Juror Announcements

Kim Bass is an Emmy-nominated, NAACP Image Award-winning, screenplay and teleplay writer who became a member of the Writers Guild of America West in 1989 after selling sketch comedy material to the HBO news parody...  Read More

Alvaro Rodriguez is the co-creator and executive producer of the Netflix adult-animated series Seis Manos (2019). He is also the co-screenwriter of Robert Rodriguez’s Machete (2010) and Shorts (2009), and the writer and co-producer of...  Read More

Zack Akers grew up in the small town of Athens, Tennessee. He graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a degree in Film & Television and became a documentary producer with...  Read More

Eric Heisserer is a screenwriter and author. Most recently, he wrote the Netflix hit thriller Bird Box starring Sandra Bullock. He is the creator and showrunner for Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, season one based on...  Read More

Nicholas Austin is Director of New Media & Emerging Platforms Development for Sony Pictures Television, generating new scripted and non-fiction programming for podcasts and emerging streaming platforms, in conjunction with television programming and development. He is...  Read More

Photo by Danny Moloshok Raamla Mohamed was born and raised in Los Angeles. After graduating from Columbia University (CC ’03), Raamla went on to receive her MFA in Writing for Film and Television at the...  Read More

Trey Ellis is an award-winning filmmaker, American Book Award-Winning novelist, playwright, essayist, and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University.  Most recently, he is an Executive Producer and interviewer of the Peabody-winning HBO documentary True...  Read More

Richard Lagravenese is a film & television writer/director/producer.  Writer: Behind The Candelabra (Emmy, BAFTA Nominations), The Fisher King (Academy Award®, BAFTA and WGA award nominations), Unbroken,  Water for Elephants, The Bridges of Madison County, A Little...  Read More

Finalist Judge Announcements Mike Vanderhei Manager - Rain Management Group Mike Vanderhei is originally from Chicago where his pursuit of a career in sports journalism ended his senior year of college when he landed in...  Read More