Debra Markowitz, President

Debra Markowitz created and served as the Director of the Nassau County Film Commission. Serving four administrations during her 33-year tenure, Ms. Markowitz had steadily increased production of movies, television programs and commercials that were shot in Nassau County.

Debra is also a novelist (the Karmic Wind Trilogy – Naked in the Rain, Sarah and Caleb and Karmic Wind), award winning screenwriter and director of shorts, features and TV pilots, film consultant, casting director and teaches director to actor workshops. Debra was a judge for potential incoming drama students at the LaGuardia Arts High School (The FAME school) for several years.

Several of Debra’s films have screened at Academy Award Qualifying Film Festivals –  Chosen (Director/Producer), screened at LA Shorts, The Last Taxi Driver (Writer/Director/Producer) screened in the HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series, Shoot Me Nicely (Casting Director/Producer) screened at HollyShorts and Won Best TV Pilot, was a Winner of the Diamond Award at LA Shorts, and My Cross to Bear (Producer/Casting Director) screened at Flicker’s, Rhode Island International Film Festival.   The screenplay of The Only Woman in the World won Best Screenplay at several international Film Festivals.  The Only Woman in the World feature film is screening on Prime Video, Tubi, The Alice Channel of  Xumo, Momentu and several other platforms.

Debra has completed three episodes of the 10-episode, limited LGBTQIA+ series, Couple of Guys, has filmed half of the fourth episode and is currently raising money to complete the series.

She has five films on the festival circuit (The Waiting Room, Sfortunato, The Better Man, Couple of Guys pilot, The Prof and One Last Time).

Debra is currently in pre-production on her feature film, Yule Tides.

Lindsay Serrano, Vice President/Secretary

Lindsay Serrano graduated from Long Island University with a BA in Media Arts with a double concentration in Production Management and Theater. After graduation she worked as a production assistant and assistant stage manager in a number of independent film and theater projects. In 2008 Lady Lazarus: Raising Sylvia Plath, a play she wrote and directed, was performed at the Ryan Repertory Theatre in Brooklyn. In 2009 she interned at Tandem Otter Studio, assisting in the construction of the puppets for the Addams Family on Broadway and was hired at the haunted attraction, Blood Manor, where she later became the Lead Makeup Artist and Creative Team Head. In 2011, she and her husband Manny Serrano formed Mass Grave Pictures, under which they have produced three feature films (Blood Slaughter Massacre, Theta States, and Dark Tales From Channel X), the featurette “The Attack of the Brain People”, and numerous award winning short films. In 2018, Lindsay made her writing and directorial debut with the short film “Beneath” which played in film festivals around the world including the Long Island International Film Expo.

Lindsay works with a number of independent film companies as a First AD and Production Manager including Devarez Films, New Needle Productions, Seeing Red, and Intention Films and Media. She has been a Critique Director for casting director Pamela Kramer’s “Dying For the Camera” class, Guest Directed an episode of Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead, and been on the Directing Panel for Long Island International Film Expo. In 2019 Lindsay founded the Big, Bloody Apple: A Women in Horror Month, with Christina Raia of CongestedCat Productions, which curated horror shorts by female identifying directors. And in 2021, Lindsay joined as one of LIIFE’s Festival Directors and was voted on to the Long Island Film Television Foundation as Board Secretary.

Karen Rizzo, Treasurer

Karen M. Rizzo is the Founder and Owner of Silver Lining Consultants, LTD (“Silver Lining”) an exclusive financing and consulting firm for Real Estate and the Entertainment industry. Each project is accepted on an individual basis. Karen has worked in Entertainment business consulting and finance for 25 years, as well as owning and operating a Mortgage Brokerage firm in New York for 39 years.

Silver Lining Consultants, LTD. was formed to merge her practical understanding of finance and business offered in the entertainment industry stemming from private requests from professionals in entertainment since 1996. 

Karen has provided film financing options and consultative services to many film projects over the years, as well as literary and theatre productions. The company specializes in funding independently produced films with budgets typically between $5-25MM. These projects vary in size and distribution channel types. It is a confidential liaison for production companies, writers, and directors for funding, and can assist or direct clients to professional partners to assist with the completion of a project. Due to the nature of the project selection process Silver Lining dedicates its time and resources selectively and exclusively. 

For the Real Estate clients, Karen offers an array of programs and consults on the transactions directly with qualification and approval in mind. From residential purchases or refinances for primary use or investment, first time homebuyers or seasoned investors to commercial building financing, construction, private funding, fix and flip programs, Reverse Mortgages, and credit lines for both business and personal, there is a program for most all clients with good or marginal credit scores. 

Anthony Labriola, Board Member

Anthony A. Labriola is an alumnus of The School of Visual Arts with background in Film & Television writing. He has been a member of The Long Island Film and Television Foundation since 2015, when he began his work with The Nassau County Film commission alongside Debra Markowitz and Nugent Cantileno, and has since been the director of the foundation’s horror film festival “Scared For Your LIIFE” as well as a judge and coordinator for “The Long Island International Film Expo.”

Anthony is an active member of The Horror Writers Association and his passion for all things that go bump in the night is reflected in his award winning screenplays, horror short story publications, and his podcast “The Hauntsville Cryptast.”  He is a monster maker by trade with a background in puppetry and special effects makeup, but not all of his monsters are scary. He has been a master puppeteer of Long Island’s oldest puppet theater, The Long Island Puppet Theater since 2006 and owner since 2015. Here, his storytelling ventures into the realm of fantasy through several regionally produced puppet shows and plays, including an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s near lost story “The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange.” Each show’s puppets are lovingly hand made by Anthony himself.

Anthony’s company Sophisticated Lions Entertainment specializes in content development for film, theater, documentaries, radio drama, illustration, and animation.

Anne Maselli-Stampfel, Board Member

Born in Queens and residing in Nassau County Anne has always been a big fan of all the arts with an emphasis on film.  Anne co-own, with her husband, The Bellmore Movies & Showplace, The Malverne Cinema & Art Center and The North Shore Towers Cinema.  The Bellmore Movies is the oldest continuously operating movie theatre on Long Island.  However this was not their first Theatre venture.  The first was the Park Avenue Theatre in Long Beach.  Together they renovated and opened it in July of 1985.  At one point during their careers as Independent Theatre operators they had the highest screen count in Nassau County! 

 Anne attributes their success in Theatre entrepreneurship to her background in accounting and experience in Film booking and her husband’s background in all things technical as well as their shared interest in film.  Together they took the Malverne Twin Cinema and transformed it into a 5 screen Art Center as well as the Bellmore Movies into the multi-use venue it is today.

Anne and her husband, with Debra Markowitz, co-founded the Long Island International Film Festival Expo in 1998. Anne is currently a judge for the Long Island International Film Expo and joined the Long Island Film/TV Foundation Board in 2023, after having served as their financial advisor and bookkeeper for more than a decade.

 Yet with all these many years of working in the entertainment industry Anne feels her biggest accomplishment is raising two successful daughters and now a proud grandmother!