2019 Festival Jury
Kimberly Fox is a partner in MadRiver Pictures, and together with Vincent Maraval runs IMR, a foreign sales joint venture between MadRiver and Maraval’s Insiders.
Recent IMR titles include ”Waldo”, starring Mel Gibson and Charlie Hunnam; Scott Z. Burns’ ”The Report”, ”The Forgiven”, starring Ralph Feinnes and Julianne Moore; and the upcoming animated The” Silk Road Rally” .
In addition to IMR, Fox also oversees Annapurna International, the sales arm to Annapurna Pictures. At Annapurna, Fox handled multiple Academy Award nominated pictures like “Vice,” starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carrel and Sam Rockwell; “If Beale Street Could Talk” directed by Barry Jenkins, “Where’d You Go”, starring Cate Blanchett, and “Bernadette” directed by Richard Linklater.
Previously at Annapurna she handled Academy Award nominees Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle, Her, Foxcatcher, as well as Detroit from Kathryn Bigelow.
Fox was formerly the president of International Sales at Inferno International, where she sold such films as” Killing Them Softly”,” Killer Elite”, and” The Grey.” Prior to her tenure at Inferno, Fox was executive vice president of International Distribution at QED International where she handled District 9 and W., among other films.
Michael Mandaville has worked for 25 years as a Producer, line producer and UPM. He is also an internet entrepreneur working in the streaming and social media environments.
Mandaville’s films include “Taken”, “Taken 2” and “Taken 3” written and produced by Luc Besson, “Above Suspicion” starring Emilia Clarke directed by Philip Noyce “Havoc” with Anne Hathaway, “The Kiss” with Terence Stamp and Billy Zane, (“American History X” (New Line Cinema) with Edward Norton and Edward Furlong, “Friends of Friends” with Bruce Davison and Sherilynn Fenn, “Blood and Wine” (Jack Nicholson, Director: Bob Rafelson), “Millenium’s Child” (Disney/Miramax) with William Windom and Karen Black, “Sensation” with Eric Roberts, Ed Begley Jr., Paul Le Mat and Ron Perlman. “Hail Caesar” with Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey, Jr. and Judd Nelson. “Pumpkin Head II” (MPCA) with Ami Dolenz and Steve Kanaly. He has also produced “The Almighty Fred”, an independent film.
He has directed a recent feature, commercials, shorts, a documentary and industrial films. He has also worked on “Manahi” an Arabic language comedy which was the first film shown in Saudi Arabia in 35 years. Michael also worked on numerous TV pilots.
As an executive with Queens Cross Productions, he has worked on “Keys to Freedom” with Jane Seymour and Omar Sharif, “The Tunnel” with Jane Seymour and Peter Weller and “Tapeheads” with Tim Robbins and John Cusack.
Michael is a bondable line producer with Film Finance, etc. He has written many scripts with options and scripts for hire to his credit. Michael published a Trilogy of techno-thriller novels under the “Stealing Thunder” series which won the Thrillspy Award for best novel. he also published a mystery novel “A Cold Death”. Both available on Amazon.
Michael received a Master’s Degree from USC in their prestigious Professional Writing Program. He attended the BA program for Columbia College and received a BA from UCSB in Philosophy.
Fern Champion is a veteran casting director of numerous, wide-ranging and eclectic feature films and television series. Her professional journey began in New York casting “Saturday Night Fever”. Her love of comedy then led her to cast “The Naked Gun” and the “Police Academy” films.
While casting “The Mask,” starring Jim Carrey, Fern discovered super-star, Cameron Diaz. Other discoveries include such diverse talents as Mickey Rourke, Danny Glover, Kim Cattrall, Kelly Preston, and Sharon Stone, whom she cast in the epic miniseries, “War and Remembrance.” To date, it remains the longest running miniseries in television history, for which she received an Artios Nomination. Fern then ventured into the action/horror genre with several “Friday the 13th” movies, “Pet Sematary,” and “Mortal Kombat.”
During the 90s, her focus shifted to series television, working with prolific producer, Aaron Spelling, for six years on such series as “Beverly Hills, 90210”. Other hit series in her repertoire include the pilot episode of “Full House”, “The Highlander” and “Babylon 5.”
Recently she’s had the honor of being nominated for both an Emmy and Artios Award for best outstanding casting for the epic six-hour mini series the “Hatfields and McCoys” directed by Kevin Reynolds, for The History Channel.
She would like to thank The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for this Emmy Nomination. Today, Fern is enjoying great success casting for television and feature films. Her proudest achievements are her sons, Sean and Spencer.
Darren Boghosian is an agent in the Talent Department of leading talent and literary agency UTA, where he represents an impressive roster of both established and emerging actors.
Boghosian’s clients include: Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Timothy Olyphant, Anthony Anderson, Christian Slater, Wagner Moura, Matt Dillon, Connie Nielsen, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbaek, Kristofer Hivju and Katja Herbers. He also represents some of the biggest stars in Asia, including Li Bingbing, Angelababy, Kris Wu, Mark Chao, Byung Hun Lee and Claudia Kim.
Boghosian joined UTA’s talent department in 2009. Prior to joining UTA, he spent seven years at Creative Artists Agency where he began in the mailroom and was soon promoted to agent.
Before joining CAA, Boghosian worked at Furst Films, and prior to that, was an assistant to the successful filmmaker Amy Heckerling. Boghosian earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business with a minor in Film from the University of Southern California. He enjoys golf, and traveling with his wife, Jaclyn and their two kids, Alec and Cole.
Sonya Eddy, a native of Concord, California, graduated from UC Davis. During her intense studies, she began her acting career in the UC Davis’ Main Theatre production and West Coast premiere of “Zora, Is My Name!” (written by the award-winning actress Ruby Dee). Sonya performed several roles in “Zora” including Big Sweet – a bawdy blues singer (Ruby Dee’s personal favorite).
Sonya continued forth to perform the role of the Courtesan in “Comedy of Errors” as well as performances in productions of “The Crucible”, “Pericles”, and the Witch in “Into The Woods”. Ms. Eddy won an Arty Award (the Bay Area’s version of the Ovation Award) for her powerful portrayal of Bloody Mary in “South Pacific”.
Sonya’s professional acting career in Los Angeles has spanned two decades. Her roles include Series Regular positions on truTV’s “Those Who Can’t” as Tammy Sherman, and Head Nurse, Epiphany Johnson on ABC’s “General Hospital” and “General Hospital: Night Shift”. She has Recurring roles on “Fresh Off the Boat” (Deb) and “Legit” (Ramona). She is the only actress to appear twice on “ER” as two different characters during that series’ run.
Sonya Eddy’s Guest Star credits include, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, “Castle”, “Mom”, “Girl Meets World”, “Mike and Molly”, “The Middle”, “2 Broke Girls”, “Joan of Arcadia”, “Seinfeld”, “The Drew Carey Show” and many more.
Among Sonya’s many special skills and talents, she is also an accomplished Improv\Sketch artist, vocalist (2nd Soprano to 1st Tenor) and voice-over artist. In addition to her career successes, Ms. Eddy has recently branched out into Producing with her partner, Tyler Ford (River Ridge) with their company Eddy Ford Entertainment and also their affordable luxury line of fragrances, clothes and home accessories, Eddy Ford Beverly Hills.
JD Larson is the co-founder of Larson and Associates, a music management company located in Beverly Hills, CA. JD is a graduate of UCLA, where he received a BA in History. He is also a graduate of Loyola Law School where he received his JD with a primary focus in entertainment law. He is currently licensed to practice law in CA, NY, NJ and TN.
After graduation from law school, JD launched his career in Los Angeles where he began his specialization in managing the careers of singers and bands such as Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Blues Image, Bryan White, The Clark Brothers, Malibu Storm, Boz Scaggs, Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson, Poco, and Iron Butterly.
JD has worked with Creative Artists Agency in an effort to book his artists on worldwide tours and he has worked closely with record company executives, producers and songwriters. He has also signed some of the world’s top models for runway and print. As a music attorney, he has negotiated music publishing deals as well as management and agency contracts.
Canadian born, writer/director, Sofia Shinas, is a multi-media artist whose career spans nearly three decades, starting with her debut, pop-dance, record, eponymously titled, Sofia Shinas, which she performed and co-wrote for, “Warner Brothers Records” in the 90’s.
She made her acting debut as “Shelly Webster” in the 1994 groundbreaking feature film, “The Crow” starring Brandon Lee, and has appeared in many television and feature films such as, “Terminal Velocity” starring Charlie Sheen and Nastasia Kinski, and the controversial science fiction television series, “The Outer Limits”, where she received critical acclaim for her memorable portrayal of “Valerie 23”and “Mary 25” a beautiful android, gone bad. She also appears in Zalmund King’s, “Red Shoe Diaries,” and has starred opposite, C. Thomas Howell and Kiefer Sutherland in the cult classic feature film, “Hourglass”.
Sofia Shinas is a graduate of the prestigious, “USC School of Cinematic Arts,” and is noted for having co-written, directed and produced several award winning short, thesis films, including “Atheist,” starring Sebastian Segal and “Spring Eternal,” starring Jude Narita, which she is adapting into a full length, feature film next year.
Ms. Shinas is also credited as having directed the made for television film, hit thriller, “My Stepdaughter” starring Nikki Koss, and Emmanuel Vaugier, for the “Lifetime Channel” and is currently developing several feature film and television projects, that she is set to direct in Toronto Canada, Los Angeles, and Athens, Greece.
In the past, she has served as jury member for the, “Cyprus International Film Festival,” alongside fellow, co-jurors, academy award winning director, Alexander Payne, (“Nebraska”) cinematographer, Phedon Papamichael, ASC (“The Doors,” “W” “Sideways”) and is equally as proud to be a part of the Jury liason team of this year’s “Arpa International Film Festival.” Sofia Shinas currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Karen Ryan is a Commercial Casting Director based in Los Angeles. Her career started in front of the camera but she found her true calling behind the scenes in the fast paced world of commercials and is well into her 2nd decade in the industry. To date she has cast hundreds of regional and national spots and many high profile music videos, and several award winning web series and short films.
Karen is a proud member of the Commercial Casting Director’s Association and has taught many workshops and classes over the years, and has always enjoyed being a mentor and advisor to actors at various levels of their careers.
Discovering raw, new, untapped talent and watching their careers go from strength to strength has continued to be a major highlight of her casting career. Karen was born and raised in from Dublin, Ireland and now resides in Los Angeles.
Chuck Harter has worked in many aspects of the motion picture and television fields during his decades as a resident of Los Angeles. He conceived, produced and consulted on all aspects of the critically acclaimed documentary “Hey! Hey! We’re The Monkees” which aired on The Disney Channel.
Chuck also consulted on virtually the entire production of the VH1 music documentary “Endless Harmony: Beach Boys” and has participated in many different documentary projects over the years as both a consultant and advisor.
“A great documentary, made by a creative team that puts 100% into it, can educate, entertain and enlighten.”
Robert Giardina born first generation Italian-American and raised in Waltham, Massachusetts. At the age of eight years old he knew his calling was in the entertainment business. He started off his acting career in drama classes, on stage and in independent films.
After years living on the East Coast he decided to move to Los Angeles, California. Between a treacherous snowstorm driving cross-country and stuck without a place to live and a U-Haul truck filled with furniture he finally made it to LA. He has starred in films with Christian Slater, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lochlyn Munro, Judd Nelson, Kristy Swanson, David Selby and also with the cast of The Sopranos from the HBO series.