Beanie Feldstein is an American actress who first rose to prominence starring opposite Saoirse Ronan in Greta Gerwig’s Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated debut, Lady Bird. In the same year, Beanie received the Breakthrough Award at the Lilly Awards for her Broadway debut portraying “Minnie Fay” in the Tony-winning musical Hello, Dolly! alongside Bette Midler. Most recently, Beanie starred opposite Kaitlyn Dever in Olivia Wilde’s award-winning directorial debut, Booksmart, in which she received a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.” Up next, Beanie stars in Caitlin Moran’s comedic coming of age story, How to Build a Girl, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this fall. Beanie is also in production on A24’s upcoming adaption of The Humans, starring alongside Amy Schumer and additionally she will star in FX’s Impeachment, portraying Monica Lewinsky.
Effie T. Brown is the CEO of Gamechanger, which launched in 2013 as the first film financing fund by and for women. Now under Brown’s leadership, Gamechanger includes projects by and about people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities, as well as its expansion into television and digital content with a new, fully monetized development fund that enables it to buy, option and develop IP for television, streaming and digital platforms. Brown is an award-winning film, television, and digital producer known for her highly acclaimed, multi-platform repertoire as well as championing inclusion and diversity in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera. Brown has produced several critically acclaimed films and award-winning projects including Real Women Have Curves, Dear White People, HBO’s Project Greenlight, among several others. Brown also served as an executive producer on Lee Daniels’ STAR on FOX and Disney Channel’s Zombies. Prior to Gamechanger, Brown founded Duly Noted Inc., a company dedicated to ground-breaking narratives that use genre to challenge and advance our culture in a disruptive way. Brown’s dream is to change the world through film and TV – celebrating our differences while bringing us all closer together.
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s feature directorial debut Someone Great, which she also wrote, debuted globally on Netflix in April 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. She is creator and executive producer of MTV’s original scripted series, Sweet/Vicious. The show made a remarkable impact with viewers for its examination of sexual assault crimes on college campuses, becoming a cornerstone for survivors’ portrayal on television. In 2016, Robinson was named one of Variety’s 10 TV Writers to Watch. The following year, she was invited to the White House under the Obama administration to speak at Vice President Biden’s final It’s On Us Summit about her work and her advocacy for sexual assault survivors. She remains a trailblazer in her field with a unique voice keenly in tune with the social zeitgeist.
Robinson’s award will be presented to her by 2016 Inaugural Leading Man Awardee Paul Feig.
Born in South Korea and raised in Australia, Unjoo Moon studied Arts/Law at the University of NSW before working at ABC TV as an on-air reporter. Her passion for storytelling led her to the Australian Film Television & Radio School (AFTRS) where she not only won the Kenneth Myer Producing award but where she also met her partner, Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe. Together they moved to Los Angeles where Unjoo attended the American Film Institute, graduating with a master of fine arts and the Franklin J. Schaffner Directing Award. Unjoo has directed and produced many award-winning short films, music videos, commercials and documentaries which have screened internationally at film festivals and on network television. Her feature documentary The Zen of Bennett (described by the New York Times as a “tender, touching documentary portrait of the singer Tony Bennett”) was released theatrically and has streamed on both Netflix and Amazon. Unjoo’s PSA video on gun violence, “The Wrong Side of History” with spoken word artist In-Q has been viewed over 50 million times on social media and continues to keep the conversation going on gun reform. I Am Woman is Unjoo’s narrative feature directorial debut.
