Film Talk | Interviews with the brightest minds in the film industry.

Hanala Sagal is an award-winning writer, comedian, keynote speaker and YouTube icon with 106 million viewers. Hanala is also the co-screenwriter and co-executive producer of “Elvis & Nixon”, which stars Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, Oscar nominated Michael Shannon, and Golden Globe nominated Colin Hanks.

Ben Yennie is Co-Founder and VP of Business Development at ProductionNext, a market network for the film, video, television, and advertising industries. He's also the founder and CEO of Guerrilla Rep Media, and founder of Producer Foundry. Ben is also the former Chapter Leader of the Institute for International Film Finance for San Francisco, Vancouver, New York, and Los Angeles, where he hosted and organized more than 50 seminars on film finance. He also screened business plans for an elite group of angel investors known as The Film Angels. Ben has represented projects directed by Christopher Coppola, as well as others starring big name talent like Marvel's “Luke Cage”. In 2015 he had a 100% offer rate for the films he took to AFM. He's also the author of the book, The Guerrilla Rep: American Film Market Distribution Success on No Budget.

Kymberli Frueh is the Vice President of Programming at Fathom Events, a content provider that broadcasts entertainment events in movie theaters throughout the US. The Fathom Network provides access to over 1,700 theatres nationwide and 17,000 promotional screens. In 2015, Fathom was named "Best Distributor in the Americas" and received eight box office awards by the Event Cinema Association.

Atit Shah is a film producer with five films releasing within the next 12 months, including “Jekyll Island” starring Oscar nominated Minnie Driver, Emmy Award winner John Leguizamo, AnnaSophia Robb and Ed Westwick, and “Money” starring Kellan Lutz. He is the CEO of Create Entertainment, and is represented by UTA.

Gene Massey is the CEO of MediaShares, a crowdfinanced online stock offering company. And MediaShares owns CinemaShares, a crowdfunding film investment platform. Gene has directed numerous award-winning commercials and short films, working with celebrities such as Grammy nominated Alice Cooper, Golden Globe nominated Jane Krakowski, and Grammy winner Smokey Robinson, amongst others. He has won awards from Clio, the Telly Awards, the New York Festival, the Art Director's Club of Los Angeles, and the Homburg Award. Gene's work as a screenwriter has won awards from WorldFest International Film Festival, the Arizona Film Society, and the Award of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board. Gene has also filmed humanitarian documentaries in over twenty countries and frequently speaks on Wall Street and at conferences around the country on film finance.

Steven De Souza is one of few screenwriters whose films have earned over $2 billion at the box office. His work includes Oscar nominated “Die Hard”, “Die Hard 2”, “Commando”, “The Running Man”, and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”. He has been nominated twice for the Edgar Allen Poe award for best mystery screenplay and twice for the Saturn award for best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film. In 2000 he was honored with the Norman Lear Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing.

Geoff Scott is an Emmy Award nominated and Canadian Screen Award nominated visual effects artist with 20 years of experience in film, television, commercial, and video game work. He is currently the Senior VFX Supervisor at Intelligent Creatures, a top visual effects production house. Geoff has worked on major studio film and television projects, including the Oscar winning “Chicago”, as well as Golden Globe nominated “Orphan Black”, Oscar nominated “Snow White and the Huntsman”, Oscar winning “Hugo”, “Panic Room”, “The Amazing Spiderman”, and many more. Scott is also sought-after for his work in character animation, modeling, texturing, and compositing.

Brad Wyman is the producer of over 40 films including Oscar winning “Monster” starring Charlize Theron, “Freeway” starring Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon and Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland, and “Blitz” starring Jason Statham. He’s also an expert in crowd funding - as the lead on the film division of IndieGogo he tripled monthly contributions to $3 million a month in less than a year, and has acted as Chief Crowdfunding Officer for Fund Anything, during which time he oversaw several million dollar crowdfunding campaigns. He now acts as Chief Content Officer for fan driven crowdfunding platform Fanbacked.com.

Entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel is a contributor for the Hollywood Reporter and the author of several books, including “The New Zealand Hobbit Crisis”, which tells the story of an attempt to unionize actors on “The Hobbit”; “Hollywood on Strike!”, which chronicles and analyzes the Hollywood writers strike of 2007-2008; “Entertainment Residuals: A Full Color Guide”, which describes union reuse/royalty payments in the entertainment industry; and “Entertainment Unions and Guilds: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography”. Jonathan is an adjunct professor at USC Law School and Southwestern Law School. He’s also been an adjunct professor at UCLA Law School, associate counsel at the Writers Guild, and a talent lawyer. His writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Variety, Los Angeles Business Journal, Daily Journal, Huffington Post, Billboard, Campaigns & Elections magazine, Forbes.com and IMDb.com.

Annetta Marion is an award-winning director and Primetime Emmy-nominated producer. She recently directed the television special “Oprah Goes to Broadway: The Color Purple” that premiered on OWN. Annetta is currently the Co-Executive Producer and a Director on the acclaimed television series “Oprah’s Master Class”. She has directed over 20 scripted projects including award-winning short films, a web series, commercials and numerous PSAs. Annetta is a graduate of AFI’s prestigious Directing Workshop for Women, and she is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Directors Guild of America, the Producer’s Guild of America, and she is a New York Women in Film and Television board member.