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. Hosted by Entertainment Executive and FMS alum Paul Davidson, and Director-Producer-Writer and former FMS Professor, Fatimah Tobing Rony, this series is open to UCI students, faculty, and staff.
Join us for the third event in this series where we explore Creative Producing with Mallory Schwartz (The Morning Show for AppleTV+, Before You Know it, Molli and Max in the Future)
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.”
About Mallory Schwartz:
Mallory Schwartz is a Los Angeles based Emmy nominated creative producer for film and television, bridging the gap between development and physical production. She focuses on bringing visions to life with a passion for complex character driven stories that often lead with humor, expand points-of-view, and always entertain. Schwartz began her career with Broadway Video working on 30 Rock, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Saturday Night Live. She then went on to actor Alec Baldwin’s El Dorado Pictures working across films such Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Aloha, and Still Alice. As Director of Development, Schwartz oversaw a robust slate of television projects under first-look deals with Universal Television and ABC Studios, serving as EP for ABC’s reboot of Match Game, The Alec Baldwin Show, and TruTV’s Love Ride, among others. In 2021, Schwartz helped create a traditional development arm for YouTube creators Rhett & Links’ Mythical Entertainment as their VP, Film & TV Development. Schwartz was tapped in 2022 by Echo Films to Supervise Produce the 3rd season of The Morning Show for AppleTV+ for which she was nominated for a PGA award and Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. Independently, Schwartz produced her first film Before You Know It, co-written, directed by and starring Hannah Pearl Utt with a supporting cast that included Judith Light and Mandy Patinkin and co-writer Jen Tullock (Severance). The film premiered in competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for theatrical distribution by 1091 Media. Her next film, Molli & Max in the Future starring Zosia Mamet & Aristotle Athari premiered at SXSW in 2023 and was released theatrically to rave reviews landing a spot as a NYTimes critic pick and an astounding 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Most recently, the Megan Stalter vehicle, Cora Bora, reunited Schwartz with longtime collaborator Hannah Pearl Utt. The film which premiered at SXSW was released by Brainstorm Media and has been lauded as a star making turn for its lead with Mashable calling Megan, “the next queen of screwball comedy.” Netflix has picked up the film for a 2025 release. Schwartz is now in post on the romantic drama, Akashi, a TIFF supported feature written, directed by and starring Mayumi Yoshida and filmed between Vancouver and Tokyo. She was a 2016 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and selected as a participant in 2017 Sundance Institute Catalyst Women Initiative. She has served as a consultant for multiple organizations including the Canadian Creative Accelerator, OUTFEST, and the Sundance Institute. Schwartz is a graduate of NYU Tisch.
About Paul Davidson:
Paul Davidson (1995) 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.
About 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 Arts 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.