Founding Festival Director Gregory Lamberson

Greg Lamberson is a Buffalo based horror filmmaker and author. His feature films include Slime City, Undying Love, Naked Fear, and Slime City Massacre, which was filmed in Buffalo and won 2 awards at the PollyGrind Film Festival: The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind and Best Actor for Kealan Patrick Burke. Greg also worked as Frank Henenlotter’s assistant director on Brain Damage, the production manager on I Was a Teenage Zombie, the assistant director on Plutonium Baby, and the associate producer and assistant director on the crime drama West New York, which starred several cast members from The Sopranos.

Founding Festival Director Emil Novak

Emil Novak is the president of Buffalo Nickel Productions (BNP). He is an artist and filmmaker based in Buffalo, where he was born and raised. The owner of Queen City Bookstore, which his father started, Emil published Buffalo Nickel Comics and has served as president of the Buffalo Movie-Video Makers (BMVM), a local filmmaking organization that has existed since 1934. His most ambitious projects to date are three feature films he wrote, directed and produced: Tesla the Accumulator, Banshee, and the currently filming zombie anthology Decayed.

Emil discovered at an early age the relationship that can exist between the written word and visual mediums when his father gave him his first comic books. This led to a diverse interest in the arts which continues to this day. A noted professional freelance graphic artist and comic book artist, Emil’s work has graced covers for Artvoice and Buffalo’s Bison Baseball magazine. A desire to expand his artistic horizons led him to work in theatre as a set designer for the Towne Players. An avid movie buff, he soon realized moviemaking was the medium in which he could immerse himself and best satisfy his creative needs.

For the last several years, Emil has been active in Buffalo’s filmmaking community, serving as cinematographer on Red Scream Films’ Frightworld and as production designer for Greg Lamberson’s Slime City Massacre. In addition to making his own films under his Buffalo Nickel Productions banner, he has worked hard to foster a support network among local filmmakers. His collaborative, non-genre work as a producer includes the documentary, So, You Want to be a Rock-n-Roll Star; Ollangard Films’ award-winning short, Mary’s Christmas; and Challenge Films’ romantic comedy Henry’s Future.

Emil’s website is www.buffnickelproductions.com, and you can email him here.

Greg’s horror novels include Johnny Gruesome, Personal Demons, The Frenzy Way and Desperate Souls, and he wrote the instructional filmmaking book Cheap Scares: Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets. He has won the Anubis Award for Horror, two IPPY Gold Medals for Horror, Dark Scribe Press’ “Best Small Press Chill” Award, the New York City Horror Film Festival’s Best Comic Book Award, and he is a two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist. He has served as the editor of the popular horror entertainment website FearZone for three years.

His website is www.slimeguy.com and you can email him here.

Board of Directors

DonnaMarie Vaughan

Ms. Vaughan, a life-long WNY native, is active in many creative endeavors centered around theater and film. An award-winning playwright and filmmaker, she also directs, acts, teaches, casts, administrates, negotiates, and volunteers for many local creative projects. Her most recent accomplishment was as writer/director and co-producer of the romantic-comedy-drama feature film, "Henry's Future," currently in post-production (http://www.henrysfuture.com) . She can also be briefly spotted with her 'girls' as a homeless Madam in "Slime City Massacre".

For Buffalo Screams she is securing advertisements for the program booklet, handling some administrative duties, and helping to promote and market the festival.

Contact information: WrittenbyDMV@aol.com

Michael O'Hear

Michael O'Hear is a counselor by trade and an actor by blood. He has appeared in "Slime City Massacre", "House of Horrors: the movie", "The Final Night and Day" among others. He enjoy all parts of production and is currently directing "Dusk" from a script he wrote with Greg Lamberson and John Renna.

Chris Scioli

Chris Scioli, a life-long resident of Western New York, is an aspiring screenwriter and filmmaker and serves as Vice President of the Buffalo Movie and Video Makers, which was established in 1934 and is one of the oldest running organizations of its kind in the U.S. He is one half of a writing and directing team which has produced numerous short films locally. Chris is interested in all aspects of film-making, from writing to post-production, and has several interesting genre projects in the works.

Chris Wroblewski

Chris Wroblewski, 39 is a local actor. He was born and raised in Cheektowaga, NY. Where he still lives. He has appeared in Born to Die and Slime City Massacre. He is happily married and the father of 2 children. He just finished filming his role in The Final Night and Day. He is currently working on his first screen play.

Webmaster Nicholas Anderson

Nick Anderson was born and raised in Buffalo NY. One of the webmasters for Buffalo State College, he also dabbles in writing, acting, and recently making movies with some of the local production companies. Nick has always been a fan of horror movies so when the opportunity to help Greg and Emil with the site and festival, he jumped at the chance.

Contact Nick