2007 Special Guests

OPENING NIGHT SPECIAL GUEST

Judy Greer
With a genuine gift for comedy and an engaging on-screen presence, Judy Greer has quickly become one of Hollywood’s most captivating young talents. Ms. Greer was born and raised in Detroit. She trained for nearly ten years in classical Russian ballet and then shifted her interest to acting and was accepted into Chicago’s prestigious “The Theatre School” at DePaul University. Judy recently wrapped production on the new ABC pilot Miss/Guided.  This follows her prior TV work in Love Monkey and the critically-acclaimed hit show Arrested Development. On the big screen, Judy recently wrapped on the independent feature The Key Man. Greer was also seen in Paul Weitz’s American Dreamz, in addition to Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, as well as independent films The Amateurs and The Great New Wonderful with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tony Shalhoub. Other credits include M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, 13 Going on 30, I Love Your Work, The Hebrew Hammer, Charlie Kaufman’s critically-acclaimed Adaptation, The Wedding Planner, What Women Want, What Planet Are You From?, Three Kings, Jawbreaker, In Memory of My Father, The Father, The Specials, and Kissing a Fool among others.

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Samm Levine

Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 3:30 pm at Enzian Theater
Screening of Life is Short, one of seven films in Shorts Program #2: Search and Destroy
Tickets are $9 - Purchase tickets

The youngest member of the New York Friars Club, Samm Levine has been on stage and screen for much of his life and is best known for his portrayal of Neal Schweiber on the short-lived NBC dramedy Freaks and Geeks. In addition, Levine has guest-starred on Spin City, The Steve Harvey Show, Boston Public, Undeclared, Raising Dad, The Drew Carey Show, That's So Raven, That '70s Show, How I Met Your Mother, My Name Is Earl, Entourage, Veronica Mars, and most recently Family Guy. His film work includes Not Another Teen Movie, Club Dread and the recent Pulse (a remake of Kairo), as well as an uncredited but memorable voice cameo in Wet Hot American Summer (FFF05).

Levine will attend the screening of Life is Short, one of the seven films in Shorts Program #2: Search and Destroy, screening at Enzian Theater on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 3:30 PM. In the film, a short guy (played by Levine) listens to his hilariously tactless life coach (Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy) and dumps his girlfriend (Gilmore Girls’ Alexis Bledel who also produced the film) to pursue his Amazon fetish.

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Chazz Palminteri

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 2:30 pm at Regal
Full Sail Film Showcase

Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri will participate in the Full Sail Film Showcase at Regal Winter Park Village Stadium 20 at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2007. The event is free and open to the public. Over the past 28 years, Full Sail Real World Education has built a reputation as one of the premier media arts colleges in the world. Throughout the entertainment industry, Full Sail graduates have made their names working on award-winning films and albums, acclaimed video games and design projects, live productions, and more. Join Full Sail as they welcome Mr. Palminteri and discuss the in and outs of a career in film.

Chazz Palminteri earned high praise and an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Woody Allen's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY. His portrayal of "Cheech", a gangster with unexpected dramaturgical gifts, also earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and an American Comedy Award. Well known for A BRONX TALE, Palminteri originally wrote the script for the stage and performed it as a one-man show in Los Angeles. In New York it played for four sold-out months and earned him nominations for the New York Outer Critics Circle for both acting and writing. While in New York he completed the screenplay of A BRONX TALE, and held out for an offer that would let him star in the film. He soon found himself starring opposite Robert DeNiro, who chose the script for his directorial debut. Chazz is currently working with composer Jimmy Webb to bring A BRONX TALE, The Musical to the New York Stage. Mr. Palminteri has four films awaiting release: THE DUKES, a heist movie set to 50’s rock and roll, written and directed by Robert Davi, costarring with Davi and Peter Bogdanovich; PUSH, a drama set in the world of drugs, sex, and the allure of fast money; BODY ARMOUR, an action film in which Palminteri plays an international assassin being protected by a burnt-out body guard who despises him and everything he stands for; as well as two animated adventures, CAT TALE, joining an ensemble cast that includes Sean Astin, Jerry O’Connell, Michael Richards and Stanley Tucci. Recent film releases include the Sundance hit A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS, the controversial coming-of-age drama by Orlando Montiel, and starring Robert Downey, Jr. and ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES co-starring Madonna.

In addition, Chazz and his wife Gianna, are the founders and directors of the Child Reach Foundation, dedicated to fighting childhood diseases, centered mostly on Thalessemia, a rare blood disorder.

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Peter Bogdanovich

Friday, March 30 at 6:30 pm
PAPER MOON followed by Q&A
Tickets are $18 - Purchase tickets

Truly an American Visionary, Peter Bogdanovich will be honored with the Florida Film Festival American Visionary Award on Friday, March 30, 2007. The evening will include an archival 35mm print screening of PAPER MOON at 6:30 PM followed by the award presentation and a Q&A with the director. Tickets are $18.

The romantic films of the 1930s and '40s influenced director Bogdanovich in PAPER MOON, a masterpiece influenced by the filmmaking of those periods—a classic comedy drama that resembles the films of John Ford or Sam Wood. Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) is a happy-go-lucky con man traveling throughout the Midwest during the Great Depression conning widows into buying Bibles. Stopping in a small town for a friend's funeral, he is persuaded to deliver the deceased's precocious 10-year-old daughter, Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal, Ryan's real-life daughter), to her aunt's home. The resemblance between Moses and Addie—who never knew her father—is uncanny, and the two are soon acting like father and daughter as they travel the back roads of heartland America. Despite his initial misgivings, Moses is delighted to find that Addie is a boon to business, catching on quickly and adding her own twists to his favorite cons. Madeline Kahn stars as Trixie Delight, a ladyfriend Moses meets along the way, a situation that brings out Addie's possessive side. Bogdanovich convincingly recreates the feel and look of the 1930s with his nostalgic look at life on the open road. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay; both Kahn and the 11-year-old O'Neal were nominated for Best Supporting Actress, which O'Neal won.

The small-town drama The Last Picture Show earned eight Oscar nominations and made Peter Bogdanovich the hottest young film director of 1971. Bogdanovich got his start as a critic, historian and eager film buff; he wrote about (and cultivated friendships with) Howard Hawks, Orson Welles and other leading directors before moving behind the camera himself. The 1972 screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon and Mask (1985) are among his many achievements. Bogdanovich's many books about film include The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock (1963), Pieces of Time (1973), and the Hollywood character studies Who the Devil Made It? (1997) and Who the Hell's In It? (2004). His 1990 film Texasville was a sequel to The Last Picture Show; both films were based on novels by Larry McMurtry. His 2002 film The Cat's Meow was based on the mysterious death of Hollywood pioneer Thomas Ince. In recent years, Bogdanovich took a recurring acting role in the TV series The Sopranos, playing a psychiatrist who treats psychiatrist Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). Currently, Bogdanovich is finishing a documentary on the career of Rock and Roll legend Tom Petty and editing the final unfinished Orson Welles film.

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AMERICAN INDEPENDENT COMPETITION - NARRATIVE FEATURES JURY

Gene Seymour
Gene Seymour has worked at Newsday since 1990 as a critic and feature writer. He did time as an editor and news reporter in both Hartford and Philadelphia, and has also written about jazz when publications allowed him to do so, contributing to the Oxford Companion to Jazz and publishing a young-adult history, Jazz the Great American Art. He is a two-time winner of the New York Association of Black Journalists Award for criticism. His reviews and articles have appeared in a broad range of publications, including The Nation, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and American Heritage. He is married with one son and has called Brooklyn home since 1991.

James Emanuel Shapiro
James Emanuel Shapiro works in the Burbank office of Starz Entertainment/Anchor Bay Entertainment as their Director of Rental Sales Planning and Acquisitions. He has recently moved back to Los Angeles after spending the majority of his industry career working for Hollywood Entertainment in Portland, Oregon, as a new release buyer. James is a proud movie snob, owns over 4,000 DVDs, and is five short of the complete Criterion collection. James is an occasional content provider for Reel.com and DVDTalk.com. He lives in L.A. with his girlfriend, Brie, and their 3 pets.

Guinevere Turner
Guinevere Turner’s career began as co-writer, producer, and star of the feature film Go Fish. Turner went on to collaborate with director Mary Harron on the screenplay adaptation of American Psycho, in which she co-starred. Her next writing effort with Harron, The Notorious Bettie Page had its theatrical release in April 2006. Turner’s additional film credits as an actor include roles in Kiss Me, Guido; Latin Boys Go to Hell; Pipe Dream; Watermelon Woman; Preaching to the Perverted; Chasing Amy; and Dogma. Her feature script Blood Rayne was released in January 2006. She worked for two seasons as writer and executive story editor on the television show The L Word, on which she also had a recurring role.

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AMERICAN INDEPENDENT COMPETITION - DOCUMENTARY FILMS JURY

Daniel Anker
Filmmaker Daniel Anker has been a producer/director of independent feature documentaries for more than a decade. His credits include Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, for which he received an Oscar nomination and an Emmy Award, and Music from the Inside Out, which had a successful theatrical release and was named one of the best films of the year by International Documentary Association. His film Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust has been shown at more than 70 film festivals worldwide and will be released theatrically in the fall. Anker has also produced numerous PBS programs, including the Peabody Award-winning Marsalis on Music. Among his new projects is The Moral Lens, a film about legendary director Sidney Lumet.

Charles Coleman
Charles Coleman is the Film Program Director of the Facets Cinematheque, which specializes in the presentation of new and classic foreign films, as well as independent cinema. He has taught film courses at the University of Chicago, and his experience also includes more than ten years in film programming and related fields. He is responsible for bringing to Chicago rare, one-of-a-kind screenings that range from retrospectives of acclaimed filmmakers to the most recent films by up-and-coming directors. In addition, he organizes and programs the six-week, noncredit film courses at Facets, which are aimed at those who want to learn about movies in a viewer-friendly setting.

Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt is the Director of Theatrical Marketing and Promotions for Kino International. During his tenure at the company, he has served an integral role in the release of some of Kino’s most successful and critically-acclaimed films, including Himalaya, The Piano Teacher, the 75th Anniversary Reissue of Metropolis, The Return, and most recently, Old Joy. In 2001, Schmidt founded the Rural Route Film Festival with fellow Iowan Alan Webber, an annual event that brings rural-themed work to New York City. His own films have been exhibited nationally, including screenings at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Schmidt studied film and theatre at the University of Iowa, where he earned degrees in Communication Studies and Theatre Arts. He resides in Brooklyn, New York, with his loving wife and son.

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AMERICAN INDEPENDENT COMPETITION - SHORT FILMS JURY

Thelma Adams
Thelma Adams has served two terms as the Chair of the New York Film Critics Circle.  She has been Us Weekly’s film critic since 2000 and blogs for the Huffington Post.  Previously, she was a New York Post film critic from 1993 - 2000. She has written for The New York Times, USA Today, Interview Magazine, Self, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and More. She has appeared on CNN, E!, NY1, NBC’s TheToday Show, CBS’s The Early Show, Fox News Channel, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Bravo, and VH1.  Ms. Adams recently was a juror at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and the Woodstock Film Festival.  She has taught a film review writing workshop at New York University.  In 1993, she earned an MFA in fiction from Columbia University; she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley in 1981.  She lives in Hyde Park, New York, with her husband, son, daughter, four cats, one dog and a herd of wild turkeys.

Mark Bell
Currently the Editor-in-Chief of FilmThreat.com, independent filmmaker Mark Bell is a semi-veteran of the film festival circuit. Mark was an associate producer of the Slamdance Film Festival and has also acted as a videographer/reporter for both Slamdance and the Seattle International Film Festival over the years. Mark's film credits include script supervisor / post-production supervisor duties for indie features Open House and Death and Texas, as well as numerous freelance DVD extras and featurettes for films such as My Big Fat Independent Movie and Side Effects.

Scott Calonico
Filmmaker Scott Calonico hails from Austin, Texas, and graduated with a film and communications degree from the University of Texas. His first documentary short “Mondo Ford” premiered in Canada at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival. Since then, his shorts have gone to screen all over the world, including the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Rotterdam Film Festival, as well as in such diverse locations as South Africa, Switzerland, and an abandoned World War II bunker in Italy. When he’s not making movies, Scott is part of the comedy duo “Scott & Stacey.” They have performed all over the country and were recently featured at the Emerging Sketch Night at the prestigious San Francisco Sketchfest and the Austin Out of Bounds Improv and Sketch Festival.

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