JAMES ELLROY (Advisory Council) is the greatest living writer of noir fiction. His “L.A. Quartet” novels—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—were international bestsellers and revitalized noir fiction for a new generation. American Tabloid, the first of his “Underworld USA” trilogy, was Time’s Novel of the Year for 1995. His memoir, My Dark Places, was a New York Times Notable Book for 1996. He is also the recipient of the Jack Webb Award for “Strength and Inspiration,” bestowed by the Los Angeles Police Historical Society.
FOSTER HIRSCH (Board of Directors), Professor of Film at Brooklyn College, is the author of sixteen books on film and theatre, including two books on film noir, The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir, and Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir. He is the host of American Film Institute tributes in New York and a frequent guest moderator at a number of venues including the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the British Film Institute. He has recently lectured on film noir in India and China.
VINCE KEENAN (Advisory Council) is a novelist, screenwriter, journalist, cocktail columnist, video game designer, and foolishly devout New York Mets fan. A longtime contributor to NOIR CITY, he is currently the e-magazine's co-managing editor. His classic Hollywood mysteries, written with his wife Rosemarie Keenan under the pseudonym Renee Patrick and featuring costume designer Edith Head as detective, have been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Left Coast Crime, and Macavity Awards.
DANA DELANY (Advisory Council) is an Emmy Award-winning actor. She is known for her roles in China Beach, Desperate Housewives and Body of Proof. Her film roles include Light Sleeper, Tombstone, and Fly Away Home. Dana has hosted on Turner Classic Movies and guest-programmed on TCM's Noir Alley with Eddie Muller. Recently, she wrote a cover story on Gloria Grahame for NOIR CITY Magazine. At Wesleyan University, Dana studied under the legendary Jeanine Basinger and still resents not getting into her film noir class. She has since made up for it.
JOHN KIRK (Advisory Council) is an editor and film preservation specialist, has helped restore many important films, including Kiss Me Deadly, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and Fellini Satyricon. During that time he lectured on these (and other) projects at universities, film festivals, and cinematheques in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. He serves on the advisory boards of the Film Department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Legacy Project, a joint film preservation of Outfest Los Angeles and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
ROSE McGOWAN (Advisory Council) is an avid fan of old Hollywood and an ardent proponent of film preservation. With Robert Osborne, she co-hosted TCM's The Essentials (2009-11), enthusiastically presenting an array of classic films, including The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Night of the Hunter (1955). She became aware of the FNF's work after appearing at the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival with Eddie Muller, where the pair hosted a session on vintage noir. McGowan has appeared in such films as The Doom Generation (1995), Grindhouse (2007) and Machete (2010). On television, she costarred on Charmed (2001-06) and guest starred on Nip/Tuck (2009). McGowan recently made her directorial debut with the short film, Dawn (2014)
ANITA MONGA (Board of Directors) has been involved in film exhibition in the Bay Area for many years. As Director of Programming at San Francisco's Castro Theatre she established an internationally-recognized film arts program within the landmark movie palace. A founding member of the Film Noir Foundation, Monga is NOIR CITY's Programming Director, as well as a consultant to many other festivals. Currently, she is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
JOHN MYSEL (Advisory Council) is the founder of Catalyst Group, a New York interactive design consultancy, where he holds the position of principle "user experience" designer. Before forming Catalyst, Jon was a principle consultant and general manager at The Hiser Group, Australia's leading usability and user interface design consulting firm. Schooled in Massachusetts, John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Psychology from Tufts University and an MBA from Babson College. Jon's love of film noir was fostered by his sister, the renowned film preservationist Nancy Mysel.
ALAN RODE (Board of Directors and Treasurer) is a charter director of the Film Noir Foundation who has written for Filmmonthly.com, Classic Images, Famous Monsters of Filmland among other print and on-line publications. Alan co-programmed and hosted numerous repertory film events in association with the American Cinematheque, the Los Angeles Conservancy and The Cinefamily, and has been a commentator for numerous vintage films released to DVD. He is currently the director and host of the annual Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, California. Alan is the author of Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy and is currently writing Michael Curtiz: A Man for All Movies due out from the University Press of Kentucky in 2012.
ABBY STAEBLE (Advisory Council) has a B.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University and a paralegal certificate from UCLA Extension. She has served as Legal Affairs Specialist for public television and radio broadcaster KQED for the past five years. Her fascination with the illegal affairs of film noir goes back much further.
BRUCE GOLDSTEIN (Advisory Council) is one of the most respected programmers in America. For many years he has programmed innovative, wide-ranging, and influential classic-film series at the nation's premier repertory house, the Film Forum in New York. He is also the CEO of Rialto Pictures.
DENNIS LEHANE (Advisory Council) is the prize-winning author of the bestselling novels Mystic River and Shutter Island, as well as an immensely popular series of detective novels featuring his characters Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. He’s also written for the stage (Coronado) and television (The Wire). Somehow he also found time to teach a course at his alma mater, Eckherd College, entitled “Noir in Fiction and Film.” Before becoming a full-time writer, Lehane worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children.
LEONARD MALTIN (Advisory Council) is one of the country’s most recognized film critics and historians. He has written many books, and edits the annual paperback reference Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, along with its companion volume Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide. He is now in his 25th year with Entertainment Tonight, hosts the weekly show Secret’s Out on ReelzChannel, and introduces movies on DirecTV. He also hosts and co-produces the Walt Disney Treasures DVD series. He teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and last year was appointed by the Librarian of Congress to the Board of Directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation.
EDDIE MULLER (Founder and President) is a writer, filmmaker, and noted noir historian. His books include Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir; Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir, and The Art of Noir: Posters and Graphics from the Classic Film Noir Era. He has recorded numerous audio commentaries for DVD reissues of classic noir films. Muller’s crime fiction debut, The Distance was named “Best First Novel” of 2002 by the Private Eye Writers of America. He is co-author of the bestseller Tab Hunter Confidential.
GREG OLSON (Advisory Council) has been film curator for the Seattle Art Museum since 1976, for the past 28 years programming an annual film noir series—the longest-running noir festival in the the world. His essays have appeared in Film Comment and Japanese Premiere. He’s contributed to Vietnam War Films, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and the Scarecrow Video Moive Guide. His critical biography, The Art Life of David Lynch, will be published in Fall, 2006.
MICHAEL SCHLESINGER (Advisory Council) is widely acknowledged as the dean of classic film distributors, having worked for more than two decades at MGM, Paramount and (since 1994) Sony, keeping hundreds of vintage movies in theatrical release, and instigating the restoration of many more, including the completion of Orson Welles' 1942 documentary It's All True some 50 years later. He recently moved over to Sony Home Entertainment, where he is consulting on the long-overdue DVD release of many classic Columbia pictures. Behind the camera, he wrote and produced the American version of Godzilla 2000, and produced the forthcoming comedies The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and Dark and Stormy Night. He is a sucker for redheads.
IMOGEN SARA SMITH (Advisory Council) writes for Film Comment, the Criterion Collection, Sight & Sound, the Film Noir Foundation's NOIR CITY e-magazine, and many other publications. She is the author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, and a frequent speaker and commentator on all things noir. She has curated film series for the Museum of the Moving Image and the Criterion Channel, and teaches film history at the School of Visual Arts.
TODD WIENER (Advisory Council) has worked at UCLA Film & Television Archive for more than nine years and currently serves as its Motion Picture Archivist, researching and supervising the acquisition of new material. He manages more than 500 print loans annually to film festivals, museums and other venues worldwide, including international festivals in London, Berlin, and Toronto, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Wiener is also the Archive’s liaison with major donors and depositors, as well as with important archival partners such as the Sundance Film Festival, Outfest, the Film Noir Foundation, the Director’s Guild of America, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation.