Directors
Corinna Thuss
Corinna is the Managing-Director of the successful FilmOneFest with over 2000 in attendance and spearheads their fundraising efforts.
She has a Bachelor’s degree from St. Thomas Aquinas College and honed her event and meeting planning skills as a meeting planner in the corporate world. She has over twenty years’ experience in event planning. Her career includes working at PaineWebber organizing mutual fund broker training programs and working as an internal wholesaler, supporting the National Sales Managers coordinating the mutual fund sales force.
Currently, she is the special events manager for TEDxNavesink 2015 with over 700 attendees being held at Monmouth University.
She and her husband moved to the jewel by the sea, Atlantic Highlands in 1998, after years of visiting the area. A huge advocate for the town and for public education, Corinna served as PTO President for the Atlantic Highlands Elementary School for six years and is currently serving on the Board of Education for that school. She is also the vice-president of the Henry Hudson Tri-District Education Foundation formed in 2014 to support innovations in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math programs (STEAM) and athletics at the tri-district schools of Atlantic Highlands and Highlands.
In 2013, Corinna started her own event planning business, Brightwork Events. Corinna directs the high-level big-picture while placing equal importance on the finishing details. Her motto, is “the power of organization and the art of detail”. The term brightwork refers to the varnished woodwork that is kept bright on a vessel. Well-cared-for brightwork makes the difference in the overall positive appearance.
She is married and has a 13 year old daughter.
Robert O'Connor
Robert O’Connor is the founder and Artistic Director of FilmOneFest. He is a practicing artist and musician whose work has been exhibited internationally, most notably at New York Studio Gallery where he had two solo exhibitions of his paintings, prints and videos.
He holds an MFA degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a bachelors and masters degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He also studied at the Art Students League of NY where he received the prestigious Edward McDowell Grant. He has participated in several film festivals including the Chicago Underground Film Festival and the Provincetown International Film Festival. His videos have been shown at Jersey City Museum, the Monmouth Museum, Arizona State University Art Museum, and at Mass MoCA. On the music side, he has been studying composition and orchestration at the Juilliard Evening Division since 2014 and attended the European American Musical Alliance at the Schola Cantorum in Paris in July of 2016.
Robert is very proud of his community arts work, and in particular, FilmOneFest. When he moved to the beautiful Bayshore town of Atlantic Highlands in 2006, he quickly got involved with the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council (AHAC) and suggested the idea of a one-minute film festival. He worked closely with his Co-Director Julie Gartenberg, whose organizational skills were a perfect match to his creative skills. They worked hand-in-hand to assemble the strong team of professionals that form the core of today’s festival. Sadly, Julie passed away in 2015. We believe, she would be proud that the festival is still thriving and happy to know that all the work and love she poured into it continues to bring art and joy into the world.
Judges
Jon Crowley
Jon Crowley is returning as a judge and host for the FilmOneFest for a ninth year. He's also been a vice president of programming and development for the Syfy, FOOD and truTV networks where he helped create popular series such as THE HAUNTED COLLECTOR, LIZARD LICK TOWING and IMPRACTICAL JOKERS. Currently he's executive producing, writing and directing various shows such as MARRIAGE BOOTCAMP, HOUSE HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL, EAT DRINK ITALY and the COACHELLA MUSIC FESTIVAL for WEtv, HGTV, PBS and YouTube. He lives in Atlantic Highlands with his wife and son.
Carol Cuddy
Carol Cuddy is a Film and Television Producer. She has worked on films ranging in size from "Men In Black 3" and "The Departed" to smaller independent films including "Rachel Getting Married" and "Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead". Her recent TV credits include a new Netflix series “Maniac", CBS’ series “Elementary” and HBO’s "True Detective”. She, her husband and daughter live in Atlantic Highlands.
Joan Ellis
She graduated from Vassar and Princeton. Her career has included working at the CIA, 20 years as a movie critic for The Two River Times, The Addison Independent, rottentomatoes.com, and the Web site www.joanellis.com. Newsweek has dubbed her "the Pauline Kael of the internet."
Susan Littenberg
Susan Littenberg has worked in the editing room with filmmakers Ang Lee, Hal Hartley, Gary Winick, and Jim Jarmusch. She produced and directed Visions, a jazz documentary and edited documentaries The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack, and the Spalding Gray monologues Gray's Anatomy and And Everything Is Going Fine, both directed by Steven Soderbergh. Her fiction work as Editor can be seen in 13 Going On 30, Charlotte's Web, Easy A, and this year's Nina. Susan is currently producing The Industrial Musicals Movie, a fun cultural documentary featuring the unknown genre of Corporate Musicals from the 50s-80s.
Gedney Webb
He has been working in the music side of the film industry for more than 25 years. He has collaborated with top Hollywood talents, including Ron Howard, Robert De Niro, Wes Anderson and Ang Lee. Gedney received a Golden Reel award for his work on the Oscar winning film “Chicago.” Recently he worked on the award winning film "The Hundred Foot Journey,” directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Gedney is currently working on “The Nutcracker And The Four Realms” for Walt Disney Pictures which will be released Christmas of 2018.
Victor Zak
He’s an award-winning journalist specializing in movies and travel and a contributing editor to
the Arts & Leisure News Service, a national syndicate based in Manhattan. He has written extensively about films and filmmakers for New Jersey publications, including the Asbury Park Press. Zak also hosts film series at New Jersey libraries.