MEET OUR 2024 CFC JUDGES
COLLIN BLACK Collin Black is a director, writer, and VFX artist who focuses in creating visually stunning genre films. Collin began his career in Ohio, crafting award-winning indie shorts. After moving to Los Angeles, he worked as a visual effects artist for a variety of clients including Jim Cummings (Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow). The filmmaker additionally directs music videos and commercials, and has worked with brands such as Adobe, Nanlite, and Coors Light. Collin participated in the 2023 CFC with the short film Shared Spaces, which won the Grand Jury Prize, Best Actress in a Comedy (Erin Bechler), Best Sound, and the Shout Factory Award. The last honor was from Shout Factory, which was the chance to work with the studio to develop his first feature film. Collin is currently writing the script. Collin has been busy with the festival circuit for his cosmic sci-fi short film Motherly Lovecraft, in which his unique blend of directing and knowledge of VFX was able to create a spectacle on an indie level. This short will debut later this year. |
CHRIS GORE Chris Gore is the founder and publisher of FilmThreat.com and host of the Film Threat Livecast on YouTube where he reviews movies weekly. He is the author of several books, most notably The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide and The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made. Chris has hosted television shows on FX including The New Movie Show, on Starz with Festival Pass, IFC's Ultimate Film Fanatic and was a regular on G4TV’s Attack of the Show. Chris is also a filmmaker, having written and produced My Big Fat Independent Movie and directed Attack of the Doc and the upcoming documentary Film Threat Sucks. |
LANA LINK Lana Link is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Moving Picture Institute’s senior vice president. She works with the executive staff to acquire, develop, and produce MPI Original Films. She also works with filmmakers in MPI’s talent development programs and runs MPI masterclasses. Her various producer credits include the short film A Piece of Cake starring Rich Sommer (Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival, Nominated for Best Narrative Short), the digital series We’re Doing Good (Official Selection SXSW), feature-length documentaries Los Últimos Frikis and Project Home (Official Selection Heartland International Film Festival), and feature narratives Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game starring Mike Faist (BAFTA-nominated) and Crystal Reed and Miss Virginia starring Emmy® winner Uzo Aduba, Golden Globe® nominee Matthew Modine, and Academy Award Nominee Aunjanue Ellis. Lana served as co-executive producer on feature documentary The Dissident (Official Selection Sundance Film Festival, BAFTA-nominated). Lana is currently developing and producing several forthcoming short and feature-length MPI Original Films. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago and a former Fulbright grant recipient in Vienna, Austria. She earned her JD from Pepperdine University School of Law and her certificate in independent producing from UCLA Extension. Lana is an associate member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. |
TANNER MOBLEY Tanner Mobley is the VP of Development for Millennium Media, producer of high-budget action features such as The Expendables franchise, Rambo: Last Blood, Olympus Has Fallen, and The Hitman's Bodyguard. Tanner graduated from the University of Iowa in 2010 with a degree in Cinema. With the help of an MPI internship, he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. |
MARK WHEELER Mark Wheeler is a manager and producer with over 20 years of experience representing writers, directors, producers and library rights. He started his career in the mailroom at Innovative Artists and then worked for Superagent Lou Pitt for about 10 years. After working with Pitt, Wheeler co-founded Pathfinder Media with Fredrik Malmberg as a boutique IP management and production studio. Wheeler has structured financing for and is a producer on genre films such as Conan The Barbarian, Mutant Year Zero, and TV series Blood Drive as well as representing IP rights such as the Robert E. Howard Library, Roger Corman Library, Blake Edwards Library, and Fail-Safe. Recently, Wheeler has built an Unreal Engine / Animation Content studio based in the UK and is working with the leading creatives in the virtual production field. |