Kevin Derek, Producer: Kevin attended Columbia College in Hollywood, Cali- fornia, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in Motion Pictures in 1990. At the age of 20 he produced his first low-budget feature “The Final Incident” that ran for two weeks at the Laemmle Santa Monica Theatre. Film critic Emanuel Levy from The Village Voice called it “Emotionally Gripping.” And Kevin Thomas from the L.A Times said it was,”Charged with passion...”

 

Kevin is a Award Winning producer who has extensive experience in the movie industry both as producer, director and editor. Kevin’s 2nd credits as a producer, was “The Ultimate Game,” an action adventure, produced for the video market that sold worldwide.

 

Derek also produced and directed two documentary films about martial arts called “Empty Hand” that premiered at the Academy Awards accredited film festival DOC NYC, and “The Real Myiagi,” Winner of best documantary from 7 international film festival, about the man behind the biggest action star legends in Hollywood Starring Steven Seagal, Dolph Lundgren, Micheal Jai White and many others.

 

Derek is currently The Festival director for the Irvine International Film Festival. Last year alone, 11 of the festival’s Official Selections were shortlisted for Academy Awards, with nine Oscar nominations between them. Seven-time Emmy winning actor Ed Asner (Up, The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and Academy Award winning director John G. Avildsen (Rocky), both of whom received Lifetime Achievement Awards at IIFF.

 

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Samy Chouia, Writer, Director, Producer. In 1990, Samy earned his Bachelor of Arts undergraduate college degree in Motion Pictures from Columbia Col- lege in Hollywood, California. He has studied at the prestigious London In- ternational Film School. With over 20 years of active experience in the film industry, Samy’s experience covers every aspect of filmmaking: writing, di- recting, cinematography and editing. Samy has authored over fifteen fea- ture-length screenplays. In 2001, he was honored by the Sundance Film Institute as a Finalist in the Sundance Film Festival. The same year, Samy placed as a Semi-Finalist at the prestigious Chesterfield Screenplay Competition organized by Paramount Pictures select- ing his screenplay “Behind the Veil” from over 7,000 entries. Samy also worked as a consultant to the producer in several major motion pictures such as Jarhead, The Kingdom and Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Additionally, Samy has written and directed two short films and a narrative feature called “The Trap,” which premiered at The Laemmle Theater in West Hollywood in January, 2005, and was sold worldwide and distributed on DVD in North America. 

 

Additionally, Samy produced four Reality Show pilots, one of them, called “Hooking Up,” for Reality Show giant Endemol.