EIPMA Judging Panel
VFF & EIPMA
The Vaughan International Film Festival has not only offered a platform for independent creators to share their films and further excel within the industry, but has also solidified itself as a leader in supporting the arts and education at the grassroots level. Through student film screenings, seminars, bursaries, and scholarships, VFF has served as a steppingstone to opportunity for high school students across the province of Ontario.
Another way VFF continues to bridge the gap between industry professionals and up-and-coming artists is through their partnership with the Entertainment Industry Professionals Mentorship Alliance (EIPMA). VFF had been a partner organization of the Los Angeles association since the beginning of EIPMA’s conception in 2018, but formally became the first Canadian member organization in 2021. EIPMA is a non-profit organization made up of experienced, working professionals dedicated to supporting the future talent of the entertainment industry. EIPMA members include: Cinema Audio Society (CAS), American Cinema Editors (ACE), Avid Technology, Hollywood Professional Association (HPA), and The Recording Academy.
VFF is thrilled to unveil a further collaboration with the mentoring alliance, as the student film judging panel was composed of EIPMA members. This award-winning judging panel is made up of the following industry professionals:
Bernard Weiser
Sound Supervisor, Designer, Editor & Educator,
President of EIPMA
Scott Gershin
Sound Supervisor, Sound Designer and Mixer
Elizabeth "Libby" Hinson
Writer, Sound Editor & Educator
Steven Saltzman
Music Editor, Composer, & Educator
Bernard Weiser is a professional Supervising Sound Editor working in ADR/Dialogue and Sound Effects/Design. Starting his career in picture editing, his talent brought him into post-production sound, where over the past 40 years he has worked in Feature Motion Pictures and television for most of the major studios in Hollywood. His credits include Schindlers List, The Hurt Locker, It, American Hustle, True Detective, Law & Order SVU, Ted Lasso and FERRARI. Bernard also teaches Sound Design at UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television Graduate Program. His is President of the Entertainment Industry Professionals Mentoring Alliance, (EIPMA) and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, and the Motion Picture Sound Editors.
Tony Lamberti has worked in motion picture and television sound for more than 30 years. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Inglourious Basterds. After earning a degree in music production and engineering from Berklee College of Music, Lamberti began his career as a sound editor in Hollywood. He later joined Soundelux, where he became a sound designer, and then spent 12 years at Todd-AO as a re-recording mixer. His Emmy Awards came for the long-form television projects John Adams(2008) and And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003). His more than 175 motion picture and television credits also include Django Unchained, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Green Book, Bad Boys for Life and Spider-man: Far From Home. Lamberti is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Libby Hinson has had a career that touches on multiple areas of filmmaking. After being educated at Dartmouth College and USC Film School, she spent a brief time as a professional animator. Soon after, she was hired by Walt Disney Television Animation as a writer on shows such as TaleSpin and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Subsequently, she worked with Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, ABC and PBS on programs as varied as Baby Looney Tunes, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, ABC Weekend Special: The Secret Garden, Dragon Tales and The Magic School Bus. Her career later pivoted into sound editing where she worked on Voltron, the Third Dimension, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Clifford the Big Red Dog, among others. Her professional awards include two Emmys, nine additional Emmy nominations, a Parents Choice Award,Award of Excellence, The New York Festival Finalist Award Winner, a Cable Ace Award and was a Humanitas Award Finalist.
Steven Saltzman has a diverse background in music editing and composing, reflecting his many interests in the field. He’s earned a Bachelor of Music in composition and film scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston and composed numerous film and television scores. Additionally, Steven has been music editing for over twenty years with a Golden Reel award and seven Golden Reel nominations. With over ninety films and television shows to his credit, some recent feature film work includes: “Mary”, “The Package”, "24 Hours to Live”, “The Revenant”, and “Tides of Fate”, a David Ellison documentary. Saltzman enjoys teaching music editing and post production music for composers in the Film Scoring Certificate Program at UCLA Extension and recently at American Film Institute for editors and filmmakers. Steven lectures and presents internationally and in the US for various institutions, including California State University, USC, Chapman University, Berklee College of Music, Edinburgh Napier University, and Savannah Film Festival. He is honoured to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the advisory council of EIPMA. Steven served on the board of the of the Motion Picture Sound Editors for 16 years, and is a long-time member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and the Society of Composers and Lyricists.
Mark Lanza
Sound Supervisor
President of MPSE
Bobbi Banks
Supervising Sound, Dialogue, and ADR Editor
Karol Urban
Re-recording Mixer
Rick Hinson
Sound Designer & Professor
Mark A. Lanza MPSE is a sound designer and supervisor for Sony Pictures Television, the president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors, and a member of the Executive Steering Committee for the Television Academy. He has worked for major studios as well as several prominent independent sound facilities, and has crafted sound for many directors including Oliver Stone, James Cameron, Bryan Singer, and Phillip Noyce. His credits cover the gamut from Sci-Fi blockbusters like Independence Day and Starship Troopers to Natural Born Killers and True Lies. He has won a Bafta Award for his work on JFK and took home a Hollywood Post Alliance award for his supervision on the Grimm TV show. He has over 30 MPSE nominations and a recent win for Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, and a CAS nomination. He is Currently working on Justified City Primeval and Reacher.
Bobbi Banks is a Supervising Sound, Dialogue, and ADR Editor. Bobbi has been in the industry over 20 years with more than 120 films to her credit list, including Men In Black International, Fate of the Furious, and Straight Outta Compton. Bobbi is the past president of Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), received her first Emmy nomination in 2019 for When They See Us, and has won two MPSE Golden Reel Awards.
Karol Urban CAS, MPSE, NATAS has served directors and producers as a re-recording mixer for television and feature films since 1999. Focusing principally on documentaries early in her career, she currently mixes various genres of content embracing each new challenge. Some of her credits include: She-Hulk:Attorney at law, For All Mankind, National Treasure: Edge of History, Stephen King's The Stand, Loki, Echo, and Tiny Beautiful Things. She describes her job as "playing mind games with sound." Karol is an involved member of her community, having served on the Television Academy's Governor's Peer Group for Sound Mixing, organized for The LA Sound Group, and served as a blue-ribbon panel judge for the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reels. Karol acted as content editor of the CAS Quarterly for 8 years and served as a board member for the Cinema Audio Society as well as President of the organization from 2019-2023. She enjoys educational outreach and has moderated and appeared on panels for Mix's Sound for Film Event, EIPMA, MPSE, Soundgirls, and AMPAS.
Rick Hinson has spent the last thirty-five years as a sound designer, an educator and a leader in the film industry. Educated at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, he went on to work on a wide range of shows; from The Sopranos and The X-files to Duck Tales and Clifford the Big Red Dog. He has been awarded four Emmy Awards, nine Golden Reel Awards and served three terms as President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors. His commitment to helping underserved communities prompted his work with Inner City Filmmakers and Outset. Through that experience, he discovered his deep and abiding love for teaching. For the last five years, he has been a full-time professor at Middle Tennessee State University and The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He continues to work on films for Warner Brothers, Universal, Mattel, and Jim Henson Productions. He continues his commitment to volunteerism serving on the board of EIPMA, and as a permanent member of the board of the MPSE. Rick lives in Bluffton SC with his wife of 34 years, Libby. They are along with their son, William, are two time middle Tennessee trivia champions.
Richard McKernan
Pro Audio Video Specialist
Scott McGinnis
Actor & Director
Crystal Jones
Project Manager Professional , Board President, Ignite Arts & STEM
Molly Shock
ACE, Picture Editor
Richard has a successful track record in the Audio Industry in recording and mixing both studio and live music productions & TV shows. As a recording & mix engineer, projects range from popular music artists such as U2, Motley Crue, Natalie Cole, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He is one of the Founding members of EIPMA, giving him a way to pay forward his good fortune that he has had in the Entertainment Industry. Currently, Richard is a Pro Audio Video Specialist looking to develop and turn ideas into a vision, vision into strategy, and strategy into action for any new start up, music, or post-production facilities needing to work smarter. Richard also spent nine years in technical sales, integration and training with Euphonix. Integration projects that he was deeply involved with include designing the audio requirements for the Jay Leno Show, KNBC News, CNN Los Angeles and Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston.
Scott has over thirty years experience in the entertainment industry with dozens of credits to his name. He began his career as an actor, performing in network TV series and theatrical films co-starring with actors Sean Penn, Nicolas
Cage, James Woods and Paul Reiser. He then moved into directing, with his first feature film starring academy award-nominee Virginia Madsen at The Roger Corman Studio. His
second feature film was nominated for Best Film at the 1995 International Fantasy Film Awards. He was the co-creator of 360 Entertainment leading the development
team producing films with partner Robert Patrick for Paramount and Warner Bros.
home video. One of these productions led to a Saturn Award for Best Home Video
Release. He then directed over twenty-five episodes of network television with producers like, Joss Weadon, Shawn Ryan, David Greenwalt, John Landis and The Walt Disney Company. He also produced and directed two reality TV pilots for MTV and Turner Networks. He also instructed classes at LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Performing Arts), as part of the Cinematic Arts faculty, with his classes focusing on Story Structure, Directing and New Media (You Tube production).
A native of Los Angeles, California, Crystal Jones is a results-oriented Geek Girl and servant leader who has served 20+ years as an IT professional in industries ranging from entertainment, financial services, and government. Over the last 10 years, she has been a project manager for various organizations such as Rhino Entertainment, Disney ABC Network, and Deluxe Entertainment before landing her current role as Quality Operational Excellence Program Manager for Medtronic. Crystal is a huge proponent of the idea of paying it forward and has actively supported various local and national causes through mentoring women and the next generation of BIPOC students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math). She has led internship and mentoring programs and is currently the board president of Ignite Arts & STEM where she is also able to hone her philanthropic efforts and support students through scholarships and mentoring programs.
Molly has been a Picture Editor for over 3 decades. She has worked primarily in unscripted television on shows such as “MasterChef”, “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars”, “Naked & Afraid”, “Beyond Scared Straight”, “Project Runway”, “The Girls Next Door” and “Survivor”. Molly graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in Communications; Television Production. She has been nominated for 3 Emmy Awards and 4 ACE Eddie Awards for Editing. She has served as a Picture Editor Representative on the Board of Directors for the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG700) since 2016, was the Vice President of EIPMA, and has served on the Picture Editors Peer Group Executive Committee for the Television Academy.