Meet five influential and distinguished women in the film industry and learn about their journey, successes and challenges in this ever changing market. These extraordinary women will discuss the development of digital platforms and its impact on the industry as it evolves in the new digital age.

Moderator: Pat Saperstein: is Deputy Editor at Variety, where she oversees coverage of film festivals, documentaries, independent film and restaurants. She was a jury member at numerous film festivals, and previously served as U.S. editor for Le Film Francais.

Angélica Vale (born Angélica María Vale Hartman; November 11, 1975) is a Mexican-American actress, singer, and comedian known also as the daughter of Angélica María, “La Novia de Mexico” (Mexico’s Sweetheart), and as the daughter of comedian Raúl Vale. She has been working as an actress for almost 30 years, but achieved fame in 2006 when she became the protagonist of La Fea Más Bella (The Prettiest Ugly Girl), a Mexican telenovela, with her real-life mother. She starred in the webnovela No me hallo as Luchita Guerra a young woman with a big dream of becoming a singer. Early in 2012, Vale was a team captain on the Mexican TV Show Parodiando, of Televisa network. Vale became a U.S. citizen in 2016, while retaining her Mexican citizenship.

Kelli McNeil is a Los Angeles based writer, actor, voiceover artist and producer. As a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Drama, McNeil has performed in multiple film, TV and stage productions and wrapped production on three features in 2017, including Gus Van Sant’s new movie, Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot.
She was selected to attend BADA (British American Drama Academy) during her junior year. She currently has a national commercial airing for Little Caesars, directed by celebrated commercial director Harold Einstein of Dummy Films. She has voiced numerous commercial, corporate and theatrical projects.
McNeil has also carved out a career for herself in advertising, where she has been a Creative Director and writer for multiple clients, including Fortune 50 companies. Her focus has been on producing digital spots and content creation.

Michelle Alexandria, began a career working in finance at a young age. During her several years as a finance director for Jaguar cars, she pursued acting and began studying at the prestigious Beverly Hills Playhouse. Within a few years of acting jobs, she gained a strong interest for the business side of the industry. She began producing theater successfully then quickly transitioned to film. She continued her education at UCLA focusing on film production, line producing, and film distribution. One of her first feature films, FIRST DOG, a story of a young orphan boy returning a lost dog to the president of the usa, was #1 on Red Box for a month. Her most recent feature, SCREAMERS, was #1 on Itunes Horror and remained top five for several weeks.

Panelist: Micky Levy, RAILS & TIES, Warner Bros., directed by Alison Eastwood, was Micky’s first produced feature screenplay. It played in the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Since then, Micky has completed several book adaptations, including Lifetime’s AMISH GRACE for which she received a Humanitas Prize nomination.
Micky’s script NOBODY, adapted from the book “Dancing in the Dark,” by Caryl Phillips, placed in the top ten of the 2015 Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition. Her spec, THE SLAVE, adapted from the international best-selling novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is currently being packaged.
Micky’s directorial work in film includes: the documentary short, FIRST TIME, which was lensed by cinematographer Svetlana Cvetko. Next, Micky tackled a narrative short with the drama, PAGE’S GREAT AND GRAND ESCAPE, which played at over thirty film festivals, including Foyle Film Festival, Raindance, Newport Beach International Film Festival. PAGE won Best in Fest, Festival Director’s Award, and Audience Award. The film was distributed by Virgin Produced and shown on Virgin Atlantic and in Virgin Hotels.

Panelist: Valerie McCaffrey,  As an independent casting director coming from the studio level, Valerie uses her knowledge and her eye for talent to the producing/directing/ writing capacity as well. Inspired by relevant stories, she recently directed a short film called “Dirty Bomb” that stars J. Michael Trautmann and Ido Samuel that won best short at The Madrid International Film Festival. The film had it’s North American debut at “Dances with Films” and recently premiered internationally at The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. Her previous films which she cast and produce is LOST AND FOUND IN ARMENIA which got theatrical distribution and played to sold out audiences. The film starred Angela Sarafyan and Jamie Kennedy. She also completed a cancer documentary CANCER, IT’S IN THE SYSTEM in which she co-directed and co-produced with Cindy Pruitt. She produced an award-winning film directed entitled NEO NED, starring Gabrielle Union and Jeremy Renner. She recently completed casting a feature film for Patriot Pictures which starred Nicholas Cage, Larry Fishburne, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Leslie Bibb and Clifton Collin, Jr. called RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL. Valerie also loves to support new talent and cast Ellen Page in her first American film in the critically acclaimed film HARD CANDY. To date, she has cast over 100 films.

Source: http://www.arpafilmfestival.com/panel-discussion-at-2018-arpa-iff/