2013 HONOREES & PRESENTERS
Award winning composer Marco Beltrami established an early reputation as a genre innovator with non-traditional horror scores for the “Scream” franchise and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”. Beltrami’s musical palette has since expanded to virtually all film genres ranging from epic drama to dark comedy. Marco has worked with some of the most recognizable names in the industry including Kathryn Bigelow, Guillermo Del Torro, James Mangold, Robert Rodriguez, Luc Besson and David Goyer to name a few. Beltrami has received two Academy Award nominations for Best Score for 3:10 to Yuma, and shortly after for his score to the Academy Award-Winning film for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker. Beltrami’s score for “Soul Surfer” won the 2012 Satellite Award for “Best Film Score of The Year”. Recent projects include “Trouble with the Curve”, “The Sessions”, “A Good Day to Die Hard”, and “Warm Bodies”. Beltrami has lent his musical voice to such unique hit films as “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”, “I-Robot”, “The Thing”, and “Deadfall”. His upcoming films include this summer’s highly anticipated blockbusters’ “Wolverine” and “World War Z”. He is best known as a movie auteur of horror and science fiction films – often containing a police procedural element. He has since concentrated mainly on screenwriting including the Joel Schumacher thriller Phone Booth, Cellular, and Captivity. Cohen returned to the directing chair for Mick Garris’ Masters of Horror TV series and directed the episode “Pick Me Up”. We are very pleased to present Larry Cohen with this years screenwriting award.
MARCO BELTRAMI: HONOREE
Brenda recently wrote and directed the animated feature film “Brave” for Pixar Animation and won an Academy Award. Brenda was also the first American woman to direct an animated feature film from a major studio for the film “The Prince of Egypt.” After graduating with a BFA in character animation from CalArts, she became a story trainee on Disney’s animated film “The Little Mermaid” and was one of several key story artists on Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” She later served as head of story, the first woman to do so in an animated feature film, for Disney’s animated classic “The Lion King.” Chapman also worked in story and development for other Disney animated films such as “The Rescuers Down Under,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, and “Fantasia 2000.” She joined DreamWorks Animation at its inception in the fall of 1994. Chapman moved to Pixar in 2003, where she had a brief stint on “Cars” before beginning development on and directing “Brave”. Chapman conceived the project and was announced as the director of the film, making her Pixar’s first female director. Other credits include “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Shrek”, “WALL-E,” “Ratatouille,” “Up” and “Toy Story 3.”
BRENDA CHAPMAN: HONOREE
With over 190 films and 16 Oscar nominations, Greg P. Russell is one of the most well respected Sound Mixers in the industry. While at Warner Brothers, Greg mixed such films as “Tequila Sunrise”, “The Bodyguard”, “Usual Suspects”, “Steel Magnolias”, “Star Trek IV”, “Point Break”, and “Stargate”, to name a few. At Sony Studios, Greg mixed some of the biggest blockbusters and has earned Oscar nominations for “The Rock”, “Con Air”, “Armageddon”, “The Mask of Zorro”, “The Patriot”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Spider-Man”, “Spider-Man 2”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, “Apocalypto”, all three “Transformers” films, “Salt”, and last years James Bond spy-thriller “Skyfall”. Greg has collaborated with some of the most talented director’s in Hollywood. That list includes Sam Mendes, Michael Bay, Sam Raimi, Ron Howard, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, James L. Brooks, Phillip Noyce, William Friedkin, Tim Burton, Kathyrn Bigelow, Barry Sonnenfeld, Mel Gibson, Rob Marshall, Jon Turteltaub, Rob Riener, Paul Verhoeven, Adrian Lyne, Roland Emmerich, Martin Campbell, Bryan Singer, Jonathan Mostow, Richard Donner, John Avildsen, Herbert Ross, Simon West, Lawrence Kasden and Nicolas Meyer among others.
GREG RUSSELL: HONOREE
Neville Page is a creature and concept designer who has worked with such luminaries as Ridley Scott on “Prometheus“, James Cameron on “Avatar“, and J.J. Abrams on “Star Trek“, “Star Trek Into Darkness“, “Super 8” and “Cloverfield“. Other feature films include “Oblivion”, “Green Lantern”, “Tron: Legacy”, “Watchmen”, and the upcoming Russel Crowe film, “Noah“. Notable TV credits include “Falling Skies” and “Terra Nova”. Setting out for Hollywood at the age of 17, Page survived on small acting gigs in day-time soaps like “General Hospital“ while putting together an increasingly impressive art portfolio. He performed as a stand-up comedian at the Ice House and the Improv to pay for his training at the Art Center College of Design. Page graduated with honors in 1990 and immediately started a design consultancy with his best friend and studio partner, Scott Robertson. In addition to his feature film credits, Neville is currently involved as a design consultant for the entertainment, toy, and automotive industries; and is developing his own line of educational art products.
NEVILLE PAGE: HONOREE
World reknowned artist and sculptor Mike Hill began his career as a makeup artist for local British television, creating quick change disguises for on-air personalities. As he was quickly carving a niche as one of the worlds greatest portrait sculptors, he was contacted by iconic comic book artist Alex Ross who comissioned life-size versions of Mike’s interpretation of his own Batman and Superman creations. Ross featured Mike’s work prominently in his book, “Mythology“. Mike moved to Los Angeles and began working alongside film legend Rick Baker on such films as “The Wolfman” and “M.I.B. III”. Most recently Mike sculpted the prosthetics that brought the Emmy nominated “Pepper” to life on “American Horror Story”. In addition to film work, Mike is best known for re-creating iconic horror characters for clients such as Hugh Hefner, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. His pieces also grace the inside cover of Metallica’s Kirk Hammet’s new book, “Too Much Horror Business”. We are very pleased to honor Mike’s artistic vision and talents as one of this years esteemed Honorees.
MIKE HILL: HONOREE
Dave O’Brien has produced social-media campaigns and documentary films that tell the untold stories of social inequities and injustice. Dave was honored with the “Paul Stark Warrior Award” for HIV prevention for his innovative HIV prevention transmedia campaign “In the Moment”. His feature documentary, “Equality U” received the Outstanding Emerging Talent award at Outfest as well as several Best Documentary and Best Feature awards. He produced the indie feature “The Man Who Shook The Hand Of Vicente Fernan- dez”, starring Academy-Award winner Ernest Borgnine as a man who over- comes racism. His next film “Shot”, is an indie feature addressing gun violence to be directed by Emmy-Winner Jeremy Kagan. Dave teaches documentary production at Cal State Long Beach and producing at University of Southern California where he is Associate Director of their Change Making Media Lab. In 2011, BIFF created the “Awareness Award” to honor individuals that utilize the art of filmmaking to not only educate, but transform the publics awareness concerning socially conscious issues. We are pleased to honor Dave O’ Brien with this years “Awareness Award”.
DAVE O’BRIEN: HONOREE
RJ Mitte co-stars on the Emmy-winning AMC drama, “Breaking Bad”. Just as his character on the show, (Walter White Jr), has cerebral palsy, so does Mitte, although his is a milder form of the disability. On the big screen, RJ starred in the fantasy thriller feature film “House of Last Things” and recently had a guest-starring role on the CBS hit series “Vegas”. He also appears in the documentary film “CinemAbility” featuring a who’s who of Hollywood with Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx, and Gary Sinise to name a few. Mitte is involved with many organizations that raise awareness of equality and diversity. He is the Youth Spokesperson for the National Disability Institute’s Real Economic Impact Tour, which works to improve the financial situation of low-income persons with disabilities and the Celebrity Youth Ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy. He is also a spokesperson for “I AM PWD,” a tri-union campaign (SAG, AFTRA & Actors’ Equity) which advocates for actors with disabilities, and for “Beyond Diversity — the future is now.”
RJ MITTE: PRESENTER
John’s first major film role was starring opposite Robert Deniro and Christopher Walken in the “The Deer Hunter”, which garnered five Academy Awards. Another legendary role was playing Claude Bukowski in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, “Hair”. Other feature films include Terrence Malick’s war film, “The Thin Red Line”, “The Onion Field”, “White Squall” and “The Godfather Part III”. On stage, John appeared on Broadway in David Mamet’s iconic play, “American Buffalo” with Robert Duvall. In more recent years, John’s work has been seen on the small screen as well. He was the recurring character of Donald Lydecker in James Cameron’s series “Dark Angel”, Captain Ransom in the two part episode “Equinox” on “Star Trek: Voyager” and a recurring role as Henry Scudder in the HBO series “Carnivàle”. Other notable TV credits include Guest Starring roles on “Fringe”, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, “The District”, “Everwood” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. He is currently starring in the western thriller “The Sorrow” with Michael Madsen and has several upcoming films including the dark romantic comedy “Hit List”, “Bullett” and can be seen playing the President of the United States in the SYFY Original movie “Bermuda Tentacles”. John will be presenting the award to this years recipient for “Best Actor”.
JOHN SAVAGE: HONOREE
Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, got her start on television as Don Johnson’s rebellious daughter Cassidy in the long running CBS hit “Nash Bridges”, and recently was a series regular on FOX’s critically acclaimed “Prison Break”. O’Keefe will co-star in the upcoming thriller “The Frozen Ground“ opposite John Cusack, and Nicholas Cage and starred in the Lifetime original movies “Stalkers”, “A Nanny’s Revenge” and “Exposed” which dealt with the hot button issue of privacy. Jody also starred alongside Justin Bruening in the Hallmark Channel movie, “Class”. O’Keefe’s episodic work includes recurring and guest starring roles on “Castle”, “Lost”, “Two and a Half Men”, “Big Bang Theory”, “Criminal Minds”, “CSI: NY”, and many more. On film, she is best remembered for starring in “She’s All That” with Freddie Prinze Jr, for which she won the “Best Bad Girl” Young Hollywood Award, and a series of popular horror films including “Halloween: H20”, “Devil in the Flesh: Part II”. She starred with James Franco in “Whatever it Takes” and one of her favorite experiences was starring with James Woods in a short film he wrote and directed, “Falling in Love in Pongo Ponga”.
JODY LYNN O’KEEFE: PRESENTER
Jennifer Yuh Nelson made her feature film directorial debut with Kung Fu Panda 2, the sequel to the Academy Award®-nominated original film and is currently in pre-production on Kung-Fu Panda 3. Kung-Fu Panda 2 earned more than $665 million at the worldwide box-office, making her the highest-grossing female director at the global box office. Ms. Nelson has lent her talents to a variety of DreamWorks Animation’s motion pictures including: 2008’s Kung Fu Panda (as head of story), 2005’s Madagascar (as story artist), 2003’s Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (as head of story) and 2002’s Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (also as story artist). Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, Ms. Nelson worked at HBO Animation, developing various projects and short series. She has worn many hats, serving as director, story artist and character designer for HBO’s animated series Spawn, which won an Emmy Award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program. She has also published several independent comic books. As last years Director of Animation Honoree, Jennifer will be presenting the award to this years recipient, Brenda Chapman.
JENNIFER YUH NELSON: PRESENTER
Inspired by the works of his Academy Award-winning father, Ed Begley, Ed Jr. became an actor. He played Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the hit TV series, “St. Elsewhere,” and received six Emmy nominations. Ed co-starred in the Woody Allen movie “Whatever Works”, the Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow film, “Pineapple Express”, and a number of Christopher Guest films, “A Mighty Wind”, “Best In Show,” and For Your Consideration”. Other feature films include “Batman Forever”, “The Accidental Tourist” and “The In-Laws.” On TV, Begley will appear in the HBO series “Family Tree” and the HBO movie, “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight”. He also starred in “Recount” with Kevin Spacey, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern, as well as recurring roles on “Six Feet Under”, “Arrested Development”, and “Boston Legal.” He just starred in David Mamet’s “November” at the Mark Taper Forum, and has appeared in several other Mamet works including “The Cryptogram,” and “Romance”. Ed directed several episodes of the hit show “NYPD Blue” as well as a play that he wrote called “Cesar and Ruben” that won a Nos Otros Award and four Valley Theater League Awards. He is one of the Governors of the Motion Picture Academy and he lives in a solar powered home and drives an electric car.
ED BEGLEY JR.: PRESENTER
Actress Rachelle Carson-Begley is one of the most-recognized names and faces in Hollywood’s green movement. While she’s well known for her support of numerous nonprofits, Rachelle went the extra mile for three years by inviting millions into her home to demonstrate how a sustainable lifestyle can be achieved—and she’s about to do it again with On Begley Street. As one of the stars of the highly successful reality series Living With Ed, Rachelle was the self-described “reluctant environmentalist.” Of course, that was in comparison with her co-star and husband, noted actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. Living With Ed showed viewers that a happy medium is possible between “eco-obsessed” (Ed) and “reasonably green” (Rachelle) — although it may require a lot of work and compromise on both parts. On Begley Street chronicles the latest adventure for the Begleys, one that began when Rachelle convinced Ed it was time to build a new home to accommodate the realities of life with a teenage daughter. Rachelle is on the board of the nonprofit Green Wish and a supporter of many charities, including Waterkeeper Alliance and groups focused on children and Alzheimer’s disease. She’s also an in-demand speaker, participating in events for Women of the Green Generation and other organizations.
RACHELLE CARSON-BEGLEY: PRESENTER
Award-winning actor Raphael Sbarge is known for an array of film, theatre and television projects; most recently playing Jimmy Cricket on ABC’s highest-rated drama series, “Once Upon a Time”. Raphael began working at the age of four on a new PBS show called “Sesame Street”. By 16, he was in his first Broadway show, “The Curse of the Aching Heart”, opposite Faye Dunaway. By 18, just days after graduating high school, he co-starred in Risky Business with Tom Cruise. Over the years he has appeared in over 30 films, including “Independence Day”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Message in a Bottle” and :The Assassination of Richard Nixon”. Other television movie roles include HBO’s “Breast Men”, “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” and “Murder 101”. He was a series regular on “The Guardian” and has made over 100 guest appearances, including recurring roles on “Dexter”, “Big Love”, “Prison Break”, “Private Practice” and guest starring roles on “CSI”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “24”, “CSI: NY”, “Profiler” and “Star Trek Voyager”, among many others. In the little free time that Sbarge has, he supports Green Wish™ , a non-profit he founded that helps local, green, organizations fund projects for their communities through donations online and at local retailers.
RAPHAEL SBARGE: PRESENTER
Judith Shekoni is best known for the final installment of Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt II as ‘Zafrina’ the leader of the Amazonian Vampires. Directed by Oscar Winner Bill Condon. Most recently Judi returned from shooting the lead in the feature ‘Dancer’ shot in Mumbai , India and playing Samuels love interest ‘Dominique’ on Mike and Molly (CBS).Judi has been a series regular on the No 1 UK TV Show ‘Eastenders’, gritty Hallmark drama ‘The Hidden City’ and appeared on every major TV channel in the UK in national staples including Casualty, ‘Hollyoaks’ and ‘Fat Friends’. Judi combined her work in the UK with working on American shows such as ‘NCIS’ (CBS), ‘King of Queens’ (CBS), Brothers & Sisters’ (ABC), ‘All of Us’ (CW) and Damages. She was a series regular on When Women Rule the World (Fox) and has appeared in numerous features such as Garfield 2 (Fox), Jekyll and Hyde, For Christs Sake, Private Moments and Echoes of War. Judi can also be seen in the upcoming feature An African Adventure.
JUDI SHEKONI: PRESENTER
Patrick Kilpatrick’s entertainment career has spanned more than 125 films and television shows as lead actor, producer, screen writer, and director, – from Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” to James Cameron’s “Dark Angel”. His action film appearances span a multitude of genres including “The Replacement Killers” against Yun-Fat Chow; Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Caan in “Eraser”; “Last Man Standing” opposite Bruce Willis; “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” opposite Steven Segal; “The Presidio” opposite Sean Connery and Mark Harmon; and the ever-popular action mainstay “Death Warrant” opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme. He has even done battle with the largest mammal on earth in “Free Willy 3: The Rescue”. Kilpatrick’s notable TV appearances include “Burn Notice”, “Cold Case”, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, “Chuck”, “Nip/Tuck”, “24″ as Secret Service Agent Dale Spaulding (the man who “killed” Jack Bauer), “Criminal Minds”, and “The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” Kilpatrick is currently directing and producing the feature film “Active Shooter”.
PATRICK KILPATRICK: PRESENTER
Laura Wiggins is from Athens, Georgia and is an accomplished television and film actress and a musician. Laura can be seen in the upcoming feature “Hard Drive”, as well as the feature films “Dance of the Dead”, and “Eleventh Hour”. In the Summer of 2010, she joined the cast of the Showtime dramedy “Shameless”, as a series regular playing character, Karen Jackson. After a successful first season, the show was renewed and Wiggins remained part of the main cast and in season three, she became a recurring series cast member. Wiggins other notable TV credits include “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, “Private Practice”, “Hit List”, “Perception”, and “Blackbox TV”. She has also appeared in an number of TV movies including “Girl Positive”, “Cooper and Stone” and “Not Like Anyone Else”.
LAURA WIGGINS: PRESENTER
Dennis Haskins is most recognized as Principal Belding from the hit TV series “Saved By The Bell”. Haskins played the only adult member of the regular cast known for the catchphrase “Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?” He continued the role on the spinoff “Saved by the Bell: The New Class”. Other notable TV roles include “Mad Men”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “The Bold and the Beautiful” , “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, “The West Wing” as well as a recurring role on the Ray Romano series, “Men of a Certain Age”. In 2009, Haskins released his first music album called “Karaoke With Your Favorite Principal Dennis.” Haskins has appeared in multiple episodes of “Z! True Long Island Story”, a YouTube series by WWE professional wrestler Zack Ryder and was was honored with The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s “Most Distinguished Alumni Award” and has a regional high school academic decathlon name after him, “The Dennis Haskins Open”, now in its eleventh year. We hope to see Dennis soon on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars”.
DENNIS HASKINS: PRESENTER
Christian’s feature film debut was playing opposite Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Kevin Bacon in the Warner Bros. hit comedy “Crazy, Stupid, Love”. Christian will be starring with Gary Busey, Matthew Marsden and Kristanna Loken in the highly anticipated action adventure film Bounty Killer, based on the celebrated graphic novel by Henry Saine. Christian portrays Mary Death, the most popular celebrity bounty killer in a post-apocalyptic world. After moving to Los Angeles, Christian booked a guest-starring role on the hit CBS-TVseries CSI: Miami and will be see in the new series “Adopted”. Other feature film credits include, “Boys of Summer”, “A Father’s Rights”, Sparkle and Tooter” and the popular video game “Infamous”.
CHRISTIAN PETRE: PRESENTER
