Tom Abrams is an award-winning screenwriter and director whose films have won prizes in both the United States and Europe. In 1988, his short film Shoeshine (1987) received an Academy Award Nomination and won the Montreal World Film Festival. In 1990, his short film Performance Pieces (1989) was awarded the Short Film Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival. Conversations With The Beast (1996), co-scripted with Armin Mueller-Stahl, won an award at the Berlin Film festival, and A Mouthful of Ants (2005), a thriller Tom also co-scripted, won the Jury Prize at the Malaga Film Festival in Spain. In the fall of 1992, Tom shared an Emmy Award with the writing staff of the animated television series "Rugrats". Past scripts include Have Gun Will Travel for Warner Bros., The Captain's Wife for Fox 2000, The American Princess for New Line Cinema, The Battle of Ono for John Woo and Terence Chang, Metal Machine for James Jacks at Universal, and Gameboy Charlie for Bruckheimer producer, Chad Oman. His most recently produced project is Smokin' Aces: Assassin's Ball (2010) for Universal Pictures. Tom is also an international script consultant who's taught filmmaking in more than 15 countries and is a tenured professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles.