2017 Judge: Carey Borth

This Wisconsin born Attorney and LA Producer, Director and Writer has made a career out of helping others achieve their dreams as well as furthering her own career in many aspects of film making; be it as a writing tutor, ghostwriter (Sashay Productions), manager or providing career guidance to up and coming actors, filmmakers and musicians. As well as writing credits on an abundance of projects, she has also worked as a reader of the IFP in Westwood, CA, and managed screenwriters for 6 years in Los Angeles (Gold-Dust Entertainment). She has been a stand-in for Cameron Diaz and worked crew on Jason Alexander's, "The Whitey Show." She has been a Member of the Wisconsin State Bar since 1986 and a Real Estate Broker since 1981.



First gaining recognition as a model from the age of five and later with a certificate from Rosemary Bischoff Modeling Studio's, while still in high school, Carey's other credits include crew and/or acting in a plethora of shorts and student films at her tenure at UCLA Film School. She also wrote, shot and edited her own 16mm films and directed and produced five camera shoots at the House of Blues in Hollywood. This was just the beginning of Carey's love affair with film.


Carey acquired a variety of educational qualifications with three business degrees from UW-Madison, (Real Estate, Finance and Marketing), and obtained her Juris Doctor from Pepperdine Law School where she studied for one semester at the Imperial College in Knightsbridge and one summer at UW-Madison Law School. She has obtained Professional degrees in Interior and Environmental Design, Computer Graphics, Graphic Design, and completed all the coursework for two more, sans the Internship for Culinary Arts and Cooking & Baking at UCLA Extension. She also attended Art Center College of Design Night program for two years in Pasadena, California, studying art history, photography and life drawing. Perhaps her greatest scholastic achievement is her MFA in Film & TV from UCLA, earned from 1994 to 2002.


Since that time, Carey has worked for six years assisting director and actor Mark Borchardt (Northwest Productions), of "American Movie" fame, and produced, cast, acted and did camera on, "Scare Me," and a number of music video's in Los Angeles and Milwaukee, WI. Another such project includes, "The Mark and Mike Show," whereby Jeff Stilson, executive producer of "The Osbournes," followed Carey and her crew around as the subjects of a reality Comedy Central show, during the filming of "Scare Me." Carey made her professional directorial documentary debut with digital projects on racecars, motorcycles and surfing in Malibu and Elkhart Lake since the turn of the century. Her personal blog in 2004 won recognition from AOL as one of the most popular on the Internet.


Carey has gathered critical acclaim as an artist and photographer (Life Masters), selling her works in galleries, private commissions and festivals. She has written a memoir of her 24 years in Hollywood and three books on architecture, art, including one on her personal experiences on traveling alone throughout Europe at age 22.


As a producer, Carey has a hands-on approach while pitching multiple feature films for theatrical release or streaming. She has been a screenwriter or script doctor on at least forty screenplays. A few films are going into preproduction beginning in October in London and Spain, with A-list talent and top music scorers. She is currently collaborating on a book series, “Little Hawk,” with an Australian writer and writing the screenplays.


An avid traveler, Carey loves to visit Asia, Africa and all of Europe. She has visited all of the continental US states, Hawaii, and many of the Canadian provinces. This knowledge of the world helps cherry-pick the finest locations for her filmmaking projects. Carey has expanded her scope of funding to that of commodities, real estate, renewable energy and virtual reality technologies.