Lynn Moss Holley, Founding Director
Lynn's Biography
Lynn is one of those complex, creative women who has traveled like a pilgrim on a strange planet called Earth. She seeks out opportunities to learn from, meet with, and work with inspiring and enriching individuals across the world who are in the ARTS.
Although she has a number of academic degrees in Humanities, Communications and Museum Studies, she has found that most of what she knows comes from her passion for the arts; flying steady by the seat of her pants. She loves music, painting and thought-provoking discussions on subjects from trees to the stars in the cosmos.
Lynn has been the executive director of numerous organizations from New York to California, and to Florida and back. She has owned and edited newspapers and magazines. Much of her career success has been less from education than from being confident enough to always saying "yes I can," and then looking for the recipe to do nearly anything required.
In regard to filmmakers and artists of any discipline, Lynn believes that everyone needs a chance to shine their wares. And, when it comes to filmmakers and writers, the chance to create is often easier than getting a chance for work to be screened and publicly shown. She wants to help make that happen more often.
When Lynn was in her early 20s, she wanted to be a writer, and had her first opportunity at a daily newspaper to write film reviews. She knew little about movies, other than going to a lot of them as a child and later as a teenager and in college. Yet, it was a good match, and with some research, press kits, and a bit of mentoring to help her along, she is where she is today from those early years at a daily newspaper.
Lynn is not only an executive consultant to the arts, a curator of fine arts, but a lecturer on perception and the power of myth, and the Nature of Walls, which was an installation she created in 2018, in Santa Barbara, CA. As a writer she actively dives into a number of esoteric and eclectic subjects in and out of the arts. Yet, these days she is just proud to be the sole owner and director of three international film festivals. These include the 3 Minute Film Festival, and the much larger International Fine Arts Film Festival, now on hiatus. Her larger endeavor is the Poetry Film Festival going into its 4th Season in 2025 Lynn joined up with Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA, to produce and direct this in-person and important festival.
Lynn manages most of the details of each festivals, and hand picks the best judges in the industry. A few supporters of in-kind services, volunteers and some welcome donors have helped keep the festivals going. Specifically, she points out Studio86 Creative, owned by Jane Masterson as her partner in design.
The Santa Barbara Center of Arts, Science & Technology (SBCAST.org) gave Lynn her chance to be a founding director of two film festivals, as they provided a cross-section of young to mature individuals on their own journeys of discovery in the arts and sciences. Her collaboration with younger filmmakers and designers spurred her to learn what it takes technically and emotionally to do what she does -- produce and manage artist, filmmakers and film festivals. The two original festivals have been online since 2020, but hopefully will return in 2025.
Lynn is always open to chat with filmmakers, and enjoys getting to know them and their work, their hopes and dreams. She plans on giving a tutorial on entering film festivals in the late fall/winter.
Lynn currently lives in Hollywood, yet with many foot prints still in Santa Barbara, and expanding around Los Angeles area and New York.
Some of our judges from 2022 and 2023
Robert Adams
Larry Greenfield
Robert Adams
Robert F. Adams is a graduate of UCLA's School of Theatre and Film. He is currently the film columnist for VOICE Magazine in Santa Barbara, covering films, operas and international film festivals. He is currently serving or has recently served on numerous film programming selection committees for AspenFilm, Napa Valley and the Santa Barbara International Film Festivals. Also a practicing visual artist, his work has been shown at the Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara, the Aspen Art Museum and the Architectural Foundation Gallery. Robert can be reached at his website at www.earthknower.com.
Rick Carter
Larry Greenfield
Robert Adams
.Richard Carter is a professional photographer originally from Maryland, now living in California for over 40 years. He has worked for newspapers, film producers nationally and internationally, as well as Film Festivals and high-profile award events for many decades. Always an accomplished film photographer, he studied digital photography in Santa Barbara at City College. For over 30 years he has covered Red Carpet events, opening film receptions, post-award receptions, and interviewed scores of A-list filmmakers, actors and world class musicians. He has interviewed many film stars, and worked with directors on and offset, from Oscar winners to Independent filmmakers. As a photographer in his own right he has won numerous top awards for his plethora of photographs, especially celebrity and film-based. He has been a film judge for festivals for five years, including the IFAFF, and the 3Minute Film Festival.
Larry Greenfield
Larry Greenfield
Larry Greenfield
.Larry S. Greenfield is a retired attorney who has practiced as a complex commercial and entertainment litigator in both New York and Los Angeles for more than 37 years. He is a member of the American Film Institute, a graduate of Cornell University, and of the New York University School of Law (JD). Larry clerked for the Hon. Lawrence Bilder in the Superior Court of the State of New Jersey before he began his practice in 1976.Larry is the author of the anchor chapter of the multi-authored and critically-acclaimed legal treatise entitled "Entertainment Litigation," first published by Oxford University Press in 2011.Larry has represented clients in many aspects of the entertainment industry, including Motion Picture Studios (MGM/United Artists; Paramount Pictures; Lionsgate Films; New Line Cinema; DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group; and Miramax Pictures, among others); Television Networks and Producers (including ABC Television, Telepictures; American Idol; MTV, and VH-1, among others); Actors (including Sidney Poitier; Johnny Depp; Courtenay Cox; and Laura Dern, among others); Writers (including Truman Capote; J.D. Salinger; and Diane English, among others); Talent Agencies, (including The William Morris Agency; Endeavor; UTA; and ICM); Record Companies (Motown Records; Polygram Records); Recording Artists (including Bob Dylan; Rod Stewart; Ozzy Osborne; and Jewel, among others); Directors (David Fincher, among others), and many other individuals and companies in nearly all aspects of the entertainment industry.Now retired from active practice, Larry consults with clients on a selective basis.
Daniel Kepl
Katherine McElwee
Larry Greenfield
Daniel Kepl is a seasoned conductor, and currently a film festival judge of Original Score for this season and previous IFAFF seasons. He is also a media reviewer of classical music, theater and dance events. When he was only sixteen, he founded the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, and thenattended the California Institute of the Arts, as its first conducting major, studying with conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith there, after two years studying with Los Angeles Chamber Symphony conductor Henri Temianka. Daniel attended Trinity College of Music, London, to study with conductors Bernard Keeffe, as well as Irwin Hoffman in Brussels.He then spent a month in Brazil with the Sao Paulo Philharmonic as a conducting fellow in 1972.For twelve years he was in Seattle conducting for Seattle Festival Ballet, Seattle Wind Ensemble and Seattle Debut Orchestra. In 1979 brought the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival - all 22 musicians - to Seattle during the summers, beginning in 1979.He has been writing reviews of classical music, theater, and dance events ever since his youth, for newspapers, media outlets in California, Seattle, and, London. Daniel's performingartsreview.net website is a video interview and CD review service with 22,000 subscribers in six countries.
Katherine McElwee
Katherine McElwee
Katherine McElwee
.Katherine McElwee attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University, where her passion for the arts and films began. She was a ceramic artist for 20 years, with a home studio and an association with a Mendocino County, California, ceramic guild, where she also sold her work. Always a cinephile, she expanded her interest in the arts to uncover a better understanding of filmmaking. She has helped develop and edit film scripts, with specific comments on the nature of story-telling. Katherine has been a volunteer for 30 years for a theater company, working as a House Manager. She has participated as a judge in former film festivals, and continues to consult with script writers.