Origins Film Festival: » 2016 Festival Judges

2016 Origins Film Festival Judges

Monica Valentinelli

Monica writes stories, games, essays, and comics for media/tie-in properties and her original works from her studio in the Midwest. She’s a former musician of 20+ years and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Creative Writing program who now writes full-time. Monica was the lead developer/writer for the Firefly RPG books based on the Firefly TV show by Joss Whedon, and her new book The Gorramn Shiniest Dictionary and Language Guide in the ‘Verse recently debuted from Titan Books. For more about Monica, visit www.mlvwrites.com.

Sean Eustis

Sean holds a B.A. in Theatre and has a healthy respect for all the visible and invisible aspects of acting, directing, and technical work along with a dramaturgical appreciation for all genres of film. He has also been an RPG player since Xmas of 1978 (when he received D&D Blue Box) and will be Game Mastering once again for The Amazing Institute this year while at Origins.

10996984_10206862875467521_4191754090376521359_n

Christie Hicks

Fred and Christie Hicks met amidst the dot com bubble of the nineties. While that popped, their romance didn’t, thrilling hair-dye manufacturers everywhere as they went on to color-code their coiffures for your convenience (blue him, purple her). To this day, Christie continues to work in the bitmines of the Internet, which in turn has made it possible for Fred to run his tabletop game company, Evil Hat Productions, full-time. They live in Maryland with their two geeklings-in-training and a cat. The kids love to play with Dad’s dice. The cat plays with dice too, but is terrible about sticking to the rules.

Patrick Wilshire

Patrick is one of the founders and director of IX Arts, the first, ground-breaking symposium dedicated solely to the art of the fantastic (imaginative realism)—bringing artists, students, collectors, and art fans together for an annual gathering intended to inspire and create further awareness and zeal for imaginative realism and all that’s encompassed in the realm of the fantastic.

Chip Bowles

Chip is a partner in the law firm of Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP in Louisville, Kentucky, and concentrates his practice in the areas of bankruptcy law distressed asset sales, professional compensation, Debtor and Creditor rights and legal issues of the tabletop gaming industry. Mr. Bowles is a past Director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the leading organization of Bankruptcy professionals. Mr. Bowles is also the former co-vice chair of the ABI’s Ethics Study, former Chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Chapter 11 Professional Fee Study and the co-chair of the ABI’s Individual Chapter 11 Study. Mr. Bowles lectures and writes extensively on the topic of bankruptcy law. Mr. Bowles and his law firm also act as pro bono counsel to GAMA and have extensive experience in representing companies and individuals in the Game industry. Mr. Bowles is also an avid gamer and game collector, who first played Risk and Waterloo in the mid 1960’s, played D & D from the White Box, opened MTG Alpha Cards and finished third in a national Looney Lab “Chrononauts” tournament with his son.