Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Since her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997, 24 global productions have been seen by more than 100 million people in over 100 cities in 20 countries, on every continent except Antarctica, and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any entertainment title in box office history. The Lion King also received 11 Tony Award nominations, earning Taymor Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer, and was honored with more than 70 major arts awards worldwide.
Julian Schnabel is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings" — with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been a proponent of independent arthouse cinema. Schnabel directed Before Night Falls, which became Javier Bardem's breakthrough Academy Award-nominated role, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which was nominated for four Academy Awards. For the latter, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director and the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, as well as receiving nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director and the César Award for Best Director.
Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu is a leading film director, stage designer and art director from India. He is best known for his directorial Garm Hava (1973), which was based on the partition of India. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1975.
Hou Hsiao-hsien is a Mainland Chinese-born Taiwanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a leading figure in world cinema and in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 for his film A City of Sadness (1989), and the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 for The Assassin (2015). Other highly regarded works of his include The Puppetmaster (1993) and Flowers of Shanghai (1998).
Ron Miller is an American illustrator and writer who lives and works in South Boston, Virginia. He now specializes in astronomical, astronautical and science fiction books for adults and young adults.
The Independent Film Festival Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts.
Kathy Smith is an Australian independent animator, painter, new media artist, and Professor with the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Smith chaired the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts from 2004 - 2009 & 2010 - 2014.
Dmitry Anatolyevich Lesnevskiy is a Russian-British-Israeli entrepreneur and producer in television, film, publishing and online media.
Ant Neely is an English composer and musician, known for an eclectic style.
Phillip Barker is a Canadian production designer, filmmaker and visual artist based in Toronto, Ontario.
Paul Solet is an American film director, film producer, writer and actor.
Darren Press is an American film director and film producer from New York. He attended Boston University and California Western School of Law in San Diego. When he returned to New York City, he studied and performed with the improv troupe Satire on Broadway and met his wife, writer/director/actress C. Fraser Press, who was also performing with the troupe. Press later became the managing director and Director for Gotham City Improv a former affiliate of The Groundlings and then became the managing director of the Melting Pot Theatre Company. He currently is a partner in the film, TV and theatre production company A May Sky Picture Entertainment.
Dimensions is a 2011 science fiction-love story film set in the 1920s and 1930s. The film was directed by Sloane U’Ren and written by her spouse Ant Neely. The film is U’Ren’s feature film directorial debut and is also known as Dimensions: A Line, A Loop, A Tangle of Threads.
Samir Chanda was an Indian art director and production designer across Indian cinema, including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil, most known for his work in films like Yodha (1992), Dil Se.. (1998), Guru (2007), Omkara (2006), Rang De Basanti (2006), and Raavan (2010).
Mark Dennis is an American director, editor, producer and composer. His debut feature, Strings, won him Best Director awards at the Tulsa International Film Festival and Long Island International Film Expo. He was also an official selection at the Hollywood Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Gotham Film Festival, and Ventura Film Festival.
The Long Island International Film Expo, founded in 1997 by Nassau County Film Office Director, Debra Markowitz. The festival generally receives between 400 and 450 submissions every year In 2009, 170 films from 23 countries were screened at the festival. Ed Burns, director of films such as The Brothers McMullen and Newlyweds was awarded a Creative Achievement Award during the 2011 festival. The festival hosts several panels on film distribution, screenwriting, and other relevant industry topics.
The Boston Science-Fiction Film Festival hosted its 47th-anniversary festival in February of 2022, making it the 2nd oldest independent genre film festival in the US. The festival takes place each year in February, the week ending on President's Day in the Greater Boston area and draws a dedicated crowd every year. It showcases over 100 science fiction features and short films, from all over the world. It culminates with a 24-hour movie marathon of classic, new, and schlock films.
ECA2 is a French Event production company located in Paris specialized in creation, design and production of multimedia shows and large-scale events. ECA2 is member of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions and also the Themed Entertainment Association. In 2016 the company has fifteen permanent employees, and is headed by Jean-Christophe Canizares. Depending on the project, ECA2 hires up to a hundred specialists, including architects, project management, technical director, sound designer, lighting designer, and art direction. Since more than thirty years, ECA2 has created and produced projects in France, China, Singapore, Mexico and around the world.
Alan MacDonald was a British production designer. He was best known for his work on The Queen (2006), which earned him nominations for the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film and Best Technical Achievement at the British Independent Film Awards, and for the Rajasthan-set The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) which earned him a nomination for the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film.
Aleksandar Denić is a Serbian stage designer and film production designer. He is known as a scenographer of feature films, as well as for his work at major theatres including Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Bayreuth, Paris, Zurich, Wien, Salzburg, Köln and Munich.
