Established in 2018, Foundation Films is a group of independent creatives bringing well-told stories to fruition. We seek out Hollywood’s hidden gems: award-winning scripts that stand the test of time and are now ready for the big screen. We create our own original content — gritty genre stories grounded in complex characters.
Gabriel Cowan is a Sundance and IFP fellow as well as an award winning filmmaker who has produced over 20 feature films. More than a dozen of Cowan’s movies have premiered at major festivals including Cheap Thrills which won the audience award at South By Southwest, Bad Milo which Cowan produced with The Duplass Brothers and Academy Award Winner Adele Romanski and They Call Us Monsters which won the 2017 Independent Lens Award. Gabe's films have been called “nothing short of iconic” by the Los Angeles Times and “Powerful and Eye Opening” by the Hollywood Reporter. Cowan has worked with Sam Rockwell, Marisa Tomei, Minnie Driver, Frank Grillo, John Liguizamo, Dane Cook, Courteney Cox, Seann William Scott, Kate Walsh, and many others. As a musician, Gabe is a multi platinum recording artist who has played and recorded with Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder, Robbie Robertson and the Tower Of Power. Gabe serves on the boards of Inside OutWriters, an organization that heals trauma through writing classes for kids in juvenile hall and Common Sense Media, an organization with Eighty Five Million subscribers which promotes better digital citizenship for our children.
Wes Ambrecht is a writer, producer and development executive. The eldest of three children, he originally hails from Bellmore, New York. Prior to joining Foundation Films, Wes helped launch the production arm of Paper Plane Entertainment and served as the Director of Development at Viewfinder Pictures. Wes’ credits include KILLING ANIMALS starring James Franco and Joey King and the upcoming feature film TOGETHER NOW starring Frieda Pinto and Halle Berry. His work has shown at festivals worldwide, most notably Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Cannes, and has been recognized by both the Sundance Institute and the Sprite Young Filmmaker Series. He holds a MFA in Film/TV Production from UCLA and a BS in Communication from Cornell University.
Lexx Fusco is a screenwriter and creative executive. She began her career as an assistant at Millennium Films before transitioning to Solstice Studios, where she contributed to several projects as a CE, while also continuing to craft her own material. At Foundation, Lexx is able to merge her love of storytelling and development, overseeing a slate of Film and TV projects and regularly sourcing new content. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Screenwriting from Drexel University.
Ushmey Chakraborty is a screenwriter and filmmaker, born and raised in Mumbai, India. He moved to California when he joined the New York Film Academy from where he graduated in Screenwriting. Ushmey's Feature Spec "She Can Fly Too" placed Top 15% at the Academy Nicholl Fellowship and his TV Pilot, "Lake High" was a Quarterfinalist in ScreenCraft’s Pilot Launch Competition. Ushmey is an avid cinephile and loves it when you question him about everything cinema.
Manya is a recent graduate from Ithaca College, with a B.S. in Cinema and Photography. She has always been passionate about the visual arts, from illustration to photography and cinema. Manya has worked on dozens of short films, primarily as a cinematographer, and worked on several architectural photography projects. Originally from France, now living in Montreal, she is always looking for new ways to create eye-catching visuals. She currently creates many of Foundation Films posters (currently on this website!) and helps the company many facets of graphic design.
Joy Lakin is excited to be a legal intern for Foundation Films. Joy holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Miami in music and is currently a rising 3L law student at Southwestern Law School, with a concentration in entertainment law. Joy was previously a professional singer and music teacher and aspires to advocate for the arts by becoming an entertainment attorney!
Antonina is a writer-director originally from Bogotá, Colombia. She moved to Savannah, Georgia in 2014 to pursue a BFA in Film and Television with a minor in Dramatic Writing. She graduated in 2018, and is currently located in Los Angeles. She's passionate about creating content that explores the human condition and human connections. Her film "The Coffee Vendor" was sponsored by the Bogota Short Film Festival after its screenplay won the "Work in Progress" award in December 2015. She's currently working on developing her short film "¡salsa!", which has already participated in the Bogota International Film Festival's Short Film Executive Production Lab, and in the Bogota Short Film Festival's Co-Production Incubator.
Chandler is a second year graduate student at Chapman University working towards her MFA in Screenwriting. In 2016, She graduated from TCU with a degree in Marketing and a degree in Film, Television, and Digital Media. Chandler put her business degree to work in the advertising industry for two years before returning to school to pursue her passion – filmmaking. Her favorite genres are coming-of-age and science fiction/fantasy. She’s excited to be working with Foundation Films!
Agnès Guidi is a screenwriter, born and raised in southern France. She graduated from the Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne with a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema and Audiovisual in 2016. Agnès then worked for two years in television production in Paris. She moved to Los Angeles in 2018 to pursue her screenwriting career and attended the screenwriting certificate of UCLA Extension which she received in 2019. Agnès is currently a development intern at Foundation Films. She is also a founding member of the french performing arts association Les VillArtJoies.
MK Matheson is a Los Angeles based screenwriter with an inconsistent shoe size. He graduated from Bridgewater State University with a BA in Communications, concentration in Film Studies. Through the success of his short films, he attended Cannes Film Festival’s 2017 Short Film Corner and received a Best Comedy nomination at the 2016 Terminus Festival. Having gained experience from work at Foundation Films, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Sundance Film Festival, he now takes his next steps toward a writing-focused career. At one point, MK had seen all of IMDb’s Top 250 Films, and he really wishes that list would stop changing.
Nina Dours is an aspiring screenwriter who is originally from France. Nina is a development intern at Foundation Films. She is currently a student at Chapman University pursuing a B.F.A in screenwriting and a B.A in psychology. She lived in Miami for four years and moved to Southern California for college two years ago. She is a member of the professional cinematic fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha, and has held several leadership positions for her chapter including recruitment chair and showrunner.
Jo is a third-year law student at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, where her primarily focus is entertainment law, intellectual property law, and transactional law. She received her bachelor degree in law in China and she is fluent in both Mandarin and English. Jo formerly interned at the U.S. District Court of Arizona and she am currently working as a legal intern at Foundation Films assisting the company with the development, financing, and production of their respective projects.
With a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, Marta thought the entertainment world would be a perfect fit after several years working as a therapist. She was immediately attracted to this fast-paced, creative industry once she set foot on set for the first time. Marta spent the first five years in Los Angeles on the set of a TV show while her daughter was a series regular, for whom she became a social media manager, stylist, advisor and acting coach. That experience also gave her the opportunity to have access to all scripts versions, from table read to shooting draft for four full seasons. Being on-set, day in and day out, Marta learned firsthand how a TV show is produced through regular interactions with screenwriters, showrunners, crew, and staff. A self-taught screenwriter, Marta attended several online courses on Professional Screenwriting and Organic Story Structure but her goal is to work in development. She joined Foundation Films in 2018. She’s bilingual-bicultural.
Greta Jursch is a graphic design student from Agoura Hills, CA. She is currently pursuing her B.A. in both Media and Visual Culture Studies (MVC) and Graphic Design from the University of Redlands. Her creative field interests include illustration, icon design, fashion photography, brand identity, and editorial layout. At her university, she is the creative department’s photographer, the vice president of the photography club, and an Adobe brand ambassador. Outside of work, Greta is an NCAA 10k and 3000m steeplechase runner and the Los Angeles Lakers’ number one fan.
A native of Southern California, Germain Gallegos graduated cum laude from Cal Poly Pomona in 2018. He earned his BFA in Graphic Design and minored in both Art History and Market Management. Germain enjoys watching horror movies and reading comic books in his spare time.
Sam is graduating from Brown University, double majoring in Literary Arts and Computer Science. His interests include film, screenwriting, basketball, and music. Favorite films include Raging Bull, John Carpenter’s The Thing, A Serious Man, and The Magnificent Ambersons. His passion for genre blending, character driven films informs his enthusiasm for New Artist Alliance’s work.
Vanessa received her BA in Dramatic Literature, Theatre History, and the Cinema from NYU, where her focus was playwriting. As an MFA graduate student at Chapman University she wrote and directed the short film Premenstrual Margot, which won the prestigious Zonta Award, a grant given to filmmakers who focus on women’s issues. Vanessa’s films focus on female protagonists, and she is dedicated to the idea of representation on screen and bringing to light the stories of diverse women. During her time at Chapman, Vanessa assisted producer Susie Landau Finch (Dracula) in all stages of filmmaking from script development to post-production on current projects. She currently interns at Foundation Films doing script coverage and practicing how to pitch active and upcoming projects.
Melissa Birks will earn her MFA in screenwriting from DePaul University in June 2019. In addition to her studies, Melissa serves as an intern at Foundation Films. Her recent professional experience includes working as a marketing coordinator for a large law firm based in Chicago. In the "first act" of her career, she worked as a reporter and editor for five newspapers around the country. She is a Michigan native.
April Hartmann graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in Psychology and Women's Studies. After spending fifteen years as a Real Estate agent in New Jersey, April is now working in Los Angeles and pursuing a career as a writer. When she isn't burning the midnight oil at her computer, writing her next screenplay, April enjoys staying active with biking and Pilates. She splits her time between New Jersey and Los Angeles and lives with her husband Kevin and their 5 year old dog, Buddy.
