Isaac Liev Schreiber is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
Tate Buckley Donovan is an American actor, comedian and television director. He is known for portraying Tom Shayes in Damages, Jimmy Cooper in The O.C., and the voice of the title character in the 1997 Disney animated film Hercules, the animated television series of the same name and in a few Kingdom Hearts video games. He starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the 1992 film, Love Potion No. 9.
Vanessa Bell Calloway is an American actress. Beginning her career as a dancer, Bell Calloway became known for her film roles as Princess Imani Izzi in the 1988 comedy Coming to America and its sequel. Since then, Bell Calloway appeared in more than 150 film and television productions. She is a nine-time NAACP Image Awards nominee.
Euphemia LatiQue"Tika" Sumpter is an American actress and producer. Sumpter began her career as the host of Best Friend's Date. From 2005 to 2010, she appeared in the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. In 2010, she made her film debut in Stomp the Yard: Homecoming and later featured in supporting roles for What's Your Number? (2011), Sparkle (2012), and A Madea Christmas (2013).
Train Ride is a feature thriller film written and directed by Rel Dowdell and Executive Produced by Rich Murray. It was released in 2005 by Murray's RuffNation Films via Sony Entertainment. It revolves around the consequences of an incident of date rape on a college campus in Philadelphia, and stars Wood Harris, MC Lyte, Russell Hornsby, Thomas Braxton Jr., Guru, Joe Clair, KaDee Strickland, and Emmy Award–winning actress Esther Rolle. The film was shot in 1998, though financing problems derailed the post-production process. Philadelphia company RuffNation Films supervised and funded the films completion. It debuted theatrically in Philadelphia in 2005 to positive reviews and a very successful DVD release followed.
Nelson George is an American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The Philadelphia Film Festival is a film festival founded by the Philadelphia Film Society held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The annual festival is held at various theater venues throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area.
Robert Clark Gregg Jr. is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for portraying Phil Coulson in films and television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from 2008 to 2021. Gregg also voiced Coulson in the animated television series Ultimate Spider-Man (2012–2017) and the video games Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013), Marvel Heroes (2013), and Lego Marvel's Avengers (2016).
Rel J. Dowdell is an American screenwriter, film director, film producer, and film studies/screenwriting/English educator. Born and raised in Philadelphia, after graduating from the prestigious Central High School in Philadelphia, he received his bachelor's degree in English with magna cum laude honors from Fisk University and his advanced degree in film and screenwriting with highest distinction from Boston University. He won the top prize in filmmaking at Boston University's noted Redstone Film Festival in 1995. He is also a full-time university professor, Director of Film Studies, English scholar, and film historian. Additionally, he has done prominent and extensive interviews with veteran award-winning actors such as Ving Rhames, Keith David, Tony Todd, Roger Guenveur Smith, Larenz Tate, and Mykelti Williamson. In spring of 2023, he participated in a major interview on The 700 Club where he spoke about the impact of the casting of an African-American female actress in the remake of The Little Mermaid which was very well received and praised for Dowdell's remarks of inclusion and youth inspiration for African-Americans.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph is an American actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of psychic Oda Mae Brown in the Broadway production of Ghost (2012), for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Randolph went on to appear in the films The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014) and Office Christmas Party (2016) prior to receiving praise for her roles in Dolemite Is My Name (2019) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2020). Randolph received critical acclaim for her performance in The Holdovers (2023), which earned her several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Crystal R. Fox is an American actress and singer. Fox has performed in many stage productions during her career, and is best known for her television roles as Luann Corbin in the NBC/CBS police drama series In the Heat of the Night (1989–1995), and as Hanna Young in the Oprah Winfrey Network prime time soap opera, The Haves and the Have Nots (2013–2021). Fox has also appeared in a number of films, most notably playing the leading role in the 2020 thriller A Fall from Grace.
Elena Igorevna Lyadova is a Russian actress. In 2002, she graduated from Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School in Moscow, Russia. Her film credits include Elena (2011), The Geographer Drank His Globe Away (2013), Leviathan (2014) and Orlean (2015).
Southside with You is a 2016 American biographical romantic drama film written, produced, and directed by Richard Tanne, in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter as a young Barack Obama, and Michelle Robinson, respectively, and focuses on the couple's first date in 1989.
Girls Trip is a 2017 American comedy film starring Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah. The film is directed by Malcolm D. Lee and written by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, from a story by the pair and Erica Rivinoja, who based the script off their own experiences with their female friends. The film follows a group of four friends who go to New Orleans to attend the Essence Music Festival in order to reconnect after a long time.
Mouna Traoré is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. She is known for her performances in a variety of television series, such as Global TV's Rookie Blue (2012), CBC's Murdoch Mysteries (2015–2018), and Netflix's The Umbrella Academy (2020). Her film work includes the 2017 films The Drop In, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Brown Girl Begins, directed by Sharon Lewis.
Nicholas James Muscarella, known professionally as Nicholas James and additionally variously credited as Nick James or Nicholas J. Muscarella, is an American actor with a recurring role, since 2016, as Officer Justin Lewis in the television series The Haves and the Have Nots. He also has appeared in Prom Night (2008) and NCIS: New Orleans (2014). His earliest credited film appearance was in Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds in 2006.
The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival is an annual film festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States that presents movies and film-related programs about the Jewish experience, culture, values, and legacy.
Aisling Chin-Yee is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, who works primarily in Montreal and Los Angeles. In addition to her work as a producer, Chin-Yee directed the films The Rest of Us (2019) and No Ordinary Man (2020).
Nine Nights is a film produced and written by Veronica McKenzie. It mainly revolves around the mourning which takes place for a dead child who is a twin and the other twin refusing to let go. The story is based on the mourning rituals which has to take place for nine nights and how family secrets gets revealed.
