Role Past Jurors

Elise Pearlstein runs all creative development for This Machine Filmworks, a filmmaker-driven company that explores the times in which we live through non-fiction storytelling in all media. Before joining This Machine,  Elise was SVP, Documentary Film, at Participant where, beginning…

Alysa Nahmias is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and founder of the Los Angeles-based production company AJNA. Her directing credits include Art & Krimes by Krimes (2021), The New Bauhaus (2019), and Unfinished Spaces (2011). As a producer, her films include…

Kim Yutani is the Director of Programming of the Sundance Film Festival; she assumed that role in 2018. She began programming short films for the Festival in 2006, and became a feature film programmer in 2009, focusing on US and…

Rahdi Taylor is Executive Vice President at Concordia Studio where she leads The Concordia Fellowship, which aims to engineer catalytic change in individuals and the film industry by supporting BIPOC + other diverse documentary filmmakers from the US who demonstrate…

Stephen D. Smith is Executive Chairman and co-founder of StoryFile, the world’s first AI Conversational Video platform that powers conversations. Stephen is an international speaker, documentary film producer, and oral historian who specializes in immersive media. His groundbreaking work with…

Josh Siegel, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Film, has organized more than 150 film, media, and gallery exhibitions, many of which have appeared on Best of the Year lists in the New York Times, Artforum, Film Comment, Cahiers du cinéma,…

Lacey Schwartz Delgado is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, director, outreach strategist who draws on her interdisciplinary background to create compelling stories that span documentary and fiction and work with innovative organizations and brands. Schwartz Delgado is the co-founder of the…

Jenny Raskin is the Executive Director of Impact Partners, a fund dedicated to supporting independent documentary films that entertain audiences, engage with pressing social issues, and propel the art of cinema forward. Her executive producer credentials include Going Varsity in…

Award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter has emerged in the entertainment industry as a leader in the art of storytelling; directing and producing critically acclaimed projects that have impacted generations of people from all walks of life. In 2021, Porter directed and…

As Senior Executive Vice President of Acquisitions & Production at Sony Pictures Classics, Leiner oversees the acquisition, production, and business affairs activity for the company and has been involved with a broad range of films, including The Father, Whiplash, Call…