DEC 6-8, 2024
THE TEAM
LENNY SHAPIRO
Festival Advisor / Mentor
Most recently, as president of Good Deed Entertainment, Lenny acquired and oversaw the North American distribution for the Academy Award-nominated film, “Loving Vincent”. Lenny Executive produced and helped oversee the domestic distribution of the feature film, “Nightmare Cinema”, featuring some of the top horror directors of our time in one film, such as; David Slade, Mick Garris, and Joe Dante.
From 1982 to 1996, Mr. Shapiro served as President and CEO of Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment (SGE). Mr. Shapiro supervised production, marketing, and distribution of SGE’s fourteen in-house, as well as distribution of over 100 motion pictures from outside producers.
From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Shapiro was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Film Market (AFM), an association of over 100 independent companies, including ABC, NBC, Miramax, New Line Cinema and Artisan Entertainment.
ARMAND MASTROIANNI
Festival Advisor / Mentor
Armand Mastroianni has been directing feature films, mini-series, movies of the week, TV pilots, and episodic series since 1979, beginning with his first feature film “He Knows You're Alone” (1980), which was released by MGM in 1980 and featured the screen debut of Tom Hanks.
Armand is a staunch supporter of indie films and filmmakers. He has inspired and mentored a wave of a new generation of aspiring filmmakers to excel and make films instead of just talking about them. In between shooting feature films, Armand began to produce and direct episodic television shows.
In October 2008 Mastroianni formed a production company, Silver Screen Pictures, with Kyle A. Clark and Lina Wong co-producers of many of his films, to develop and produce feature films, television movies, and series. Currently involved in several productions, Armand Mastroianni divides his time producing and developing material for various outlets.
DAVID ROBERTS
Festival Director
Dave Roberts is a filmmaker, art director, and creative director.
He worked on several Independent films as an art director. By accident he ventured into film programming and served as the director of Melnitz Movies, UCLA, programming quarterly series and moderating Q&A's after the screenings. While programming for Melnitz Movies, he strongly believed in inclusion and diversity and programmed a series dedicated to women and colored filmmakers.
He later worked as the director of special events for Chandler International Film Festival, Phoenix, AZ and served as one of the judges for the HBFF'18.
We are thankful to him for his vision in re-branding HBFF. He is responsible for forming the new board, jury and festival mentors besides finding an incredible home for the fest year.
Festival Coordinator