Bill Plympton

Two-time Oscar nominee for animated shorts, and the acknowledged "King of Indie Animation". Bill is also a former cartoonist for the New York Times, National Lampoon, Playboy and Screw. He has the distinction of being the only person to hand-draw an entire animated feature film (in fact NINE so far!). In addition to being an honoree, Bill is the presenter for this year's inaugural "Plympton Award for Indie Animation" which will go to an entrant of the Burbank International Film Festival, annually.

Roger Corman

Legendary filmmaker Roger Corman has produced more than 550 films including Death Race, The Little Shop of Horrors and The Terror, and directed 50 others. His influence on American film goes far beyond his own energetic, creative, low-budget movies. In 2009, Corman received an Honorary Oscar of Lifetime Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Mark Kirkland

Three time Emmy Award winning director, Mark Kirkland, has directed more episodes than anyone of TVs longest running animated program, The Simpsons. Mark studied Experimental Animation at CalArts prior to his career in the animation at Hanna-Barberra, before directing for FOX. He has been awarded two Environmental Media Awards for his work on The Simpsons.

Fred Willard

A four time Emmy nominee, Fred is most heralded for his quick wit and improvisation exemplified in over 100 appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. An alum of The Second City, Fred was a founding member the Ace Trucking Company. Fred has appeared in over seventy films including: Best in in Show, This is Spinal Tap, Anchorman, WALL-E with TV credits including: Modern Family, Fernwood2night, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Al Jean

Award-winning producer/writer of The Simpsons since 1989 on over 450 episodes, has been showrunner for thirteen seasons. Al won eight Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Currently he serves as executive producer and showrunner, was writer and producer on The Simpsons Movie, co-created The Critic and Teen Angel, and won three CableACE Awards as producer of It's Garry Shandling's Show.

LisaNova (Lisa Donovan)

YouTube's LisaNova (Lisa Donovan) burst onto the New Media scene in 2006 and now boasts over half a million subscribers and nearly 200 million channels views at YouTube.com/LisaNova. She parlayed her comedic success into a gig on the network show Mad TV and continues her pioneering work via Maker Studios established by YouTube independent content creators.

Candy Finnigan & Sam Mettler

Here are the Burbank International Film Festival, we feel that it takes a special sort of person to help people on a regular basis. When that person works within the film industry their ability to help people on a greater scale becomes a reality. This is why we created the Burbank International Film Festival Awareness Award. This Annual award will be given to individuals who not only make an difference in the lives of the people they are helping on screen but to the millions of people who are influenced through their work. They give people a glimmer of hope in dark times and help them feel like they are worthy of enjoying life.

This year we felt it would be appropriate to award two individuals who make a difference on screen and off screen no matter where they go. Sam Mettler, is the creator of the show “Intervention,” and Candy Finnigan, an interventionist on the show who helps families work through their issues and problems. Candy specializes in counseling female addicts, especially addicted mothers.

Since the inception of Intervention countless individuals have been given the chance to live a sober life and improve the personal relationships in their lives. This year a special thank you goes to these two heroes who help so many people.