Bringing Music Stories to Screen

Speakers

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  Charles Hopkins Director of Development & Production, Concord Originals
  

  Charles Hopkins

  Director of Development & Production, Concord Originals

  Charles Hopkins is the Director of Development & Production for Concord Originals, the narrative content creation division for the massive music and theater company, Concord. As part of this role, Hopkins develops scripted and unscripted projects for film and television across a variety of genres and mediums. In his five years at Concord Originals, he’s spearheaded projects that have been in development or distribution with Amazon, Netflix, Skydance and more. Active projects include Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planed it (dir. Paris Barclay) and Shari & Lamb Chop (dir. Lisa D’Apolito), in which Hopkins is an executive and co-executive producer respectively. Hopkins also spearheaded a short film financing initiative which saw three QTBIPOC filmmakers receive funding to produce short films incorporating Concord’s IP and which premiered at Outfest Los Angeles 2023. The initiative was re-launched in 2024 with NewFest.

  Hopkins is originally from Australia, where he graduated Arts: Media & Communications and Law at The University of Melbourne, then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. After stints in talent management and production, Hopkins climbed the ladder at an indie film sales and production company on the acquisitions side before joining Concord Originals. His experience encompasses creative development, packaging, business affairs, financing and distribution. As a queer person himself, Hopkins is passionate about inclusive storytelling and advocating for filmmakers from historically underrepresented communities.

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  Alexis Garcia Founder, CAT5
  

  Alexis Garcia

  Founder, CAT5

  Alexis Garcia is the founder and head of CAT5, an action film finance and production label backed by FIFTH SEASON (fka Endeavor Content), one of the world’s leading independent TV and film studios.

  Previously Garcia was EVP of FIFTH SEASON. As one of the original partners of the company, he built and ran the Film Group to become a prolific film supplier to theatrical distributors and streamers (40+ movies financed and/or produced over 4 years). Garcia’s titles under his tenure include The Peanut Butter Falcon, Blue Miracle, 80 for Brady, Ambulance, Flora and Son, multi-Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter, Sundance Audience Award Winner Cha Cha Real Smooth and upcoming releases Nonnas starring Vince Vaughn and Friendship starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd.

  In his prior role at WME/Endeavor Content, Garcia worked as a talent agent packaging and selling films and advised financiers on their entertainment strategies, including work on such films as The Favourite, The Nice Guys and Drive. Throughout his career, Garcia has consulted and developed programs for corporate clients ranging from The NFL to the Colombian Film Commission.

  Garcia earned his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, and his B.A. in English and Theatre from Vanderbilt University. Prior to joining Endeavor Talent Agency in 2007, Garcia was a transactional attorney at O’Melveny & Myers and Sheppard Mullin Richter Hampton.

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  Emily Skyle-Golden Founder & Executive Director, Cordillera International Film Festival
  

  Emily Skyle-Golden

  Founder & Executive Director, Cordillera International Film Festival

  As a News Anchor, Emily Skyle-Golden loved delivering headlines but learned she enjoyed making fun of them even more – so she spent the next decade finding her voice as a writer and a performer on the Chicago stages of Second City and iO. Emily’s narrative and unscripted development work has been seen on HBO, Travel Channel, Netflix, Hallmark and most recently, on Rennervations, a Disney+ series starring Jeremy Renner that was filmed in Northern Nevada. As a writer and director, her films have played at top tier Oscar qualifying film festivals on 4 continents.

  As the founder of the Film Northern Nevada Initiative, an organization focused on bringing a thriving film industry to the region, Emily launched the Reno-Tahoe based, Cordillera International Film Festival, which has quickly become one of the “Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” according to MovieMaker Magazine – for two years in a row – and is ranked in the Top 1% of over 12,000 film festivals worldwide by FilmFreeway. Now in its 8th year, Cordillera presents 150+ films over 5 days, with celebrity panels, red carpet premieres, parties, a prestigious Grand Jury, and a $175K PitchFest! Competition. The festival receives 4,000+ submissions from 83 countries, attracts 12,000 attendees annually, and awards over $200K in prizes. Cordillera is an official Cannes Film Festival Hub partner and was recently selected to collaborate with the historic Mann Theater to create the first film festival experience at Burning Man.

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  Amos Newman Producer & Head of Music, Fifth Season
  

  Amos Newman

  Producer & Head of Music, Fifth Season

  Amos Newman, formerly a partner at William Morris Endeavor (WME), led the company’s Music for Visual Media division for a decade.

  Over his career, Newman has worked alongside acclaimed artists, producers, and songwriters, such as Glen Ballard, Ludwig Göransson, John Legend, Bruno Mars, Jack White, Randy Newman, Trent Reznor, and Pharrell.

  In 2020 he joined Fifth Season (previously known as Endeavor Content), where he curated a portfolio of film and television projects, including recent highlights like the highly anticipated Earth, Wind & Fire documentary directed by Questlove and a definitive documentary on the legendary American songwriter Randy Newman.

  Currently, Newman is producing an upcoming feature film about the iconic singer-songwriter Otis Redding, starring John Boyega and Danielle Deadwyler. His newest venture, Word is Bond, produces high-quality entertainment that celebrates cultural legacies in Music.