2026 Pitch Showcase Companies
En'Val Entertainment - Gloria Stella, Founder
En’val Entertainment is a Georgia-based studio founded in 2013, specializing in the development, production, distribution, and marketing of original faith-driven films and episodic series. With a focus on underproduced content, the studio’s first film, Blackbear, streamed on Netflix and its most recent release, Tulsa, became a box office success as the 4th highest-grossing self-distributed film of all time. En’val operates with an innovative mindset that often challenges industry conventions—a strategy that has been key to its track record of success.
Gloria Stella is an award-winning film producer, author and speaker known for delivering faith-driven content. With over twenty years of combined on-camera and production logistics experience, she is the founder and CEO of En’val Entertainment, a Georgia-based studio. Drawing from 12-years in pastoral leadership, she has also authored several books, including CounterCulture Marriage and I Can’t Help the Way I Feel? and partners with her husband through their foreign mission-focused non-profit, CounterCulture International. She and her husband live near Atlanta, Georgia with their three children.
Y+X Entertainment Group - Vivian Yin, Founder
Y+X Entertainment Group is a U.S.-based global entertainment company building the next generation of IP ecosystems across premium short-form storytelling, film, AI-powered production, and creator communities. Founded by former Fremantle China CEO Vivian Yin, Y+X is preparing to launch LumiView, a premium vertical storytelling platform dedicated to cinematic science fiction, fantasy, adventure, and inspirational stories. Through its global creator network, LumiCreator, Y+X partners with storytellers worldwide to transform exceptional IP into immersive, cross-platform entertainment experiences.
Vivian Yin is a global entertainment executive, producer, and entrepreneur. With over two decades of leadership experience spanning China, North America, and Europe, Vivian has held senior executive roles including CEO of Fremantle China, Chief Cultural Content Officer of Fosun Tourism Group, and SVP & Head of International at Star China Media. She has overseen large-scale content operations, international co-productions, and IP monetization strategies across television, film, live entertainment, and branded experiences.
In parallel, Vivian serves as a strategic advisor and China partner to That Game Company, supporting the 360° expansion of globally renowned game IPs into animated feature films and offiine immersive experiences. This work bridges gaming, cinema, and real-world experiential entertainment, creating new cultural touchpoints for global audiences.
King David Franchise - Jonathan Lee Smith
Jonathan Lee Smith is an Emmy Award-winning producer and director with more than two decades of experience in film and television. He has developed, produced, and directed projects on six continents, bringing both a global perspective and deep expertise across every stage of production. Known for his distinctive directing style, Smith has a unique ability to draw authentic, emotionally powerful performances from actors that resonate with audiences.
After building a highly successful production company over more than twenty years, Smith faced the first lawsuit of his career—a battle that cost him everything he had built. Rather than ending his career, the experience became the turning point that redefined it.
Smith believes God used that season of loss to strip away what once defined his success and lead him back to the story that had been on his heart since he was eighteen: the story of King David. For him, the David franchise is more than a film project—it is a calling. David’s story is not about perfection but about failure, repentance, redemption, and restoration. Having experienced his own season of loss and rebuilding, Smith brings a perspective that cannot be learned—only lived.
Guided by faith, perseverance, and the conviction that God places the right people in the right rooms at the right time, Smith’s mission is to tell David’s story with honesty, humanity, and truth.
King David Franchise - Thomas Darnell
Tom Darnell is a veteran entrepreneur, executive producer, investor, and community advocate whose career spans technology, public-private partnerships, hospitality, public safety initiatives, and entertainment finance. Widely recognized for transforming innovative concepts into scalable enterprises, Tom combines operational discipline, strategic vision, and a deep commitment to service. His work has generated significant economic impact for local governments, advanced public-safety initiatives, and supported mission-driven organizations throughout Florida and beyond.
Today, Tom serves as Executive Producer – Finance & Operations for the King David Franchise, where he provides franchise-wide financial leadership, capital planning, investor oversight, governance, and operational strategy to support one of the most ambitious faith-based entertainment projects in development. His role focuses on aligning creative vision with institutional-grade financial management and long-term scalability.
2026 Pitch Showcase Judges
Dana Wichterman
Senior Advisor at Impact Foundation
Ed Pearce
Chairman of The Lion's Den DFW
Ed has a long history of supporting entrepreneurial businesses in the city of Dallas as a corporate executive for two separate publicly traded computer software companies, as a partner in a Dallas based venture capital firm, and as an owner of a company providing information management solutions to Energy companies and companies in other vertical markets. He is active as a member of the executive team for Movement Day Greater Dallas, a city transformation ministry, and teaches a young married small group at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.
Jim Schubert
VP Content Licensing, EKKL Entertainment
Jim has 30 years of marketing, branding and licensing experience. Since joining Pure Flix Entertainment in 2012, Jim led the team in licensing Pure Flix films for outreach ministry initiatives and served on the investor relations team for “God’s Not Dead” and “Do You Believe.”
Jim served on the start-up team that launched the leading Faith and Family Content streaming platform, PureFlix.com in 2015. He now serves as VP Licensing for EKKL Entertainment.
Matt Johns is the founder of ChristianAlts, a Christian media platform that convenes Kingdom-minded builders and investors to build the world through commerce and the private markets. He is also the author of the bestselling book Purpose Driven Capital: How to Align Your Money with Your Mission and Multiply Your Impact.
That same conviction was the genesis behind HoneyHive Capital, a private-placement platform Matt founded where investors connect with fund managers offering Christian-aligned private market opportunities. With more than twenty years mobilizing capital across private equity, venture, and real assets, he brings a reputation for rigorous due diligence, ethical screening, and relationship-driven execution. All of this is informed by a distinctive prior career in nonprofit leadership, where he served in fundraising, disaster response, government relations, and youth ministry.
Matt holds FINRA Series 7, 63, and 65 licenses, an MBA from LSU–Shreveport, and a BA from Baylor University. He is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC.
Matt Johns
Founder and Managing Partner
Sergio Navarretta Film Director
Sergio Navarretta is an internationally award-winning director, producer, and storyteller known for emotionally driven, humanistic films inspired by Italian neorealism and themes of identity, family, and culture. He directed The Cuban, starring Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo, which won major festival awards, earned Canadian Screen Award nominations, and was featured by outlets like TIME and Variety, with its screenplay housed in the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library. His other directing work includes Looking for Angelina, The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship, and Loathe Thy Neighbor (TIFF premiere, 2024), and he recently completed What We Have Left in post-production. As a producer, he has worked on films including Lamborghini and Arctic Dogs, and is co-founder of S.N.A.P. Films Inc. He is also a mentor, podcast host of Creativity Unleashed, and a speaker on storytelling, culture, creativity, and human connection.
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