Meet the 2025 'Fine Cut' Judges
Mary Lou Belli
Mary Lou Belli is a two-time Emmy Award-winning director with over 30 years of experience in television spanning both comedy and drama. She is currently in pre-production on her first feature, which will shoot later this year in New York. For the last three consecutive years, Mary Lou has been Emmy nominated for Outstanding Comedy Directing for her work on BET’s "The Ms. Pat Show" where she is also the producing director.
Mary Lou has broken barriers throughout her career and is only the second woman in the history of the Emmy’s to be nominated three times in a row in the same category. In addition to her PD work on "The Ms. Pat Show," Mary Lou most recently directed an episode of the hit series "Elsbeth" for CBS and King Size productions as well as multiple episodes of "True Lies" for ABC and "Sweet Magnolias" for Netflix.
Over the course of her illustrious career, she has directed multiple episodes of "NCIS New Orleans," "Bkack Lighting," "Sulphur Spring" as well as "Station 19," "Monk,", "Hart of Dixie," "Devious Maids," "Sacrifice," "Raven's Home" and countless others. Mary Lou is the co-author of four books and serves as a part-time instructor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Doug Emmett
Doug is currently shooting "Swiped" for director Rachel Goldenberg. His most recent feature, "The American Society of Magical Negroes" (dir. Kobi Libii, Focus Features), premiered at Sundance and released theatrically in March 2024. "Presumed Innocent" has been a celebrated hit on Apple TV+ and holds its rank as Apple’s #1 streamed drama series. This reimagining of the classic novel stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, and Peter Sarsgaard. In 2023, Emmett shot the independent series "Hal & Harper" with Mark Ruffalo for writer-director Cooper Raiff. His prior work, the Sundance award-winning "Breaking" (John Boyega, Dir. Abi Demaris Corbin) released theatrically summer 2022.
Some other recent television work includes "Angelyne" for Peacock and Julie Delpy’s "On The Verge," for Netflix. 2019 was a busy year between shooting 2nd unit on "Euphoria," filming J Blakeson’s "I Care A Lot" for Blackbear Pictures (Netflix), and for HBO Max "Unpregnant" — directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg. "Sorry To Bother You," written & directed by Boots Riley, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Gotham Awards and won at the Indie Spirit Awards.
In years prior, Doug photographed the first two seasons of HBO's "Room 104." A Duplass Brothers original series, "Room 104" presented Emmett with the unique challenge of shooting 24 half-hour episodes all in one hotel room. ICG Magazine featured "Room 104" in this September issue. Additionally, he photographed pilots for "The Rookie," "Tell Me a Story," and "Speechless." Past feature film credits include "The One I Love," "Edge of 17," "Bachelorette," and "The To Do List." Doug’s film career stretches back to 2009 and the completion of "Breaking" marked Emmett’s 20th feature film.
The East Coast native is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Emmett is a Union Local 600 cinematographer and a member of the Directors Guild of America.
Jaye and Adam Fenderson
Jaye is an award-winning director and producer with credits spanning feature-length documentaries, commercial & branded content, and acclaimed shows for ABC, NBC, FX, Lifetime, and MTV. A former admissions officer at Columbia University and passionate advocate for college access and success, Jaye has presented internationally at conferences, universities, and on Capitol Hill. The author of Seventeen’s "Guide to Getting into College" and a former college advice columnist for Seventeen.com, her writing has also appeared in Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, and The College Access & Opportunity Guide.
Jaye holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and French from Columbia University. Her all-time favorite directing gig is being a mom to her four wonderful children.
With over 15 years behind the camera, Adam is an award-winning director, producer, and editor. His credits span feature-length documentaries, commercial & branded content, and acclaimed shows for NBC, MTV, Lifetime, Discovery, History, CNBC, and many other networks. As a filmmaker, he is driven by a desire to tell stories that entertain and have lasting impact. He is often brought in as a guest lecturer or documentary expert at universities and conferences across the country. He has been interviewed for media outlets including The New York Times, FOX, NPR, among others.
Adam earned his BA in Film and Television at the University of Southern California. When he’s not making films, you can find him cheering on his beloved San Francisco Giants
Liz W. Garcia
Liz W. Garcia is a prolific writer and director in film and television. Her most recent film, "Space Cadet" (Emma Roberts, Gabrielle Union) was released by Amazon in 2024. In 2016, her film "One Percent More Humid" (Julia Garner, Juno Temple) premiered in competition at Tribeca, and her directorial debut "The Lifeguard" (Kristen Bell) premiered at Sundance in 2013. In TV, Liz has written for the critically-acclaimed drama "P-Valley," as well as "The Sinner" (Bill Pullman, Jessica Biel) and CBS's long-running crime show "Cold Case." She started her career on the Bryan Fuller's cult hit "Wonderfalls."
Liz is a guest lecturer in the Film Department at Wesleyan University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She lives in Brooklyn with her children.
Michael Herrera
Michael Herrera is a story artist and actor, living and working in Los Angeles. His work includes story supervision, storyboarding, character development, design, writing and world building. His love of animation, film and theater led him to a career as a story artist working for such studios as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Warner Brothers, Reel FX, and Rovio Animation. He is a member of both The Animation Guild (TAG) and The Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
His love of storytelling was founded at a young age, as he explored puppetry, painting, magic, acting, film and video games. Living near Disneyland meant frequent visits to the park, and playing story-driven computer games was a family affair. This instilled a very eclectic array of interests and ambitions in him, which he carries throughout his career. As soon as he learned that Animation was in fact, made by actual people, he knew he was destined to join the industry. After studying at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), he was hired as a Story Trainee at Walt Disney Animation studios, and has been working in story for Animated Feature productions ever since. He also studied Musical Theater Performance at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA).
He has contributed to over dozen animated feature films, various series and short films and special projects. His story work on "Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2," earned him an Annie Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement For Storyboarding In An Animated Feature Production.
In his free time, he enjoys treasure hunting in thrift shops, cooking, seeing live theater, and exploring the world with his partner and their dog.
Michele Sanchez-Arteaga
Michele Sanchez Arteaga is currently VP, Program Acquisitions at Starz. In this role, she meets with major studios, producers, distributors, and film representatives to source premium content and negotiate acquisition deals on behalf of Starz. Her responsibilities include attending all major film/ TV markets and acquiring films and series for Starz.
Some of her more recent acquisition highlights include: The Starz Original Series "Sweetpea" (starring Ella Purnell), "City of Lies" (starring Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker), "Trap City" (starring Brandon T. Jackson and Jeezy), and "The Knife" (starring Nnamdi Asomugha and Melissa Leo, among others.
Michele has been with Starz since 2016. Prior to joining Starz, she worked at Anchor Bay Films in acquisitions and New Line Cinema in finance and then later in acquisitions and production. She is a graduate of Fordham University in New York, NY.
Eileen Shim
Hailing originally from Korea, Eileen Shim taught herself English by devouring "Harry Potter" as a child. A Yale journalism graduate, she worked as a writer and copy editor at Mic then as a reporter-researcher fellow at The New Republic. She has reported from Brussels, Haiti, Cuba, and Egypt. After being singled out by Neil Gaiman in a short story competition, Eileen went through the CAPE New Writers Fellowship, the AFI Writers' Room Ready Fellowship, the Oriental Dreamworks Animation fellowship in Shanghai and finally the NBC Writers on the Verge program.
She served as an executive story editor on Hulu's "Light as a Feather" and adapted the comic book "Mech Cadet Yu" for Netflix/Boom! Studios while developing original content for Awesomeness TV. She then served as a producer on Lucasfilm's "The Acolyte," developed a series for MRC and adapted a book into a feature for Netflix. Most recently she was a producer on HBO's "House of the Dragon" and a supervising producer on a Marvel series.
Echo Wu
Echo Wu is the creator/showrunner/executive producer of the animated series "Jentry Chau vs The Underworld," now available to stream on Netflix. Echo sold the show straight to series with Ali Wong attached to star and executive produce in a multi-way bidding war. Bowen Yang and Lucy Liu also star. Echo simultaneously got a three-book graphic novel deal with First Second Books based on the IP.
Born and raised in Texas, Echo is a first-generation Chinese-American writer/director and an alumnus of Ringling College of Art and Design. Her senior thesis film, "The Wishgranter" won the 2016 Student Academy Award, College Emmy, Student BAFTA, and was previously optioned as a feature at Fox Animation with Wes Ball. Echo was recently chosen as one of Variety’s 10 Animators to Watch for 2024.
