Changing the Ratio Oscars

Oscar nominated, five-time Emmy award winning composer Laura Karpman creates powerful, imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling.  Her bold, incandescent works span film, television, theater, interactive media and live performance, reflecting an audaciously creative, prodigious fresh spirit. Karpman collaborates with some of the most renowned filmmakers of our time, including Eleanor, Francis Ford and Sofia Coppola, Cord Jefferson, Nia DaCosta, Alex Gibney, Misha Green, Rory Kennedy, Kasi Lemmons, Laura Nix, Sam Pollard and Steven Spielberg. 2023 was perhaps her most prolific year to date, with six film and TV projects alone – American Fiction (Amazon MGM), starring Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown, written, directed and produced by Cord Jefferson, which has garnered five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, and for which Karpman has received her first Oscar nomination for her original score, The Marvels (Disney), Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed (Max), What If? (Disney+), Ms. Marvel (Disney+), and 61st Street (The CW). 2024 promises season 3 of What If?, two unannounced video game projects, and a musical based on Dorothy Arzner’s MGM film, Dance Girl Dance. Concert music premieres include the world premiere performance of BALLS, an opera chronicling Billie Jean King’s epic 1973 “Battle of the Sexes”’ tennis match, with words by New York Times writer Gail Collins, and a commissioned work for the Juilliard School. Karpman was proud to have her theme from The Marvels performed at closing night of the BBC Proms.

Lorenza Muñoz is the founder/CEO of Artemis Muse Productions, a consulting firm specializing in film awards campaigns, festival strategy and hosting and moderating intimate salons to raise awareness around business and creative initiatives. Prior to Artemis Muse, Lorenza was a senior executive at Amazon MGM Studios and EVP of Global Member Relations and Awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she oversaw world-wide activities and initiatives for the organization’s 9,000+ filmmakers and artists. Before pivoting to Hollywood, Lorenza was a journalist with the Los Angeles Times for more than a decade where she wrote more than 3,000 articles covering entertainment, business and government. Lorenza continues to write and is now working on her memoir about her experiences as an internationally ranked swimmer. Her essay, “American Girl,” was published in the anthology, Border-Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass, and Cultural Shifting.

A genuine multi-hyphenate, Vera Drew is a Los Angeles-based director, writer, editor, and actor. Vera won the 2024 Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director for her debut feature film THE PEOPLE’S JOKER. The film has also received a nomination for the 2025 John Cassavetes Award by the Film Independent Spirit Awards and was awarded the The Narrative Committee Renegade Award at the 2024 Indies. THE PEOPLE’S JOKER was released theatrically in the U.S. and Canada by Altered Innocence and had its world premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019, Vera’s talent was recognized by the Television Academy with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming for her work editing Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime comedy series WHO IS AMERICA. Having creatively incubated at Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s production company Abso Lutely Productions, Vera has edited and contributed visual effects to dozens of iconic comedy television shows, including CHECK IT OUT! WITH DR. STEVE BRULE (Adult Swim), THE BIRTHDAY BOYS (IFC), KRFT PUNK’S POLITICAL PARTY (Adult Swim), I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE (Netflix), COMEDY BANG! BANG! (IFC), and ON CINEMA (Adult Swim). She is further known for her work on AN EMMY FOR MEGAN, her role as producer/director/co-writer of BEEF HOUSE, and for launching the Adult Swim streaming network, Channel 5 for which she wrote and directed four comedy series: I Love David, Tim and Eric Quiz, Scum, and Our Bodies. In 2025, Vera co-starred with Josh Fadem and Barbara Crampton in Mickey Reece’s EVERY HEAVY THING. She also recently served as editor on Alice Maio Mackay’s films CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS and THE SERPENT’S NEST. She is currently directing her next feature.