Naoto Shibata
as Young Mehrdad

Naoto Shibata is a non-professional actor from Tokyo, Japan. The Old Young Crow is his first film. His father is Iranian while his mother is Japanese. His favorite manga is Demon Slayer and he was 8 years old at the time of filming and is now in high school.

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Hassan Shahbazi
as Old Mehrdad

Hassan Shahbazi is a non-professional actor from Mashhad, Iran. He’s a physician, surgeon, and nutritionist with a career that spans almost 70 years. The Old Young Crow is the second film he’s made with his grandson, Liam LoPinto.

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Keiko Yamashita
as Tashiro Chiyo // Associate Producer

Keiko Yamashita was born on July 1st, 1943 in Tokyo, Japan. After working for some trading companies, she joined Meijiza Academy Actor Studio to study play acting in 2009. After graduating Meijiza, she joined R-Jeux Actor’s Agency and since then she has been playing in different T.V. dramas, short films, and feature films as a supporting actor, such as “Hotel New Moon” (2019), “Plan 75” (2022), the TV Asahi drama Aibou (2020) and appeared in many CM and remake dramas in Japanese TV.

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Hitoshi Hinomizu
​as The Priest

Hitoshi Hinomizu was born on October 18, 1948 in Tokyo. He has been working as a school teacher, but his interest in acting led him to the stage. In 2007, after graduating from the Meijiza Academy Actor Studio, he began is career playing supporting roles in numerous stage productions, TV dramas, and films, including "Invisible Children" (2010,2013), “Leakage” (2013), and the promotional program for NHK's "Kutsuki@Home" (2014).

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CREW

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Liam LoPinto
 Director, Producer,  Screenwriter, Animator, Editor, Sound Designer

Liam LoPinto is an Iranian-American filmmaker and animator from New York City. Between 2013 and 2021, he attended NYU Tisch’s UGFTV Program, CalArts Character Animation Program, and Waseda University’s School of International Liberal Studies in Tokyo. His film French Fly was selected for CAA Moebius’ 5th Showcase, while his award winning short documentary Karam Camera was made in partnership with Karam Foundation focusing on empowering young Syrian refugees. His debut film out of school, The Old Young Crow, Executive Produced by Emmy® and Tony® Nominee Arian Moayed and Academy® Award Winner Rayka Zehtabchi, won more than 70 awards internationally including an OSCAR® qualifying Best of Festival award at Palm Springs International ShortFest. He currently works as an Assistant Manager at The Moviehouse in Millerton, New York, where he contributes to special programming and screenings.

Website

Instagram

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Shohreh Golparian
​Associate Producer

Shohreh Golparian established her company Small Talk Inc. in 1999 in Japan, and since then has been producing, distributing and promoting of Middle East cinema specifically Iranian Cinema in Asia and other countries including documentaries, short films, and more than 13 co-production feature films such as Amir Naderi’s “CUT” (2010) and production coordinator and Assistant to Director Abbas Kiarostami, in his last film “Like Someone in Love” (2012) . She produced “Maki” a Japanese-American feature film by Naghmeh Shirkhan (2015) and produced "Hotel New Moon”  a Japanese-Iranian co-production film by Takefumi Tsutui (2019).

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Keisuke Sakuma
Associate Producer / Translator

Keisuke Sakuma was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan before moving to the U.S. at the age of fifteen and spent four years of high school in Pennsylvania. He enrolled in Waseda University and began making films. After graduating, he worked for a film distribution company, where he was involved in publicity work for a variety of films, both Japanese and foreign. He later became an independent film director and writer, directing music videos for idol groups and writing scripts for Vtubers. His latest work "Funny" was nominated for the 2021 TAMA NEW WAVE Competition, selected for the Hong Kong International Short Film Festival, Market Picks at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival in France, and won Audience Award & Best Actress Award at Richmond International Film Festival in the US.

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Byron Gould
Associate Producer / Translator

Byron Gould was born and raised in Japan, growing up attending Japanese schools while speaking English at home. He is currently working as a bilingual DP in Tokyo. He had always loved movies since a young age, but became interested in filmmaking during his time at Waseda university, where he met directors Keisuke Sakuma and Liam LoPinto who he collaborated on several films with. After graduating he entered a video production company where he worked on various commercials and documentary films. He later became an independent filmmaker and freelance DP, working on music videos, commercials and short films.

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Iman Afshar Ghasemlou 
First AD

Iman Afshar Ghasemlou is a film producer, translator, and assistant based in Yokohama. He has worked as a liaison and translator for Iranian lead productions in Japan and various Japanese film productions within the Kanto area. He is the son of producer Shohreh Golparian.

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Ryota Chida 
​Cameraman

Ryota Chida is a cinematographer based in Tokyo, Japan and a graduate of Tokyo Geidai University's Graduate Film Program. His work includes Ken Ninomiya's feature-length film "Matsumoto Tribe" and Liam LoPinto's short film "The Old Young Crow."

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Bai Xue 
​Cameraman

Bai Xue is a cinematographer from Beijing, China. He attended Tokyo Geidai University's Graduate Film Program in Japan before returning to China to work in further film productions.

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Catharine Ren
​Animator

Cat Ren is an artist and animator from the Bay Area. She graduated from CalArts in 2021 with a BFA in Character Animation. She was an animator on Ducktales (2017) and currently works on Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Instagram

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Dax Wong
​Animator

Dax Wong is a comic artist and animator living in Portland, Oregon. She attended CalArts for Character Animation and is currently working on a personal comic.

Instagram

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Isa Hanssen
​Animator

Isa Hanssen is a multidisciplinary artist from a lot of places (but mostly Maryland) and is currently based in Los Angeles. She attended the California Institute of the Arts for Character Animation, and was a trainee at the Cartoon Network Story Academy in 2020. She's worked across multiple fields and mediums including as a Freelance Mural Artist, Illustrator, 2D Game Artist/Designer, and every now and again someone asks her to animate, but most of the time she does Storyboards (for TV Animation) and Comics (for fun). She has worked for Tic Toc Games, published a comic with BOOM! Studios and recently worked as a Storyboard Artist for an upcoming TV series for Skydance Animation/Apple TV. She is represented by Jennifer Azantian of Azantian Literary Agency.

Instagram

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Sumin Cho
​Animator

Sumin Cho is an animator and filmmaker based in LA and graduated Calarts’ Character Animation program. Her film “The Vending Machine” was a finalist for ASIFA’s showcase. Sumin has animated on numerous projects from Japanese anime to animated American TV shows.

Instagram

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Cain Pickens
​Animator

Cain Pickens Rich is an animator, writer, filmmaker, and storyteller who grew up in Paris France to American parents. He graduated from CalArts in Character Animation, as well as EICAR, The International Film School of Paris. His short film “G’old Fish,” a live-action and hand-drawn animation hybrid, won the Albert R. Broccoli award at the French Cinémathèque in Paris. He most recently taught an animation class to 4th graders at The Town School in Manhattan. Currently, he resides in Brooklyn, New York, and contributes to the Urbanworld Film Festival as a festival programmer, evaluating animated and live-action submissions.

Instagram

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Tynan Wilson 
​Animator

Ty Wilson is a filmmaker and animator based in Los Angeles. He has worked for clients including Netflix, Cartoon Network, and most recently G2 Lab animation. He is currently working on an animated short.

Website
​Instagram

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Drew Shields
​Animator

Drew Shields, also known as, Gnarly Ghost, is an illustrator and animator who specializes in handmade mixed media animations and illustrations often combining 3D graphics and 2D cell animation to create a playful, handmade world. He works primarily freelance with a client list that includes Adult Swim.

Website
Instagram
Patreon
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Ben Huff
​Sound Design // Re Recording Mixer

Ben Huff is a filmmaker, audio engineer and arts educator. His education, technical training and continued development includes shooting, recording and editing in nearly all time-based media formats including film, analog, and digital audio. His primary discipline is within audio, and has been a professional film sound editor, designer, recording engineer and 5.1 surround re-recording mixer for nearly two decades, having spent countless hours working with filmmakers to bring their projects’ audio to life. He is also a formally trained musician and has been performing, recording, mixing and mastering music for most of his life. Ben taught film and audio to undergraduates at various institutions for over ten years before being brought on at Cal State Long Beach as an Assistant Professor in 2019 where he is currently the co-head of Post-Production in the Film & Electronic Arts department.

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Karen Tanaka
Original Score Composer

Karen Tanaka is a versatile composer for film and the concert stage. Her works have been performed by distinguished orchestras and ensembles worldwide, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brodsky Quartet and Gothic Voices, among many others. In 2012, she was selected as a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab for feature film and mentored by Hollywood’s leading composers. In 2016, she served as an orchestrator for the BBC's TV series Planet Earth II. She scored the animated film Sister, which was nominated for the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. Karen Tanaka lives in Los Angeles and teaches composition at California Institute of the Arts.

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Nobuko Fukatsu
Biwa Instrumentalist and Vocalist

Nobuko Fukatsu is a Japanese biwa lute player and singer based in Los Angeles.  She has studied biwa and singing under the prominent biwa musician Yoshiko Sakata in Japan since 2005, and has performed at various cultural gatherings, festivals and educational settings.  She has participated in recordings for entertainment media, including the game Trek to Yomi (2022).  Her repertoire includes classical narrative biwa music, narrative pieces written in modern Japanese, and modern instrumental pieces.

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David Sahar
"Mehrdad's Remix" Composer

David Sahar is a composer, musician, and graduate of Princeton University class of 2017. His work has ranged from modern to classical work in live and studio productions including composing work for the films "Karam Camera" and "The Old Young Crow." He is first generation Syrian and Palestinian American.

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Joseph Mastantuono
Colorist

Joseph Mastantuono is a producer, colorist, teacher and creator from Bagnères-de-Luchon, France, but has lived in New York since childhood. He most recently produced Our Father, The Devil (Mon Père, le Diable), which has won over 20 awards at various film festivals, including the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca. Joseph teaches post-production and color grading at NYU, and has color graded countless feature films that have played at the largest film festivals in the world. Joseph is also the proud father of three lovely cats.

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Max Neace
Film Trust

Max Neace is a writer, director, and producer whose most recent work is the upcoming thriller, SHIFT, set in Los Angeles, California. He produced the feature film WHAT WE DO NEXT written and directed by Steven Belber and starring Corey Stoll, Karen Pittman, and Michelle Veintimilla in Louisville, KY. He also produced the thriller feature film STALKER, in Los Angeles, which was released on Hulu by Vertical Entertainment; as well as the feature film DON’T TELL A SOUL, in Louisville, KY, released domestically by Saban Films and internationally by Universal Studios. Max graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts before moving to Los Angeles, where he worked in talent management before moving into producing and developing feature films.

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Scott Aharoni
Executive Producer

Scott Aharoni is an American film producer and director. He is a co-Founder of The Curious Gremlin, an American independent entertainment company specializing in film and television development, production and financing. His film "Leylak" had its World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2021 where it won the Special Jury Prize. He was also an Executive Producer on the Oscar Shortlisted film, "Les Crimenels."

Rayka Zehtabchi
Executive Producer

Rayka Zehtabchi is an Iranian-American director and producer. Her Oscar-winning Netflix short documentary, Period. End of Sentence. is about a group of village women in Northern India who start a sanitary pad-making business in an effort to improve feminine hygiene and de-stigmatize menstruation. Rayka has also directed multiple branded documentaries including United O, They Came From All Over, and A Woman’s Place, which can be seen on Hulu. Her most recent short documentary, Long Line of Ladies, follows a girl and her community as they prepare for her Ihuk, the once-dormant coming of age ceremony of the Karuk tribe of Northern California. Additionally, Rayka’s films (SHn(y)oof), Just Hold On, and Are You Still There? have collectively received Vimeo Staff Picks and won Jury awards at prestigious festivals such as SXSW and Sundance. She continues to work in both doc and fiction, pushing the boundaries of each form with every project she helms.

Arian Moayed
Executive Producer

Arian Moayed is an Iranian-American actor, screenwriter, and director. Moayed has received two Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performances in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (2011) and A Doll's House (2023). He earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his role as Stewy Hosseini in HBO's Succession.