Amal Baggar
Based in Los Angeles, Amal Baggar was most recently Vice President, Original Films & Limited Series at MTV Entertainment Studios – a division of Paramount Global. Here she was tasked with sourcing, developing and producing made-for-television movies, in addition to overseeing several NWEP deals, such as Bassett Vance Productions and Kronicle Media. Her credits include Heist 88 (Showtime), Binged to Death (MTV) and A Nashville Country Christmas (Paramount Network).
Before joining Paramount Global, Amal served as Vice President of Scripted Programming at NBCUniversal International Studios – a division of Universal Studio Group. She joined the company in 2018 and primarily oversaw the development, production and sales of the studio’s Australian and Canadian content, including Transplant (CTV/NBC) and Stateless (ABC/Netflix), working closely with the studio’s production companies Matchbox Pictures and Lark.
Prior to NBCUniversal, Amal held the position of Vice President of Content at Screen Queensland (Australia). During her time there, she oversaw the development of TV series, films, games and digital media, as well as shepherding several initiatives, such as ScreamQueensland and SQ Re-Told with Wendall Thomas.
Amal also served as Vice President and Creative Executive at Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions for eight years, focusing on film development and production. Her credits include Sony’s Concussion, starring Will Smith, which she co-produced.
Erin Cardillo
Erin Cardillo is an actor, writer and producer who has appeared in leading and supporting roles in feature films and in guest starring, recurring, and regular roles on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, NICK, ABC FAMILY, LIFETIME, DIRECTV, FX, and DISNEY CHANNEL.
For the past 15 years, Erin has put her focus on writing and producing. Her first feature, Speak Now won the Audience Award in the Austin Film Festival in 2013 (now on Amazon). In 2013, Erin and her writing partner, Richard Keith, won the New York Television Festival’s comedy pilot competition, receiving their first development deal at FOX. Shortly after, they partnered with Alloy Entertainment to develop Significant Mother for CW Seed, which premiered on the CW on August 3, 2015.
Since their break into television Cardillo & Keith have sold over ten broadcast pilots to NBC, ABC, FOX, HBO Max and the CW, including their series Life Sentence, which they developed with Doozer Productions and Warner Brothers Television. In 2019, Cardillo & Keith began a two-year overall deal at Warner Brothers Television, where they focused on adaptations of books and other formats for TV under their In Good Company banner. In addition to their development, Cardillo & Keith have acted as Co-EPs on Fuller House for Netflix and are currently EPs on Netflix’s longest running drama series, Virgin River, where they are currently in production for Season 7.
On the feature side over the years, Erin was hired to write a project for Disney, titled Cursed, with Mandeville Entertainment, in addition to developing her own original projects. Her first feature film to be produced, Isn’t It Romantic, starring Rebel Wilson and Liam Hemsworth, was released in theaters by New Line and Warner Brothers in 2019 (now on multiple platforms). Most recently, Cardillo & Keith were hired to adapt Katherine Center’s acclaimed novel "The Bodyguard" into a feature film for Netflix. Erin also has an original feature in active development at Spyglass Entertainment, titled Back Together.
Michael Costigan
Michael Costigan is a film and television producer based in Los Angeles. He is a partner at Aggregate Films, a production company founded by Jason Bateman in partnership with Costigan which creates film, television, documentary and unscripted programming across all platforms. Aggregate’s most recent releases are the second season NBC of the Peacock series Based On a True Story starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina, and the Netflix film Hit Man starring Glenn Powell and Adria Arjona.
Other releases include, Apple TV+’s limited series Lessons In Chemistry; the Netflix limited series Florida Man, and the romantic comedy Your Place Or Mine; Under The Banner Of Heaven starring Andrew Garfield; the acclaimed Netflix series Ozark, as well as The Outsider on HBO.
Through his previous company COTA Films, Costigan produced Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron as the notorious Ted Bundy for Netflix, the hit musical, Dumplin’, also for Netflix; Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, for Fox Searchlight and Studio Canal, and Ghost in the Shell at DreamWorks, directed by Rupert Sanders.
Costigan began his career at Sony Pictures. As Executive Vice President of Production, he oversaw the acquisition, development and production of films including Milos Forman's Academy Award-nominated The People vs. Larry Flynt; James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie; McG's first installment of Charlie’s Angels starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore; Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, starring Brad Pitt and Jason Statham; Gus Van Sant's acclaimed To Die For starring Nicole Kidman; Andrew Niccol's debut film, sci fi classic Gattaca; Wes Anderson's debut feature Bottle Rocket and the cult favorite Cruel Intentions directed by Roger Kumble and starring Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Kara Durrett
Kara Durrett is the President and Head of Film at Pinky Promise. Past accolades include 2024 SXSW Janet Pierson Champion Award winner, 2023 Sundance Producers Fiction Award winner, 2021 nominee for the Independent Spirit Piaget Producers Award, and 2019 Sundance Producing Lab Fellow. As president of Pinky Promise, Kara has produced Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor The Great; David Craig and Brian Crano’s dark comedy, I Don’t Understand You, starring Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells; Laurel Parmet’s The Starling Girl, starring Eliza Scanlen and Lewis Pullman; and The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson. Additional producing credits include Adamma Ebo's Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul; Celine Held & Logan George’s Caddo Lake; and Alex Fischer & Eleanor Wilson’s Save Yourselves! Kara is a graduate of NYU and resides in Los Angeles.
Coco Francini
Coco Francini is an Emmy-nominated producer and a partner at Dirty Films, alongside Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. She recently produced Christos Nikou’s Fingernails, featuring Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed, and has executive produced Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari’s feature debut Shayda, starring Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, which premiered in the World Dramatic Competition at Sundance this past year and went on to win the Audience Award.
Previous to her work with Dirty Films, Coco executive produced Mrs. America for FX Networks, written by Mad Men alum Dahvi Waller. The show premiered in April 2020 and received ten Emmy nominations, including Best Limited Series, Outstanding Writing, and acting nominations for Blanchett, Margo Martindale, and Tracey Ullman, as well as an Emmy win for Uzo Aduba.
Coco is also a frequent collaborator of Quentin Tarantino. Beginning with Django Unchained and then on The Hateful Eight where she oversaw the global 70MM roadshow tour and the soundtrack/score that won a long-deserved Academy Award for Ennio Morricone.
A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Francini earned her master's from the elite Peter Stark Producing Program at USC.
Jonathan Hludzinski
Jonathan is currently Executive Vice President of Animal Logic Entertainment where he has been instrumental in setting up and overseeing the development and production of animated, hybrid and large scale VFX movies at Sony, Warner Brothers, Netflix, Paramount, Netflix, DreamWorks and New Line.
He is Producer on the Ron Howard directed animated film, The Shrinking of Threehorn. He was Executive Producer on Peter Rabbit and Peter Rabbit 2 at Sony, and is also in development on a live-action adaptation of Astro Boy at that studio. He will be writing the feature animated film Pet Rock, based on the novelty IP brand, as well as producing.
Prior to all of this, Jonathan was a creative executive at The Walt Becker Company, developing both television and feature comedies. After developing and setting up the hour-long comedy, Glory Daze, at TBS, Jonathan parlayed his executive position at the company into a writing position on the show. He began his career as a creative executive for Dick Wolf under the NBC based banner, Wolf Films, in which Jonathan was part of developing several television projects outside of the Law and Order brand. During this time, he also sold two television pilots of his own to both NBC and the Starz Network.
He received his MFA at Columbia University, where he also produced the independent feature film, American Saint alongside Amadeus and The People Vs. Larry Flynt producer Michael Hausman
Ellen Shanman
Ellen Shanman is a screenwriter whose favorite projects include adaptations of bestselling spy girl book series Gallagher Girls for Paramount; Tom Clancy’s The Division video game for Netflix; and non-fiction, New York Times bestseller Nothing Daunted for Black Label Media.
She has written assassins, superheroes, soldiers, and psychopaths for most of the major studios and is the author of two novels from Random House/Bantam Dell, Right Before Your Eyes, and Everything Nice – the latter of which she adapted for Charlize Theron’s Denver & Delilah Productions.
Shanman is a graduate of Northwestern University and has been happily involved with selections and mentoring for Film Independent’s Artist Development programs for the last decade. She is currently at work on a live-action adaptation of Voltron for Amazon Studios with director Rawson Marshall Thurber, and an animated adaptation of Eisner-winning graphic novel series Bandette for Dreamworks Animation.
Kendrick Tan
KENDRICK TAN is a literary manager and producer at Lit Entertainment Group. He was an Associate-Producer on Promise Land for ABC/Hulu and Executive Producer on Sex Appeal for Hulu. Prior to that he was a manager at Madhouse Entertainment.
He attended school at the University of California, Irvine.
Sean Woods
Sean Woods is a manager and producer at Fourward. His clients include actors, screenwriters, directors, and multi-hyphenates. He produced the feature, If You Were Last, which premiered at SXSW and is streaming on Peacock, and the non-scripted series, Flip the Strip, for HBO Max.
He has negotiated numerous million-dollar deals for clients across film, TV, and branding campaigns. Sean is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and is based in Los Angeles.
Yvette Zhuang
Yvette is currently SVP of International Production and Distribution for Miramax, based out of Los Angeles. She joined the company in 2019, during which time Miramax has released The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man from Guy Ritchie, the Halloween franchise, Mother/Android, The Beekeeper, which has grossed over $150M, and Academy Award winner The Holdovers.
Recent films have included Strange Darling, which is 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and Here, from legendary filmmaker Robert Zemeckis starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, Inheritance, a spy-thriller from Neil Burger starring Phoebe Dynevor, and The Home, from the filmmaker behind The Purge franchise and starring Pete Davidson.
Prior to Miramax, Yvette was SVP of International Sales at STX, where she worked on the financing and distribution of over 20 films including Hustlers, Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World, Bad Moms, and Greenland.
Yvette began her career working for Melbourne International Film Festival and was an entertainment attorney at Holding Redlich before moving to Los Angeles to work for indie film financing and sales outfit Sierra/Affinity (now part of Lionsgate).
