Gary Dourdan, Paul Feig's Powderkeg Media, Buffalo8 to Head the 2018 ITVFest Jury

ITVFEST, the country's only independent television series marketplace Presented by the Television Academy and Sponsored by HBO announced today the festival's first-ever official Jury of industry talent and executives. The festival which is sponsored by HBO runs October 10-14 in Manchester Vermont and will feature five days of creators, executives, agents and producers coming together. The 2018 ITVFEST Jury members are:

• Actor/Musician Gary Dourdan (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Power, All She Wrote).
• Actor/Producer Jaylen Moore (History Channel's SIX).
• Laura Fisher, CEO of Powderkeg Media.

• Manager, Development & Production Eden Perry (Adaptive Studios).
• Peabody Award-Winning Manager/Producer Steven Adams (Partner, Head of Management, Buffalo 8, Producer RODNEY KING, directed by Spike Lee).
• Marketing Executive and Producer Theo Dumont (Head of Marketing, Buffalo 8, Founder HollyShorts).

The 2018 ITVFEST jury members will be joined in Vermont by leading directors, producers and show runners. This marks the first year the festival has organized an industry jury who will be voting on the Best of the Fest. The event showcases the best of independently produced episodic programming in drama, comedy, documentary, reality, and short form.

This marks the 13th edition of the Festival. ITVFEST is an exclusive industry marketplace for independently produces episodic programming. With the RISE of television over the last decade, the industry a niche of hundreds of high quality TV pilots and series that represent the next generation of storytellers, showrunners and TV talent. This year's Festival will feature 85 Independent series and 100 Presenters. Sponsors include HBO and Orvis. Over 70 executives, producers and agents will attend the festival shopping for new shows, taking meetings and making connections with storytellers.

"ITVFest is proud to present our Jury Award for Best Series in partnership with this incredible group of industry professionals," said ITVFest Executive Director Philip Gilpin, Jr. "They bring valuable and varied experience which is a tremendous asset. As independent television continues to grow around the globe, more content is being produced than ever before. It is important for creators, executives, and the audience to have a filtering system that they TRUST to find the best new projects.

Keynoting this year's festival is a fireside chat with Bruce Gersh, Executive VP and President of People, Entertainment Weekly and People en Español and Head of Four M Studios at Meredith Corporation. Gersh has operational oversight of all three brands, including print, digital and video content; sales and marketing; and brand business development. The Emmy-winning executive also leads Four M Studios, Meredith's award-winning in-house television production company. Additional ITVFest 2018 panelists include Kelly Edwards, VP of Content at HBO; David Person, Manager of Original Programming at IFC TV; Rebecca Agbe, VP of Programming at Sony Crackle; Jason Klorfein, Agent at The Gersh Agency; Michele Arteaga, Director of Acquisitions and Programming at Starz; Sarah Murphy-Katz, Coordinator at ABC Entertainment, and many more.

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