SELECTION COMMITTEE
TOPPER LILIEN
Topper Lilien has written dozens of film and television scripts for such production companies and studios as Walt Disney, Sony Pictures, Village Roadshow, Miramax, USA Network and Showtime. He’s worked with such producers, directors, collaborators and actors as James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay, Quincy Jones, Paul Newman, Steve Golin, Elmore Leonard, Robin Williams, T Bone Burnett and Scott Frank. As a screenwriting professor, he’s taught at USC, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University and the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.
CRAIG T. WILLIAMS
Craig T. Williams is a writer/producer currently part of the prestigious 2022 WarnerMedia Access Writers Program (formerly the HBO All Access Writers Program). As one of only 20 writers chosen from over four thousand applicants, he created an original 30-minute TV Pilot.
Williams serves on the Board of Directors for Filmshop and he created and runs The Writers Den – a weekly workshop designed to get Writers to a fighting draft of their feature screenplay or TV Pilot for production, competitions, fellowships, or fundraising. He has written and produced over 50 film projects including short films, documentaries, web series. In 2021 he won a $25,000 Producers grant from the Black TV and Film Collective with fiscal support from Wavelength and Cinereach to produce the short film Mechanics Rose, which is now playing the festival circuit.
His one-hour TV pilot HOW YA LIKE ME NOW, about the 80s rap rivalry between Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J, won 2nd Place in the Page International Screenwriting Competition. His feature screenplay HANGING BY A THREAD has Viola Davis attached as Executive Producer and is seeking financing. Williams is a writing mentor for Women of Color Unite’s Start with 8 Mentorship Program, The Craft Institute, The Writers Room 5050 Foundation, and for teen filmmakers at Reel Works Mentorship Program in Brooklyn.
DANA VERDE
Dana Verde is an award winning filmmaker who has written / directed 8 short films that have screened in over 30 film festivals internationally. She started her career co-hosting a TV show on MTV called “Your Movie Show” as a film reviewer while pursuing a degree at The New School University (New York, NY) in Media Studies/ Screenwriting. Dana continued her education in film at The London Film School (London, UK) where she earned an MA in Filmmaking. After graduating Dana returned to the US to direct her independently produced feature film, Grand Gesture, which was nominated by HBO for best feature film at the Martha’s Vineyard African American film festival and screened in the best of series at the Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago. This project attracted comedian/actor Brandon T. Jackson from the Percy Jackson film series/ Ben Stiller movie Tropic Thunder, who solicited Dana to write two comedy feature scripts for his production company Class Clown. Dana’s next project, a spec feature screenplay, The Perfect Match, was produced by Queen Latifah’s production company Flavor Unit and distributed by Lionsgate. It debuted #6 in the US box office, opening in 925 theaters across the country. Her love for short films and short form content led Dana to create 3CK Media (Third Culture Kid Media), a new media production company that specializes in producing short digital content. Currently Dana has ventured into directing TV commercials co-directing her first commercial for streaming service Paramount Plus featuring Johnny Knoxville, The Good Fight actresses Christine Baranski & Audra McDonald, and Cedric the Entertainer with commercial director David Shane from O Positive and has written two feature screenplays produced by MarVista/Fox Entertainment airing on Tubi in 2023.
JOANNA PICKERING
Joanna Pickering is an award-winning actress and writer. Her plays have sold out in New York, Paris and London, and are available at The Drama Book Shop in NY. In 2022, Bad Victims ran at The Courtyard Theatre in London, directed by Erica Gould (Neil Labute/Theresa Rebeck) starring Pickering and Richard Emerson (West End Chess, ENO Coliseum). The play was described as Sarah Kane meets Noel Coward. The Endgame pre-viewed off-Broadway at New Perspective Theatre, directed by Illana Stein (awarded excellence in directing) and in Paris at The Big Funk Company. In 2021, Truth, Lies and Deceptions sold out its full production, at Le Pave D’Orsay Theatre, in Paris, with Joanna performing a lead role, and receiving national press. It staged in NY as a reading with Caroline Aaron (Marvelous Mrs Maisel) and Dan Lauria (Lombardi) with artistic director Christine Cirker (FAB women/Barrow Group). Pickering’s award-winning debut play, Beach Break, is adapted for series with an Academy award-winning team. It was awarded mentor Kelly Edwards (then VP HBO). Her debut film, Boardwalk screened at The Anthology Film Archives, in 2019, and was nominated for best film and best suspense thriller at NY Web Fest. Joanna has worked as a script consultant for some of the industry’s leading talent and award-winning scripts. As an actor, Joanna won Best Actress at the Los Angeles film Awards and The Actors Awards for her work on DIVA. She has performed many lead roles in independent films (i.e. alongside Benedict Cumberbatch), stage credits include Lady Macbeth, after training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in NY.
Pickering is a member of Theatre 68, ICWP, LPTW, SAG-AFTRA and represented by 3 Arts Entertainment.
LEOPOLD HOESCH
Leopold Hoesch is the founder of BROADVIEW TV, one of the leading independent German documentary film production companies. Many of his productions have received multiple awards, including the International Emmy Award, the Laureus World Sports Award, the German Television Award, the Romy Award, the Magnolia Award and the German Business Film Award. Leopold Hoesch is an ambassador of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in Germany.
Credits: KROOS, NOWITZKI, KLITSCHKO, BLACK EAGLES, FEMOCRACY, BREATH OF FREEDOM, SILENT PANDEMIC, ANGELA MERKEL – A LEGACY THROUGH TIME, COVID CENTURY
LUC BOSSI
Luc Bossi is a film producer and screenwriter based in New York and Paris. He has produced with his company Brio Films several feature films released theatrically in more than 100 countries including THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR, directed by Ken Scott, with Dhanush, Bérénice Béjo, Erin Moriarty and Barkhad Abdi; MOOD INDIGO (L’ECUME DES JOURS), directed by Michel Gondry, with Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Omar Sy and THE PREY, directed by Eric Valette, with Albert Dupontel and Sergi Lopez. He has cowritten the screenplays of these films as well as other feature and TV scripts and the thriller novel Manhattan Freud published by Albin Michel. Luc has previously worked in script development for companies such as Gaumont and Castle Rock Entertainment. He has an MFA in screenwriting from USC and also studied at the French film school La Fémis. Luc’s preference goes to films that are odes to imagination and the power of fiction.
TERRY LAWLER
Terry Lawler is a media consultant and the Competition Director of the CinemaStreet Women’s Short Screenplay Competition. She was Executive Director of New York Women in Film & Television for 20 years, until December 2018. Lawler serves on the Board of Directors of the Katahdin Foundation and Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Prior to becoming Executive Director of NYWIFT, Lawler was Director of Development and Production at Women Make Movies (WMM) and National Director of Film and Videomakers Services at the American Film Institute. She has been a media consultant for foundations and nonprofits, such as the MacArthur Foundation, Astraea Foundation, National Museum of Women in the Arts and Goethe Institute.
Lawler was a production executive on several network TV specials and was Executive Producer of Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography, which won Best Documentary awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle.