NARRATIVES JURY FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
FEATURE NARRATIVE
AWARDS JURY
DAVID DINERSTEIN is an award-winning producer and one of the most accomplished industry executives. He has released over 200 movies, helped launch the careers of numerous iconic filmmakers, and has garnered over 96 Academy Award Nominations and 15 Academy Awards. He co-founded Paramount Vantage and was one of the original architects of Fox Searchlight. Currently, David is the president of Aviron Pictures and is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
PAMELA YATES is the co-founder and creative
David Dinerstein
ALEX SMITH is a screenwriter, filmmaker and educator.
He and his brother Andrew have made the acclaimed features Walking Out, Winter in the Blood and The Slaughter Rule. Alex has written scripts and pilots for Amazon, HBO, Warner Brothers, Disney, Fox Searchlight, and FX. He also adapted Chekhov’s The Duel for Terrence Malick. He has taught at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Texas, and the University of Tulsa.
Alex Smith
film and television for over two decades. His films include the landmark documentaries Brothers Keeper, the Paradise Lost trilogy, and Metalica: Some Kind of Monster, a film that re-defined the rockumentary genre. Joe’s recent narrative feature, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron, Lily Collins, and John Malkovich, premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix for a reported $9 million.
Joe Berlinger
ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS is an Academy and Emmy awardRebecca Miller
JULIE TAYMOR, a Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winning
and Oscar-nominated-filmmaker, has conquered both stage and screen with her innovative direction. Award-winning films include Fool’s Fire, Oedipus Rex, Titus, Frida, Across the Universe, The Tempest, and A Julie Taymor Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent projects include The Glorias, based on Gloria Steinem’s memoir, and a TV Series, Hackabout, based on Erica Jong’s book, Fanny. Her Tony awardwinning Broadway adaptation of The Lion King has played over 100 cities in 19 countries and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any title in box office history.
ANIMATED SHORTS
winning director, producer, writer, and the first African American director to win an Academy Award for his film Music By Prudence. Roger’s work pushes the boundaries Roger Ross Williams of culture and film. His documentaries include Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Life, Animated, as well as God Loves Uganda, American Jail, The Apollo and VR experience Traveling While Black. He is currently working on his first narrative feature for Amazon studios.
NARRATIVE EDITING
SABINE HOFFMAN ACE, has edited Rebecca Miller’s
films Maggie’s Plan, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and Personal Velocity, Richard LaGravenese’s musical The Last Five Years, Jesse Peretz’ Juliet, Naked, Michael Lembeck’s upcoming Never Too Late, and currently Julie Taymor’s The Glorias. Sabine serves as a consultant and story adviser and has also edited numerous documentary films.
Sabine Hoffman
NAOMI GERAGHTY is known for her work on The Upside,
JOY + NOELLE Joy Buran and Noelle
Melody are illustrators, animators and, as it happens, twins. They specialize in story-driven work, including commercial video, independent short films and book illustration. Select clients include NBC, Netflix, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Amazon Studios, Sesame Studios, and Joy Buran & Noelle Melody Anthropologie. They most recently artdirected Human Kind Of, an Annie Award-nominated animated series for Facebook Watch. Joy and Noelle began curating the Animation Program at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2016.
LIZZI AKANA is an award-winning director, animator
and designer. Since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, she’s cultivated a diverse portfolio as a freelance artist in the field of animation, working in television, advertising, feature film, music videos, and illustrative design for many of the top studios in New York and Los Angeles. In addition to her contract work, in 2019, Lizzi returned to her alma mater to teach Cinematic Storytelling.
Pamela Yates
JOE BERLINGER has been a leading voice in nonfiction
REBECCA MILLER, winner of multiple Sundance and Gotham awards, has written and directed Angela, Personal Velocity, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Maggie’s Plan and Arthur Miller: Writer, an HBO documentary. She is the screenwriter of Proof, and author of the short story collection Personal Velocity, and the novels The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and Jacob’s Folly.
director of Skylight, a non-profit dedicated to combining cinematic arts with the quest for justice to inspire the defense of human rights. Her awardwinning films include When the Mountains Tremble, Witness to War, State of Fear: The Truth About Terorism, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, and 500 Years. Pamela is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Writers Guild of America and the International Documentary Association, and directing a new documentary film, Borderlands.
Limitless, Hotel Rwanda, and In America. She has worked extensively in television, including David Simon’s Treme (HBO), Bloodline (Netflix) and Showtime’s Billions. She recently made her directing debut on Billions and will continue in the upcoming season. Naomi has enjoyed a long collaboration with director Neil Burger and is currently editing his science fiction thriller Voyagers.
Naomi Geraghty
KATE WILLIAMS ACE, has cut five films for Fred Schepisi,
including Empire Falls, for which she was nominated for an Emmy; Steve Buscemi’s Trees Lounge; Sundance Frozen River; Clara Law’s The Goddess of ’67; Michael Almereyda’s This So Called Disaster; and the English films, Effie Gray and Anton Chekhov’s The Duel. She is currently producing and editing Juliet Ellis’s Ruby.
Kate Williams
NICK HOUY’S recent feature film credits include Greta
Lizzi Akana
Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated Lady Bird and her upcoming adaptation of Little Women. Nick recently edited Jonah Hill’s directorial debut Mid 90s, and garnered his first Emmy award for editing HBO’s The Night Of. He is currently editing Stephen Karam’s film adaptation of his Tony-winning play, The Humans. Nick Houy
CINEMATOGRAPHY
ELLEN KURAS is an Emmy and Independent Spirit Award-nominated director/cinematographer whose visionary, eclectic work has
made a significant mark in cinema. She has collaborated with such directors as Michael Gondry, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Sam Mendes, Jim Jarmusch, Errol Morris, and Rebecca Miller. Well-known for her stunning cinematography on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Blow, she is the unprecedented three-time winner of Best Dramatic Cinematography at Sundance. Her directorial debut, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), was nominated for an Academy and a Spirit Award and won the Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. She is now directing episodic TV, including Ozark, Legion, Umbrella Academy, and Catch 22.
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WoodstockFilmFestival.org
Ellen Kuras
2019