity to produce and direct several documentaries, corporates, commercials and short films, but her aspirations to tell fictional stories grew. In 2006 she attended a filmmaking course at the New York Film Academy in New York City. There, she wrote, directed, and edited several short film projects. Later, whilst studying a Masters Degree in Producing in the UK, Judy produced the award winning animation short Kahānikār (The Storyteller). The film was long-listed for the Oscars in 2012 and won at several major festivals around the world. 

Judy made her directorial debut on the feature length film “Hatchet Hour” in 2016. The film had its International premiere at the LA Femme International Film Festival (2016), where it won the Best Foreign Film award. It has won and been in-competition at several other international film festivals. Judy’s new film “Kings of Mulberry Street” released in 2019 and won Best Feature Film at the Children’s Film Festival Seattle (USA), and the Children’s Foundation Award for Best Comedy at the BUFF Malmo Film Festival 2020 (Sweden), amongst other awards. The film has already been in-competition at many prestigious international film festivals and is currently enjoying a successful festival run. 

How do you convince risk adverse people to fund your film? Some filmmakers go as far as actually shooting a short to use as a proof of concept, In this episode, Leslie and Veronika talk about the best ways to advance your career in film like choosing between big film festivals vs. targeted film festivals, how to work with kids on set, finding the right collaborators, putting story and characters first, how to utilize your editor, the necessity of a script supervisor and much more.

Veronika Kurz is an award-winning director whose work spans a wide variety of genres, and has screened at festivals worldwide. With a background in technical film production, Veronika delivers story-driven, cinematic products with a feature film feel.

In 2017, she successfully pitched her short comedy, 20 MINUTES TO LIFE, at that year’s Whistler Film Festival, winning funding from the MPPIA Short Film Award.

The film went on to win Best Short Film at the LA Femme Film Festival and 1st Place Comedy Short Shorts at Just For Laughs NorthWest.

20 MINUTES TO LIFE is now available to watch in Canada on Super Channel Fuse.

Her dance film, FLOW (starring Ballet BC dancer Livona Ellis) premiered at the 2019 Sedona International Film Festival to two sold-out audiences and went on to play at several international festivals.

Veronika has a passion for creative storytelling and loves working collaboratively to bring great ideas to life. Through her work, Veronika aims to inspire, entertain, and move her audiences.

The Parkland shooting was an incredible tragedy and too often the shooter is the one people remember.  Emily Evan Rae made it her mission to make sure the families of the victims get a chance to remember their lost loved ones.  Her documentary film "Stop the Bleed" is a stunning achievement and in this episode she tells us how she did it.

Have you ever heard of a film festival curator? If you're doing the festival circuit a good curator can mean the difference between success and failure.  Leslie and Kymberly get deep into the details as well as how to find the perfect director of photography and specific techniques for actors who are blocked.

How does a successful TV and Film actress become an inspired Director/Producer of a powerful documentary that breaks through. Magi Avila is best known for her rolls in "My American Family" and with Nicholas Cage and William Defoe in "Dog Eat Dog", but turned her sights on becoming a filmmaker after a chance meeting with a man in a wheelchair who has an incredible story to tell.  This episode is fun, inspired and filled with great information about film festivals and distribution for Independent Filmmakers.

After a rewarding career in Mexican films, television and theatrical productions, Magi Avila made her way to the Mecca of EntertainmentHollywood.

Magi Avila can be seen in a pivotal role in the feature Film "Dog Eat Dog" with Oscar winner, Nicolas Cage, and 4 times Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe, directed by Paul Schrader. Dog Eat Dog premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, obtaining a long standing ovation. She also has a pivotal role in "First Kill" with Mr. Bruce Willis and Hayden Christensen. Magi Avila also appears in "A Better Life" with Oscar nominee Demian Bichir, directed by Chris Weitz (Twilight Saga "New Moon"), and in "Café Society" with Blake Lively and Steve Carrel, directed by Woody Allen. On US Television, Magi guest-starred on Jerry Bruckheimer's "Training Day" with Bill Paxton. She also worked in the final episode of the acclaimed AFI Award winning drama television series "The Shield", from Shawn Ryan.

Magi Avila has performed as a lead and co-starred in US Theater Productions such as "Nuevo California" with the San Diego Repertory Theater and "Little Red", with the Josefina López' Los Angeles based Casa 0101 organization, among others. Magi has also directed many theater productions herself. Magi has already made her indelible mark as the co-writer, producer and lead performer of the Musical Theater production of "Carmen Miranda - The Lady In The Tutti Frutti Hat". She brought to life the yesteryear famous Brazilian Broadway actress with her singing and Samba performances.

In the beginning of her professional career in her native Ensenada, Mexico, Magi presented as an opera singer and with a choral group known as "Voces De Primavera", under the direction of Maestro Jesus Veliz, performing for celebrities, dignitaries and the then president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo. Her teen charm and innate talent won her modeling jobs. Magi Avila soon started to appear in print ads and popular television commercials. Magi also served a short stint as a News Reporter and on-camera talent for the Mexican television network, Televisa.

Magi studied her 4 years of theater and arts at the Autonomous University of Baja California Extension, her M.D. at the University Guadalajara A.K.A. UDG. She then moved to the USA to study at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, for 3 more years. Miss Avila has continued sharpening her acting skills with several acting coaches in Hollywood.

She now lives in Los Angeles, CA. Magi Avila is immensely grateful for all the people she has had the pleasure of collaborating with, throughout her career in the USA and Mexico.