Ojai Film Festival — Board of Directors & Committee Chairs
Meet the leaders guiding the 2025 Ojai Film Festival.
Board of Directors
Richard Sven Shelgren
President
Sven comes to OFF with decades of global experience as an Executive Producer for many top production and post production companies. His efforts earned honors at award shows including Cannes, Clios, the Emmy’s, and MOMA. With his A Single Woman feature film premiere in the US Congress, screening at the Smithsonian Institution and the United Nations, and winning the highest award from the National Women’s Political Caucus, Sven shows his ability to produce original, inspired projects.
Sven’s favorite experiences include managing his family’s world-renowned prop rental business (HouseOfPropsInc.com) as well as honoring his grandfather’s distinguished architectural career in upstate New York. He practices many forms of creative expression, including writing, drawing, painting, and father(and grandfather)hood.
Steve Grumette
Founder & Artistic Director
Steve Grumette earned degrees in Engineering and Physics from UCLA before returning to study filmmaking. He has worked in the motion picture industry for over forty years as director, cameraman, and editor. His collaborative project The Magic Machines won a special prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. Other films have earned top honors at major festivals, and while consulting on WarGames he pioneered the use of live computer imagery in movies, later creating effects for more than a dozen Hollywood productions. An accomplished visual artist, Steve is known for his photo mosaics and giclée prints exhibited worldwide. He was a founding member of the Ojai Film Society, serving as Program Director from 1992–2008, and as a Film and Video Panelist for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Active with the Ojai Art Center Theater for over twenty years, he has also juried at the Moab Film Festival and is the founder and Artistic Director of the Ojai Film Festival.
Bruce J. Novotny
Vice-President
Bruce has worked for almost two decades as a film and TV editor, getting his start at a world-renowned agency in Malibu, where he worked on public affairs campaigns that are studied today in university political science programs. He has edited feature films and documentaries, series TV and music performances, has been an active contributing member of the LA-based comedy collective BrevityTV and co-produced a successful series of PSAs supporting marriage equality in 2009. Bruce is a published novelist (Tales From an Endless Summer, Down The Shore Press, 1996), and was a regular columnist for newspapers on the Jersey Shore before moving to Ventura County. He’s currently a practicing screenwriter in addition to his work as an editor. He was educated at the Universities of Notre Dame and Cambridge, representing both on the soccer pitch, and is active with the Notre Dame Club of Ventura County.
Lori Balderas
Board Member
Lori Balderas is an Ojai native and multifaceted producer with a background ensued with a cultural education and awareness gifted to her by her father, Andrew Bisaccia, who was a prolific anthropologist, scientist, educator, author and mentor. Lori gained the privilege of living with the Fijian and Samoan peoples in the early 1980s which gave her a perspective of respecting all cultures. Lori’s background includes modeling and the beauty industry which led to her becoming an award-winning professional photographer. This also gives her a keen eye as a casting director. She also is an interior designer and owned a home decor company, which gives her a gift of set design. Her organizational skills and personality are an asset to any production or event. Lori enjoyed working side by side on the multitude of commercials, music videos, documentaries and films with her Native American husband, Simon Balderas since they started WonderMouse in 2016.
Simon Balderas
Board Member
Simon Balderas is a Native American filmmaker who was raised in Ojai. Seasoned and self-directed, creative with the ability to bring complex stories to life with a unique and highly visual affection. He is able to communicate sophisticated concepts into beautiful and consistent visual poetry that utilizes lyrical and emotional conventions. At a very young age, Simon became an adept photographer eventually leading him to pursue a degree in critical film studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His immersive approach has gained him an impressive array of skills that few creatives possess, becoming an accomplished Director/Producer/Writer/Editor/D.O.P.. Over the past 30 plus years, he has demonstrated the ability to deliver projects with extraordinary cinematic results.
Bonnie Bartling
Recording Secretary
Bonnie moved to California in 1988 from Washington State. In 2002 the community of Ojai became her home and in 2008 she started volunteering at the Ojai Film Festival. Recently she became the Recording Secretary for the Board. Bonnie believes in supporting the local community and shops the Ojai Farmers Market every Sunday. Her other past volunteer work includes the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, the Ojai Music Festival, and the Ojai Storytelling Festival. Bonnie retired at the end of 2019 from the National Weather Service, leading the Cooperative Weather Observers Program. She is an avid supporter of independent films.
Herb Hemming
Treasurer
Herb Hemming retired to Ojai in 2006 after a 40-year career in photojournalism, most of it with the Associated Press. He previously has served as OFF Operations Manager and President. He has also served on the Board of the Ojai Art Center and spent 4 years as chair of the Art Center Theater branch. He has produced about a dozen plays at the Art Center and received the American Association of Community Theatre Spotlight Award. He is currently treasurer of the OAC Theater branch.
Jonathan W. Lambert
Board Member
Jon spent 35 years as a professional educator working in both the public education and college/university sectors. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education (State University of New York) and Masters’ and Doctorate degrees from Northwestern University specializing in Counseling and Counselor Education. He has worked in the public school sector as a teacher and curriculum developer, and in the university sector as a counselor and professor in both the Department of Psychology and the Graduate School of Education. In addition Dr. Lambert was active within the field of International Education both with the State University of New York and as University Director for International Education at Pace University (NY) working with study-abroad, foreign student and faculty exchange programs. After retirement in 2000 he and his wife moved cross-country to Ojai where he is active with a variety of nonprofits, currently serving as President of the Ojai Valley Library Friends and Foundation and V-P of the TibetanAid Foundation. He has lived and traveled in Europe and Scandinavia, journeyed extensively throughout the United States and made occasional forays into Asia (China) and Africa (Morocco and Tanzania). Jon’s avocations include such diverse activities as skiing, sailing, hiking, music (emphasis on folk music), and grandchildren. His basic philosophy can be summed up as: enjoy life, be useful and do one’s best not to harm other people and things.
Tisha Morris
Board Member
Tisha Morris is the founder of Morris Entertainment Law where she practices entertainment law with amission to help diverse voices tell their story for a better world. Tisha is originally from Nashville, Tennessee, where she held two federal judicial clerkships and practiced law for over a decade. She obtained a fine arts degree in interior design and certifications in yoga, feng shui, and life coaching prior to moving to Los Angeles as a self-help author and to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Tisha is the best-selling author of five nonfiction books and has appeared on Netflix’s Depp v. Heard documentary, ABC’s Live with Kelly and Ryan, and KTLA and KCAL – Los Angeles, in addition to being featured on Hay House Radio, Today.com, Elle Decor, and Well + Good. Tisha is a member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, California Lawyer for the Arts, LGTBQ+ Lawyers LA, Women in Film, Women in Music. Tisha lives in Ojai with her wife, poodle and stepcat. When not helping creatives realize their dreams, Tisha works on becoming a legal thriller novelist. Visit Tisha at www.MorrisEntertainmentLaw.com for more information.
Committee Chairs
Rosa Costanza
Special Programs Director (Committee Chair)
Rosa Costanza is an award-winning Screenwriter and Director, Emmy nominated TV producer, and a third-generation filmmaker with twenty plus years experience in film and television production. Her credits include multiple departments on over one-hundred projects from North America, Asia and Africa. She advocates for the arts, and feels passionate about mentoring, lecturing, and volunteering. Her service involves working with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the Yale University’s Film Studies Center, the Ojai Film Society, and CalArts. At Orange Coast College she taught film production master classes. She received honorable withdrawal from IATSE Local 695 after a decade, became a producer member of the Emmys/TV Academy (ATAS), and a VIP member of Women In Media.
Atefeh Rahmani
Iranian Film Track (Committee Chair)
Atefeh Rahmani is a Women Filmmaker in Iran. She received a bachelor’s degree in theater direction from the UCNA in Iran. She is an ISFA official member (Iranian Short Film Association) and has more than 10 years of experience in the film and cinema industry. Some of her experiences in the film industry are listed below: Director of 5 short films and a feature documentary in production Assistant Director of the many feature movie, short films & feature Documentaries Script Supervisor of the feature & short movies Her films have been screened in various festivals all over the world and won several awards.She also was a judge at the 21th Aporia Film Festival in South Korea, and responsible for the selection of Iranian films in the Busan Animal Festival. Now she officially works as a film judge at the Chatham-Kent International Film Festival in Canada. She is also a member of the Indie Memphis Shorts Screening Committee and an official member of the screening committee at the Woodstock Film Festival which is an Oscar Qualify festival.