About our Cambria Film Festival Judges

 Carine Hejazi is a film financier based in London, where she is Investment Manager at Fourth Culture Films. She has helped package, fund, and steer over 40 independent feature films and television, including Talk To Me, which was distributed by A24 in North America, the Award-winning How to Have Sex which premiered at Cannes, and the upcoming Lilly, starring Patricia Clarkson as Lilly Ledbetter. A lifelong cinephile, Carine spent 10 years in investment banking before attending film school and has worked across the studio and independent space. She is passionate about film festivals and introducing challenging works and underheard voices to new audiences. 

  Matt Hinkley is a First Assistant  Director that has worked in Film & TV for over 40 years. He started in his early days working on independent feature films traveling all over the globe. A bit later in his career he joined the Directors Guild of America in 1991 & has been a proud member ever since working almost exclusively for Network TV & streaming platforms. Recent projects have been PARADISE (HULU), THIS IS US (Disney/Fox) TRANSPARENT (Amazon Studios) & going way back to THE O.C. (Warner Brothers).

Though still very active in the business he is working a lot less so he can enjoy the twilight years of his career. He has no desire to fully retire from the business because it is such a passion for him to be able to work with so many longtime friends & colleagues in such a rewarding field.

He & his wife relocated to Cambria a little over a year ago where they live full time now. They enjoy the laid back small town life of Cambria & are very honored & proud to be judges for The Cambria Film Festival. 

They look forward to meeting all of you at the Festival this coming February !

 Kevin Judge is a filmmaker, writer, visual artist, and the proud owner of Creative Judge, a local hybrid-agency based in SLO. Kevin has collaborated with filmmakers, studios, agencies, and businesses around the world, to create a diverse background and portfolio in narrative film, commercial media and experiential formats. Getting his start as a DoP, Kevin has also directed and edited thousands of videos and been involved with early work on AR/VR–and now AI–video content. There is hardly an aspect of film or media Kevin hasn’t worked directly with, and he’s passionate about sharing his enthusiasm and experience with future creators and collaborators 

Stephanie Rueler is originally from Colorado and began her career as a script reader while attending USC.

After graduation she worked in development for a producer at FOX. Later she became an agent

at Innovative Artists and was known for her eye for emerging writer/directors.

She was the agent to discover and sign writer/director Chris Nolan (Memento) whom she repped

with former colleague Todd Schulkin.  She decided to leave the agency business and travel the world. Upon her return to Los Angeles,

she opted to pursue more creative endeavors in the film business. After getting a few work-for-

hire writing gigs and making a short film called CASH COW, she realized she needed to marry

her creative and business skills.

She co-directed CASH COW – a satire of American Idol using Warhol’s concept of 15 minutes of

fame in 10 minutes and directed/produced the episodes of her cooking show on STEPH COOKS

STUFF www.stephcooksstuff.com . Steph has several projects in development both on her own

and with producing partners, Scenario Entertainment and GB Young. 

She has been a judge at the Denver Film Festival, Dallas Docufest and Harvardwood Pilot

Contest, and is veteran programmer for the SLAMDANCE Film Festival.

In her free time (as if… LOL) Steph’s passionate about TV/movies, dancing, music, horseback

riding, gourmet cooking, wine, yoga, scuba diving, Burning Man and traveling.

Always trying to be a good human, Steph regularly picks up trash on the beach, sometimes

volunteers with horses and other four footed friends, cooks for the homeless and helps out her

elderly neighbors.

Christopher Riley is a screenwriter, director and author with a career stretching from his

groundbreaking 1999 film After The Truth, a multiple-award-winning German-language

courtroom thriller, through screenwriting assignments for Disney’s Touchstone Pictures,

Sean Connery’s Fountainbridge Films, Paramount Pictures, Mandalay Television Pictures

and the Fox television network, to his directorial debut on the award-winning 2022 short

film No Time Off for Good Behavior and his feature directing debut, the 2024 family

revenge comedy No Reception. He is the author of the classic screenwriting reference The

Hollywood Standard and The Defining Moment: How Writers and Actors Build

Characters. He has taught screenwriting at the graduate and undergraduate levels for more than 20 years.

 Robert Tieman got his degree in Film History in Austin, Texas before moving to the bright lights of Los Angeles. He eventually landed at The Walt Disney Company where he was manager of the company’s historical archives for 22 years. He is the author of several books about Disney history and lectured at fan conventions and cruise ships before retiring to Cambria with his husband, former festival director Dennis Frahmann. Robert has been a judge for the Cambria Film Festival for the past seven years. 

  Heidi Van Lier won the Slamdance Grand Jury Prize 25 years ago, after which she joined the Slamdance programming team for more than a decade. Having already attended the Sundance Screenwriters Lab before her win, Heidi moved on to direct 2 other feature films, write many indie spec scripts, plus scripts for hire and countless rewrite gigs. 15 years ago she moved heavily into producing reality TV, on the team for shows including Rehab with Dr. Drew, Wife Swap, Bad Girls Club, Love and Hip Hop Couples Retreat and Couples Therapy. Heidi continues to consult and produce for reality shows while also writing during production breaks. As a side project, Heidi currently has a comedy web series she can’t seem to stop making called Phoebe Kind Of, found on Instagram. 

 Greg Young  (GB) is a veteran of production, GB paid his dues in the corporate and

television side of entertainment. He shot and produced for several

major wrestling companies and has experience in almost every role on

set. His storytelling abilities and triple threat as a shooter,

editor, and director soon brought him to the world of documentary.

Currently GB is finishing up "The Davion Effect" (editor, director), a

documentary about a foster youth who's plea for a family went viral,

but instead of placing him, he was used by the system for their

benefit instead of his.

He co-directed and edited "LA Rises" a short doc about how Los Angeles

handled the George Floyd protests and created life in the middle of

chaos that was featured at over 50 film festivals.

His feature documentary “Prescription Thugs” (co-director, producer,

editor, cinematographer) premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival,

was picked up and released by Samuel Goldwyn Films. It was in iTunes

top 10 documentaries for over six months, and is currently on Amazon

Prime, Youtube, and Apple TV.

Some of GB’s other credits include Wild West Picture Show’s

"Gamechangers: Dreams of BlizzCon" (editor),  "A Leaf of Faith"

(producer, cinematographer, editor) both

released by FilmRise. The Feature Documentary “Heartland” (editor)

which won awards at Kansas City Film Festival, Omaha Fest, and St.

Louis International Film Festival as well as had multiple showings on

PBS. GB's first documentary, “My Name Is Smith” (cinematographer,

editor) was official selection at the Big Sky and Austin Film

Festivals in 2010.

GB is currently taking his horror short "Cold Read" (writer, editor,

director) out to festivals and is busy developing several documentary

and narrative projects as well as directing music videos and creating

assets for the metaverse "Sandbox".