Back by popular demand, this panel brings together some of the most talented and diverse writers in the industry. Learn from their experience as they share how to craft and deliver a winning pitch, offering insights, strategies, and behind-the-scenes stories from the writers’ room to the big screen.
Moderated by Lisa Bruce
n 2018 Bruce is once again nominated for both an Academy Award for Best Picture and again for 2 BAFTA's for Best Picture and for Best British Picture for her newest feature, "Darkest Hour". In 2015 Bruce won the Best British Film BAFTA and was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award® for "The Theory of Everything". Critically acclaimed, it was nominated for 100 international awards and won 29 including three BAFTAs, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award®.
Prior to that, Bruce produced 15 feature films including the Working Title and HBO telefilm "Mary and Martha", directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Richard Curtis and starring Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn. Previously for HBO, she had produced "Walkout", starring Alexa Vega and Michael Pena, about Mexican American activism for which director Edward James Olmos received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination.
Ms. Bruce was an executive producer on Ivan Reitman's hit "No Strings Attached", starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher; on Dito Montiel's "Fighting" with Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard; and on Dante Ariola's "Arthur Newman", starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt. She was co-producer of Nigel Cole's "A Lot Like Love", which paired Mr. Kutcher with Amanda Peet; of Christian Alvart's "Case 39" starring Renée Zellweger; and of Michael Hoffman's "The Emperor's Club", starring Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch, Patrick Dempsey, Jesse Eisenberg, and Paul Dano.
Bruce was the co-producer of Gavin O'Connor's breakthrough feature, "Tumbleweeds". The film's young star Kimberly J. Brown won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and lead Janet McTeer was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Actress and won the Golden Globe. Tumbleweeds was cited by the National Board of Review as one of the year's 10 Best Movies.
Bruce was a founding partner of Orenda Films, a New York-based company for which she developed and produced internationally-released feature films including Sam Henry Kass' "The Search for One-Eye Jimmy" and Buddy Giovinazzo's "No Way Home" starring Tim Roth.
Panelist include CIFF Screenwriter Competition Jury
Susan Cartsonis Partner / Co-Founder. The Hollywood Reporter named Susan Cartsonis one of the top five grossing producers of the year for What Women Want—the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time at the time of its release starring Academy Award-winners Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt—and Where the Heart Is starring Academy Award-winner Natalie Portman. She has produced recent hits for Netflix including True Spirit, starring Academy Award-winner Anna Paquin. The movies that she’s supervised have amassed more than 1B in theatrical box office worldwide.
Cartsonis was Senior VP of Production 20th Century Fox where she worked for a decade, developing and supervising iconic films including Nell starring Academy Award-winner Jodie Foster, French Kiss starring Academy Award and Tony Award winner Kevin Kline, For the Boys starring Academy Award winner Bette Midler, Dying Young starring Academy Award-winner Julia Roberts, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer which launched a billion dollar television franchise. She also supervised talent deals for Fox such as that of Academy Award winner Peter Farrelly (Green Book, There’s Something About Mary), Academy Award-winner Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise, The Accidental Tourist), Golden Globe Award winner Richard Gere, and Golden Globe Award-winner Johnny Depp.Cartsonis is a member of the Motion Picture Academy, the Television Academy and the Producer’s Guild. She serves on the board of The Writer’s Lab founded by Meryl Streep, co-funded by Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey. She serves on the board of the non- profit screenwriters’ workshop, Cinestory, and teaches at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
She recently produced Sitting In Bars With Cake for Amazon starring Yara Shahidi, Odessa A’zion, and Bette Midler, which premiered September 2023, with her Resonate partners.
Suzanne Farwell Partner / Co-Founder Longtime collaborator of writer/director Nancy Meyers, Suzanne Farwell has produced some of the most commercially successful comedies in recent history and has worked with many of the industry’s most recognized and sought-after talent.
With early training at The William Morris Agency, Farwell began her production career on the set of Walt Disney Pictures’ remake of The Parent Trap. As President of Waverly Films at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Farwell co-produced the 2003 critically-acclaimed box office success Something’s Gotta Give (starring Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton) and was Executive Producer on the 2006 worldwide box-office hit The Holiday (starring Academy Award winner Kate Winslet, Academy Award nominee Jude Law and Golden Globe nominees Cameron Diaz and Jack Black) for the studio. In 2009, Farwell went on to executive produce It’s Complicated (starring Academy Award winners Meryl Streep and Steve Martin and Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin). In 2015, Farwell produced The Intern (starring Academy Award winners Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway) for Warner Bros. Pictures.
Farwell produced the 2017 independent feature film Carrie Pilby, starring Bel Powley, Nathan Lane, Gabriel Byrne, Jason Ritter and Vanessa Bayer. Carrie Pilby premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically by The Orchard and on Netflix in 2017.
In 2016, Farwell founded Resonate Entertainment with Susan Cartsonis and Brent Emery, her producing partners on Carrie Pilby. In 2020, Farwell was Executive Producer on the hit Netflix original film Feel theBeat starring Sofia Carson and on the Disney Channel Original Movie Upside Down Magic, both under the Resonate banner.
She recently produced the final installment of Disney hit musical franchise Zombies 3 which was released on Disney+ in July 2022 as the number one hit movie on the platform
She recently produced Sitting In Bars With Cake for Amazon starring Yara Shahidi, Odessa A’zion, and Bette Midler, which premiered September 2023, with her Resonate partners.
Joey Siara - Joey Siara grew up in Whittier, California. He spent his twenties performing in a noisy indie-rock band and has seen nearly every state in the country through the cracked window of a Ford Econoline. The band played over five-hundred shows including sets at Lollapalooza and Coachella. His music has been featured in several TV series – from Sons of Anarchy to Parenthood to Gossip Girl. He has a Master’s from Harvard, an MFA from UCLA, and has worked on series for PBS, Discovery, and CNN. Most recently, he was staffed on Emergence for ABC and co-wrote a comedy feature with his brother, Andy, for Limelight. He is a writing instructor in the School of Theater, Film, and Television at UCLA. His short-story, The Last of the Goggled Barskys, was just featured on Slate.
The Coronado Island Film Festival (CIFF) welcomes makers and lovers of film from all over the world to the storied seaside village of Coronado, California to celebrate the magical art of visual storytelling. Coronado’s enduring love affair with Hollywood began more than a century ago.