John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). His film Men with Guns (1997) was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His directorial debut, Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), has been added to the National Film Registry.
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American actor and musician. His films include musical-drama film Footloose (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller JFK (1991), the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), the historical docudrama Apollo 13 (1995), and the mystery drama Mystic River (2003). Bacon is also known for taking on darker roles, such as that of a sadistic guard in Sleepers (1996), and troubled former child abuser in The Woodsman (2004). He is further known for the hit comedies National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Diner (1982), Tremors (1990) and Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011). His other well-known films are Friday the 13th (1980), Flatliners (1990), The River Wild (1994), Wild Things (1998), Stir of Echoes (1999), Hollow Man (2000), Frost/Nixon (2008), X-Men: First Class (2011), Black Mass (2015) and Patriots Day (2016). He is equally prolific on television, having starred in the Fox drama series The Following (2013–2015). For the HBO original film Taking Chance (2009), Bacon won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, also receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. More recently, Bacon portrayed the title character, and was the series lead, of the Amazon Prime web television series I Love Dick, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Eoin Colfer is an Irish author of children's books. He worked as a primary school teacher before he became a full-time writer. He is best known for being the author of the Artemis Fowl series. In September 2008, Colfer was commissioned to write the sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, entitled And Another Thing ..., which was published in October 2009. In October 2016, in a contract with Marvel Comics, he released Iron Man: The Gauntlet. He served as Laureate na nÓg between 2014 and 2016.
Barry Levinson is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy-drama and drama films such as Diner (1982); The Natural (1984); Good Morning, Vietnam (1987); Bugsy (1991); and Wag the Dog (1997). He won the Academy Award for Best Director for Rain Man (1988), which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Michael Edward O'Malley is an American actor and writer who has appeared in films and television series. Born in Boston and raised in New Hampshire, O'Malley hosted the early 1990s children's game show Nickelodeon Guts before moving to Los Angeles later that decade to star in his own sitcom for NBC called The Mike O'Malley Show. He is best known for his role as Jimmy Hughes on Yes, Dear, a CBS series which aired from 2000 to 2006. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Burt Hummel on the Fox series Glee.
Jason Kent Bateman is an American actor, director, and producer. He began acting on television in the early 1980s on Little House on the Prairie, Silver Spoons, and The Hogan Family. In the 2000s, he became known for his role of Michael Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development, for which he won a Golden Globe and a Satellite Award. He has also starred in the films Teen Wolf Too (1987), The Break-Up (2006), Juno (2007), Hancock (2008), Up in the Air, Couples Retreat, Extract, The Switch (2010), Horrible Bosses (2011) and its sequel (2014), The Gift (2015), Office Christmas Party, Zootopia and Game Night (2018).
Michael Austin Cera is a Canadian actor, producer, singer, and songwriter. He started his career as a child actor, portraying a young Chuck Barris in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). He is known for his role as George Michael Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development and for his film roles as Evan in Superbad (2007), as Paulie Bleeker in Juno (2007), as Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), as a fictional version of himself in This Is the End (2013), and as the voice of Dick Grayson / Robin in The Lego Batman Movie (2017), as well as Sal Viscuso, the voice behind the announcements in Childrens Hospital.
Adrian Dunbar is an Irish actor and director from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, best known for his television and theatre work. Dunbar co-wrote and starred in the 1991 film, Hear My Song, nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the BAFTA awards.
Jay Malone is a Canadian comedian from Kentville, Nova Scotia.
Steve Monarque is a New York-based actor, director, writer and musician.
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
Toronto After Dark Film Festival is a showcase of horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival premieres a diverse selection of feature-length and short-films from around the world including new works from Asia, Europe and North America.
Daniel Kaluuya is a British actor and writer. Kaluuya began his career as a teenager in improvisational theatre. He subsequently appeared in the first two seasons of the British television series Skins, in which he co-wrote some of the episodes. Playing the lead role in Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London, Kaluuya won rave reviews for his performance and he won both the Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer.
Jake Austin Szymanski, known professionally as Jake T. Austin, is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor at the age of seven, Austin is a five-time Young Artist Award nominee, two-time Teen Choice Award nominee and Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards nominee. Best known for his role as Max Russo on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place, and as the voice of Diego on the Nickelodeon animated series Go, Diego, Go!. Austin was also the original actor who portrayed Jesus Foster on the ABC Family family/teen drama series The Fosters. His feature film credits include co-starring roles in Hotel for Dogs, New Year's Eve, Rio and The Emoji Movie . His movie Adverse had its premiere at the opening of the Fantasporto Festival in February 2020 and in June 2020, Austin signed on for the upcoming TV series "The Rise".
Christopher Paul Colfer is an American actor, singer, and author. He gained international recognition for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television musical Glee (2009–15). Colfer's portrayal of Kurt received critical praise for which he has been the recipient of several awards, including Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, and three consecutive People's Choice Awards for Favorite Comedic TV Actor in 2013, 2014 and 2015. In April 2011, Colfer was named one of the Time 100, Time's list of the 100 most influential people.
Joseph M. Petrick is an American writer and director best known for his film collaborations with Andrew Bowser, including writing and co-directing the independent comedy The Mother of Invention.
Struck by Lightning is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Brian Dannelly and written by and starring Chris Colfer. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2012, and was released theatrically on January 11, 2013. It features the final screen appearance of actress Polly Bergen.
The Burbank International Film Festival (BIFF) is an annual film festival held since 2009 in Burbank, California, United States. It was founded by Val Tonione, and awards are distributed to filmmakers that have focused on social and environmental issues.
Kevin Patrick Mills is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor, whose feature film debut Guidance was released in 2015.
My Roommate's an Escort is a Canadian comedy web series created, written by, and starring Katie Uhlmann and Trish Rainone. All 11 episodes of the first season are directed by Uhlmann, and the series premiered on YouTube on April 3, 2017. Rainone plays a non-confrontational, small-town girl living in Toronto who suspects her new roommate Kesha, played by Uhlmann, is a call girl.
