Asians on Film Festival 2017

Panelist Biographies

Alon Shtruzman

Alon Shtruzman, CEO, Keshet International. Shtruzman is a seasoned media executive and one of the founding fathers of Israel’s multi-channel industry.  He introduced Israel’s pioneering VOD service, while commissioning a number of successful shows and feature films, including Someone to Run With, The Arbitrator and the acclaimed show In Treatment, which was sold to HBO and became the first Israeli drama series which was remade in the US.

Keshet International is Keshet Media Group’s global distribution and production arm. KI has produced lots of Highlights, including hit drama Prisoners of War, the original Israeli version of prime time Emmy® winner Homeland; International Emmy® nominated docu-reality format Dear Neighbors, Help our Daughter Find Love; and the International Emmy® award-winning ‘buddy comedy’ Traffic Light.

Timothy Marx

Tim Marx is an award winning producer and director whose credits include dramatic and comedic television, feature films, documentaries, special event productions and transmedia projects. He used to be a producer for HBO, Hollywood Pictures, Disney, Goldwyn, Warner Bros, CBS, ABC, TNT, Showtime, among others.

His television credits include the hit series Entourage, Invasion, and Arli$$. Marx produced the highly acclaimed HBO movie Citizen X, which won the ACE Award for Best Picture and a total of ten Emmy and PGA nominations. Marx also co-produced the movie Smooth Talk, which won Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Marx is a speaker on seminar panels and a contributor about all aspects of transmedia distribution. He is an adjunct professor at USC and a member of DGA, PGA, ATAS.

Rick Ambros

Rick Ambros has held several senior level positions in the entertainment industry as an executive, producer and COO, specializing in a variety of fields, from film financing and fund management, to content development and production, marketing and distribution, and more. Over the course of his career, Rick has worked with such Hollywood studios and broadcasters as Disney, Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Sony; and internationally with ProSiebenSat.1 and Star TV. Along the way, Rick has lived in Los Angeles, Munich, Paris, New York and Mumbai, building an international database of relationships and experience to draw from.

Galen Walker

Galen Walker is an experienced entertainment producer and is the Founder and CEO of Gama Entertainment Partners. He has been in the industry for over 25 years and focuses his career on animation features and episodes.

His credits include TMNT, a CGI- animated film which was financed and distributed by Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Co. TMNT was #1 at the US box office in its opening weekend and went on to gross $98M at the WW box office. He then produced the new live-action reboot of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Sequel with Michael Bay. The film grossed over $485M at the WW box office and was the 3rd largest selling DVD of 2014. Walker is currently producing a $25M CGI / Hybrid animated feature ONCE UPON A ZODIAC with Paramount Studios and Unicorn Studios in Hong Kong / China and Cosmic Toast Studios in the US.

Tom Mcfadden

Tom Mcfadden is now serving as a senior counsel at Netflix. Major business includes: negotiate business terms and legal agreements in the content acquisition group, including global and regional conteant licensing agreements with major studios and independent studios located around the world; and commissioned and owned original projects and series; Collaborate and provide legal counsel and support to content protection engineers. Graduated from Columbia Law School, he has served in the law and business for over ten years. Before Netflix, he provided legal counsel and negotiating support to the Content Acquisition business of Comcast Cable.

Chris Huang (Sony Technical Director)

Chris Hung, founder of Chrison Studios, is a well known visual artist working in both Hong Kong & Hollywood who has honed his craft by working on cutting-edge projects such as “The Avengers – Age of Ultron”, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, “Oz – The Great & Powerful” and many other Hollywood Hits. He spent several years at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Out of a desire to deliver more entertainment and excitement to his fans, the concept for Chris’s latest animated series, “TheDRIVER”, was born. By leveraging the latest advancements in digital animation technology, Chris released his masterpiece “TheDRIVER” trailer in 2012 and received million views across the globe. On the other hand, he also directed an orientated live-action comedy “Drink Drank Drunk” with Emperor Motion Pictures which scheduled to release in summer 2016.

Nich Shakarian

Nick Shakarian is now Producer at AV Squad. Specialized in digital media management, post production workflow coordination and supervision, and creative advertising production support. Started from post production intern in Hollywood, Nich with his professionalism and experience, has grown to be the production coordinator in Ignition Creative and content coordinator at Sony Pictures, sooner he joined AV Squad in 2011 in production till now.

Founded in 2004, AV Squad is a creative advertising agency specializing in all forms of audio/visual and print advertising including theatrical trailers, television spots, branding, live-action production, one-sheet design, motion graphics, and promotional presentations.

Simon Sun

Simon Sun was the first person from China accepted into the prestigious screenwriting program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, earning an MFA. He also graduated from legendary “Class 8413” of the Journalism School of Fudan University, Shanghai.

A true bilingual, cross-cultural professional, Sun has more than 15 years of creative and managerial experience in Hollywood and China. He is also an accomplished screenwriter. In 2013, he joined Le Vision Pictures, responsible for building the entertainment conglomerate’s new U.S. movie studio. After one year, LEVP USA has gained its Hollywood foothold and expanded its U.S. presence of every business unit. LEVP has several feature projects either in pre-production or active development as it expands.

Schuyler M. Moore

Schuyler M. Moore is a partner in the corporate entertainment department of Stroock, practicing entertainment, corporate, and tax law. Mr. Moore has been practicing in the entertainment industry since 1981, and represents a broad spectrum of clients throughout the entertainment industry, including producers, sales agents, foreign distributors and financiers, and has handled some of the largest financing transactions in Hollywood.

Mr. Moore has been a mainstay on Hollywood Reporter’s “Power Lawyers” list of the top 100 entertainment lawyers in the country, having been honored multiple times over the past few years. He has also been recognized as one of the top 100 lawyers in California by the Daily Journal and named one of the National Law Journal’s “Most Influential Lawyers.” Additionally, he has been consistently listed as one of the top 25 entertainment lawyers by Variety.

Daniel Kneece

Dan started filming motion pictures at age 13 when his mother bought him a Super 8 camera. In 1979, while finishing his Master’s in Media Arts at the University of South Carolina, Dan began his professional career shooting news at WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina. Soon thereafter he was taught Steadicam by inventor Garrett Brown which lead to a 28 year career as a Steadicam Operator and an ongoing professional relationship with Director David Lynch on films such as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive. Dan’s skills evolved into expertise as an “A” Camera Operator on major film, television, commercial and music video productions such as Jackie Brown and Phone Booth. He worked with the best in the business and learned from them all. Dan now uses his knowledge, extensive film making experience and incredible eye to excel in his work as Director of Photography.