Online PitchFest 38- New York Companies & Executives

Pitchfest Schedule

27 JUN

​Alison Diviney - Acquisitions Manager, Tribeca Enterprises

27 JUN

Charlie Kessler - Producer,

27 JUN

Katharyn Howe - Producer, Head of Distribution Management, Relic Pictures

27 JUN

Matt DePaolo - Assistant to Lead Producer, Keep Your Head Productions

28 JUN

Adam Neuhaus - Director of Development, ESPN Films and Original Content

28 JUN

​Elissa Dauria - Manager of Literary Affairs, Lionsgate

28 JUN

Josh Deal - Different Drummer, Head of Acquisitions

28 JUN

Lauren Chen - Junior Creative Executive, Maven Pictures

28 JUN

Noah Lang - Producer, Young Gunner Films

28 JUN

Morgan White - Vice-President of Production and Development, Sundial Pictures

Online PitchFest 38- New York Companies & Executives

Entry Fee (Skype or Written): $45 per session

Online PitchFest 38- New York Companies & Executives
  • Sign up for any pitch session and your logline will be seen by all executives participating in that Online PitchFest at no additional cost. After registering, please email your logline to Joey@Stage32.com.
  • Also, by signing up for any pitch session you will receive interviews from all the executives from that Online PitchFest. If you have a question you would like an executive to answer about the business or the art of screenwriting, please email them to Joey@Stage32.com.
  • Before your pitch session, you will receive information on how that executive likes to be pitched to assure that you are making the best impression possible.

Stage 32 Happy Writers is taking over New York City! We are excited to introduce our writers to companies and executives we never had before and the executives are excited to hear and read your pitches. On tap we have APA, producer Adam Neuhaus, Young Gunner Films, Keep Your Head Productions, Andrew Laurent Productions, eOne, Maximum Films and Management and producer Charlie Kessler.

Please be sure to check out some of the recent successes we mentioned from our online pitchfests below, and in our success stories section. Also, read what our executives and writers are saying about these groundbreaking Stage 32 Happy Writer Online PitchFests here! Every month we will spotlight a success story from a Stage 32 Happy Writers member and that writer will be featured in Robert McKee's STORY Magazine.

PLEASE NOTE: These companies do NOT accept unsolicited material. Do not reach out to the executives directly as they do not accept unsolicited material.

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Company Executives

​Alison Diviney

​Alison Diviney - Acquisitions Manager, Tribeca Enterprises

Alison Diviney joined Tribeca Enterprises in 2009. As the Acquisitions Manager for Tribeca Film she identifies potential titles and acquires films to be distributed across multiple platforms, including video-on-demand, theatrical, digital, home video and television. Acquisitions include the award winning film Broken Circle Breakdown, Palo Alto, A Single Shot, How to Make Money Selling Drugs and The English Teacher. Prior to joining Tribeca Enterprises, Alison worked in Acquisitions at The Weinstein Company.

Charlie Kessler

Charlie Kessler - Producer,

A NY native and NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate, studying Film & Television. Charlie went on to manage productions in Los Angeles and NY in all formats: commercials, film, television and even video games. He then joined Film 50, running development and production on projects such as Rescue Me, The Affair, A Most Violent Year, Duplicity, etc. He then moved on to Manage Production at Cineflix Studios.

Katharyn Howe

Katharyn Howe - Producer, Head of Distribution Management, Relic Pictures

Katharyn has nearly a decade of experience in film acquisition and distribution. She began her career at Focus Features in New York, working on such releases as Atonement, Burn After Reading, and Milk and earning three awards from NBC for job excellence.
 
In 2009, Katharyn joined IFC Films as Acquisitions Coordinator, building out the legal database and growing the indie film slate. In 2011, Katharyn joined Phase 4 Films, acquiring such festival favorites as The Short Game, Alter Egos, and Electrick Children.
 
In 2014, eOne Entertainment merged with Phase 4 Films and Katharyn relocated to L.A. as Director of Acquisitions, acquiring such large scale titles as Stephen Frear's The Program. Katharyn now lives in Austin, home of SXSW, where she works at Relic Pictures as a Producer and Head of Distribution Management.
 
Credits include:
Matt DePaolo

Matt DePaolo - Assistant to Lead Producer, Keep Your Head Productions

Matt DePaola is the assistant to producer Anthony Katagas. Mr. Katagas recently won an Academy Award for 12 Years a Slave. Other credits include The Immigrant with Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix, Thumbsucker with Keanu Reeves, My Big Wedding with Robert DeNiro, The Next Three Days with Russell Crowe and True Story with James Franco and Jonah Hill.

Adam Neuhaus

Adam Neuhaus - Director of Development, ESPN Films and Original Content

5 more written slots have been added!

Adam Neuhaus is a Creative Producer for non-scripted, digital, scripted, film, gaming, experiential and sponsored content.

He currently works as the Director of Development for ESPN Films and Original Content overseeing the 30 for 30 short films and a variety of ESPN storytelling initiatives.

Among his outside projects includes the narrative video game, 1979 Revolution by Navid Khonsari and the short documentary, Saving Happy Birthday, directed by Jenn Nelson which will air on The Guardian this spring. Previously, Adam was head of development for Radical Media helping launch the THNKR digital channel and creating its hit series, Prodigies. Prior to that, Adam worked at Original Media developing non-scripted projects including shows such as BBQ Pitmasters and Dual Survival.

Adam has served on the Board of Directors and currently serves on the Advisory Board for The Ghetto Film School.

NOTE: Projects do NOT have to be sports related.

Executive and company credits include:

 

​Elissa Dauria

​Elissa Dauria - Manager of Literary Affairs, Lionsgate

Elissa is looking for all genres and formats of material, but she is especially interested in 1-hour contemporary TV dramas (no historical pieces), animated features (no animated TV), and female-driven psychological thrillers.

Check out the trailer for The Girl on the Train!

Elissa Dauria is a Creative Executive at Maximum Films & Managmeent, a New York-based management and production company founded by producer Marcy Drogin. Their clients include DreamWorks, Illumination, RatPac Entertainment, and NBC Universal TV.

Elissa was previously an Executive Assistant to a producer/manager at 3 Arts Entertainment, and then at Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions. Her first job was at Sony TV assisting a producer in the TV movie division, and before that she interned at studios like New Line Cinema in New York, and in Summit Entertainment’s international distribution division in London.

Recent and upcoming credits from Maximum Films and Management include The Girl on the Train (Emily Blunt, Dreamworks), The Goldfinch (RatPac Entertainment), and The Light Between Oceans (Michael Fassbender, Rachel Weisz, Dreamworks).

Company and Principal credits include:

Elissa DauriaElissa DauriaElissa DauriaElissa Dauria

Josh Deal

Josh Deal - Different Drummer, Head of Acquisitions

Hailing from north central, Pennsylvania, Josh Deal studied film and photography at Ithaca College. Afterward he earned his MA in cinema studies from NYU. He is now the Head of Acquisitions at Different Drummer, and working with its team to successfully operate and grow TheatriCast. Powered by Tugg, TheatriCast offers a solution to independent film distribution by creating nation wide, limited-run event screenings around independent films. Prior to Different Drummer, Josh worked at Andrew Lauren Productions (The Spectacular Now, The Squid and the Whale) for three and half years where he assisted the producers on The Spectacular Now before moving to development for the company. 

The heads of the company recently produced the adventure/drama Last Days in the Desert with Ewan McGregor. 

Tips on pitching to Josh:

  • When pitching verbally, do not read off a piece of paper. Make it conversational. Keep it dynamic.
  • Written pitches must be typo free and proofread!
  • Highlight what makes your story aspirational. The character's journey is extremely important in these types of films so specify what the arc is. 
Lauren Chen

Lauren Chen - Junior Creative Executive, Maven Pictures

Lauren Chen is an entertainment professional with over 15 years of experience in the film, television, and theatre industries. While training professionally in the dance, music, and acting fields, Chen began her career doing child acting, modeling, and theatre work. Credits include over 30 commercials, Eric Schaeffer’s Wirey Spindell (1999), and Nicholas Hytner’s The Object of My Affection (1998) starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. She is currently working at Maven Pictures (company credits include The Kids Are All Right, Filth, and Girl Most Likely) as an executive assistant and junior creative executive. Chen is also championing several projects in the New York indie film space, working with local and international filmmakers to produce feature length films and theatre productions across different genres. In her spare time, she enjoys reading Nabokov, watching and re-watching the original Star Wars trilogy, perusing Pinterest, and expanding her iTunes library. Chen is a graduate of Wellesley College, where she earned high honors in English Literature for her thesis on literary structure and film theory. She is a current SAG member, and served on the South Dakota Arts Council grant panel this past fiscal year.

Noah Lang

Noah Lang - Producer, Young Gunner Films

Check out the trailer for Band of Robbers produced by Noah Lang!

Noah Lang is an award-winning producer and the co-founder of Young Gunner Films. Young Gunner Films is an independent production company behind films like Diverge, Beyond Glory, and Here Alone.

As an independent producer, Noah has worked on films like The Girl on the Train, Band of Robbers, Sun Belt Express, Heaven Adores You, and The Monkey's Paw. He is seeking feature film scripts to add to his development and production slate.

Noah got his start in financial advisory services at Cinetic Media and consulting on projects for Eleventy One, No Mystery Studios, and Big Beach. Since going independent, his features have premiered and won at festivals like Newport Beach Film Festival, Chelsea Film Festival Grand Prix, Progress Top Prize, and the Los Angeles Film Festival.

He is currently in production on three films, with another two in development.

Credits include:

 

Morgan White

Morgan White - Vice-President of Production and Development, Sundial Pictures

Morgan is looking for thriller, drama and contained sci-fi feature screenplays. She's focusing on feature scripts that can be made for under $5MM.
 
Check out the trailer for Sundial Picture's Obvious Child!
 

Sundial Pictures is one of the entertainment industry's premier independent film production and distribution companies. Sundial works in all stages of the filmmaking process, from development to distribution. Sundial is the driving force behind critical hits such as Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Obvious Child, Pariah, and Welcome to Leith.

Morgan White is the Vice-President of Production and Development for Sundial Pictures. Morgan is responsible for acquiring, developing, and seeing projects through the development and production process. Morgan is focusing on expanding Sundial's studio presence as producers, while continuing to feed Sundial's independent film pipeline. She is aggressively seeking to expand her development slate with strong writers and stand-out scripts.

Morgan previously oversaw Production and Development for Caliber Media, and as a coordinator in the feature film division for 20th Century Fox working on movies such as The A-Team (2010), X-Men: First Class, Night at the Museum, and Unstoppable (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine).

She produced films like Dark Was the NightMartyrs with Blumhouse and 20th Century Fox, Jack of the Red Hearts, commercial spots for Beats by Dre, and most recently, Youth in Oregon with Christina Applegate. Morgan started her entertainment career at The Weinstein Company, working in publicity on films like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse, Rob Zombie's Halloween, and George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl.

Company credits include:

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