IMMERSIVE LIVE

RECORDED LIVE: June 25, 2020
Time: 8:30 - 11:00 Am LOS ANGELES TIME

Has XR finally arrived?

Life in quarantine has been challenging, but immersive technologies are tailor-made for this moment. The seismic changes reshaping every aspect of society create new opportunities for AR and VR to have a transformative impact. IMMERSIVE LIVE will address how we seize this moment through finance and distribution strategies.

Tune in to IMMERSIVE LIVE presented by Winston Baker in partnership with Marché du Film and hear from award-winning filmmakers, visionaries, innovators and strategists.

IMMERSIVE LIVE PROGRAM:

Keynote Conversation with Roger Ross Williams

KEYNOTE CONVERSATION WITH:

Roger Ross Williams
Academy Award-Winning Director
Producer and Writer

Roger Ross Williams is an award-winning director, producer and writer – and the first African American director to win an Academy Award ®, with his film Music By Prudence. Williams directed Life, Animated, which won him the Sundance directing award, was nominated for an Academy Award ® in 2016 and won three Emmys in 2018. He also directed VR documentary Traveling While Black, which was one of the most significant VR works at Sundance Film Festival in 2019. His production company One Story Up is currently in production on several projects, and recently produced three episodes of the critically acclaimed Netflix limited series The Innocence Files which Williams directed. He is currently directing a new documentary feature, and his first scripted feature for Amazon studios.

MODERATED BY:

Rebecca Sun
Award-Winning Journalist

Rebecca Sun was most recently a senior reporter at The Hollywood Reporter, where she covered the business of entertainment and wrote about inclusion and representation in media. In 2019, the nonprofit collective Gold House named her to the A100 list of the most impactful Asians and AAPIs in culture. Her work has been recognized via GLAAD Media and Southern California Journalism Award nominations, and she has received a National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. Prior to moving to Los Angeles in January 2013, she spent eight years as a writer and editor at Sports Illustrated in New York. A native of the Bay Area, she earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and a bachelor’s degree in biology and English from Duke University.

Seizing the Moment: Has XR Finally Arrived?

PANEL DISCUSSION WITH:

Nonny de la Peña
CEO & Founder
Emblematic Group

Nonny de la Peña is CEO & Founder of award-winning innovation company Emblematic Group. Often acknowledged as “The Godmother of Virtual Reality,” she is a pioneer of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality who is widely credited with inventing the genre of immersive journalism. In 2012, her piece “Hunger in Los Angeles” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, marking it's place in history as the first VR experience to be shown at the festival, and since then her work has continued to elicit global recognition at institutions and events such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Brooklyn Museum, World Economic Forum and Venice International Film Festival. In 2017, Nonny was named one of CNET’s 20 Most Influential Latinos in Tech and most recently she received the 2018 WSJ Magazine Technology Innovator of the Year award. Under her leadership, Emblematic has built a critically acclaimed body of work that includes tracking the chaos of the Syrian civil war to working with AT&T on projects that leverage the future of 5G technologies and machine learning. Her newest breakthrough is Emblematic's WebVR platform REACH which creates scalable distribution in the medium, democratizes content authorship and empowers new voices to share their stories.

Tom Emrich
Vice President of Product
8th Wall

Sometimes called the “Man from the Future”, Tom is recognized as one of the world’s leading thought leaders in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) & wearable technology. A pioneer in this space, Tom has over a decade-long track record of running tech teams and providing strategic direction in emerging technologies for powerhouse brands and organizations. He started working in augmented reality in 2009.

As VP of Product at 8th Wall, Tom is leading the strategy, development and go-to-market of powerful tools used by developers to create augmented reality and virtual reality for the browser (WebAR and WebVR). 8th Wall has powered WebAR content for brands including Sony Pictures’, Sony Music, Miller Lite, British Gas, Heineken, Swiss Airlines, Porsche, Toyota, Red Bull, Time Magazine, LEGO, Ally + MONOPOLY and more.

Previous to 8th Wall, Tom played a critical role in building the AR/VR/Wearables community. In 2013, Tom founded We Are Wearables which he grew to the largest wearable tech community of its kind prior to its acquisition by AugmentedReality.org, the non-profit behind the world's #1 spatial computing community, AWE. At AWE, Tom co-produced AWE conference & expos and AWE Nite meetups in the USA, EU, Asia and MEA for nearly six years, growing the AWE community to over 250,000 worldwide.

Tom has actively invested in the AR ecosystem as one of the founding partners at Super Ventures, a Silicon Valley based VC fund dedicated to AR established in 2016. He continues to act as an advisor for the fund.

His past experience also includes covering the AR/VR/Wearable space as a freelance journalist for many tech publications and as a featured wearable tech expert on a recurring segment on Canada's largest morning show, CTV's Canada AM. In 2012, Billion-dollar revenue global events leader UBM acquired Tom’s influential blog about wearable tech, which was one of the earliest sources of news and analysis in the sector.

Tom’s thoughts are often sought after by media giants such as CNN, BBC, Forbes and The NY Times, and conferences such as TEDx, Slush, CES & SXSW.

Gina Kim
Award-Winning Director
Professor, UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television

Gina Kim’s five feature-length films and works of video art have screened at more than 100 prestigious international film festivals and venues including Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, San Sebastian, Sundance and Venice, as well as such arts venues as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Her work has been theatrically released to critical acclaim in Europe, Asia and the United States. According to Variety, "Kim's highly sensitive camera turns the film into a chamber-piece hushed eroticism and surprising narrative grip." Le Figaro said, "Kim is a fearless feminist who conceals an extreme sensitivity." In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter selected Kim as one of “5 South Korean Talents to Watch” noting Kim’s pioneering efforts in Asian cinema.

Invisible Light (2003), hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "deeply introspective and accomplished art film," was selected by Film Comment as one of the 10 best films of 2003.

Never Forever (2007), starring Jung-woo Ha and Vera Farmiga, was the first co-production between the United States and South Korea. Kim was subsequently nominated in the Best New Director category at the Motion Picture Association of Korea’s Daejong Film Awards (the Korean equivalent of the Academy Awards) and was awarded the Jury prize at the 2007 Deauville American Film Festival.

Faces of Seoul (2009) premiered at the 66th annual Venice Film Festival, where Kim also served as a jury member. In 2018, Kim and L’Atelier des Cahiers published Seoul, Visages d’une Ville, a trilingual multimedia photo book essay based on the documentary.

In 2016, Final Recipe was wide-released in China in more than 3,240 theaters. The Hollywood Reporter noted how the director "conjures a non-exotic piece out of a territory-trotting narrative, where every place is made to seem like home." Prior to its release, Final Recipe was selected as the opening film in the Culinary Cinema sections of the Berlin and San Sebastian international film festivals.

Kim's latest work is the virtual reality short Bloodless (2017). Based on a true story, Bloodless transforms the controversial issue of crimes by U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea into a personal and emotional experience. Bloodless has screened at 18 film festivals and 11 other venues in 16 countries, and received Best VR awards at Venice International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Bogotá Short Film Festival. Filmmaker Magazine featured Bloodless as the Best VR Storytelling of 2017. Bloodless has also been presented at prestigious national museums such as Museum of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro, EYE Filmmuseum (Netherlands) and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea. In Belgium, Bloodless was screened as part of their Women's Day; and such documentary film festivals as the One World International Human Rights Documentary in Prague, Czech Republic, and Amnesty Internationals' Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague, Netherlands, have also screened the film.

Kim is widely recognized as an innovative instructor. She has taught at Harvard University, where in 2014 she received a Certificate of Teaching Excellence, and has conducted master classes around the world. In 2018, Variety listed Kim as one of the “Top Teachers in Film, TV” noting Kim’s “keen understanding of the future of entertainment technology.”

Chase Levi
Digital Media, Packaging, Immersive Media & Interactive Content
Creative Artists Agency

Chase Levi works in the Digital Media department at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).  Levi is based in the Los Angeles office and works with many of the world’s leading immersive media creators, including Kevin Cornish, RYOT, MediaMonks, Soul Machines, and 30 Ninjas, among others. He also works closely with many of the agency’s traditional clients across film, television, music, and sports, guiding them through the ever-evolving world of VR/AR and interactive content marketplace.  

Levi began his career at The Cavalry Productions, which produces commercials, digital content, and VR experiences for many of the world’s leading brands. He joined CAA in 2016. Levi graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Economics. Throughout his career, Levi has worked with many digital media companies in the entertainment space, as well as major brands, studios, and content platforms.

Paula Muñoz Vega
Producer

Paula is a producer with a passion for innovative and inclusive storytelling combined with new technologies. For the last three years at Anonymous Content, she led the development and creative production of over 20 projects across film, television, VR, and podcasts. 

Before Anonymous Content, Paula was an advisory producer at Calm.com where she led Spanish content creation for the award-winning app. She also worked on VR gaming and content development for Hyperator VR founded by a Walt Disney Internet Group game producer. Paula has a BA from the University of Bologna in Performative Arts with a major in Theater Studies and a Television and Film Producing certificate from the University of California Los Angeles. She lives close to the beach with her husband and cat in Santa Monica, CA.

MODERATED BY:

Eunice Shin
Partner, Media & Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer
Prophet

Eunice Shin is a digital strategy partner focused on helping clients win with their customers through content and experience. Eunice specializes in direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies, focused on growth across content, commerce and community. Eunice is passionate about converting technology disruption into innovative opportunities to improve the overall brand and customer experience.

Understanding the speed and trajectory of change in the digital market, Eunice provides customer-anchored strategies for direct-to-consumer businesses including content streaming services, digital native products and platforms, and the experiential economy including immersive experiences. Eunice is a well-established advisor with trusted relationships across the media and entertainment, gaming, VR/AR and AI landscapes.

Before joining Prophet, she was the managing director and head of Manatt Digital in Los Angeles, leading digital strategy and business development services for entrepreneurs and senior executives. With more than two decades of consulting experience, Eunice has helped clients including Disney, Warner Media, Sony, Electronic Arts, LA Summer Olympics 2028, and AT&T on various CRM and DTC initiatives.

Closing Reception / Happy Hour
It will be 7:30 pm in Cannes after all…

HOSTED BY:

Katherine Winston
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
WINSTON | BAKER

Katherine Winston has been at the forefront of event production, marketing and emerging trends for nearly twenty years. As co-founder and managing partner of WINSTON | BAKER, she oversees business operations, event production, marketing strategies, and new initiatives. In her previous role as Director of Marketing for RealD, she was in charge of creative advertising, supervised public relations, and organized event participation, product launches, and screenings. Prior to RealD, Winston was Senior Marketing Manager for GoTV Networks, where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, including corporate and consumer marketing, web-to-mobile advertising, print, online, and experiential marketing, public relations, and managing brand partnership deals. Before GoTV, Winston was Conference Producer for Strategic Research Institute where she was responsible for producing high profile investment conferences for various sectors, including e-commerce, nanotech, defense & aerospace, biotech, law, real estate, and entertainment, among others. Winston earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with honors from the University of Washington and is a Phi Beta Kappa and National Association of Professional Women member. As a fervent advocate of entrepreneurialism, Winston is dedicated to connecting innovators with seasoned professionals who can fuel development and growth.

Amy Baker
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
WINSTON | BAKER

As Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WINSTON | BAKER, Amy Baker oversees the company’s global strategic planning, business development and vendor relationships. Amy co-founded the FILM FINANCE FORUM® in 2008, which provides the leading series of events dedicated to bringing finance and entertainment executives together from around the world. Prior to establishing Winston/Baker, she successfully directed B2B and B2C business development efforts for over 10 years by leveraging innovative sponsorship methods to engage business professionals. At ALM, as Vice President of Business Development, she provided finance executives and marketers with targeted channels for reaching decision-makers within the legal, entertainment, healthcare and tech sectors. In her previous position, Director of Business Development at RPMC, she worked with entertainment, music, and sports companies, creating event marketing programs, travel incentive services, sweepstakes, and media promotions. Amy received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with honors from New York University. In 2018 Amy was honored to join the National Board of Advisors for the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

In support of the independent entertainment community, Winston Baker will be offering webinars for free or at highly discounted rates so that you can continue to acquire strategic knowledge and connect with industry leaders through these challenging times. Space will be limited so we can allow our attendees time for questions after each webinar.