How To Get Your Film Distributed

2 pm Sunday April 7th at the Times Cinema
A panel discussion with talented filmmakers who were able to get their film pick up for distribution.  

Moderator - Ross Bigley

Ross Bigley is an award winning filmmaker with over 60 short films and four features to his credit. He has also worked as an editorial cartoonist, photographer, graphic designer, and as a freelance illustrator. His art work and photography have been displayed in the Fredrick Layton Gallery, Firehouse Gallery, ArtCentric Gallery, and The Warsaw Academy of Poland. Additionally, he was co-owner of the ArtCentric Gallery from 1997-99.

In 1995, he founded The Milwaukee Video/Film Festival at MATA Community Media, now called the Milwaukee Short Film Festival, and serves as President of the Board of Directors to the Milwaukee Independent Film Society. Ross also teaches filmmaking and story structure at his alma mater, The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. He also has worked as a script consultant for Producers Tim Lonsdale (Species, Speed), Chris Webster (Hellraiser, Heathers), David Striet (Species, River's Edge) and performed rewrites for the production, Brain Food.

Currently, he has formed a production company with Bai Ling and Glen Popple to develop feature films on a property he created, Yellow Hill.​ 

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Panelists

Jay Thornton is a writer, screenwriter, filmmaker, gadfly, binge-eater, and non-practicing humanist who—as one half of the Thornton Brothers, along with his brother Chris—has optioned original features, sold pitches, been hired on assignment to write original screenplays and to adapt literary material, optioned one original TV show, scored a development deal on another and is deep in post-production on their directorial debut, the homegrown indie horror-thriller feature CACTUS JACK. Member of the WGAw and represented by Rosa Entertainment and United Talent Agency.

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Jay Sapiro is a partner in the motion picture production company Three Tortured Minds, and has been a producer and director for more than 20 years. Jay’s first feature-length horror film, The Nursery (co-producer, co-director, post-production supervisor, editor), was picked up by Uncork’d Entertainment and released internationally in 2018. The Nursery was awarded “Best Actress in a Feature – Madeline Conway” and “Best Director” at Milwaukee Twisted Dreams Film Festival. It also screened at The Chicago Horror Film Festival and The Halloween Horror Picture Show. 

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Christopher Micklos is a writer, director, and partner in the motion picture production company Three Tortured Minds. His first film, The Nursery (screenwriter, co-director, co-producer), was distributed internationally in 2018 by indie horror distributor Uncork'd Entertainment. Micklos and co-director Jay Sapiro won Best Director honors for The Nursery at the 2018 Twisted Dreams Film Festival.

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