River Valley Film Festival

2026 Grand Jury

 

Ray Izad Mehr Headshot

Ray Izad-Mehr

Filmmaker & Producer, Ozon Film Group

Ray Izad-Mehr is a multiple award-winning filmmaker and producer with more than thirty years of experience across the international film, television, and media industries. He began his career at Universal Pictures Marketing, then worked in National Promotions at Sin-Drome Records and at the William Morris Agency (now WME), before joining the Television Development Team for director John Landis on several Cable TV productions. After earning his BA in Film Production with a minor in Marketing from California State University, Northridge, he founded Ozon Films in 1999 and has since produced over 120 projects, including the award-winning feature Guillotine, the horror feature Black Pumpkin, and the Lionsgate-released documentary Through My Father’s Eyes.  A longtime managing executive at Castaic Studios, he is deeply committed to international co-productions and educational exchange between Los Angeles and Europe, and is currently in advanced development on the elevated Frankenstein re-imagining Monster Is Man, the international series Sinbad: Lord of the 7 Seas while writing his next feature OON (Her), an elevated psychological horror set in modern Los Angeles and 1980’s Iran.
Russell Schwartz Headshot

Russell Schwartz

Associate Professor, Creative Producing, Dodge College, Chapman University

From 2001–2008, Russell Schwartz served as President of Theatrical Marketing at New Line Cinema, overseeing all of the company’s marketing efforts, which resulted in over 44 Academy Award nominations and billions of dollars at the domestic box office; his campaigns included films such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hairspray, Wedding Crashers, Elf, Rush Hour 2 and 3, The Notebook, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, About Schmidt and Little Children. He later served as President of Worldwide Marketing at Relativity Media, overseeing a slate that included The Family, Don Jon and Beyond the Lights; President of USA Films, which released Traffic, Nurse Betty, Topsy Turvy, Being John Malkovich and Pitch Black; and President of Gramercy Pictures, where he oversaw the marketing of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Fargo, The Usual Suspects, Elizabeth, The Big Lebowski, Dazed and Confused, Dead Man Walking and many others. Russell has been President of Pandemic Marketing Corp since its inception in 2008, providing strategic marketing, theatrical distribution, ancillary placement solutions and digital execution for the motion picture industry. Russell is a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also an ongoing juror for the Student Academy Awards.

 

 

Sara Vahabi Headshot

Sara Vahabi

Awards Strategist & Film Publicist, Phase 2 PR

Ray Izad-Mehr is a multiple award-winning filmmaker and producer with more than thirty years of experience across the international film, television, and media industries. He began his career at Universal Pictures Marketing, then worked in National Promotions at Sin-Drome Records and at the William Morris Agency (now WME), before joining the Television Development Team for director John Landis on several Cable TV productions. After earning his BA in Film Production with a minor in Marketing from California State University, Northridge, he founded Ozon Films in 1999 and has since produced over 120 projects, including the award-winning feature Guillotine, the horror feature Black Pumpkin, and the Lionsgate-released documentary Through My Father’s Eyes.  A longtime managing executive at Castaic Studios, he is deeply committed to international co-productions and educational exchange between Los Angeles and Europe, and is currently in advanced development on the elevated Frankenstein re-imagining Monster Is Man, the international series Sinbad: Lord of the 7 Seas while writing his next feature OON (Her), an elevated psychological horror set in modern Los Angeles and 1980’s Iran.
Sean Young Headshot

Sean Young

Actress

Internationally acclaimed star of Screen, Television and Stage Sean Young has starred in over three dozen feature films, including such box office hits as “BLADE RUNNER”, “NO WAY OUT”, “ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE”, “COUSINS”, “WALL STREET” and “DUNE”. She has been fortunate to have worked with several of the most accomplished directors in the industry including Robert Altman, Harold Becker, Roger Donaldson, James Ivory, David Lynch, Gary Marshall, Ismail Merchant, Carl Reiner, Ivan Reitman, Ridley Scott, Tom Shadyak, Joel Shumacher, Oliver Stone and Gus Van Sant. Young was born as Mary Sean Young in Louisville, Kentucky November 20, 1959, the daughter of Lee Guthrie, a screenwriter, public relations executive, and journalist, and Donald Young, a television news producer and journalist. She attended Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and then transferred to and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan. Young began her film career in 1980 in the film “JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN”, followed by a small role in the 1981 film “STRIPES”, Her body of work has established her versatility and exhibited her chameleon capability in her leading roles: from an other-worldly replicant in “BLADE RUNNER” opposite Harrison Ford, to the lusty mistress in “NO WAY OUT” with Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman, to Michael Douglas trophy wife in “WALL STREET”, to the gracious wronged-woman in “COUSINS” with Ted Danson, to the ass-kicking, military helicopter pilot trading barbs with Nicolas Cage and Tommy Lee Jones in “FIREBIRDS”, to playing twin sisters in “A KISS BEFORE DYING” with Matt Dillon. Sean's comedic skills were highlighted in “FATAL INSTINCT”, under the direction of Carl Reiner with Armand Assante, as well as “THE PROPRIETOR” which she starred with the incredible Jeanne Moreau. No stranger to television, she has starred in such highly rated and significantly acclaimed Movie of the Week's as the award-winning legal drama,: “WITNESS TO THE EXECUTION”, “BLUE ICE”, with Michael Caine, and the mini-series “BLOOD AND ORCHIDS” with Kris Kristofferson.

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Internationally acclaimed star of Screen, Television and Stage Sean Young has starred in over three dozen feature films, including such box office hits as “BLADE RUNNER”, “NO WAY OUT”, “ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE”, “COUSINS”, “WALL STREET” and “DUNE”. She has been fortunate to have worked with several of the most accomplished directors in the industry including Robert Altman, Harold Becker, Roger Donaldson, James Ivory, David Lynch, Gary Marshall, Ismail Merchant, Carl Reiner, Ivan Reitman, Ridley Scott, Tom Shadyak, Joel Shumacher, Oliver Stone and Gus Van Sant.

Young was born as Mary Sean Young in Louisville, Kentucky November 20, 1959, the daughter of Lee Guthrie, a screenwriter, public relations executive, and journalist, and Donald Young, a television news producer and journalist. She attended Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and then transferred to and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan.

Young began her film career in 1980 in the film “JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN”, followed by a small role in the 1981 film “STRIPES”,

Her body of work has established her versatility and exhibited her chameleon capability in her leading roles: from an other-worldly replicant in “BLADE RUNNER” opposite Harrison Ford, to the lusty mistress in “NO WAY OUT” with Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman, to Michael Douglas trophy wife in “WALL STREET”, to the gracious wronged-woman in “COUSINS” with Ted Danson, to the ass-kicking, military helicopter pilot trading barbs with Nicolas Cage and Tommy Lee Jones in “FIREBIRDS”, to playing twin sisters in “A KISS BEFORE DYING” with Matt Dillon.

Sean's comedic skills were highlighted in “FATAL INSTINCT”, under the direction of Carl Reiner with Armand Assante, as well as “THE PROPRIETOR” which she starred with the incredible Jeanne Moreau.

No stranger to television, she has starred in such highly rated and significantly acclaimed Movie of the Week's as the award-winning legal drama,: “WITNESS TO THE EXECUTION”, “BLUE ICE”, with Michael Caine, and the mini-series “BLOOD AND ORCHIDS” with Kris Kristofferson.