Participating in the seminar: Producing Movies in Today’s Climate.

View Rich’s blog at: http://www.amblerfilms.blogspot.com/.

Participating in the workshop: Hollywood Style Imagery without the Hollywood Style Budget.

Melanie Addington has worked with the Oxford Film Festival for the last five years, first joining as a screening committee member and now serves as a co-director and programmer of Mississippi films and late night features. For the past two years she has coordinated the Oxford Film Festival’s Summer Series and fundraisers. She works full-time as a staff writer for the Oxford Eagle and writes about film in a weekly column for the Oxford Town. She also writes the film blog Oxford Film Freak and serves as a columnist at the new movie site cinefile.com. She lives in Oxford, Miss with her son and a wayward cat, Darwin.

Participating in the panel: Festival Strategies.

A graduate of USC film school, Alain debuted as a writer/director on the feature Canvas, for ABC Films, starring Gary Busey and John Rhys-Davies. He then wrote and directed the popular thrillerSuspicious Minds for Lionsgate Pictures starring Patrick Bergin, followed by the Capra-esque comedy Promise Her Anything starring Billy Zane. In addition to his work in film, Alain has written and directed many critically acclaimed documentary styled television shows such as Debbie Travis’ Painted House, Her Money, The Things We do For Love, Dogs with Jobs, which airs on National Geographic, plus What’s That About? for the Discovery Channel. He directed the award winning French Canadian box-office hit C’est Pas Moi, C’est L’Autre starring Roy Dupuis, as well as the award winning independent film David & Fatima, a romantic tale set in Jerusalem, which co-starred Academy Award winning actor Martin Landau and screen icon Tony Curtis. Recently, Alain completed two seasons of the popular TV series The Property Shop for HGTV.

Jim Kolmar is a film programmer, writer and conference coordinator for South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival in Austin, TX. He has also worked with Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Austin Film Society, and in various areas of film production.

Participating in the panel: Festival Strategies.

Edward P. Stencel has worked as a producer, director and cinematographer for the past 18 years. His fiction and non-fiction films have won awards at major film festivals worldwide. Over the past five years Edward has traveled the world selling and acquiring programming as a distribution executive. Most recently he has launched FilmmakerAdvisor.com and FilmFestivalAdvisor.com, a service to inform and assist filmmakers, producers, and film professionals alike with the ever-changing festival and distribution world through in-depth consultations that lead to insider knowledge on how to better advance your projects in today’s competitive society.

Mr. Stencel was the first Filmmaker Advisor at IFP Los Angeles -currently called Film Independent, the home of the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival. Ed also served as a freelance Film Festival and Line Producer Consultant for Film Independent. He has worked as the Executive Producer of FesTV for the Los Angeles Film Festival, and a producer/director for Split Screen that aired on Bravo and IFC. Edward has also worked on films and programs for Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros, Fox and HBO.

He is on the board of directors and vice president of the Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival. Edward is also the founder and served as co-director of the Indy Film Showcase for four years, which screened feature independent films with the directors in attendance from around the country once a month in Kansas City. He is currently on the national advisory board for Kansas City FilmFest and served as vice president and executive board member of the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee for nine years.

As a producer and director his films have won awards at film festival in the US and Europe. Some of these festivals include, SXSW, Temecula Valley International Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Arizona International Film Festival, Festival International Du Film Independent Bruselles Belgium, and Avignon Film Festival in France. He was also nominated for an International Documentary Association Award for best documentary short in 2002.

As a panelist Edward has spoken at many film festivals and universities around the world. He has also written for MovieMaker Magazine.

Edward Stencel earned his Masters in Film and Television Production from the University of Bristol, England after receiving his BA (Economics) in 1988 from the University of Michigan.

Participating in the panel: Festival Strategies.

Debra Granik attended the Graduate Film Program at NYU where she won awards for her short film, SNAKE FEED. She attended both the Writer’s and Director’s Lab at the Sundance Institute where she developed Snake Feed into a feature film script. Debra premiered her first feature film, DOWN TO THE BONE at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 where she won the Best Director Award. Down to the Bone went on to screen at film festivals worldwide and won the International Critics Prize at the Vienna Film Festival, among others.

In 2009, she directed Winter’s Bone in the Missouri Ozarks.

In 1998, Dennis Fallon sold a highly profitable business franchise and followed his dream, moving to Hollywood to start a movie production company he named Waldo West Productions. Now Fallon is an award-winning producer and director with four films under his belt and a major motion picture company concurrently based in Los Angeles, CA and Kansas City.

Fallon partnered with his childhood friend and budding screenwriter, Tom Whitus, and his business associate and personal friend, Charles W. Nelson, founder of Apollo Hair International to develop this company, which currently has three films in development:

Chilly Won Ton Willy, a $30 million animated feature based on a children’s book written by Robert Ernest, with a scheduled 2010 release.

The Return Man, a comeback story reminiscent of “The Rookie” and “Remember The Titans”.

The Devil You Know, a mind-twisting thriller in the genre of “Mulholland Drive” and “Sixth Sense.”

Waldo West Productions has four films on its resume:

All Roads Lead Home (2008), won the “Best Feature Drama” at the International Family Film Festival as well as the “Dove Crystal Seal Award”. The film was released to DVD release in 2009 and currently airs on Starz Family, Showtime Family Zone, Encore and The Movie Channel.

Dead Silence aka Silence & The Only Witness opened to limited theatrical release in the U.S. and enjoyed successful ratings abroad in France and Germany. In 2003, “Dead Silence” was released on DVD. “Dead Silence airs on Lifetime TV on a regular basis under the name “The Only Witness.”

Theft of Exposure, a psychological thriller, starring Sean Young and William Devane opened to limited theatrical release in the U.S. In 2003 it was released on video and DVD.

More Than Puppy Love A heartwarming family drama starring Diane Ladd (five-time Academy Award™ Nominated Actress), which aired on Showtime Family Zone and was released on DVD. It continues to run on Syndicated TV.

Fallon recently finished his book So You Wanna Be a Filmmaker, an independent filmmakers guide to understanding the film business, available on the Waldo West Productions website.

Participating in the seminar: Producing Movies in Today’s Climate.

Erin McGrane is a local actress, writer, composer and producer who recently gained national attention with a part in the critically acclaimed movie Up in the Air starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Jason Bateman.

McGrane is widely known as singer Ruby Falls in Alacartoona, a cabaret band that celebrates its seedy and dark history in every performance. She’s become an acting sensation for her work in the webseries, The unReal Housewives of Kansas City and has a role in Nailbiter, a feature film by Patrick Rea, to be released in 2010.

McGrane’s acting credits began in 1992 with local filmmaker Wade Williams’ Detour and in 2004 she played herself in C.S.A. – The Confederate States of America. Erin had roles in World Builder (2007) and Lie To Me (2008).

In 2009 McGrane produced one episode of unReal Housewives of Kansas City – The Maintenance Party. She also was producer, writer and composer for Night Is the Mirror (2009) and appeared in a TV program called Medicine on the Kansas Prairie in 2009).

Participating in the panel: On the Web.

Kansas City audiences may remember Last Breath director Ty Jones first feature film. It was filmed in Kansas City and played at 2009 Kansas City FilmFest. Over the years Jones has held many positions in the film industry, from director to DP to best boy. He has also studied acting to help him better communicate as a director. In addition to his feature film, Jones has directed almost 40 short films, many of which have played around the world at film industry.

Jones picked up an 8mm camera and shot his first film. Since then, he has studied with the Hollywood Film Institute in Chicago and in Los Angeles with Dov Simmons, who also helped Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino begin their careers. He has also worked on over 200 projects, such as commercials for NASCAR and Sprint and national television programs. Because Ty has learned the technical aspects of filmmaking in all genres, he knows how to express his creativity in a way that touches a person’s emotional core, excites the viewer, and makes the audience laugh. In other words, Jones knows how to tell a story.

Jeff Burr, a respected filmmaker with over 20 feature credits to his name, asked Jones to come to LA to work on his latest feature, “The Devil’s Den.” In 2005, Ty moved to LA and worked on numerous features, learning the ins and outs of Hollywood and the film industry.  Ty returned to Kansas City to shoot his first feature film, Last Breath.

Participating in the panel: On the Web.