Join established Hollywood and international film and television industry professionals to learn about the four major stages of a film’s lifecycle: from writing the script, to producing and packaging it, directing, releasing and marketing.
On Wednesday January 15 at 6pm, hear from the UCI Film and Media Studies Alumni Panel hosted by Paul Davidson and Fatimah Tobing Rony with Screenwriter Fabian Marquez ('95), Cinematographer Sheldon Chau (’10), Director Nida Chowdhry ('09), Director Sahar Jahani ('13), and Writer Khaila Amazan ('19) in HG 1070 McCormick Theater, with reception to follow. Come join us as we explore the world of feature filmmaking, how to transition from being a FMS major to working in the industry, tips tricks and how to side hustle, and how the industry is faring now after the 2024 Writers’ Strike.
Register today for our first of five events with FMS alum in the industry, January 15th at 6pm in McCormick Theater, HG 1070. UCI students who register and participate in all five events will be eligible for a special alumni gift and will receive a certificate for completing the workshop, “From Script to Screen.”
Panelist Biographies:
Paul Davidson:
Paul Davidson is an Entertainment executive who has over twenty years working in Film and TV development, production, acquisition, distribution and marketing. Most recently, Davidson led IDW Entertainment’s TV & Film division, producing series like Netflix’s Locke & Key, Apple TV+’s Surfside Girls and CBC’s Essex County. Prior to that, Davidson ran The Orchard’s film and TV division, growing the company into a robust independent film distribution studio. Under his leadership, The Orchard netted multiple Oscar nominations (Life, Animated and Cartel Land) and released well-known favorites like What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, American Animals, The Overnight and more. Prior to The Orchard, Paul ran Microsoft’s global digital entertainment service — Xbox Video. Paul is also the author of four books, including Company of Foos (2023), The Small Stuff (2022), Consumer Joe and The Lost Blogs.
Fatimah Tobing Rony:
Fatimah Tobing Rony was a Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Irvine for 26 years. She left teaching in June of 2024, to focus on producing, directing, and writing her feature animation film La Javanaise (in English: Ananda) in France with the producer Sébastien Onomo of Special Touch Studios and the producer Nia Dinata of Indonesia. Fatimah is the producer, director, and writer of the award-winning short film Annah la Javanaise (2020), an Official Selection of the Annecy Film Festival in June of 2020, and winner of fifteen international film awards including Best Short Film at the 2021 Anifilm Festival (Liberec, Czech Republic) and the 2021 Pixelatl Festival of Animation (Cuernavaca, Mexico). She received her Master of Fine Art in Film (Directing/Production) from UCLA and her PhD in the History of Art from Yale University. She has directed and written several films, including the short On Cannibalism and the feature film Perempuan Punya Cerita (Chants of Lotus), which she co-directed with Nia Dinata, Upi, and Lasya Susatyo, and which was produced by Nia Dinata. She is the author of two books : The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle and How Do We Look ? Resisting Visual Biopolitics. The latter book tells the story of Annah la Javanaise, upon which her current film project is based.
Fabian Marquez:
After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Film Studies program at UC Irvine, Fabian worked in the post-production departments of New Line Cinema, Fine Line Features, and DreamWorks. His screenwriting career began when he quit his job to make Better Luck Tomorrow with director Justin Lin. Financed on a shoestring budget, the film was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival where it was purchased for distribution by Paramount Pictures. Fabian also co-wrote the Academy Award-nominated short film Johnny Flynton (with Lexi Alexander), and was an executive producer and writer on the international series Spides. Upcoming projects include an adaptation of the best-selling memoir To Heaven and Back, a graphic novel entitled Aztec Customs, and a comedy feature called Gleek (which is exactly what it sounds like), co-written with fellow UCI alumnus Paul Davidson. Fabian has been nominated for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award and is a fellow of the Film Independent Directors Lab.
Sheldon Chau:
Born in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles, Sheldon developed a passion for movies as a child when his dad brought home Jackie Chan films via a local laserdisc rental store. As a teenager, he discovered that movies went beyond entertainment when both his drama teacher and artist uncle recommended films from the Criterion Collection. After college, Sheldon made a short documentary in which he interviewed his father and learned of his parents’ harrowing journey as part of the Chinese diaspora of boat people who fled Vietnam in the aftermath of the war; this cemented his commitment to storytelling. Sheldon holds a BA from UC Irvine in Film Studies and an MFA from NYU Tisch in filmmaking. Sheldon has screened at top festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice, and Berlin. His recent credits as cinematographer include: Pooja, Sir - a Nepalese police thriller that premiered at this year’s Venice FF; Demba - a Senegalese drama that premiered at this year’s Berlinale; Nafi’s Father - Senegal’s official entry to the 2021 Oscars about two warring brothers; and Enmity Djinn - the Mauritanian chapter of Netflix’s African Folktales Reimagined anthology. Sheldon is the winner of the ARRI Volker Bahnemann Award for Cinematography, a Visual Communications AWC Fellow, and part of the ASC Vision Mentorship program. As a director, his short film Flying Eggs was a 2021 Slamdance Film Festival selection and latest work In Max We Trust can be seen on YouTube’s Omeleto short film channel. Sheldon has specialized in shooting internationally and balancing both large- and guerrilla-sized crews. He loves learning new cultures and history, and continues to seek stories that are evocative, personal, and emotionally resonant.
Nida Chowdhry:
Nida Chowdhry is a Pakistani-American writer, director, and actor from Orange County, California. Nida wrote, directed and starred in her debut feature film, ‘ANXIOUS.’, a surreal dark comedy inspired by ‘Eternal Sunshine’ and ‘Amelie’. She created, wrote and directed the ‘Arrested Development’-inspired web series ‘Unfair & Ugly’, a dramedy about a South Asian Muslim-American family in 'The OC' trying to keep it together (Refinery29, NBC, Aljazeera). As a TV Writer, Nida has written over 30 episodes of studio television including for ‘Young Justice’ (HBO Max), ‘Mira, Royal Detective’ (Disney), ‘Work It Out Wombats’ (PBS), and ‘Kitti Katz’ (Netflix). She staffed on the #1 Netflix show 'CoComelon Lane' and is currently staffed on an upcoming Disney show.
Sahar Jahani:
Sahar Jahani is a first generation Iranian-American writer/director raised in Los Angeles. After graduating from UCI in 2013, she worked in scripted development at YouTube Originals before transitioning to the writers room on the Emmy-nominated Hulu series, RAMY, where she wrote her first episode of television and won a Peabody, along with the other writers, for their work on the first season. Since then, Sahar has written on several acclaimed series: 13 REASONS WHY, THE BOLD TYPE, ECHOES, and was most recently a consulting producer on Hulu's LIFE AND BETH. On the film side, Sahar adapted Uzma Jalaluddin's first novel, AYESHA AT LAST, for Pascal Pictures and is currently adapting a YOU'VE GOT MAIL inspired story for Amazon Studios and Executive Producer, Mindy Kaling. Sahar has developed her own series of shows at HBO Max, Netflix and Amazon. In addition to all of her film and TV work, Sahar's writing has been featured in The New York Times' Modern Love column and she is currently writing her first YA novel for Macmillan publishing.
Khaila Amazan:
Khaila Amazan is a Writer-Producer working across Live Action and Animated Film and TV. Most recently she co-wrote Grammy Award winning musician Anderson .Paak’s feature directorial debut KPOPS, serving also as an EP and staying on through the duration of production in Los Angeles and South Korea. The film had its world premiere at TIFF this past September. Prior feature work includes adapting A CUBAN GIRLS GUIDE TO TEA AND TOMORROW for ACE Entertainment, which shot in York, England. In Animation, Khaila's latest project was writing the viral SPIDER-VERSE animated short film THE SPIDER WITHIN, which premiered at Annecy International Film Festival and garnered over 40 million views across digital platforms. She also wrote on CURSES with John Krasinski producing alongside Jim Cooper & Jeff Dixon showrunning at Apple TV, and performed punch-up work on Sony’s HAIR LOVE spinoff YOUNG LOVE. On the TV side, Khaila was most recently a Story Editor on season 2 of Amazon’s THE HORROR OF DOLORES ROACH with Blumhouse TV / Gimlet Media producing, along with prior work as a staff writer on the Netflix series FREERIDGE. An Afro-Latina writer of African American, Haitian, Cuban, and Syrian descent, before being a writer, Khaila worked in feature development at companies including Sony, Disney, and Netflix.