Jeanine Basinger is the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and American Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she is also Founder and Curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, Chair of the Film Studies Program and the 1996 winner of Wesleyan's Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She is the author of many articles, which have appeared in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, American Film, Film Comment, American Heritage, The Historical Journal of Radio, Film and Television and The American History Association Newsletter.

Basinger is the author of eight books on film, including The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre, which has been adopted in genre study courses nationwide; Anthony Mann: A Critical Study; The It’s A Wonderful Life Book and A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960. She is a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute; a former member of the Board of Advisors of the Association of Independent Video and Film Makers; a Board of Advisors Member for the Hampton's Film Festival and The Virginia Film Festival; and an NEA and NEH panelist.

As a nationally recognized expert on various aspects of American film, Basinger is a consultant for numerous film projects, and is frequently interviewed by worldwide magazines, newspapers and television. Basinger's book, American Cinema: 100 Years of Filmmaking, was the companion book for a 10-part PBS television series that aired in January 1995. Her ninth book, Silent Stars, published November 1999 by Alfred A. Knopf, won the National Board of Review's William K. Everson Prize for Film History.

Jeanine Basinger served on the AFI Board of Trustees from 1979-1997.

An internationally recognized expert on film and popular culture, Todd Boyd received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He is currently a tenured professor of Critical Studies in the USC School of Cinema-Television.

Boyd is the author of three books, including the critically acclaimed Am I Black Enough For You? Popular Culture from the 'Hood and Beyond (Indiana University Press, 1997), which has been described by cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson as "one of the most important and insightful books yet written on Black popular culture." Boyd’s other books include Out of Bounds: Sports, Media and the Politics of Identity (Indiana University Press, 1997) and Basketball Jones: America Above the Rim (New York University Press, 2000).

Making the often difficult connection between theory and practice, Boyd was also a producer and co-writer (with the film’s director Rick Famuyiwa, a USC alumnus) on the Paramount Pictures film THE WOOD (1999), with the soundtrack being cited in the November 2000 issue of Vanity Fair as one of "The Best of the Best."

Boyd has provided cultural commentaries for publications such as the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post, and he has appeared as a commentator on NBC NIGHTLY NEWS, THE TODAY SHOW and POLITICALLY INCORRECT, among other shows.

Boyd recently completed The New H.N.I.C: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop, which will be published by NYU Press in 2002. In addition, he is the creative consultant, and he will appear in the HBO documentary O.J. SIMPSON: A STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE, which will air in March 2002. Boyd is currently writing Young, Black, Rich, and Famous: ‘Ball, Hip Hop, and the Redefinition of the American Dream, to be published by Random House in 2003.

Edward Branigan is a Professor in the Department of Film Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Narrative Comprehension and Film (New York: Routledge, 1992) and Point of View in the Cinema (New York: Mounton, 1984) as well as general editor (with Charles Wolfe) of the American Film Institute Film Readers series (Routledge) of which there are 15 volumes in print. He has received two teaching awards, including a UCSB Distinguished Teaching Award. Branigan is the father of four sons.

Roger Ebert has been the film critic of the Chicago Sun Times since 1967 and is the only motion picture critic to have won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism (1975). He is co-host of EBERT & ROEPER AND THE MOVIES, which appears on more than 200 television stations and ranks as the top-rated weekly syndicated half-hour show on television. For 24 years, he co-hosted SISKEL & EBERT with the late Gene Siskel.

Ebert's reviews, interviews, essays and film festival reports are distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to nearly 250 newspapers in the United States, Canada, England, Japan and Greece. He is the author of 15 books, including annual editions of Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook, The Norton Anthology Roger Ebert's Book of Film, the best-selling Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary, Questions for the Movie Answer Man and I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie .

Ebert is the movie critic for WLS-TV, the ABC Affiliate in Chicago, and host of live pre-and post-Academy Awards broadcasts for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, which are carried in markets nationwide. Ebert has attended the Cannes Film Festival for 25 years and has written a book about it (Two Weeks in the Midday Sun ) illustrated with his own sketches. He has served on juries at the Sundance, Montreal, Chicago, Hawaii and Venice Film Festivals. In 1999, Ebert began his own Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, which takes place in April at the historic Virginia theater in his hometown of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

In addition to the Pulitzer, Ebert has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Colorado, the Peter Lisagor Award for Best Feature from the Chicago Headline Club in 1998 and 1999, and he has been named to the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame.

Molly Haskell is currently writing a monthly New Yorker Diary column for The New York Observer and teaching a writers workshop at Marymount Manhattan College. Haskell started as a theatre critic at The Village Voice in 1966 and subsequently became staff film critic for The Voice, Viva, New York Magazine and Vogue.

Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, Glamour, Film Comment, Self, American Film, Saturday Review, Psychology Today, World Tennis, Mademoiselle, Savvy, Video Review and Mirabella.

Haskell has also written three books: From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (University of Chicago Press, 1987); Love and Other Infectious Diseases, a Memoir (William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1992); and Holding My Own in No-Man’s Land: Women and Men and Film and Feminists Oxford University Press, 1997). In addition, she wrote Amphibians, a one-act play and wrote the introduction to Women Photograph Men (William Morrow, 1997).

Haskell has served regularly on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival and was for seven years the Artistic Director of the Sarasota French Film Festival.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Sweet Briar College.

Mimi Leder debuted as a feature film director with DreamWorks' first theatrical release THE PEACEMAKER, starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Her second feature, DEEP IMPACT, a DreamWorks/Paramount co-production, has grossed over $345 million worldwide to date, making it one of the most successful movies of 1998.

In 2000, Leder directed PAY IT FORWARD, starring Academy Award winners Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, along with Academy Award nominee Haley Joel Osment. Women in Film honored her with the 2000 Dorothy Arzner Award in recognition of her outstanding directing accomplishments.

In 1995, Leder was honored with an Emmy Award for directing the powerful and critically acclaimed "Love's Labor Lost" episode of ER for Warner Bros. Television. Her work on ER earned Leder her second Emmy (as co-executive producer), as well as three Directors Guild of America nominations for Best Direction of a Dramatic Series.

After beginning her directing career with an episode of L.A. LAW, Leder then went on to direct several other Emmy Award-winning dramatic series, including CHINA BEACH, where she also served as producer for two seasons, which earned her four more Emmy Award nominations.

Leder is also credited for having directed several television films and pilots. Prior to producing and directing television, Leder had been a script supervisor for six years on telefilms and the series HILL STREET BLUES. After attending Los Angeles City College, Leder was the first woman cinematographer accepted to study at the American Film Institute.

Marsha Mason’s acting career began on the New York City stage, where she starred in numerous productions on an off-Broadway. Her first film role was in Paul Mazursky’s BLUME IN LOVE. Her second feature, CINDERELLA LIBERTY, earned Marsha her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award. Other feature performances include PROMISES IN THE DARK, THE CHEAP DETECTIVE and MAX DUGAN RETURNS. She was nominated again for an Oscar for her roles in THE GOODBYE GIRL (for which she won her second Golden Globe), ONLY WHEN I LAUGH and CHAPTER TWO. She has appeared in HEARTBREAK RIDGE, STELLA, DROP DEAD FRED, NICK OF TIME and TWO DAYS IN THE VALLEY.

Mason’s New York theatre credits include Norman Mailer’s The Deerpark; Israel Horovitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx; Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday Wanda June, King Richard III and Cactus Flower; Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor; Harold Pinter’s Old Times; and Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana. In 1988, she appeared in The Big Love, a one-woman show for the New York Theatre Workshop. Mason starred in Lake No Bottom at the Second Stage Theatre in New York in the fall/winter season of 1990 and starred in Escape from Happiness for The Naked Angels in New York City in the summer of 1994. For the ACT Company in San Francisco, she starred in Cyrano De Bergerac, The Crucible, You Can’t Take it With You, A Doll’s House and The Merchant of Venice. And she has starred at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in Twelfth Night.

In Los Angeles, Mason has appeared in The Heiress and Mary Stewart, and she is a member of the Los Angeles Theatre Works. She starred in Amazing Grace at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and off-Broadway, and in a revival of Prisoner of Second Avenue, with Richard Dreyfuss, in London. In the summer of 2001, she starred in The Cherry Orchard for Santa Fe Stages in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mason’s television credits include the recurring role of Sherrie on NBC’s FRASIER; ABC’s SURVIVING; CBS’s TRAPPED IN SILENCE; HBO’s THE IMAGE, with Albert Finney; DINNER AT EIGHT, for Turner Network Television; SIBS; the Showtime Original Movie RESTLESS SPIRITS; and the ABC miniseries JUDY GARLAND: ME AND MY SHADOWS.

Mason’s memoir, Journey: A Personal Odyssey, was published in October 2000. She has been a member of AFI’s Board of Trustees since 1978.

Award-winning musician, writer and producer Michael Nesmith is a multi-talented entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience in the entertainment field. Nesmith got his start as a principal cast member on the Emmy Award-winning 1960s television series, THE MONKEES. He developed a fascination with the intersection of music and moving images, becoming one of the early pioneers in music video. In 1981, his long form video, ELEPHANT PARTS, won a Grammy. These experiences led Nesmith to become the creator of the idea for MTV. He co-wrote, produced and scored the film TIMERIDER (1982), and was the producer on several other films, including REPO MAN (1984), SQUARE DANCE (1987) and TAPEHEADS (1988).

Nesmith is currently the President of Santa Fe Pictures, an Internet-based entertainment company. He is also the President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Gihon Foundation, a family foundation. He recently adapted his first novel, The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora, into a screenplay and is currently at work on his second novel. Nesmith has been a member of AFI’s Board of Trustees since 1992.

Tom Pollock first gained prominence as one of the most respected attorneys in the entertainment community as a partner at Pollock, Bloom and Dekom. In 1986, he was selected for the post of Chairman of MCA's Motion Picture Group, Universal Pictures, and was subsequently promoted to Vice Chairman of MCA after the purchase by Seagram's in 1995.

During Pollock’s tenure, Universal released over 200 films, with combined gross in excess of $10 billion, including Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning Best Picture SCHINDLER'S LIST and the blockbuster JURASSIC PARK. Other Universal hits during those years included the Best Picture nominees FIELD OF DREAMS, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, SCENT OF A WOMAN, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, APOLLO 13 and BABE, as well as such diverse films as THE FLINTSTONES, BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 & 3, PARENTHOOD, CAPE FEAR, TWINS, CASPER, BACKDRAFT, BEETHOVEN, DO THE RIGHT THING, FRIED GREEN TOMATOES and SNEAKERS.

The Montecito Picture Company was formed in 1998 as a joint venture among Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock and Polygram Filmed Entertainment. Following Polygram's sale to Seagram's, The Montecito Picture Company’s relationship with Polygram ended in February of 1999, with Monecito retaining ownership of all its projects. The Company has offices in Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills and at DreamWorks.

In 2000, The Montecito Picture Company released its first feature film with DreamWorks, ROAD TRIP, which grossed over $121 million worldwide. In June 2001, the Company released the sci-fi thriller EVOLUTION, starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore. The erotic thriller KILLING ME SOFTLY, starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes, will be in theaters this spring.

Tom Pollock was Chair of AFI’s Board of Trustees from 1996 to 1999, Chair of the Board of Directors from 1999-2001, and he continues on the Board as Vice Chair.

Since 1989, Andrew Sarris has served as film critic for The New York Observer. Previously, from 1960-1989, he was film critic for The Village Voice. Other positions include Editor-in-Chief of Cahiers Du Cinema (1965-67) and Associate Editor of Film Culture (1955-1965).

Currently, Sarris serves as Professor in the School of the Arts at Columbia University. He has been a visiting lecturer at The Juilliard School (1989) and Yale University (1970-1972), an Assistant Professor at New York University (1967-1969) and an Instructor at the School of Visual Arts (1965-1967).

Sarris has written and edited 13 books, including Citizen Sarris, American Film Critic (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001); You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet: The American Talking Film 1927-1949, History and Memory (NY: Oxford University Press, 1998); St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press, 1997); Politics and Cinema (NY: Columbia University Press, 1978); and The John Ford Movie Mystery (Indiana University Press, 1975).

Sarris’ screenplay credits include PROMISE AT DAWN and JUSTINE, and he was a consultant on HBO’s WHEN IT WAS A GAME II. He served as producer, writer and narrator of THE METAPHYSICS OF BUSTER KEATON, a CBS television special.

Honors, awards and fellowships received include a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for The Voice: The Columbia Years 1943-1952; an Officier in the Order des Artes et des Lettres, Centre National de la Cinematographie; a Silver Medallion from the 22^nd Telluride Film Festival; a Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation; and The Andrew Sarris Award, Columbia University.

Sarris received his BA and MA from Columbia University. He is a founding member and Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics and a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, the Society of Cinema Studies and the Program Committee of the New York Film Festival. Additionally, he is a two-time runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Perhaps best known as a film critic for Time magazine for over two decades, Richard Schickel is also the author of more than 20 books, mostly about the movies. The latest of them, Matinee Idylls: Reflections on the Movies, was named a New York Times notable book. He has also written, directed and produced a wide variety of television programs.

Schickel's forthcoming television productions include portraits of film directors Woody Allen and Sam Fuller, as well as an update of four episodes of THE MEN WHO MADE MOVIES, originally an eight-part series he created for PBS about the great directors of Hollywood's golden age.

Producer/writer/director of SHOOTING WAR—the two-hour DreamWorks/ABC history of World War Two combat cameramen—Schickel's other recent television credits include AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies, a 10-part series for which he was executive producer, as well as writer/director of two episodes; EASTWOOD ON EASTWOOD, a 90-minute special for TNT; THE HARRYHAUSEN CHRONICLES, the biography of the legendary special effects creator; THE MOVIEMAKERS, a series profiling four distinguished American directors; ELIA KAZAN: A DIRECTOR’S JOURNEY, a biography of the director; and HOLLYWOOD ON HOLLYWOOD, a study of movies about moviemaking.

Prior to that, he created THE MEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES, as well as profiles of such stars as James Cagney, Gary Cooper, Myrna Loy and Barbara Stanwyck. He has also produced MINNELLI ON MINNELLI, a biography of the director; a PBS history of the STAR WARS saga; and films about the comedy and horror genres in the classic era.

Schickel's other books include the landmark study of Walt Disney and his works, The Disney Version; the definitive biography of film director, D.W. Griffith, which won the 1985 British Film Institute Book Prize and in 1993 was named by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as one of the 100 Best Books on Hollywood; a pioneering consideration of the celebrity system, Intimate Strangers; critical-biographical studies of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Cary Grant and James Cagney; a collection of his longer movie essays, Schickel on Film; and a novel, Another I, Another You. He is also the author of Marlon Brando: A Life in Our Times and Double Indemnity, a study of the Billy Wilder film in the British Film Institute Classic Films series. His book, Clint Eastwood: A Biography, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1996.

A five-time Emmy nominee, Schickel has held a Guggenheim Fellowship, has taught film history and criticism at Yale and USC and recently received the Maurice Bessy Award for film criticism at the Montreal Film Festival.

Vivian Sobchack is Associate Dean of The Ucla School Of Theater, Film and Television and a Professor of Critical Studies in the department of Film, Television and Digital Media. She was the first woman elected president of the Society for Cinema Studies (the national scholarly organization in the field).

Sobchack’s work focuses on film and media theory and its intersections with philosophy and cultural studies, genre studies of American film and studies of electronic imaging. Her articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Artforum International, camera obscura, Post-Script, and Film Quarterly and Representations. In addition, she has edited anthologies including Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) and The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television and the Modern Event (Routledge, 1996).

Sobchack’s own books include Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film (Rutgers University Press, 1997) and The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience (Princeton University Press, 1992). Currently, she is completing a volume of her essays entitled Carnal Thoughts: Bodies, Texts, Scenes and Screens (University of California Press, forthcoming). She has been a member of AFI's Board of Trustees since 1989.

Steven Zaillian received an Academy Award for his screenplay of SCHINDLER’S LIST. His work on the film was also recognized by the Writer’s Guild of America and the British Academy Awards. He also received a Golden Globe and the Humanitas Prize.

Zaillian’s other screenwriting credits include THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, and the Academy Award-nominated AWAKENINGS. He also wrote and directed SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER and A CIVIL ACTION. He is currently adapting the book The Duke of Deception by Geoffrey Wolff.

Zaillian attended Sonoma State College and graduated from San Francisco State University. He was born in Fresno, California, and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children.

David Bianculli is television critic for the New York Daily News and for National Public Radio's "Fresh Air." He has been a TV critic since 1975, with his first official review being the premiere of NBC's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. He has a Masters in Journalism and Communications from the University of Florida, has taught TV history at Rowan University and at a faculty seminar series at Princeton, and is the author of two books: Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously and Dictionary of Teleliteracy: Television's 500 Biggest Hits, Misses, and Events. Currently, Bianculli is at work on a book about the history, content and legacy of THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR.

Thomas Carter is a three-time winner of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Award. In 1998, he received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie and the George Foster Peabody Award for DON KING: ONLY IN AMERICA, which he produced in partnership with HBO Pictures. He received the Emmy twice for Best Director of a Dramatic Series for episodes of EQUAL JUSTICE, a series he co-created and executive produced. He has been nominated for the Emmy Award six times. He has also been the recipient of the prestigious Directors Guild of America Award.

Carter is also well known for setting the directorial and visual style for many distinguished television pilots, including MIAMI VICE, ST. ELSEWHERE, A YEAR IN THE LIFE, MIDNIGHT CALLER, EQUAL JUSTICE and UC: UNDERCOVER (new on NBC).

In 1993, Carter directed his first feature film, SWING KIDS, for Hollywood Pictures. In 1997, he directed the action/suspense film METRO, starring Eddie Murphy for Touchstone Pictures. And, he directed his third feature film, SAVE THE LAST DANCE, starring Julia Stiles for Paramount Pictures, which was released in January 2001. The film has grossed $120 million worldwide to date.

Thomas Carter is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University.

Suzanne de Passe, Chairman and CEO of de Passe Entertainment, began her career at Motown Records as Creative Assistant to Berry Gordy, subsequently rising to the position of President of Motown Productions. She was a partner in Gordy/de Passe Productions prior to establishing de Passe Entertainment in 1992. The recipient of an Academy Award nomination for co-writing the screenplay LADY SINGS THE BLUES, de Passe won two Emmy Awards and NAACP Image Awards as executive producer of MOTOWN 25: YESTERDAY TODAY, FOREVER and MOTOWN RETURNS TO THE APOLLO. She also served as executive producer for the highly acclaimed and award winning miniseries LONESOME DOVE, SMALL SACRIFICES, THE JACKSONS: AN AMERICAN DREAM and BUFFALO GIRLS.

De Passe has received numerous honors, including the AWRT (American Women In Radio and Television) Silver Satellite Award (1999), Women in Film Crystal Award (1988), Revlon Business Woman of the Year Award (1994) and Essence Business Award (1989). She was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1990 and is the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies: "Suzanne de Passe and Motown Productions" and "de Passe Entertainment."

De Passe served as executive producer of the situation comedies SISTER, SISTER and SMART GUY, both of which aired on the WB Network, produced in association with Paramount and Disney Television, respectively.

Additionally, she served as executive producer of the four-hour documentary MOTOWN 40: THE MUSIC IS FOREVER, which aired on ABC. She was executive producer of THE TEMPTATIONS, the four-hour Emmy Award-winning miniseries for NBC; executive producer of ZENON, GIRL OF THE 21^st CENTURY which aired on the Disney Channel; executive producer of THE LORETTA CLAIBORNE STORY for Disney/ABC Sunday Night; executive producer of CHEATERS, which aired on HBO in May 2000; as well as ZENON: THE ZEQUEL, which aired in January 2001 on the Disney Channel. Most recently, de Passe served as executive producer on the 32^nd ANNUAL NAACP IMAGE AWARDS, which aired March 2001 on the Fox Network.

Diane English created and wrote the groundbreaking CBS comedy MURPHY BROWN, which she executive produced with her husband, Joel Shukovsky. It was the first series under the Shukovsky English Entertainment banner. Since its premiere in November 1988, MURPHY BROWN has received 62 Emmy nominations, 18 Emmy Awards (including two for Best Comedy Series) and the 1990 Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series. It was twice named Best Comedy Series by the Television Critics Association, and Viewers for Quality Television selected MURPHY BROWN as the Best Quality Comedy for 1991. The series also received the 1991 George Foster Peabody Award for Significant and Meritorious Achievement.

In 1985, English created the critically acclaimed FOLEY SQUARE, her first half-hour comedy series. She served as producer and writer for the show, which aired on CBS during the 1985-86 television season. During the 1986 and 1987 seasons, she executive produced and wrote the CBS comedy series MY SISTER SAM, starring Pam Dawber.

In 1980, she co-wrote THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, the Public Broadcasting Systems’ first full-length motion picture-for-television. For her work on this adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s classic science fiction novel, she received her first Writers Guild Award nomination. She followed that success with the television movies MY LIFE AS A MAN for NBC and CLASSIFIED LOVE for CBS.

English began her career at WNET/13, the New York City PBS affiliate, first as a story editor for the THEATRE IN AMERICA series, and then as associate director of the Television Laboratory. From 1977 to 1980, she wrote a monthly column on television for Vogue magazine.

English has received numerous individual honors, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, two Writers Guild Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, the 1997 Astral Award of Excellence at the Banff Television Festival, a Genie Award from the American Women in Radio and Television, the Commissioners’ Award from the National Commission on Working Women for her positive portrayal of women on television, and the 1992 Freedom-to-Write-Award from PEN Center USA West for her stands on behalf of freedom of expression and against censorship and cultural tyranny. She was also named one of the "50 Greatest Women in Radio & Television" by the American Women in Radio & Television.

Born in Buffalo, New York, English attended Buffalo State College, where she majored in Education and minored in Theater Arts. She graduated in 1970 and taught high school English and drama for a year, before moving to New York City to pursue a writing career. In May of 1994, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Buffalo State College.

Richard Frank is widely recognized as one of the entertainment profession’s most prominent and experienced executives. Since 1999, Frank has been serving as chairman of Food.com, an Internet restaurant take-out and delivery service.

Prior to Food.com, Frank was chairman and CEO of Comcast Content and Communication (C3), a company he founded in 1995 with television/telecommunications giant Comcast Corporation. While at C3, Frank enhanced Comcast’s programming and media-related companies, including E! Entertainment Television.

From 1994-1995, Frank served as chairman of Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications. From 1985-1994, he was president of The Walt Disney Studios. During Frank’s tenure, Walt Disney Studios rose from last to first place in box office market share, and Walt Disney Pictures produced numerous hit films, including THREE MEN AND A BABY, PRETTY WOMAN, DEAD POET’S SOCIETY, THE LITTLE MERMAID and THE LION KING. The company also took its initial steps in entering and expanding its presence into interactive media. As chairman of Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications, Frank administered all of Disney’s efforts to broaden its activities in television, telecommunications, video and cable television, both in the US and internationally. With his guidance, Disney became a major supplier of network situation comedies, including HOME IMPROVEMENT, ELLEN and THE GOLDEN GIRLS, as well as popular syndicated programs such as SISKEL AND EBERT and LIVE! WITH REGIS AND KATHY LEE.

From 1977 to 1985, Frank served as both vice president and president of the Paramount Television Group of Paramount Pictures, where he was responsible for the Group’s production, distribution and marketing of television programming worldwide. Under his leadership, Paramount produced such shows as CHEERS, FAMILY TIES, TAXI, HAPPY DAYS and introduced ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, the first non-network daily news show to be carried by local television stations.

Early in his career, Frank served as president of the Broadcast Division of Chris-Craft industries and president and general manager of KCOP-TV, Los Angeles (1972-1977); as sales manager at KTLA-TV, Los Angeles (1969-1972); and as media planner and buyer at BBD & O Advertising, New York (1964-1969).

Frank served three terms as the President of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, during which time he established the Academy’s "Campaign Against Substance Abuse." He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from the University of Illinois. He currently spends most of his time with his wineries in Napa—the Frank Family Vineyards and Napa Cellars.

Richard Frank is a member of the AFI Board of Trustees.

Angela M.S. Nelson is an associate professor in the Department of Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University and formerly the Director of its Center for Popular Culture Studies (1997-2000). She received her B.M. in Music Education from Converse College (1986), her M.M. in Music Education from Bowling Green State University (1989) and her Ph.D. in American Culture Studies also from Bowling Green State University (1992). She has taught classes and presented research in the areas of black urban/contemporary gospel music, rap music and its theological themes, television situation comedies and popular culture in general.

Nelson is editor of This is How We Flow: Rhythm in Black Cultures (1999). She has contributed book chapters and journal articles on black music to The Triumph of the Soul: Cultural and Psychologial Aspects of African-American Music (2001) as well as Black Sacred Music: A Journal of Theomusicology (1994), Explorations in Ethnic Studies (1992) and Christian History (1991).

In September 1997, Nelson co-organized the conference "Situating the Comedy: Celebrating 50 Years of American Television Situation Comedy, 1947-1997," that commemorated the role and meaning of the television situation comedy in American society. Furthermore, she has contributed book chapters on blacks in American television situation comedies. These include "The Objectification of Julia: Texts, Textures and Contexts of Black Women in American Television Situation Comedies" (in Generations: Academic Feminists in Dialogue, 1997) and "Black Situation Comedies and the Politics of Television Art" (in Cultural Diversity and the U.S. Media, 1998).

Horace Newcomb is the Lambdin Kay Distinguished Professor for the Peabody Awards in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Newcomb is the author of TV: The Most Popular Art (Doubleday/Anchor, 1974), co-author of The Producer's Medium (Oxford University Press, 1983) and editor of six editions of Television: The Critical View (Oxford University Press, 1976-2000). In 1973-74, while teaching full time, he was also the daily television columnist for the Baltimore Morning Sun. From 1994-96, he served as Curator for the Museum of Broadcast Communications (Chicago), with primary duties as editor of The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television, a three-volume, 1,948 page reference work containing more than 1,000 entries on major people, programs and topics related to television in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The MBC Encyclopedia of Television is the definitive library reference work of first record for the study of television; a second edition is now in preparation. Newcomb is also author of numerous articles in scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers.

His research and teaching interests are in media, society and culture, and he has written widely in the fields of television criticism and history. Recent lectures in Italy, Taiwan, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Korea, Switzerland and China have focused on cultural exchange and international media industries. In 1989, Newcomb was named one of three Outstanding Teachers in the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin. From 1990-95, he was a member of the Board of the Peabody Awards program.

Newcomb received a B.A. from Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi in 1964. He studied as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and University Fellow at the University of Chicago, receiving an M.A. in 1965 (General Studies in the Humanities) and a Ph.D. in English (American Literature), 1969. He taught at colleges and universities in Iowa, Michigan, Maryland and Texas before joining the Peabody Program at the University of Georgia in 2001.

Daniel Petrie Sr. made television history in 1977, when he directed three of the five Emmy Award nominees for Best Production—SYBIL, ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN: THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS and HARRY TRUMAN: PLAIN SPEAKING. When the votes were tabulated, ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN:THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS and SYBIL tied for Best Production. For the second consecutive year, Petrie won the Emmy for Best Director for THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS. The previous year, he won both Best Director and Best Production for ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN.

In total, Petrie has been nominated for12 Emmy Awards and has won eight times, for either Best Production or Best Director. He has also been the recipient of the Golden Globe, the Genie (Canada's Oscar), the Cable Ace, the Christopher, the Peabody and the Directors Guild of America Award, as well as directing both Ellen Burstyn and Eva LeGallienne to Academy Award nominations for RESURRECTION.

Other distinguished television specials include WILD IRIS, WALTER AND HENRY, INHERIT THE WIND, AFTER THE MIRACLE, KISSINGER AND NIXON, MY NAME IS BILL W. and THE DOLLMAKER. Feature films include THE ASSISTANT, COCOON: THE RETURN, SQUARE DANCE, THE BAY BOY, RESURRECTION and A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

Petrie is a graduate of St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, holds graduate degrees from Columbia University and completed the Doctoral Program (no dissertation) at Northwestern University. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from St. Francis Xavier and University College of Cape Breton. He is on the Council and Board of the Directors Guild and the American Film Institute and is a member of the Canadian Directors Guild.

Petrie makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife, Dorothea. His children—-Dan Jr., Donald and twins Mary and June—have all followed in his footsteps as producers, writers and directors.

Daniel Petrie is a member of the AFI Board of Trustees.

One of television’s most honored producers, Marian Rees served as associate producer on the pilots of ALL IN THE FAMILY and SANFORD AND SON. She spent 17 years at Tandem Productions, eventually heading the company’s new development division.

Following Tandem, Rees served as development head for Tomorrow Entertainment and subsequently established the feature division for the NRW Company before founding her own production company in 1981. For Marian Rees Associates, Rees has produced and executive produced over 30 films for network and cable television, including 10 for the prestigious Hallmark Hall of Fame. In addition, IS THERE LIFE OUT THERE? starring Reba McEntire, was based on her bestselling single of the same title. LICENSE TO KILL featuring Denzel Washington, RUBY BRIDGES and ONE MORE MOUNTAIN were produced for ABC on the Wonderful World of Disney.

In 1999, Rees, with her partner Anne Hopkins, received the single largest grant in the history of the Corporation for Public Television to produce five films based on American literature. Broadcast as The American Collection on ExxonMobile Masterpiece Theatre, the films started airing in 2000 and will conclude in 2002. The telecasts include Willa Cathers’ THE SONG OF THE LARK, Langston Hughes’ CORA UNASHAMED, Eudora Welty’s THE PONDER HEART, James Agee’s A DEATH IN THE FAMILY and Esmeralda Santiago’s ALMOST A WOMAN.

Marian Rees Associates has produced 28 films since its inception in 1981, with Rees serving as executive producer on all of them, which have collectively garnered 11 Emmy Awards and 38 Emmy nominations, along with two Golden Globe Awards and four Golden Globe nominations.

Rees’ contributions to both professional and civic organizations have been honored with numerous awards, among them the 1988 Publicists Guild of America Showmanship of the Year Award; Woman of the Year by Woman Management; the YWCA Achievement Award; the 1988 Genii Award; the 1987 Chaim Sheba Humanitarian Award; the University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award; CAUCUS Member of the Year Nominee in 1992; Charles Fries AFI Producers of the Year Award; and the Creative Contributor to the American Television Program Hallmark Hall of Fame. In 1992, she was inducted into the PGA Hall of Fame, and in 2001, she received the University of Iowa’s highest honor bestowed on an alumnus, The Hancher-Finkbine Gold Medallion Award.

Currently, Rees serves as co-chair, along with Marcy Carsey, of the National Council for Families and Television. She held the post of President of Women in Film for two consecutive terms and served as VP of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, She is the Current VP Television on the Board of the New Producers Guild of America.

Matt Roush is Senior Television Critic at TV GUIDE, the nation’s largest-selling weekly magazine. His weekly "Roush Review" is read by more TV viewers than any other TV column. Roush’s knowledge of television history has led him to frequent appearances on the highest-rated news and entertainment shows. When A&E’s BIOGRAPHY profiles a classic TV icon, they turn to Roush as an expert. E! relies on Roush every year as a live analyst during the announcement of the Emmy nominations. He has also participated in the pre-Emmy and post-Emmy broadcasts for the network.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Indiana University with degrees in comparative literature and journalism, Roush has covered television since the early 1980s. Prior to joining TV GUIDE in 1997, Roush began his career writing for USA Today’s "Inside TV" column, eventually rising to become USA Today’s senior television critic.

Lynn Spigel received her Ph.D. in Theater Arts in 1988 from UCLA and is currently a Full Professor in the School of Cinema-Television at USC. She is author of Welcome to the Dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar Suburbs (Duke University Press, 2001) and Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press, 1992). She is co-editor of Feminist Television Criticism (Oxford, 1997); The Revolution Wasn't Televised: Sixties Television and Social Conflict (Routledge, 1997); Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer (University of Minnesota Press, 1993) and Close Encounters: Film, Feminism and Science Fiction (University of Minnesota Press, 1991).

Spigel is currently writing High and Low TV: Modern Art and Commercial Television, 1950-1970 (University of Chicago Press) and co-editing The Persistence of Television: From Console to Computer (Duke University Press). She is the editor of a book series on television and culture at Duke University Press and has given talks at numerous museums and universities across the country and internationally.

Frank Spotnitz is serving his fourth season as executive producer of THE X-FILES. Spotnitz, who also serves as president of Chris Carter’s Ten Thirteen Productions, joined THE X-FILES in 1994. In addition to writing stand-alone episodes, he quickly became involved in developing the series’ "mythology" episodes dealing with government conspiracies and aliens.

Over the past seven years, Spotnitz has written or co-written over 40 episodes of THE X-FILES, including the Emmy-nominated "Memento Mori" (co-written by Carter, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban). In May 2001, he made his directorial debut with the episode "Alone."

Other awards accorded Spotnitz for his work on THE X-FILES include three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series, a Peabody Award and four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series.

Spotnitz was named co-executive producer of the series in its fifth season, and subsequently executive producer. In 1999, he entered into a development deal with Twentieth Television and was named president of Ten Thirteen Productions, where he develops feature and television projects with Chris Carter.

Spotnitz also served as co-producer and co-author of the story for the feature film THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE (1998). His other credits include co-executive producer of MILLENNIUM (1997-1999) and executive producer of the Ten Thirteen series HARSH REALM (2000) and THE LONE GUNMEN (2001).

Spotnitz began his professional life as a newspaper and magazine writer, working for United Press International, the Associated Press and Entertainment Weekly, among others.

Born in Japan, he received a B.A. in English literature from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.

Diane Werts writes about television for New York’s daily newspaper Newsday. Her "Glued to the Tube" columns run frequently in the Los Angeles Times, and her byline has appeared in TV GUIDE, Seventeen and newspapers across the United States and Canada. Previously editor of Newsday’s color magazine TV Plus, she also served as a critic and editor at The Dallas Morning News.

Unlike most of her critical colleagues, Werts has worked in the television profession. At NBC affiliate WNDU in her native South Bend, she wrote, directed and edited for the award-winning sketch satire BEYOND OUR CONTROL (1968-1986), as well as selling commercial time and just about anything else that came up. She is currently president of the Television Critics Association.