Lynda Obst to Head Festival Jury

Lynda Obst is a prolific  film and television producer whose hit films include Flashdance, The Fisher King, Sleepless In Seattle, One Fine Day, Contact, Hope Floats,  How to Lose A Guy In Ten Days, and Interstellar. Together they  have amassed two Oscar wins, an additional eleven Oscar nominations, four Golden Globe wins and eleven Golden Globe nominations. Her science collaborators includes Carl Sagan and  Nobelist Kip Thorne, among others. In 2019, Lynda executive produced National Geographic's limited series The Hot Zone, based on Richard Preston's best-selling book. Obst is also a well-known commentator and best-selling author, frequently writing and speaking about both the industry and issues surrounding women in entertainment. Her non-fiction book: Hello He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches debuted at #1 on the LA Times Best Seller list and later to be adapted into a documentary for AMC. Her most recent book, Sleepless in Hollywood, Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business, chronicles the changing landscape of the entertainment industry and how to stay afloat in the streaming decades ahead.