Deborah Del Prete - PRODUCER
Deborah Del Prete’s many producing credits include the hit Columbia Pictures comedy THE WEDDING PLANNER, starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey; GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS, starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam, winner of the SXSW Audience and Grand Jury Prizes; GREEN STREET 2, starring Ross McCall; Lionsgate’s THE SPIRIT, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, and Scarlett Johansson;; Dimension’s BURIED ALIVE, starring Tobin Bell; the romantic comedy SUBURBAN GIRL, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin, based on the best-seller Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing; and the creature feature LIVING HELL for The SyFy Channel.
Under her label Coronet Films, she produced the film LIFTED, directed by Academy Award nominee Lexi Alexander, THE SUBMARINE KID, starring Emilie De Ravin and Finn Wittrock, LOCATING SILVER LAKE, starring Josh Peck and Aubrey Peeples and THE DEBT COLLECTOR, starring Scott Adkins and Louis Mandylor. After a very successful Netflix run of the first film, THE DEBT COLLECTOR 2 has been greenlit. In addition, Del Prete served as executive producer on Paramount Classic’s MEAN CREAK, starring Rory Culkin, which won both an Independent Spirit Award and a Humanitas Award; THE OPEN ROAD, starring Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, and Kate Mara; Lionsgate’s FROM PRADA TO NADA, starring Camilla Belle and Alexa Vega; HBO’S HOSTILE INTENT, starring Rob Lowe; and ENDER’S GAME, starring Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, and Asa Butterfield for Summit/Lionsgate Entertainment.
Under her previous shingle, Dee Gee Entertainment, Del Prete produced and/or directed a myriad of TV programs, music videos, commercials, and documentaries. After producing and directing the long running travel show, JOURNEY TO ADVENTURE for NBC, she directed her first feature film SIMPLE JUSTICE, starring Doris Roberts and John Spencer. She then produced and directed Kate Hudson’s film debut, RICOCHET RIVER.
In 2001 she co-founded Odd Lot Entertainment with her former partner, Gigi Pritzker. Together they ran the L.A. based company where they developed, financed, and produced films and television along with producing live stage productions, through their company Dee Gee Theatricals, housed in the historic Coronet Theatre which they owned and operated. Some of Dee Gee Theatricals’ original works which they produced included KISS AT CITY HALL, by Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro (MEMPHIS); SNAPSHOTS, book by David Stern, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (WICKED); ONE RED FLOWER, written and directed by Paris Barclay; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY which was the premiere production at the New Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis; and many others, the most noted being MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, which ended up with a long Broadway run and multiple Tony award nominations.
In 2005, under the Odd Lot banner, she created a domestic distribution division which provided and managed P&A for a number of films, starting with the cult-hit Green Street Hooligans. This led in 2006 to the establishment of her international sales and distribution company, Odd Lot International, which handled worldwide distribution for a multitude of films with total P&A spends in the millions. Del Prete is also the co-founder of New Antics Media, formed in 2011, an online marketing and technology company.
In 2012, Deborah decided to add a management company to her portfolio. In 2015 she expanded the operation joining with partners Daryn Simons and David Polemeni to create Cohesive Entertainment Group, which oversees the careers of a group of very talented actors, singers, writers, and directors, and develops and produces intellectual properties with and for the represented clients.
A past multiple-term treasurer of the board of directors for the New York chapter of Women In Film and Television, she was also an artistic advocate for the Foundation of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and has served as an executive mentor for both the Producers Guild of America and Step Up Women’s Network. Del Prete is currently Treasurer on the Board of Directors of WordTheater in Los Angeles and is a member of the Producers Guild of America, Women in Film, and the Talent Managers Association, for whom she produced the 2014 and 2016 Heller Awards.
DIRECTOR/WRITERS
Eric Bilitch
Francisco Lorite
Jesse V. Johnson
Eric is an emerging storytelling talent with years of experience in writing, directing, and producing for both film and theater. Re-focusing his career behind the scenes, Eric began his work at production company WONDROS, where he worked closely with acclaimed film directors such as David O. Russell, Antoine Fuqua, Mark Pellington, and Jesse Dylan – and with legendary music video producer Anne Marie Mackay. While at Wondros, Eric wrote and produced for talent including Mark Wahlberg, Alfred Molina, Jason Schwatzman, John Legend, Ken Jeong, Elizabeth Banks, Tom Waits, and many others.
Eric directed and co-wrote his feature film debut, The Submarine Kid, starring Emilie de Ravin, Finn Wittrock, Nancy Travis, and Jack Coleman, which was released by Mar Vista Entertainment. His original hit webseries, Professional Friend, which he created, wrote and directed, garnered many awards and accolades, including Best Comedy Series of the Year from the Independent Series Awards. His many other digital music videos and shorts have been featured on MTV, NPR, PBS, Huffington Post, and many more.
Mr. Bilitch was also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Ovation Award nominated The Mechanicals Theater Group in Los Angeles.
Eric's latest film, Locating Silver Lake, which he wrote and directed stars Josh Peck, Aubrey Peeples, Finn Wittrock, Amaury Nolasco, Robbie A. Kay, and Zelda Williams. The film premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival 2018 and has just been released by Gunpowder and Sky on VOD.
Jesse V. Johnson
Francisco Lorite
Jesse V. Johnson
Award winning Writer/Director
Jesse V. Johnson learned the
ropes as a stunt performer, working on some of the biggest blockbusters in cinema history; Avatar, Tintin, Thor, Total Recall, Terminator 3, Starship Troopers, Planet of the Apes, The Master, and The Amazing Spiderman 1 & 2.
His early genre-titles as a Director have developed a cult following, and have become action classics, with articles exploring their technique and style: THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT, CHARLIE VALENTINE, THE PACKAGE and THE BUTCHER.
His Festival films:
CHARLIE VALENTINE (Written and Directed released by Lionsgate) won awards in 42 international film festivals.
THE BEAUTIFUL ONES (Written, Directed & Produced ) won Best Picture at the The LA Indie Fest, Hudson Valley Film Festival,
and Laughlin Film Festival, Best Cinematography at AOF, and
Best Director at Hudson Valley International Film Festival.
His most recent films:
ACCIDENT MAN (Sony Pictures) and THE DEBT COLLECTOR (Bleiberg Entertainment) TRIPLE THREAT (Well Go USA), show a huge progression in his work and an ability to tackle bigger budget mainstream projects.
Currently in release:
AVENGEMENT (Samuel Goldwyn Films) has received unprecedented rave reviews from main stream news outlets and is enjoying an astonishingly popular international release.
Francisco Lorite
Francisco Lorite
John Farmanesh-Bocca
Francisco Lorite is from Spain. He wrote-directed his first film at 14 and left for the US six years later, teaching himself English by reading voraciously, watching tons of great films and loads of bad TV.
While in NYC, he appeared in OffBroadway plays, indie films and too many car commercials. He also became a member of the Shakespeare Lab at the celebrated Joseph Papp Public Theatre.
His no-budget/no-crew short CUCO GOMEZ-GOMEZ IS DEAD! won 5 Best-of awards -- including the prestigious Imagen Award for Best Theatrical Short Film. This success led to various writing assignments including the crime drama THE PEARL for State Street Pictures and directing work for SiTV Networks, Red Bull, WildSound, etc.
His subsequent award-winning short, MEDIATION, stars Freddy Rodriguez (6 Feet Under and Grind House) & Marley Shelton.
After an extremely successful festival run (70+ international screenings, close to 20 Best of nominations and 8 awards in several categories), the film has been licensed for broadcast in the U.S. and internationally (Sin City . Scream 4).
Next, he was called on by Disney to write and direct a PG comedy action pilot, NELSON BIXBY TAKES ON
THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD and commissioned to write and direct a feature film for Mar Vista Entertainment, THE CHEERLEADER AND THE HITMAN, which will begin preproduction shortly.
John Farmanesh-Bocca
John Farmanesh-Bocca
John Farmanesh-Bocca
Mr. Farmanesh-Bocca is a multi-award winning theatre director and the Founding Artistic Director of both Not Man Apart – Physical Theatre Ensemble (2005-2015) and Shakespeare Santa Monica (2003–2014).
He now serves as Emeritus Director of the award-winning Not Man Apart Ensemble, which under his watch was named by Backstage Magazine in 2014 as one of the 13 most innovative physical theatre companies in the world.
A Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation and Drama Critics Circle award nominated artist, Mr. Farmanesh-Bocca's works include Pericles Redux (European and U.S. Premieres), Wish I Had A Sylvia Plath (Co-conceived, World Premiere, Edinburgh Fringe First Award Winner), Titus Redux, As/Is, Hercules Furens, Tempest Redux (13 Nominations and 3 Stage Raw Awards), Ajax in Iraq (LA Premiere ), Lysistrata Unbound (World Premiere).
Mr. Farmanesh-Bocca’s first endeavor in filmmaking, a narrative short film drama called I DID NOT FORGET YOU, which he both wrote and directed, garnered 14 nominations and 7 awards from various national and international film festivals, including the People’s Choice Award at The Hollywood Independent Film Festival.
Awarded an American Theatre Wing Scholarship, John trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in Acting (‘94) before serving as a Directing Fellow at the Julliard School - Drama Division (2003-2005).
Jason Gurvitz
John Farmanesh-Bocca
Jason Gurvitz
Jason is the founder of Green Dog Films and Hidden Tears Project. In addition to directing the documentary short UNTIL THEY ALL COME HOME, featuring Mira Sorvino, about special forces who rescued American children from human traffickers,
Jason produced the features AVENGED, THE THREE HIKERS, THE RUSSIAN BRIDE, THE SUBMARINE KID, BROKEN KINGDOM, and THE PERFECT WITNESS and he was the Director of Production and Acquisitions at Maya Pictures, under award winning Producer Moctesuma Esparza.
Recently Jason won a coveted spot in the Imagine Impact screenwriting lab (2019), created by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, where he developed his one hour drama THE INTERPRETER, with co-creator Greg Kading (UNSOLVED on USA).
His feature hybrid animated/ live action, UNWRITTEN, was one of the Blacklist's Top 10 Unproduced Animated Scripts.
Cady McClain
John Farmanesh-Bocca
Jason Gurvitz
Cady McClain is a two-time Emmy Award winning actor, filmmaker, musician and writer. Her credits include studio and independent films, network and cable television, New Media, Off-Broadway theater, and performance art.
Devoted to helping more women become directors, her first foray into documentary film, Seeing is Believing: Women Direct won a Jury Award from the Newport Beach Film Festival (short), the Audience Award for a Feature Film at the SOHO Film Festival (feature), Best Documentary Pro-Action at the Artemis Women in Action Film Festival (full length feature) and multiple Official Selections.
Other narrative directing projects include the short subject, Burnt Feathers, Broken Wings (Winner - Best Film, Best Ensemble, Best Screenplay at the Paramount Studios Sponsored KITS Movie Awards, Official Selection Santa Fe Film Festival): Butterflies (Winner Best Short Film, Best Actress in a Short Film - Philadelphia Independent Film Festival): Venice the Series (two Emmy Nominations for Best Series/Best Directing of a Web Series - 2017 and 2018); Flip Fantasia (Official Selection - Macon Film Festival); The World of Albert Fuh (Best Comedy Drama Short at the Indie Gathering Festival, Honorable Mention for Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Review, Honorable Mention from the SaMo Indie Film Fest); and the original web series, Switch, starring Olympia Dukakis (Winner Best Pilot - Santa Fe Film Festival, Official Selection Hollyshorts, Dances with Pilots). She has also directed two other films for Kids in the Spotlight (a studio supported program to benefit foster youth) with the film The Last Day winning Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actress at the Movies By Kids Awards hosted by Ty Burrell
McClain is proud to have been awarded the illustrious International Matrix Award by the Association of Women in Communications for her advocacy work around the topic of female directors. Previous recipients include Ann Curry, Jane Pauley, Judy Woodruff and Christiane Amanpour. Ms. McClain is honored and humbled to be in included with such an illustrious group of groundbreaking women. She is an Official 2019-2020 Mentor for Women in Film.
Jennifer Grace Cook
Jennifer Grace Cook
Jennifer Grace Cook
Jennifer is a writer and producer and has worked in entertainment for more than 20 years in television and film development, production and marketing; including at HBO, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Tri Star, ABC and NBC and was on the team that created the groundbreaking outreach campaign, SAGIndie, for the Screen Actors Guild.
Jennifer has written fifteen feature length screenplays including an adaptation of Jim Harrison’s novella JULIP for director Alison Eastwood. She's currently in development on two TV series, both are period pieces that explore themes of home, life purpose and an individual's need to understand their personal value. Upcoming later this year, Jennifer’s adaptation of LILY, a narrative feature based upon the life of Holocaust survivor Lily Mazur Margules will be directed by award-winning Australian filmmaker Nadia Tass and starring Israeli Film Academy award-winning actress Mili Avital.
Jennifer also serves as Co-Producer on LILY, overseeing the Educational and Social Impact Program that will accompany the release of the film. Partnerships with the Museum of Tolerance, the Foundation on Genocide Education, Life After Hate, Against Violent Extremism and ISD Global will facilitate the creation of unique programs intended to educate audiences and confront attitudes that lead to intolerance, hate crimes and violent extremism.
Stephen Sanow
Jennifer Grace Cook
Jennifer Grace Cook
Stephen Sanow is a writer and comedian from Washington, D.C. He has written and produced content for AwesomenessTV and has also written short stories for Hooked on Snapchat Discover.
Stephen is the author of numerous short films that have premiered at various festivals and wrote the play, You, Me & That Guy, that was co-produced with the Araca Group as part of their Araca Project program. Also he has been on multiple house teams at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre and performs comedy all over LA.
In Spring 2019, Stephen participated in the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge as a writer for the short film TAKE IT BACK. Out of 71 films, it was 1 of 5 nominated for BEST FILM.
Cassandra Pimentel
Jennifer Grace Cook
Cassandra Pimentel
Cassandra Pimentel is a Filipina-American filmmaker most known for her festival selected short film PLAZA BLVD (2017), IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME (2014) starring Yoshi Sudarso (Nickelodeon’s Power Rangers Dino Charge) and MyxTV's original digital series A.S.S. - A SCARY SLEEPOVER (2018) starring Thia Megia (American Idol, NBC's Days of Our Lives). PLAZA BLVD premiered at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, and to name a few, it was also a finalist at the FACINE Philippine Arts & Cinema International Film Festival and Los Angeles Cinefest.
Not only does she direct films, but Cassandra has a strong passion for directing music videos. In 2018 she had a blast directing The Filharmonic (NBC The Sing Off, CBS The Late Late show with James Corden) THIS CHRISTMAS music video featuring Spencer Ludwig. In the fall of 2019 she directed up and coming artist Jules Aurora's TEACH ME TO LOVE.
Cassandra aims to incorporate culture and diversity in her projects; her short film, BATTLE OF THE STICKS (2016) presents the Filipino cultural dance, Tinikling. In her efforts to be a voice for inclusion, she participated in the 2019 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge and directed the short film TAKE IT BACK starring Santina Muha (Netflix One Day At A Time). Out of 71 film entries, Take It Back was 1 of 5 nominated for BEST FILM. The Take It Back cast and crew were also featured on CNN Entertainment, and RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad) "singled out TAKE IT BACK as a movie designed to change the perspective of how someone with a disability is viewed" (The Wrap).