JURY

Look for­ward to our announce­ment of this year’s Topanga Film Fes­ti­val jury by July 14, 2010. If you would like to join us a jury mem­ber, please click here to apply for consideration.

Our 2009 Topanga Film Fes­ti­val jury was com­prised of the fol­low­ing individuals:

HAWK KOCH

Hawk comes to the Topanga Film Fes­ti­val with over four decades of pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ence. Some of his pro­ducer cred­its include Los­ing Isa­iah, The Pope of Green­wich Vil­lage, Gorky Park, Wayne’s World, Pri­mal Fear and Heaven Can Wait, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Pic­ture. When he’s not pro­duc­ing or accept­ing awards he’s prob­a­bly relax­ing at his beau­ti­ful home in Topanga.

PATRICIA CARDOSO

Topan­gan Patri­cia Car­doso came to the US from Bogota, Colom­bia as a Ful­bright Scholar. She has worked for the Sun­dance Insti­tute and has devel­oped fea­tures for Uni­ver­sal, Dis­ney, Ciby 2000 and Open City Films. She directed the HBO fea­ture Real Women Have Curves, which won the Audi­ence Award at the Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val and debuted Amer­ica Fer­rera. Her award-winning films have shown at fes­ti­vals all over the world.

DENNIS HAYSBERT

This hon­orary Topan­gan is never afraid to take on a chal­lenge. He showed his stuff as Pres­i­dent David Palmer on 24, which earned him a Golden Globe nom­i­na­tion, and as the star in the hit show The Unit, which pre­pared him per­fectly for his role as a judge tonight. Most recently he has been seen on the big screen in Breach oppo­site Ryan Phillppe, and in the Sam Mendes film Jar­head. His many film cred­its include, Far From Heaven, Love and Bas­ket­ball, Wait­ing to Exhale and Suture.

BRENDAN O’BRIEN

Bren­dan is a screen­writer and pro­ducer and most recently co-produced Judd Apatow’s Funny Peo­ple, star­ring Adam San­dler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill. His film Amer­i­can Stor­age won him the 2007 Cov­eted Coy­ote Award along with Andrew Jay Cohen. Bren­dan only comes to Topanga every other year. To judge, and be judged.

MICHAEL IRBY

Michael is probably best known for his work on the CBS hit show ‘The Unit’, where he plays Charles Grey, a role that has earned him a tough guy image and recently the part of Detective Garza alongside Jamie Foxx in ‘Law Abbiding Citizen’.  In the canyon Michael is better known for his his mad skills with a soccer ball. He is a great supporter of the festival and we’re grateful that he lends his no-nonsense style to this year’s jury.

RONNIE YESKEL

As a lead­ing Cast­ing Direc­tor in Hol­ly­wood, some of her favorite projects have included Reser­voir Dogs, Pulp Fic­tion, L.A. Law and Curb Your Enthu­si­asm. She is cur­rently work­ing on Zen Dog with direc­tor Gillian Arm­strong and W.H. Macy. Ron­nie is a Topanga res­i­dent for all of a week.