Award-winning filmmaker Frederico Lapenda is a global executive who has worked in the entertainment industry for almost 30 years. Lapenda is a pioneer of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and is credited as one of those responsible for the globalization of sport.

In addition to presiding over the Beverly Hills Film Festival® Grand Jury, Lapenda has produced films, MMA events, video games, commercials and documentaries. His documentary, Kidnapping, was eligible for an Oscar nomination in 2011.

Lapenda received a national honor for his lifelong achievements while serving as Tourism Ambassador, appointed by the President of Brazil, placing him among fellow nominees Ronaldinho, Vitor Belfort, Renzo Gracie and Romero Britto.

One of his most significant achievements was the creation of Amazon Allies, a mix of Avengers and Lion King, a children’s book about four super-powered talking animals that protect the Amazon rainforest, co-authored with Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee.

Alex Aldana is the Executive Director of the Pico Youth & Family Center (PYFC) in Santa Monica, CA. PYFC is the home of Pico Digital, a professional Film and Music Academy for underserved BIPOC youth and young adults throughout Los Angeles County.

Alex is a proud first-generation Chicano as the son of a former farm laborer and factory worker who migrated from Jalisco, Mexico in 1970 to pursue a better life on the Westside of Los Angeles.

Alex is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Educational Leadership (Ed.D) at the University of California, Los Angeles. Alex also holds a Master’s degree in Business, Social Entrepreneurship (MSSE) from the University of Southern California. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Pan-African Studies from California State University, Los Angeles.

As a person with Cerebral Palsy, being confined to a wheelchair has given Alex the drive to pursue and accomplish all of his professional goals.

Roberta Augusto is Brazilian-born stalwart in the film industry, boasting an illustrious career spanning two decades. Her journey commenced at Summit Entertainment, where she made her mark by spearheading the release of blockbuster hits like “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Sahara,” among others. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, Roberta has ascended to the esteemed position of Senior Vice President of Marketing, Distribution & Publicity at IDC, a Lionsgate Company. In this pivotal role, she oversees operations across more that 20 countries in Latin America, cementing her reputation as a dynamic leader in the field.

Throughout her tenure, Roberta has facilitated the theatrical release of over 165 movies, contributing significantly to the cinematic landscape. Her unparallel expertise has been instrumental in the success of iconic franchises in Latin America, including “The Twilight Saga,” “The Hunger Games,” “John Wick, and “Saw.” Notably, she played a pivotal role in the promotion and distribution of acclaimed films such as the Oscar-winning “La La Land,” further solidifying her reputation as a visionary in the industy.

Roberta Augusto’s remarkable journey serves as a testament to her passion, dedication, and unparalleled contributions to the world of cinema. With a keen eye for innovation and an unwavering commitment to excellence, she continues to shape the landscape of the film industry, leaving an indelible mark on audiences worldwide.

Influenced as a young kid by the 1988 animated cyberpunk action film “Akira” by Katsuhiro Otomo, Crawford knew at early age that he loved animation. Citing the works of Sergio Leone’s groundbreaking “Dollars Trilogy” along with the films of Akira Kurosawa, Crawford began to develop his own style of visual storytelling.
He was able to marry his passion for the spaghetti western with his love of absurdist comedy in his most recent project as director of the of the 2023 Academy Award® and BAFTA nominated film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek Pinault from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures. A hit with both critics and audiences, the film has amassed nearly half a billion dollars at the global box office.
He made is feature film directorial debut on the DreamWorks Animation feature film The Croods: A New Age. After serving as head of story for the smash musical adventure Trolls in 2016, Crawford directed the Trolls Holiday Special for NBC.
Crawford joined DreamWorks Animation in 2006 and quickly became an integral part of the creative process working as a story artist on Trolls, Shrek Forever After, Rise of the Guardians, Bee Movie and all three Kung Fu Panda films. Prior to joining DreamWorks, his story artist credits include The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.
A native of Southern California (via Hawaii), Crawford attended The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). To make ends meet while in school, he worked as a caricature artist at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, before joining Nickelodeon. Crawford is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, and ASIFA-Hollywood. In 2023, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in recognition of his contributions to the field of animation.

Brian Currie recently wrote THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER for Skydance with Peter Farrelly directing. The film stars Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, and Bill Murray and was released on September 23rd through Apple TV+. Brian co-wrote and produced GREEN BOOK which was directed by Peter Farrelly and stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. Brian received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Picture for this project. The film also received multiple Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture comedy/musical and Best Original Screenplay.

For over 30 years, Brett Leonard has been an award-winning film maker and technologist at the forefront of the digital media revolution. He is widely recognized as a top thought-leader in Virtual Reality since introducing the concept and term to popular culture as the Director/Writer of the seminal hit cult-classic film “Lawnmower Man” starring Pierce Brosnan, which is also one of the most commercially successful independent films of all time, grossing over $200MM globally in all markets on a $5MM budget. Brett was one of the first to pioneer modern stereoscopic techniques and photo-realistic CGI in his hit IMAX 3D film “T-Rex” (100MM on IMAX screens alone), and introduced American audiences to Russell Crowe in his film “Virtuosity” (which also starred Denzel Washington) along with many other talents both in front of and behind the camera.

Brett’s work as a visionary Director/Producer/Futurist has always pushed the edge of innovation in the entertainment industry, and continues to do so with a project slate dedicated to defining a new process of content production for the emerging era of A.I. and the Metaverse.

Brett recently directed “Hollywood Rooftop”, the first film to be shot in both 360VR and traditional cinema, combining the mediums for the first time, and the theatrical feature film “Triumph”, starring Academy Award Nominee Terrence Howard, star of the hit television series “Empire”, and RJ Mitte, star of the legendary series “Breaking Bad”. – “Triumph” won the Ruderman Family Foundation’s award for authentic portrayal of disability in a motion picture, and was released in theaters in 2021.

Brett recently co-founded a Medicinal Immersive Media company called Ubiquity VX with business pioneer David Kerzner and world-renown clinical VR researcher Dr. Albert ‘Skip’ Rizzo, with a mission to heal the human body and spirit through the use of groundbreaking Virtual Medicine therapy.

Brett’s core philosophy, born out in all of his work is: “To empower people to create and experience transformative story, character, and emotion in any medium, no matter what the technology being used to enable it”.

Richard Fischoff was born, raised, and educated in the New York metropolitan area. After graduation from the Horace Mann School, and the University of Rochester, he attended New York University Law School. He started his career in publishing working on for Simon and Schuster and Warner Books as an acquisition editor.

In 1976 he moved to Los Angeles to work for Universal Studios. Pursuing a career in film and television, he was vice president of MCA Publishing. Later as Vice-president of Stanley Jaffe Productions he was the associate producer of Kramer vs. Kramer and responsible for Taps and Without A Trace.

He went on to work as Vice President Production for Paramount Pictures, President Jaffe-Lansing Films, Senior Vice President Tristar Pictures, Co-President Sandollar Productions, President, Carson Films. He was involved in the production of The Big Chill, Desert Bloom, Fatal Attraction, The Accused, Sleepless In Seattle, Freeheld among others. He has produced credits on a number of television films, many fcor Von Zerneck-Sertner films.

He is currently an independent producer in Los Angeles.

Gary Shapiro launched his career in the movie business in NYC working for Columbia
Pictures immediately after graduating from college in Los Angeles to the present where
he has moved into the new digital technologies with several major Hollywood film
studios. He spent the 70’s as a very young man thru the present in various executive
marketing and distribution capacities at Columbia Pictures, MGM, Hemdale Pictures,
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Beacon Pictures, initially specializing in the United
States and Canada and later managing the marketing of major Hollywood studio films
and independent films worldwide. In the early years at Columbia Pictures he created
the prototype for a college/university program which was then adopted by most major
movie studios. He also was one of the early developers of grass roots marketing which
became a valuable tool in marketing movies and still is a valuable tool on the Internet.

In the mid 80’s Shapiro moved into the production arena and was Executive V.P. of
Production and Marketing for Longstocking Productions which produced the first
American PIPPI LONGSTOCKING movie along with legendary Swedish film company
Svensk for Columbia Pictures. He designed the worldwide search for the new PIPPI
which became a media sensation at the time. Shapiro managed worldwide marketing
activities with Columbia Pictures and Svensk.

During this decade, Shapiro also was appointed Senior Executive Director Marketing of
Hemdale Film Corporation which was one of the film industry’s most important
independent companies in Hollywood and London producing award nominated and Best
Picture Oscar winning awards from films like PLATOON, THE LAST EMPEROR, the
first TERMINATOR and HOOSIERS.

During the 90’s Shapiro was a Senior V.P. at Sony Pictures Entertainment working in
the Columbia Pictures division and shifting to Sony’s Triumph Films unit which
developed, produced and marketed the studio’s specialized films. His duties included
managing the studio’s marketing and production development. Triumph morphed into
Sony’s Screen Gems which continues in a similar tradition.

Following that in the 2000’s he moved over to Beacon Pictures as Senior V.P.
Worldwide Marketing. Beacon’s long slate of successful films were produced in
conjunction with and distributed thru Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Co, and Time
Warner’s New Line Cinema. Among the titles he guided thru the global distribution and
marketing process for Beacon were SPY GAME, THIRTEEN DAYS, THE FAMILY
MAN, BRING IT ON, THE EMPEROR’S CLUB and TUCK EVERLASTING all with major
Hollywood stars.

Shapiro began consulting to various film and entertainment industry firms several years
ago. In this capacity, he helped create the initial worldwide marketing strategy for
Paramount Picture’s and Steven Spielberg’s WAR OF THE WORLDS, managed the
marketing and grass roots campaign for Anschutz Film Group’s /Walden Media GAME
OF THEIR LIVES, managed the strategy and execution of the highly successful and
controversial independent film A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN. He has been a U.S.
special consultant to one of Europe’s most important publishing and media companies,

Among the major film makers and talent he recently arranged to appear at major film
festivals are Robert De Niro, Danny Di Vito, Hillary Swank, Michael Douglas, Meryl
Streep, Clive Owen, Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Rene Zellweger, Clint Eastwood and
Martin Scorsese.

Shapiro is currently consulting with a number of film companies including the Canadian
company Inner City Films, a major supplier of diverse film and TV content. Thru his
association with Showbizzee, he has been engaging the Hollywood movie studios
(Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony, Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Paramount,
Amazon Studios) on utilizing a global digital platform and media player for extending
the marketing value and e commerce revenue streams of their content. He has
consulted with The Telluride Film Festival in the U.S., and with The Karlovy Vary
International Film Festival in The Czech Republic, The Berlin International Film Festival
in Berlin and The Montblanc Company in Hamburg. He has advised The Cuban Film
Institute (ICAIC) in Havana on cultural exchange programs between the U.S. and Cuba.
He has been a periodic guest lecturer at UCLA and is a longtime member of The
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves on The Foreign Language
Film Selection Committee.

London born Arnold Schwartzman is the Oscar winning Producer and Director of the feature documentary “Genocide” (1981), and a renowned designer and prolific author. His other feature documentaries include “Building A Dream” (1989), “Echoes That Remain” (1991) and “Liberation” (1994).

He began his career in British network television, then became an advertising agency art director, producing commercials for Coca-Cola etc. In 1978 he was invited to Hollywood by legendary designer/filmmaker Saul Bass to be his studio’s design director. Schwartzman was later appointed the Director of Design for the1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

He is the designer of several of the Academy’s Oscar commemorative posters, programs and theatrical trailers. A Governor and past Chairman of BAFTA, Los Angeles, and the founding Chair of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Documentary Branch, 2001.

In 2001 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth ll for services to the British film industry in the USA, and in 2006 was conferred the distinction of Royal Designer (RDI) by Great Britain’s Royal Society of Arts.

Nate Thomas has directed and produced numerous projects ranging from award-winning PBS documentaries to feature films, IMAX films, television commercials, public service ads, etc.
He directed and produced the award-winning “East of Hope Street,” a limited released theatrical feature film about a teenager caught up in the labyrinthine child protection system in Los Angeles. He also directed and produced the Warner Home Video feature release ‘Stompin’ starring comedian Sinbad.

In 2014 Thomas received an Emmy Award for directing and producing for the FBI a series of 30 second television public service ads about the dangers of counterfeit clothing, music piracy and theft of trade secrets. Thomas had previously received a commendation from FBI Director Robert Mueller for earlier PSA work on child cyber predators.

In 2018 he received another Emmy nomination for a subsequent FBI PSA campaign on ransomware and business email compromise.

Thomas is a tenured Professor of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Northridge where he heads the film production program In 2015 he was honored with a California State University Wang Family Excellence Award, the highest faculty honor in the 23 campus CSU system.

In 2018 he received an honor from the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Congress of Black Women and a commendation from the California State Senate.

Thomas has also been a guest film lecturer in China at Shanghai University, Nanjing University of the Arts and Nanjing University of Science and Technology. In 2022 Nate was a presenter at the 79th Golden Globe Awards and was a guest on the last season of the Dr. Phil show.

Nate Thomas holds a B.A in Theatre Arts from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where he attended on a fellowship from Warner Bros.

Ron Bass is an American screenwriter and film producer. He won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for Barry Levinson’s film “Rain Man”, and films that Bass is associated with are regularly nominated for multiple motion picture awards. His films have grossed over $2 billion dollars.