Access Entertainment is a boutique sales agency dedicated to guiding filmmakers and television producers to reach their greatest distribution potential. Before Access, DuBow managed Lightning Entertainment as Executive Vice President and transitioned the company to its corporate owners at the time, Larry Flynt Publications. DuBow was also at First Look Studios as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Distribution and served as President and CEO of Modern Entertainment, a wholly-owned, Los Angele...
May 07, 2024•41 min
After earning a degree in Theatre and Philosophy at the University of Texas, Ms Spencer moved to New York City, where she attended NYU and The Actors Studio Playwright/Director's Unit, which was run by Elia Kazan and Arthur Penn. She wrote and directed plays in New York City, and was a member of Circle Rep Lab. She also wrote and directed plays in London and Los Angeles, and is a published poet. Her first film, Little Noises, premiered at Sundance. Her second film, Faces On Mars (aka: Wake Up Ru...
Apr 30, 2024•30 min
As Co-Founder and President of American Cinema International, Chevonne began her professional journey as the President of International Sales at Quest Entertainment. Over the spans of 10 years, she successfully oversaw the production and sales of more than 176 feature films and two popular television series. In 2000, Chevonne established American Cinema International. In less than a decade, ACI produced 20 feature films, securing international sales and prime-time broadcasts on platform such as ...
Apr 23, 2024•35 min
In this episode Leslie breaks down the Upfronts in Hollywood. What are they and why are they so important?
Apr 16, 2024•20 min
With over 30 years in the animation industry, Tony Bancroft has been creatively involved in almost every position making an animated film, video, commercial, or short film. His animation and directing skills have been sharpened and honed while working at Walt Disney Feature Animation, Sony Pictures, his own animation company, Toonacious Family Entertainment, and currently, as an independent contractor working with Disney, Warner Brothers, and many more. Bancroft was accepted into the exclusive C...
Apr 09, 2024•41 min
Ken Kwapis has been a motion picture and television director for four decades. He directed eleven feature films, among them A Walk In The Woods, Big Miracle, He’s Just Not That Into You, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Kwapis helped launch nine television series, including The Larry Sanders Show, The Bernie Mac Show, and The Office. He earned an Emmy nomination for directing the “Gay Witch Hunt” episode of The Office. He also earned an Emmy nomination for his work as a producer-direct...
Apr 02, 2024•55 min
B.J. Graf (aka Beverly Graf) lives in Los Angeles with her family and a menagerie of four-footers. Her near-future-mystery-novel, GENESYS X, featuring Detectives Eddie Piedmont & Shin Miyaguchi, will be published 11/10/2020 by Fairwood Press and is available for pre-orders now at www.fairwoodpress.com , www.amazon.com , www.b &n.com, and an independent bookseller near you. In her alternate identity Dr. Graf is an Adjunct Professor who teaches Film Studies and Classical Mythology at Peppe...
Mar 26, 2024•41 min
Giovanni Labadessa Award winning film producer and storyteller, founder of Lumiere Lab a boutique film production company working since 2010 to tell stories that entertain, edify and build more understanding and empathy for others. Passionate about strengthening the independent film ecosystem as whole, in 2018 I co-founded Nòt Film Fest, a film festival and non-profit that connects audiences to storytellers whose work champions creativity, uniqueness and innovation while fostering film and busin...
Mar 19, 2024•36 min
Rick Markovitz is a partner in Weissman/Markovitz Communications. WMC forges connections between people, brands and media to convey powerful ideas. Grounded in the business of storytelling, we know how to use the right tools and channels in today';s complex social media environment. With decades of entertainment marketing and communications expertise, and an industry-wide network of resources, we help countless clients succeed in creative, effective and profitable brand-building relationships. S...
Mar 12, 2024•47 min
Luca was born in a little town in the north of Italy, Castelfranco Veneto, 30 minutes far from Venice. After high school, he moved to Milan to study communication at the University without an exact idea of what I wanted to become. Luca became an assistant to a television director who was managing some live broadcast shows for SKY Italy and wanted some help. After the first tv gigs, Luca learned to operate the camera, consequently the mayor editing systems to finally be able to create my own cont...
Mar 05, 2024•45 min
Everything you ever wanted to know about how to get your movie distributed, but were afraid to ask. This is the Best in Fest Best Of Distribution episode.
Feb 27, 2024•29 min
In 1962, while he was doing pre-production work on The Greatest Story Ever Told , Stevens was recruited by Edward R. Murrow to serve as director of the Motion Picture and Television Service, a division of the United States Information Agency . [10] [11] At age 31, Stevens moved from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., where as director of the service, he produced roughly 300 short documentary films per year. [11] [12] [7] One of the films Stevens commissioned was Nine from Little Rock , which follo...
Feb 20, 2024•41 min
Director/screenwriter Jace Anderson most recently directed her first feature film, The Long Game, which premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2024. Based on a short story by New York Times-bestselling author Janet Fitch, the film stars Kathleen Turner, Jackie Earle Haley and newcomer Sekai Abeni. It is a “femme fatale origin story,” a contemporary neo-noir that tells the tale of young actress Holly Sloan and her entanglements with failed con man Richard Metzger a...
Feb 13, 2024•39 min
Nicolas Dozol first studied dance at the Conservatoire de Lyon and at the Rudra Béjart school-atelier in Lausanne (Maurice Béjart's school). He still dancing as an extra dancer in the Opéra de Paris ballet. He then continued his studies in cinema at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français (CLCF) in Paris. Nicolas directed one feature film and numerous short fiction films, as well as documentaries and commercials. He seeks to shape imaginary experiences while trying new ways of filming that wi...
Feb 06, 2024•28 min
Steve Stockman is president of LA-based Custom Productions, Inc. and a producer, writer and director of over 250 commercials, web series, short films, music videos, and TV shows. Steve is also the creator of How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck: The Video Course. The course is based on his book How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck, the world’s best-selling book about directing and cinematography. It’s used as a text worldwide in middle through graduate schools. It’s available in 9 languages, as ...
Jan 30, 2024•31 min
With 20 years of legal experience in the entertainment industry, Nina Ameri has established herself as a well-known, and respected attorney, with deep connections and relationships within the entertainment industry. Over the years, Nina has utilized her skills to support clients in several entertainment industry-specific practice areas including, entertainment transactions, trademark and copyright law, business entity formation, and more. Nina provides personalized, hands-on representation when ...
Jan 23, 2024•41 min
Veteran filmmaker Julia Verdin is a multi-hyphenate - she is known as an accomplished producer, award-winning Director and has written a number of screenplays. Having been in the film business for 30 years, Julia has established herself as one of Hollywood's leading independent producers, with over 36 critically acclaimed feature films produced to date. She founded and has been running Rough Diamond Productions since 1995. Some of the memorable, acclaimed theatrical releases and top film festiva...
Jan 16, 2024•46 min
Take a look back at some of the best moments of behind the scenes Hollywood talk with the Best of Best in Fest Part 2
Jan 09, 2024•45 min
Take a look back at some of the best moments of behind the scenes Hollywood talk with the Best of Best in Fest.
Jan 02, 2024•27 min
In this episode Leslie and Peyton talk about her career as an actress and a writer. Peyton gives great tips on how to prepare your script for sale in Hollywood. Peyton McDavitt was born on 12 January 1984 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress and writer ,
Dec 18, 2023•29 min
In this episode, Leslie speaks with Director of Photography at "In Reel Time" Jay Lopez Jr. Jay is a rising star in the industry and they discuss everything from the basic lighting of a shot to drone operating and AI. This episode has something for everyone. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6800740/
Dec 12, 2023•38 min
Lirit Rosenzweig Topaz has more than 20 years experience as a producer of animation, live action TV shows, films, music videos and live events. She has a strong passion for the industry and loves collaborating with clients. As the executive producer, Lirit has worked on a variety of projects including Sonic the Hedgehog, Marvel Avengers, Harry Potter, Barbie, Facebook, Spielberg Foundation, The Tunies and produced the animation in the feature film Ask Dr. Ruth which premiered at Sundance and Tri...
Dec 05, 2023•24 min
Karen K. Miller is the current President & CEO of CGS USA LLC at Cyber group studios. Prior to this, they were the Senior Vice President of Content at NBCUniversal Media, LLC from July 2018 to March of 2022. In this role, they were responsible for creating and executing a content strategy, leading a development team, overseeing co-productions, short form team, and current production of original series. Karen also was responsible for identifying and executing acquisitions of content. Karen Mi...
Nov 28, 2023•44 min
Alec Bantivoglio is a comedy writer from Philadelphia with a passion to make people laugh. In the Spring of 2023 I graduated from Chapman University with a Master’s in Television Writing and Production. While there, he created and was the show runner for Xander, a fantasy-comedy web-series, crewed by many of my fellow Chapman students. Over the last 2 months Xander has won several awards and we are getting ready to premiere at Dances With Films New York.
Nov 21, 2023•23 min
Donna Smith began her career as Production Coordinator on RAGING BULL and quickly rose through the ranks, serving as Production Manager, Line Producer and Producer on notable projects that included THE TERMINATOR.Smith was tapped by Universal Pictures to serve as President of Physical Production and Post Production; becoming the first woman to serve in that role for a major Hollywood studio. During Smith’s seven-year tenure at Universal, more than 120 titles were released under her leadership in...
Nov 14, 2023•31 min
From line producing to lighting design Leslie and Maritza dive deep into what it really takes to perfect your craft in Hollywood.
Nov 07, 2023•40 min
Gail Gilbert was an award-winning film editor before going back for an MFA in Writing for the Screen + Stage at Northwestern University. Now she is fully launched in a new career as writer/director, thriving on creating stories that push the envelope in critiquing modern life. Her work challenges stereotypes of ageism and shows that life is equally wild and crazy all the way to the end.
Oct 31, 2023•29 min
Irina The world of Irina Maleeva jettisoned into the cinematic spotlight when she was discovered by the legendary Federico Fellini at age 15 and would go on to perform in three of his highly-acclaimed movies: Satyricon; Spirits of the Dead; and Roma. Later Maleeva was chosen for the lead part of Jessica in the film, “The Merchant of Venice” playing opposite Orson Welles’s Schylock. The film was also directed by Orson Welles “This was the best time of my life”, remembers Irina. For many years par...
Oct 24, 2023•29 min
Chloe Burns graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Film & amp; Media Studies. After graduating, Chloe wrote, produced, and acted in The Adventures of Botfly, an award-winning web series, and the short film, The Thing About Miller House, which showed at film festivals throughout Kansas City. In 2021, Burns founded Bull Skull Productions, under which she produced the short documentary The Wallace Project, and the six-episode web series Trauma Bonded. As an actress, she has be...
Oct 17, 2023•22 min
Currently a student at the University of Southern California, Linjie “Susu” Huang had a long and winding road before following her dream of making films. Born into a traditional Chinese family, Linjie endured twenty years pursuing their values like being practical and doing something more success driven. But instead she decided to unleash her inner voice and pursue her passion for filmmaking. She’s particularly interested in telling stories that examine the basis of our relationships. Growing up...
Oct 10, 2023•24 min
