BEA2026

Lucas Cuny grew up surrounded by corn fields and truck stops in New Haven Indiana. As Luke Skywalker did or George Bailey always threatened, he shook off the shackles of the small town and came to Southern California to face his ultimate adventure, to pursue is passion for film. He studied film in Los Angeles, and would bring those talents and knowledge back to the Inland Empire where he’s produced short films, documentaries, and commercials. One year he got the crazy idea to run a film festival in Redlands California and thus founded a non-profit Slate Inc. Through this non-profit he ran two international film and beer festivals in the city of Redlands, ran workshops on the art of filmmaking, and wrote grants to help fund local filmmakers in the region. He eventually would earn an MFA in Screenwriting from California State University Fullerton and continued in his academic pursuits thereafter. In those pursuits he’s become a published author, first writing a book on how to run a film festival “Running a Film Festival: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Project Management.” More recently he’s been published in academic journals such as in the Journal of Film and Video and in the Journal of Arts and Letters. In the Journal of Arts and Letters he published an article based on his findings from research about careers for artists, “Career Paths for Arts Majors.” He’s also presented several times at the University Film and Video Association national conference. The topics of those presentations included Web Series Development, panel discussions on screenwriting, and how to create work experience opportunities for film and media majors. He continues to write and produce and hopes to see the Inland Empire become a new thriving region for film and media production.