Samuel M. Raimi is an American filmmaker and actor. He is known for directing the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007) and the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1990 superhero film Darkman, the 1995 revisionist western The Quick and the Dead, the 1998 neo-noir crime-thriller A Simple Plan, the 2000 supernatural thriller film The Gift, the 2009 supernatural horror film Drag Me to Hell, and the 2013 Disney fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful. His films are known for their highly-dynamic visual style, inspired by comic books and slapstick comedy.
Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films, Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).
Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy high-school student who deals with several dilemmas: befriending an immigrant who wants to be class president, awkwardly pursuing a romance with a fellow student, and living with his quirky family.
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma, often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television. Varma directed films across multiple genres, including parallel cinema and docudrama noted for their gritty realism, technical finesse, and craft. Regarded as one of the pioneers of new age Indian cinema, Varma received the National Film Award for scripting the political crime drama, Shool (1999). In 2004, he was featured in the BBC World series Bollywood Bosses. In 2006, Grady Hendrix of Film Comment, published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center cited Varma as "Bombay’s Most Successful Maverick" for his works on experimental films.
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.
Goro Miyazaki is a Japanese director. He is the son of animator and film director Hayao Miyazaki, who is one of the co-founders of Studio Ghibli. Described as "reluctant" to follow his father's career, Goro initially worked as a landscaper for many years before entering the film business. He has directed three films—Tales from Earthsea (2006), From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), and Earwig and The Witch (2020).
Tiffany Shlain is an American filmmaker and author. Described by the public radio program On Being as "an internet pioneer", Shlain is the co-founder of the Webby Awards and the founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
The Newport Beach Film Festival(NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April.
William Jack Poulter is a British actor. He first gained recognition for his role as Eustace Scrubb in the fantasy adventure film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010). He received critical praise for his starring role in the comedy film We're the Millers (2013), for which he won the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Ashley Argota is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles on television, such as Lulu on the Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP, and Kelly on the Nickelodeon sitcom Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures.
BENT IMAGE LAB is a production company and animation studio specializing in story development, television, commercials, visual effects, music videos, short films, experimental techniques and tech development in augmented reality (AR). Located in Portland, Oregon, the company was founded in 2002 by partners David Daniels, Ray Di Carlo, and Chel White. Director Rob Shaw joined the company in 2006.
Georgios "Yorgos" Lanthimos is a Greek-born film director, film producer, screenwriter, photographer, and theatre director. Since 2015, Lanthimos has transitioned from making films in Greek to making higher-budget English-language films produced in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States. In his English-language career, he has received three Academy Award nominations for his work: Best Original Screenplay for The Lobster (2015) and Best Director and Best Picture for The Favourite (2018).
Rob Shaw is an American film director, television director, commercial and music video director, and animator. He is a graduate of University of the Arts (Philadelphia).
Kelli Berglund is an American actress. She is known for portraying Bree Davenport in the Disney XD series Lab Rats, and its spinoff Lab Rats: Elite Force. In 2014 she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie How to Build a Better Boy, where she portrays Mae Hartley. Berglund starred as Carly Carson in the 2019 Starz television drama series Now Apocalypse. She has also played the lead in two sports-themed films set in Australia, 2016's Raising the Bar and 2018's Going for Gold. She stars as Crystal in the 2021 Starz drama television series Heels.
Michael H. Weber is an American screenwriter and producer. He and his writing partner, Scott Neustadter, are best known for writing the screenplay for the romantic comedy film 500 Days of Summer. The film is based on two real relationships Neustadter had. They also wrote the screenplays for the films The Spectacular Now, The Fault in Our Stars, and Paper Towns.
Destin Daniel Cretton is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his films Short Term 12 (2013), The Glass Castle (2017), Just Mercy (2019) and the Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). He has also been tapped to direct Marvel Studios' Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025).
Chop Socky Boom is a comedy web series created by Darlene Sellers and Heath Ward and filmed in Seattle, Washington. The series is broadcast on the internet and premiered on May 1, 2012. Season one includes eight episodes, with season two currently under development. Chop Socky Boom follows the adventures of misfit indie film actors cast in the fictional kung fu film, “Final Zodiac Warrior.” CSB focuses on main character Khanh and her friends, Scottie, Paige, Daisy and Max, as they audition for a poorly run chop socky series created by Trick, an Ed Wood like Director with his own unique vision.
Sam Washington is an English director and writer of films and commercials.
Screenlife or computer screen film is a genre of visual storytelling where all the events are shown on a computer, tablet or smartphone screen. It became popular in the 2010s with the growing impact of the Internet.
Louis Barry Rosenberg is an American scientist, inventor, writer, and entrepreneur. He researches augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Rosenberg founded the Immersion Corporation and Unanimous A.I. in 1993 and 2014 respectively. He was the Cotchett Endowed Professor of Educational Technology at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo from 2005 to 2011. Rosenberg was the screenwriter of the 2009 romantic comedy film, Lab Rats.
