Team

Michelle Mower
President & CEO

As the newest CEO of Imagination Worldwide LLC, Michelle Mower successfully oversaw the acquisition and release of two critically acclaimed films—Amber Tamblyn’s directorial debut Paint It Black and the 2017 SXSW Audience Award winning feature film The Light of the Moon. Other acquisitions include international rights to Burning Bodhi starring Kaley Cuoco and SXSW award-winning thriller Like Me.

In addition to heading up Imagination Worldwide, Mower is an acclaimed writer, producer and director whose work has been featured on Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) and Nuvo Television. Her debut feature film The Preacher’s Daughter, starring Andrea Bowen (“Desperate Housewives”), garnered the highest ratings for LMN that year. After that success, Mower wrote, co-produced and directed two more telefilms for the network, A Woman Betrayed and The Preacher’s Sin. She is currently in production on a docu-series titled Dayna Steele: Rock the 36, slated for release in September, 2018. Mower has recently completed the dark teen comedy The Never List.

Mower received her B.A. degree in Radio/Television/Film from the University in Houston in 2000. After graduation, Mower was hired by Houston’s NBC affiliate as Associate Producer for the morning news program. In 2003, Mower went to work for Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP), a non-profit media arts organization. As Program Coordinator, her primary function was to organize their professional development workshops, youth after-school programs, independent film screenings, monthly networking mixers & special film-related events. Through her work with SWAMP, Mower started “Lights! Camera! Action! Summer Moviemaking Camp” for teens and the annual Business of Film Conference with takes place annually at Rice University.

Mower will continue her creative efforts by turning 14-year old Imagination Worldwide into the premier development, production, sales & distribution company for engaging, compelling, female-driven narratives.

Orly Ravid
General Counsel, Distribution Advisor

Orly Ravid has a 16-year career in all film aspects of independent film including acquisitions, sales, film festival programming, theatrical and festival distribution, digital distribution and business affairs. An entertainment attorney at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, the Director of the Donald E. Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute at Southwestern Law School, and the founder of non-profit The Film Collaborative (TFC), Orly advises companies and filmmakers about film and television deals, licensing, splitting rights, and production and distribution overall. Orly advised and contributed to Sundance’s Artist Services / Transparency Project and has spoken about distribution and VOD on panels and conferences at film schools and festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Berlinale, IDFA, UCLA, and USC. She has written numerous articles about distribution, some of which have debuted on Indiewire and Ted Hope’s blog Hope For Film before appearing on TFC’s website.

Previously, Orly was a Programming Associate for documentaries at Sundance and a programming consultant at Palm Springs International and MEIFF. Other past affiliations include Senator Entertainment (VP Acquisitions and Distribution); Wolfe Releasing (Director: Acquisitions, Theatrical, Non-Theatrical/Festivals, Business Affairs and Digital Distribution); Ravid Film Consulting (Distribution and Marketing for filmmakers and distributors); Maxmedia (Development); and Outfest (Board of Directors and Associate Programmer). Orly was born in Israel, raised in Manhattan and now lives in Los Angeles.

Ariadne Shaffer
Comptroller

Ariadne Shaffer is a Montana native who grew up in Seattle and currently lives in Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of Washington (Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude) with a double major in Theater and Comparative History of Ideas. She began her financial career as a business manager for individuals throughout Los Angeles, specializing in people in the film industry. Eventually she became a certified tax preparer and started a business management and tax preparation company, The Library, with another business manager in the area, Russell Edge. Eventually she sold her interest in The Library to focus on managing the financial side of Rob Reiner’s newly reworked Castle Rock after it separated from Warner Brothers. She is excited to be working with Imagination Worldwide to help do her part to advance female-driven films in the motion picture industry.