The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It is produced by Cinequest, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is also responsible for Picture The Possibilities and the distribution label Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC. Cinequest awards the annual Maverick Spirit Awards. In addition to over 130 world or U.S. premieres from over 30 countries, the festival hosts writer's events including screenwriting competitions, a shorts program, technology and artistic forums and workshops, student programs, and a silent film accompanied on the theatre organ. Founded in 1990 as the Cinequest Film Festival, the festival was rebranded in 2017 as the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and expanded beyond downtown San Jose to Redwood City. It took its present name in 2019.
The Woman Chaser is a 1999 film directed by Robinson Devor and starring Patrick Warburton, Ron Morgan, Emily Newman, Paul Malevich, and Marilyn Rising. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.
Colin Alexander Cunningham is an American television and film actor. Cunningham is best known for his roles as John Pope in the TNT science fiction series Falling Skies and as Major/Lt.Col Paul Davis on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
Nathan Collett is a filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Katherine Brooks is an American film writer and director. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America, a Jury Member for Samsung Fresh-Films 2007, and the recipient of the LACE Award for Arts and Entertainment. In 2011, she was named one of the "Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz" by POWER UP.
Vickie Gest is a documentary and drama producer from Brisbane.
Ready? OK! is a 2008 comedy film written, edited, and directed by James Vasquez, and produced by Daisy 3 Pictures.
X to Y is a 2009 short film written and directed by Matt Sobel and starring Brett Lee Alexander, Madison Nicole Alexander, Shivani Kadakia, and Tony Panighetti. It was shot on location in White Sands, New Mexico.
John and Michael is a 2004 animated short by Shira Avni about two men with Down syndrome who share a loving relationship.
The Six Dollar Fifty Man is a short film directed by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland and written by Sutherland. The film premiered in the Short Film competition of Festival de Cannes in 2009 where it received Special Distinction. The Six Dollar Fifty Man tells the story of Andy, a gutsy 8-year-old boy who is forced to break out of his make-believe superhero world to deal with playground bullies. The title is a play on The Six Million Dollar Man.
The Village Barbershop is a 2008 independent film written and directed by Chris J. Ford and starring John Ratzenberger and Shelly Cole. Ratzenberger plays Art Leroldi, a Reno barber forced to hire a new employee, Gloria MacIntyre, played by Cole, after the death of his longtime business partner. Faced with losing his shop, Gloria helps Art get his life and business back on track with her feisty, determined attitude.
I Love Luci is a short film, written and directed by Colin Kennedy, and produced by Brian Coffey for Sigma Films. It was awarded the BAFTA Scotland in 2011 for Best Short Film.
Heather Dorff is an American actress, writer, and producer currently living in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Carson Lennox is a Northern Irish film director.
Amal Ramsis is an Egyptian filmmaker. She studied directing at the International Film and Television School in Madrid.
Vanessa Parise is an American film director, writer, producer, and actress based in New York City. Her first feature film Kiss the Bride won the Golden Starfish Award at the Hamptons Film Festival in 2002. Her television movies, Perfect High and Drink Slay Love have been named by the Lifetime’s Broad Focus initiative. Parise has been nominated for Leo Awards for Best Direction for Lighthouse in 2015, for Perfect High in 2016, for Beyond in 2018, and for The Simone Biles Story in 2019. Her television movie The Simone Biles Story was nominated for Best Television Movie and Best Lead Actress by the NAACP Awards in 2019.
Little Pink House is a 2017 American-Canadian biographical drama film written and directed by Courtney Moorehead Balaker and starring Catherine Keener as Susette Kelo. It is based on the book "Little Pink House" by Jeff Benedict, which chronicles events related to Kelo v. City of New London, a U.S. Supreme Court case in which Kelo unsuccessfully sued the city of New London, Connecticut, for its controversial use of eminent domain.
Bernard and Huey is a 2017 American drama/comedy film directed by Dan Mirvish, that was written by Jules Feiffer based on characters Feiffer created for his eponymous comic strip in The Village Voice. Feiffer originally wrote the screenplay in 1986, and it was nearly lost for close to three decades. The film stars David Koechner, Jim Rash, Sasha Alexander, Eka Darville, Richard Kind, Lauren Miller Rogen, Nancy Travis, Bellamy Young, and Mae Whitman.
Renuka Jeyapalan is a Tamil Canadian film and television director. Her debut short film Big Girl won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was a shortlisted Genie Award finalist for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 27th Genie Awards. After directing the short films Arranged (2014) and A Bicycle Lesson (2016), she co-directed the 2017 feature film Ordinary Days with Kris Booth and Jordan Canning.Stay the Night, her solo feature debut, premiered in 2022.
Freedom's Path is a 2022 historical war drama film written, directed and produced by Brett Smith in his feature length debut. It stars Gerran Howell, RJ Cyler, and Ewen Bremner. Based on the American Civil War, it won multiple film festival awards in 2022 and had a limited theatrical run from February 3, 2023.
