Meet the jurors on our five features juries and our two shorts juries for SIFF 2024.
Feature film juries include New Directors, New American Cinema, Ibero-American, Official Competition, and Documentary. Short film juries include Narravite and Documentary & Animated.
Documentary Jury
T Bannister is the director of programming for Reel 2 Real International Film Festival in
Vancouver, Canada. Introducing media literacy and critical dialogue to a new generation, T’s
curatorial practice pre-supposes a lens of intersectional justice and educational relevance which
cultivates diverse cultural and cinema appreciation opportunities. In addition to their work at
R2R, T led the Canadian Documentary strand at the Vancouver International Film Festival for
two years. They are also responsible for founding and curating MODES Series; “a place for
video art, the experimental, and new interpretations of screen-based work at VIFF.” They’ve
written freelance for the National Film Board of Canada and worked with the programming
teams at the Vancouver Queer FF and DOXA Documentary FF. They began their career as the
Programming & Education Coordinator at DOXA, where they re-booted the mentorship
program, Connexions and helmed Rated Y for Youth. Currently, T also leads Partnerships and
Training for TELUS Local Content with both STORYHIVE and TELUS originals, supporting
relationships that advance the aspirations of emerging and established documentary filmmakers
in Western Canada. As a former associate member of the Directors Guild of Canada, T has a
range of production credits on multiple films, music videos, and television shows and is
established in Vancouver as a community-minded Arts leader. They are passionate about the
art of documentary and experimentation on screen.
Documentary Jury
Marcus Hu, Co-Founded and is Co-President of Strand Releasing which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Strand has acquired the films of such international talents as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Lucrecia Martel, Fatih Akin, Francois Ozon, Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Celine Sciamma, Terence Davies, Andre Techine, Tsai Ming Liang, Karim Ainouz, Rithy Panh as well as American auteurs including Gregg Araki, Kelly Reichardt and Lodge Kerrigan to name a few. Strand recently restored Araki’s Doom Generation and Nowhere which had its world premiere at the Academy Museum. Hu recently served as a Co-Producer on Criterion’s release of Wayne Wang’s Chan is Missing and Dim Sum.
Hu has served as Chair for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for their International Inclusion Committee as well as Film Grants and Scholars. Hu is a member of AMPAS and BAFTA.
Documentary Jury
Shane Smith is a documentary programmer at the broadcaster TVO. He is the former programming and artistic director at Hot Docs, North America's largest Festival and Market for documentary film, where he oversaw the programming for the Hot Docs Festival, Docs For Schools and more recently, the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Smith previously worked at the Toronto International Film Festival as the director of Special Projects and director of Public Programmes, where he oversaw initiatives and events at TIFF Bell Lightbox including TIFF Kids, the Film Reference Library, TIFF in the Park, Nuit Blanche, the TIFF digiPlaySpace traveling exhibition and Short Cuts International short film programming for the Festival.
Prior to joining TIFF he worked as Executive Producer, In-Flight Entertainment at Spafax, overseeing all entertainment offerings on Air Canada. He was previously Director of Programming at Channel Zero Inc overseeing the digital cable operators programming of Silver Screen Classics and Movieola- the Short Film Channel. Other positions include Director of the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, Short Film Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, Founder and Co-Director of OzFlix: Australian Film Weekend and Programmer for Inside Out LGBTQ Film Festival. Smith has served on juries and spoken on panels at Festivals and events around the world.
Ibero American Jury
Aitch Alberto is a writer/director born and raised in Miami, Florida. She is a Sundance Episodic Lab alum and Momentum Fellowship, recipient of a Skowhegan Artist Residency, a Yaddo fellowship, and Latino Screenwriting Project Fellowship.
Most recently, Aitch adapted and directed GLAAD nominee for Outstanding Film Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe based on the award-winning young adult novel with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eugenio Debrez producing. Aristotle and Dante has also received a Guild for Music Supervisors nomination as well as making coveted Best of lists, including Vanity Fair, The Wrap and LA Times
Aitch has written on Duster, a 1970s-set crime drama series from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan for Max. She also served as a writer on AppleTV+’s series Little America from Lee Eisenberg and Sian Heder.
She has been included on The Black List's inaugural Latinx List, as well as the Tracking Board's Hit List and Young & Hungry List, and NALIP's list of "Directors You Should Know." Aitch was named one of Variety’s 10 Directors To Watch and Indiewire’s 22 Rising Female Filmmakers to watch.
Ibero American Jury
Florangela Davila is a longtime Seattle journalist. She’s the former race and immigration reporter at The Seattle Times. She worked as the managing editor and Crosscut Now host at Cascade PBS. Most recently, she led the KNKX public radio newsroom for four years as news director. The child of immigrants from Colombia and Peru, she was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley and Columbia University. She’s earned numerous individual and team journalism honors in print, online and broadcast, including a 2023 national Edward R. Murrow award for The Walk Home podcast.
Ibero American Jury
Jason Ryle is a producer and curator currently based in Toronto. He is Anishinaabe and a member of Lake St. Martin First Nation, Manitoba. Jason was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE from July 2010 to June 2020. In this capacity, Jason oversaw all operational and artistic activities of the annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. As an independent producer, his current projects include the TV series Amplify (for APTN), the documentary feature Singing Back the Buffalo (directed by Tasha Hubbard), and the VR series Sunalimat (NFB & Parks Canada). Jason is also an International Programmer for TIFF with a focus on Global Indigenous Cinema, New Zealand, and Australia.
New American Cinema Jury
Jim Brunzell III was born in the 70's, played sports in the 80's, went to school in the 90's, and started working on film festivals in the 2000's. He joined the Twin Cities based music + film festival, Sound Unseen in 2008 as a programmer and became the festival director in 2012, and the festival will celebrate its 25th anniversary this November. During his tenure the festival has been named "One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World '' by Moviemaker Magazine in 2016 & 2019 and "One of the 20 Great First Time Moviemakers Festival'' in 2022. In 2023, he joined the L.A. based film distributor, Dark Star Pictures as Director of Festivals and Theatrical. He has served on numerous film festival juries and is a big sports nerd, especially a die-hard Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Dodgers fan. He is also the father to a 6-year old tabby cat named Bruce.
New American Cinema Jury
Bill Guentzler is currently Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Operations for Gravitas Ventures, which is recognized worldwide as one of the largest all rights distributors of independent films and documentaries, with a library of over 3000 titles and releasing over 150 new films each year. After spending a summer studying in Berlin in 1998, he joined the Cleveland International Film Festival as an intern and grew with the organization, ultimately being named Artistic Director in 2005, a position he held for 15 years. During his time at CIFF, he was part of the leadership team making the festival one of the largest and most well-respected film festivals in the US and one of the first in the world to transition to an online format in 2020. Also in 2020, a brief hiatus from the film industry led him to Medworks, a Cleveland-based nonprofit organization linking people who are uninsured and underinsured with vital healthcare services, where he served as Program Director. He holds a BA in Communications from Cleveland State University, which named him one if its inaugural 50 Fascinating Alumni. He also proudly serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborate Cleveland.
New American Cinema Jury
Born in Brazil, Ana Souza was partially raised in The Netherlands and now resides in Los Angeles. She is the Manager of the Programming department at Sundance and a programmer on the features team, focusing on US and International fiction films across sections. In addition to her work at Sundance, she is the Director of Programming at the Sun Valley Film Festival and the Forum Producer for the Palm Springs International ShortFest. She has also programmed for AFI FEST, Outfest, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and the LA Film Festival in the past, and she has worked in various capacities for LALIFF, Ambulante California, and NALIP’s Latino Media Fest, among others. She has been a programming fellow with Film Independent’s Project Involve and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Industry Academy. She holds a B.A. from the University of Warwick and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.
New Directors Jury
Jacqueline Lyanga founded Global Cinematheque a US-based organization to promote international cinema and talent in 2020. Global Cinematheque has partnered with LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to present virtual and in-person screenings of new international cinema to US audiences. Lyanga has been the US Delegate for the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) since 2022, with a mandate that covers film programming and industry (European Film Market/EFM). She has also consulted for SXSW Sydney and entertainment streaming platforms. Prior to these roles, Lyanga was the Head of DEI at IMDb for Amazon Studios, and the Artistic Director of Film Independent in Los Angeles, where she developed strategies for Film Independent’s year-round programming initiatives, and partnerships, and curated screenings and events for the organization at venues across Los Angeles. Lyanga also launched the immersive storytelling showcase The Portal, for Film Independent as Guest Director at LA Film Festival in 2018, as well as The New Wave. Prior to working at Film Independent, Jacqueline was Director of AFI FEST (2010-2018), the American Film Institute’s (AFI) annual international film festival in Los Angeles for eight years, and prior to that a programmer and producer of year-round and festival programs for AFI. Lyanga has also served on many international film festival juries including the Hawai’i International Film Festival, Locarno, Jio MAMI Mumbai, Palm Springs International, Santa Barbara, the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Photo Credit: Michael Buckner
New Directors Jury
Kathleen McInnis is a Strategist / Producer who helps filmmakers merge their creative and business development using their films on the festival circuit, with special focus on Emerging World Cinema Filmmakers.
Trained as an actress, Kathleen’s early career in film started as a film journalist before she joined SIFF as the Festival Publicist. She went on to become Lead Programmer, Director of Industry Programming and Director of Publicity/Promotions. During her SIFF tenure (’93-’04), Kathleen co-created the Fly Filmmaking Challenge, and established the SIFF Script Read-Throughs at The Alibi Room, before returning to create and curate the SIFF New Works in Progress Forum (’17).
Kathleen was also Curator/Festival Director at Palm Springs ShortFest, Artistic Director at Aspen Shorts Fest, and International Shorts Programmer at Hot Docs. She was invited to help establish the first International edition of TIFF’s Short Cuts, where she programmed for three years. She currently works with the Norwegian International Short Film Festival (Kortfilmfestivalen) held in Grimstad, Norway.
Kathleen’s producing credits include Fantastic Machine (SIFF ’23), Power Alley (Cannes ’23), Big vs Small (Reykjavik ’21), and Retablo (SIFF ’18), among many others. Under the banner of her consulting company, See-Through Films, Kathleen and her PR team represent premiere films at Sundance, IFFR-Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Karlovy Vary, TIFF, Visions du Réel, and CPH:DOX, among others.
Kathleen is a member of AMPAS, BAFTA-LA, Film Independent, IDA, and the WGA-w.
New Directors Jury
Jourdain Searles is a film critic, programmer, and performer. She has written for The Hollywood Reporter, Vulture, Sight & Sound, Fangoria and Indiewire, among many other publications. Jourdain is also a member of the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association as well as the African-American Critics Association. She lives in Brooklyn with her movie collection and stacks of unread books.
Official Jury
Ryland Aldrich is an independent film producer and founder of the FYCit App. Through his production company Point + Drop Productions, he has produced narrative and documentary feature films, series, and audio projects. Some of these include the Sundance 2017 film It Happened in L.A. and the Tribeca 2016 film Folk Hero & Funny Guy. In 2021, Ryland launched the FYCit App which serves the Hollywood awards ecosystem by listing 'for your consideration' events and content for industry insiders. Throughout his career, Ryland has enjoyed serving on film festival juries, panels, and advisory boards around the world and is a long-time contributor and editor for the popular film website Screen Anarchy.
Official Jury
Jannat Gargi is an Emmy and Peabody winning producer and executive producer of the Academy Award winning documentary, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).
As a veteran film executive and creative producer, Gargi has executive produced and produced
numerous award winning documentary films and series across genre and platform.
As SVP of Documentaries for Westbrook Studios (founded by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith), Gargi established the documentary division with a premium slate of films including Copa71, with executive producers Serena and Venus Williams and is currently in post-production on Full Circle: The First All Black Everest Ascent and The Debutantes. Prior to joining Westbrook, Gargi served as VP of Documentaries for VICE Studios overseeing development for a slate of premium documentaries and series including three-time Academy Award nominated documentary Flee (2022) and The American Gladiators for ESPN’s 30 For 30 series (2023). Prior to VICE Studios, Gargi served as Head of Documentary Films for Vulcan Productions where she developed and produced a wide range of acclaimed, cause based documentary films including Academy Award Nominated short documentary, Lead Me Home (2022), LIFT (2023), Master of Light, Best Documentary winner SXSW (2022), Academy Award nominated short documentary, Hunger Ward (2021), Sundance Audience Award winner The Reason I Jump (2019), and Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning Body Team 12 (2016). In her work as an independent producer, Gargi produced the true crime limited series, Murder Among the Mormons, directed by Jared Hess and Tyler Measom on Netflix (2021), co-executive produced the Academy Award nominated short documentary Knife Skills (2018) and produced the Emmy nominated documentary CIRCO (2010). Gargi is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS), Producers Guild of America (PGA), serves on the Board of Directors for Washington FilmWorks and is Co-Chair of The Redford Center Board of Directors, a non-profit that harnesses the power of media to engage people and galvanize environmental action.
Official Jury
Carl Spence is the Artistic Director of the Sonoma International Film Festival. Concurrently Carl leads the Orcas Island Film Festival as Co-Founder, Co-Director, and Chief Curator. Carl’s 30 years of experience in the film festival world includes past leadership roles with the Seattle International Film Festival as Co-Director & Artistic Director. During his 23 years with SIFF, the festival grew to one of the largest attended and most prominent North American film organizations, moving from a once-a-year festival to a vital year-round film exhibitor under his guidance. As a film festival subject matter expert, Spence serves as a consultant to key industry stalwarts including FilmFreeway, the film submission platform used by filmmakers globally; Eventive, an enterprise solutions provider specifically for the film festival ecosystem; as well as film companies, filmmakers and film festivals worldwide. Past positions include director and artistic roles with the Palm Springs International Film Festival; the Miami Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Narrative Shorts Jury
Chase Burns is a journalist, critic, and sometimes a drag queen. He co-writes Unstreamable, a project where he and writer Jas Keimig highlight movies unavailable on streaming services. So far, they've cataloged over 400 films and screened some at Northwest Film Forum, SIFF, and the Pickford Film Center. He used to edit the Seattle alt-weekly, The Stranger. Now, he works for the Seattle Times Company. He’s juried a lot of porn for Dan Savage’s HUMP Film Festival.
Narrative Shorts Jury
Landon Zakheim is a short film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, and the co-founder and Executive Director of the Overlook Film Festival, a four day celebration of all things horror held in New Orleans. He also works with the Telluride and Denver Film Festivals annually. Among a myriad of additional festival organizations for which he’s served, he has been a senior programmer for AFI Fest and the Philadelphia Film Festival, associate programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival and was formerly both director of programming for Aspen ShortsFest and head of shorts for the now-defunct LA Film Festival.
Narrative Shorts Jury
Laura Jean Cronin is known for her work as Production Manager on the Emmy-award winning PBS show Biz Kid$. Prior to Biz Kid$, Laura founded Pound Pictures, a motion pictures and film company in Seattle. Under this banner Laura produced award-winning work as writer and director. She received the Audience Award for Block Party (2001) from the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival along with Best Girls Short for One Night (2009) and Best Local Film for Leave It! (2002). Laura also won Best Local Film for Free Parking (2006) from Cinema K Children's Film Festival. Laura served on the Board of Women in Film Seattle as Vice President and then President from 2008 to 2018. Laura was a producer and director at B47 Studios, a full-service video production studio in Seattle, managing projects from 5K to $200,000. More recently, Laura was able to combine the worlds of education and production when she took on the role of Lead Producer at Reel Grrls Productions (now known as Remove the Gap Productions), a non-profit offering full-service production services for local businesses, non-profits and government institutions, while giving on-the-job training to young women and non-binary youth. As Lead Producer for Remove the Gap Productions, Laura is helping to usher in a new generation of media makers who have traditionally fallen through the gap. Laura is driven by the energy, excitement, awe, intelligence and creativity that the participants in these programs bring.
Doc/Animation Shorts Jury
Chelsea Lupkin is a Senior Programmer at Short of the Week and is known for her short horror film Lucy’s Tale, which is streaming for free on Gunpowder & Sky’s horror platform, ALTER, where it has been viewed over 6.3 million times. She went on to make another short horror film called Flagged in collaboration with the Sundance Institute and Hulu, where it is now streaming. Her latest short, Scooter, premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2022 and became an Official Selection of the SITGES Film Festival and Beyond Fest within its festival lineup. It was also released on ALTER and is available to stream. She has served on the jury at various festivals including the Fantasia International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. She was also a mentor for participants in the Frontières International Co-Production Market in Montreal, Canada. She is currently on the jury for the Killer Shorts Horror Short Screenplay Competition for rising screenwriters in the genre.
Doc/Animation Shorts Jury
Derek Edamura has been working as a documentary filmmaker, teaching artist, and community organizer for the past 13 years. In 2021, Derek joined Northwest Film Forum as the Education Director and has since become the Executive Director. During his tenure he reinstated all of the Forum's core educational programming, apprenticeship programs and artist support services after an 18 month pandemic closure. He also co-led the creation of a new narrative filmmaking apprentice program, which has now become a model for other programs in the local community.
Doc/Animation Shorts Jury
Charles Poekel is a Seattle-based filmmaker, educator, and chair of the film program at Cornish College of the Arts. He started his career shooting and producing theatrical documentaries, including Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, Hey Bartender, Making the Boys, Fake It So Real, and others. His feature-length fiction debut, Christmas, Again, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and went on to play at Sundance, New Directors / New Films, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2016. Charles is an alum of The Gotham and the New York Film Festival Artists’ Academy, a MacDowell Colony fellow, and founder of the Bainbridge Island Film Festival.
