Narrative Features Jury
Laura Terruso - Director of the Netflix film Work It. She co-wrote and directed the comedy Good Girls Get High, now available on HBO Max. Her feature debut as writer/director/producer Fits And Starts premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival and is available on Amazon. She co-wrote and co-produced the film Hello, My Name Is Doris, starring Sally Field. Released by Roadside Attractions, it went on to become one of the top grossing indies of 2016. Laura graduated from NYU's graduate film program at the Tisch School of the Arts.
Kathleen Broyles - President of the Board of The Milagro Initiative, and is a consultant to Sundance Institute, where she has worked since 1990. Kathleen is also a location casting director known for productions like Honeydripper and Silver City.
Cassidy Freeman - Known for her roles in television's The Righteous Gemstones, Smallville and Longmire, actress and musician Cassidy Freeman also acted in and produced the stunning New Mexico-filmed feature length drama, Cortez.
Ed Khmara - Known for his work as an American screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is best known for his work on Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
Jon Moritsugu - Making movies since 1985, the writer/director has created a miasma of protopunk deconstructions of popular genres and formats with scabrous and pointedly garish results. The New York Times describes them as "funny, anarchic, provocative and exhilarating". Since 1989 he has collaborated with his wife of 25 years and creative partner, Amy Davis, when he directed her in his first feature, My Degeneration, which played at Sundance and was hailed by Rolling Stone as “One of the top 25 greatest punk rock movies of all time.”
Ani Simon-Kennedy - Raised in Paris and based in New York, Ani Simon-Kennedy is a feature film, documentary and commercial director. Under the banner of Bicephaly Pictures, she collaborates with cinematographer Cailin Yatsko on socially-conscious stories. Her second narrative feature, The Short History of the Long Road, starring Sabrina Carpenter, Steven Ogg, Maggie Siff, and Danny Trejo, won Best New Mexico Narrative Feature at SFiFF 2019.
Documentary Features Jury
Glenn Silber - Two-time Academy-Award nominee Glenn Silber is the director of The War at Home, Atomic Artist, and El Salvador: Another Vietnam.
Alexandria Bombach - An award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor from Santa Fe, NM, her recent work has focused on exploring ethics in journalism and advocacy, and challenging misperceptions of the refugee crisis. Her feature-length documentary, On Her Shoulders (2018), won Best Directing in the US Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature. Alexandria is the founder of the Santa Fe Editing & Writing Residency, a 2019 Sundance Institute Momentum Fellow, and a 2019 Chicken & Egg Award Fellow.
Maura Studi - Actress, producer, and writer Maura Studi is known for Defending the Fire and A Thousand Voices.
Jenifer McShane - An independent filmmaker committed to using film to bridge understanding in situations where structural, cultural, or religious divisions that typically keep people apart. Her Emmy Award-winning film, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops won the Jury Award for Empathy & Craft at SXSW in 2019 and multiple jury prizes at other film festivals including the 2019 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. Jenifer spent nearly five years visiting Bedford Hills Correctional Facility to make her previous documentary, Mothers of Bedford, which reveals the impact of incarceration on jailed mothers and their children.
Holly Morris - Holly Morris is an author, filmmaker and presenter best known for her work on the PBS series'Globe Trekker and Adventure Divas, as well as for the feature films she directs and writes, including The Babushkas of Chernobyl and the forthcoming Exposure, about the Women's Euro-Arabian North Pole Expedition.
New Mexico Features Jury
Nathan Hollis, Castle Searcy, and Lily Zepeda
Short Film Jury
Alem Dauletkulov, Colleen Hammond, Judith Kriger, Castle Searcy, Matthew Spain, Patti White, Kosta Nikas, Jordyn Romero, and Scott Hussion |
