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United States
Canada
France
Japan
Germany
Guatemala
Haiti
Ireland
Reunion Island
South Africa
United States
Robert Davi
A queens native, Robert Davi is one of the film industry's most recognized tough guys, whether on the big screen or on television. His tough exterior masks a powerful inner sensitivity, which he calls upon for his most notorious roles. A stickler for research, Davi contacted Quantico and arranged to meet Bill Hagenmeyer, the real-life FBI profiler. Davi received critical acclaim within the industry for his provocative and smoldering portrayal of Bailey Malone.
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Jim Jermanok
Jim Jermanok is an award-winning writer, director and producer in narrative and documentary feature films. Jim wrote and produced the highly acclaimed romantic comedy, Passionada, which was released in over 150 countries. Jim recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival for his film Em. He is about to finish directing Agganis, a documentary about Harry Agganis, the legendary New England athlete of years past. Jermanok is a former ICM Agent who represented Shirley MacLaine, Diudley Moore, Helen Hayes, Alan Arkin and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
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William Shahin
Bio coming soon
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David Jurman
David Jurman has been in the recording industry for over twenty years. As an executive at both Arista Records and Columbia Records, he was presented with over twenty gold and platinum albums in recognition of his efforts in Artists and Repertoire, Artist Development and Promotion at those industry giants. Mr. Jurman was honored as the Major Label Executive of the Year at the 2001 International Dance Music Awards. Mr. Jurman is also a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
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Richard Vetere
Poet, Veteran Film & TV Writer. Richard Vetere has written about Queens and the people who populate its borders for nearly three decades. Vetere is the acclaimed author of "The Third Miracle". The novel was called one of the best debut novels of the year in 1998. Produced by "Francis Ford Coppola" and directed by Agneiszka Holland, Vetere co-authored the screenplay adaptation, which starred Ed Harris and Anne Heche. Jason Alexander, Allison Eastwood and Kimberley Williams star in Vetere's screenplay adaptation of his stage play "How to go on a date in Queens", to be released soon. Vetere's is currently a story editor on ABC's new prime time TV series called " Threat Matrix". "Baby Blue", Vetere's original screenplay begins filming this fall in NYC and Vetere is a co-producer.
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Julie Berndt
Julie Berndt was born in Sweden where she began performing at a very young age. Scholarships and work brought her to study and perform classical and contemporary forms of dance and theater in France, Germany, Great Britain, Canada and the United States. In New York she studied dance at The Juilliard School where she transformed into a fiery gypsy for the production of "El Amor Brujo". Other favorite roles were: Zelda Fitzgerald, the muse and wife to F. Scott Fitzgerald at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival; the choreographer in "Running Backwards On The Treadmill" at the Symphony Space; the Suffragette, a lead role in "What Became Known As The Eleanor Affair", a short which garnered awards at Short Film Festivals internationally. For the past several years she has concentrated primarily on acting in voice-overs, commercials, stage and film. Most recently she appeared in "Calling It Quits", a feature by Anthony Tarsitano, currently in post production. Julie is thrilled to be a new member on board The Queens International Film Festival.
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Don Cato
Don, a former Landscape Architect, was raised on a fruit farm in Fredonia, New York. He earned a BSLA and a BLA from Michigan State and his MLA from the University of Oregon where he also taught & worked on his MFA in Motion Graphics. At Oregon, he participated in Director workshops with Howard Hawks and Bugs Bunny animator Bob Clampett. At The Orson Wells Film School in Cambridge, MA., he studied with Cinematographer Austin DeBesche and participated in workshops under notable film Directors Nicolas Ray, Oscar winner Jan Kadar, and Paul Morrissey(Warhol Films). At the Lazlo Kovacs workshop in Camden, Maine, Don won the "Most Electricity" Award. Among Cato's many short films, Pipeline Patrol, won a silver medal at Cannes, a National Film Board of Canada selection, a Stratford, Ontario Film Festival selection, a Tokyo Film Festival Selection, a First Prize-Honorable Mention from American Society of Animators-East (NY) and toured with the Ann Arbor Midnight Trip. His documentary Skinners' Beaut, a bicentennial film for the City of Eugene, Oregon was screened by the World Futures Society as a tribute to Margaret Meade at the Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, New York. Shortly after in 1978, he made China Dawning, Behind Silk Curtains, an award winning documentary on The People's Republic of China. He packaged and directed his first feature, Dixie Lanes, with Karen Black, Hoyt Axton, Moses Gunn, Tina Louise and Nina Foch, edited and released in 1987 by Cinemavault Releasing. Recently, his feature Be My Oswald YouTube video appeared in over nine festivals winning four and is critically compared to Shallow Grave by Danny Boyle and to the dark comedy Dr. Strangelove. Don has won awards for photography, sculpture and co-founded Garbagio's, the country's first consumer owned, source separating recycling & garbage company. Don currently teaches at The Digital Film Academy in New York. QIFF PSA's
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Katha Cato
Katha was born in Yuma, Arizona and grew up on a cattle ranch in the Imperial Valley, California where she was a Champion Equestrian. She earned a BA from Cal-Poly and an MFA in Theatre from the University of Oregon, moved to New York with her theatre company Forplay Improvised Theatre and pioneered the Improvisational Herald format into the mainstream comedy scene. She won a Backstage Magazine Bistro Award for 'Best Director', a Manhattan Association of Cabarets [MAC] award for 'Outstanding Comedy', and was named New York's 'Most Exciting Improviser' by the New York Post. Currently, Katha is the Director of After-School Services for Henry Street Settlement, providing over 900 youngsters daily with arts, technology and youth development programming. In November she won "The 2008 After School Super Star Award for Exemplary Service & Programming" presented by the State of New York. Katha Co-Produced and the co-lead in the award winning feature Be My Oswald. Katha and Don produced the 2008 QIFF Youth Initiative PSA's. She Co-produces, with Don, and is the lead actor in The Department of Positive Commentary
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Jimmy Arcuri
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Bio coming soon
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Marsh Schneidau
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Bio coming soon
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Canada & Guatemala
Julio Ponce Palmieri
An accomplished screenwriter, Julio has had multiple "writer-for-hire" contracts, leading to numerous major projects in development, including two dramatic epic stories, (SIMON BOLIVAR:LIBERATOR and MARCO POLO AND THE COURT OF KUBLAI KHAN), co-written with TJ Mancini ( writer/producer of Vin Diesel's FIND ME GUILTY) and the classic story THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (co-written with Max Ryan), which is now in pre-production in Poland. Julio is the producer, writer and director of three feature films titled "SMOKED", "GAME OVER" and "PERSPECTIVE" and also numerous short films that have played in many festivals such as Boston Latino International Film Festival, the New York Short Film Festival, the Platforma Video Festival in Greece, the Queens International Film Festival and the NYIIFVF Los Angeles among many others.
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France
Louis-Charles Rousseau
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Bio coming soon
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Japan
John Akagawa
John Akagawa is a filmmaker and photographer. John lives between Tokyo and New York.
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Germany
Liz Franken
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Bio coming soon
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Haiti
Lyssa Laraque
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Bio coming soon
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Ireland
Nick Hardin
Nick Hardin studied acting at the famous Actors Studio in New York, before heading out to the West coast to work in L.A.
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Reunion Island
Lyssa Laraque
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Bio coming soon
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South Africa
Nicol VanDeBeer
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Bio coming soon
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