Sheerly Avni

(In the Screening Room) is a San Francisco-based journalist. Her work has appeared in Variety, LA Weekly and Salon.com. Her book about Northern California filmmakers, Cinema by the Bay, was published in June 2006.

(“Coming Attractions”) was formerly the editor of the Hollywood Reporter and TelevisionWeek. He is the author of Outfoxed: The Inside Story of America’s Fourth Television Network and can be heard on NPR’s Call Sheet.

Amy Dawes

Dawes (On the Job With) is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. She is a former reporter and senior editor at Variety. She is the author of Sunset Boulevard: Cruising the Heart of Los Angeles.

Scott Foundas

(Shot to Remember) was impressed by Ridley Scott’s recall of details about the visual design of Blade Runner 25 years after he made the film. Foundas is film editor and chief critic for the LA Weekly.

Desa Philadelphia

(“The Importance of Being Gordon Parks”) was, until recently, the Hollywood correspondent for Time magazine. She was previously a reporter at The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. While working on her story, she found herself planning all sorts of projects. “Parks kind of inspires you to go out there and achieve something.”

Steve Pond

(“Live Wires”) came to appreciate stage managers and associate directors while covering backstage at the Oscars for 13 years, an experience he chronicled in his book The Big Show. “Not only do they keep the trains running on time,” he says, “but they know where all the bodies are buried.” He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Premiere and many other publications.

Jeffrey Ressner

(“Big Stories”) first met Sydney Pollack a few years ago at the Cannes Film Festival when they were both shoved aside by security and photographers to make way for an arriving star. His latest encounter with the director was much more illuminating. Ressner is a Los Angeles correspondent for Time.

Henry Sheehan

After decades as a critic, Sheehan (“Cutting Edge”) finally got a chance to see how a director handles “perhaps the most important filmmaking chore,” as he observed Alejandro González Iñárritu editing Babel. He is president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and appears regularly on KPCC-FM’s Film Week.

David Strick

(Sydney Pollack) shoots regularly for Time, Premiere and other magazines. Seeing the poster for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? in his office, he was amazed to realize that Pollack “has done such tremendous work for so long.”

James Ulmer

Working on his story about pilot directors (“Pilot Power”), veteran film journalist Ulmer “began seeing them not as ‘television directors,’ but as artists who are at the top of their game.” Ulmer runs his own database company on actors and directors and is writing a documentary for British television.

Correction: Lynn Littman was identified as Chair of the DGA’s Documentary Committee in the story Reality Check (DGA Quarterly, Spring 2006). She is chair of the DGA Awards Documentary Committee.