Contest Judges

Judges for the 2010 Big Break Contest will be chosen in the fall. Because of changing production schedules, industry judges cannot commit their time until closer to the judging date.

Below is a list of our 2009 judges who determined the top-three scripts and the winner of the 2009 contest. Final Draft, Inc. thanks them for their time and passion for supporting scriptwriters.

Marvin V. Acuna, The Business of Show Institute
Mr. Acuna is the CEO and President of Rainmaker Films, AE Inc, and Co-Founder of The Business of Show Institute.

He has over 15 years of motion picture/television production, development and artist representation experience, and a vast network of established entertainment industry relationships.

Most recently, Acuna produced the feature film The Great Buck Howard starring John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, and Tom Hanks. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and made its nationwide theatrical debut in March of 2009. He recently completed the feature documentary Leaving Vogue Moran, a story about a 43-year-old man who confronts his fears by embarking on a journey of his past and transforms his feelings of self loathing to self acceptance. It premiered at the presitgious Jersey Shore International Film Festival in July 10, 2009.

Up next, Marvin is set to produce Karoo, based on the novel of the same name by Steve Tesich to be directed by Sean McGinly and Lost Cause starring George Lopez . Other feature credits include, Two Days starring Paul Rudd, Adam Scott and Donal Logue, Touched starring Jenna Elfman, Bruce Davison, and Samantha Mathis, and How Did It Feel starring Blair Underwood and Natasha Gregson Wagner.

In Television, Acuna has Complications in development at FOX, Price at CBS, Witsec at Showtime, and the reality series Hitmakers with his partners at Endemol.

Finally, Mr. Acuna is a paid professional speaker and lectures nationwide on the Business of Show. Additionally, Acuna serves as a trusted confidant and advisor to numerous artists, equity financiers, and companies.

Laura Perez
Laura is a lawyer, producer and principal of Converge Entertainment, LLC, a film financing and production company. She manages production of Converge’s projects, ensuring that production and distribution are aligned with the company’s mission and strategic parameters, oversees the company’s Internet ventures, and strategically positions the company’s projects in the marketplace for maximum exploitation and profit.

She is currently producing and directing a Converge Entertainment feature documentary entitled American Orange which explores the “mysterious” decline and demise of an impoverished citrus producing Latino border community that coincidentally also housed an Agent Orange producing plant during the Vietnam War.

Laura also co-wrote and produced the feature film entitled Harvest Of Redemption, winner of the “Best Foreign Feature Award” at the 2007 International Family Film Festival and now available at Blockbuster, Target and WalMart.

She has been a line producer and production manager on several independent projects including the feature Double Tap starring Daniel Baldwin and Pepe Serna.

Laura is a 5-year member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. She has been a screenplay judge for The American Screenwriter’s Association International Screenplay Competition, Scenarios USA, a consultant and panelist for The CineSol Latin Film Festival, and honored for her contributions as a speaker by The Migrant Students College Assistance Program.

Laura has a B.A. in Psychology, a minor in Communications, and a law degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio Texas.

Katharyn Bond Márquez
Katharyn is a lawyer, producer and principal of Converge Entertainment, LLC, a film financing and production company. She oversees development of Converge’s projects and its business affairs, provides legal services, initiates strategic ventures, and strategically positions the company’s projects in the marketplace for maximum exploitation and profit.

She is currently producing Tribeca All Access Participant, Immaculate Conception, the first feature film written and directed by Hugo Perez, screenwriter and director of the short films Betty La Flaca and Julieta Y Ramon, featured on HBO.

She is formerly a partner in the boutique law firm of Márquez, Bond & Meisel LLP and produced Off-Broadway theatre. Her private practice encompasses intellectual property, new media, securities law, employment and entertainment law where she has served as counsel to independent filmmakers and Off-Broadway staged theatre productions. She is a member of the California State Bar and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers where she is a volunteer member on the Board of the New York Chapter and serves as the co-programming chair.

Katharyn has a background in marketing and media having worked prior to becoming a lawyer at Saatchi and Saatchi and Young & Rubicam as a media planner for the Hewlett Packard and Chevron U. S. A. accounts respectively.

Mike Goldberg, Abstract Entertainment
Mike Goldberg co-launched his literary management/production company, Abstract Entertainment, with Josh Adler, in March of 2008.  Prior to Abstract Entertainment, Mike worked for such prestigious companies as CAA, Anonymous Content, Handprint Entertainment, MTV, and Silver Pictures.  Since Abstract's inception, Mike has strived to make a name for himself, and his clients, around town.  

His specialty is working with and developing young writers, and writer/directors, in feature film and television.  Abstract has set up over a dozen projects around town, and Mike prides himself, and his clients, on being collaborative and having fun!  

Dwayne Smith, Circle of Confusion
Born in Harlem. Raised in the South Bronx. I decided that I wanted to make movies after seeing Star Wars. Clichéd but true. My mother bought me a Super 8 camera and I went on to make dozens of karate movies. I made an animated short titled Shoes that won me a scholarship to a summer long filmmaking camp.

After film camp I went to college for electrical engineering but dropped out, against my parents wishes, to pursue my dream of making movies. My first job in the industry was at Camera Service Center, a film equipment rental house in New York City.

While I was making 16mm shorts in my spare time I went on to work as a locations assistant on numerous feature films such as Money Train and HBO’s Subway Stories.

I started writing screenplays in an attempt to earn enough money to finish Doomsday Stew, my first feature film. I never did finish my feature but one of my screenplays, Joe’s Last Chance, sold to Intermedia. After that… doors began to open.

Today I am a working professional screenwriter represented by Circle of Confusion. I have sold four spec screenplays and I have been hired by studios for numerous rewrites. In 2008 I was hired to adapt Jim Croce’s classic song “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” into an action comedy. Most recently I created a hidden camera show called True Colors for Sony Television’s website Crackle.com.

On July 7th 2009 a feature film that wrote and directed, See Dick Run, will be released nationwide by Vivendi on DVD.

Eric Williams
Eric Williams started his career in the industry at Paradigm Talent Agency before becoming a Feature Literary agent at Writers & Artists Agency. In 2004, he transitioned into management, making the move to Zero Gravity. At Zero Gravity, Eric has built a strong client list of screenwriters and directors for feature films.

Eric represents up-and-coming talent and established professionals, and has many working clients in the studio system as well as the independent marketplace. Eric is currently looking for new writers with a strong and unique voice, in all genres.

Judges from previous contests:

2008 Judges

• Dana Stevens, Writer: Life or Something Like It; For Love of the Game; City of Angels
• Benderspink, Management & Production: A History of Violence; The Ring; Red Eye
• Bruce Feirstein, Writer: The World is Not Enough; Tomorrow Never Dies; GoldenEye
• Blake Snyder, Screenwriter and Author: Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

2007 Judges

• Raynold Gideon, Oscar nominated Writer/Producer: Stand by Me, Starman, Mr. Brooks
• Simon Kinberg, Writer: Mr. & Mrs. Smith; X-Men: The Last Stand
• Antwone Fisher, Award Winning Writer: Antwone Fisher
• Bruce Feirstein, Writer: The World is Not Enough; Tomorrow Never Dies; GoldenEye
• Brian Spink: Benderspink management/production

2006 Judges

• Bobby Moresco, Oscar winning Writer/Producer: Million Dollar Baby; Crash
• Simon Kinberg, Writer: Mr. & Mrs. Smith; X-Men: The Last Stand
• Stuart Beattie, Writer: Collateral; Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 & 3
• Zola Mashariki, Vice President of Production: Fox Searchlight Pictures
• Christopher Lockhart, Executive Story Editor: ICM
• Michel Shane, EP/Producer: I, Robot; Catch Me if You Can

Previous Contest Judges

• Michael Zoumas: Miramax/Dimension, Sr. VP Production & Development
• Maha Dakhil: CAA, agent
• Joel Schumacher: Director, Phone Booth; A Time to Kill; Batman Forever; Falling Down; Writer: Phantom of the Opera; St. Elmo’s Fire; Car Wash
• Todd Phillips: Director/Writer: Old School; Road Trip; Starsky & Hutch
• Eva Mendes: Actress; Training Day, Hitch, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico; with producing partner George Garguervich
• American Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola's production company
• Brent Armitage, Producer (Gross Pointe Blank)
• Kathie Fong-Yoneda, Paramount Story Analyst and author
• Stephen J. Cannell and Lori Hughes, President and Production Executive at Cannell Motion Pictures
• So Yun Kima, Genesis Literary Agent
• John Truby and Syd Field, world-renowned screenplay teachers
• Andrea McCall, head of Story Department at Dreamworks
• Tony Zequeira, Larchmont Literary Agency and Dino Carlaftes,
  Metropolitan Talent Agency
• Scott Jones, President Artist View Entertainment
• Hawk Koch, famed producer and Vice President of the Producers Guild of
  America
• Marti Blumenthal, partner of Writers And Artists Group International