Engages, Educates, and Empowers Student Filmmakers
Film industry professionals mentor students to step out of their comfort zone and tell their stories. We unleash untapped creativity and encourage the next generation of working filmmakers to transform the culture of the industry.
Our Distinguished Panel of Judges ...
Thank you to these excellent film professionals for helping give recognition to all future filmmakers. Cinema Ed is very pleased to have these knowledgeable industry leaders as our 2017 judges for the Young Filmmakers Track. Each judge provides input on films and gives their choices as the Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short and Best Animated Short of 2017. The competition this year is intense and all the judges agree: the future of storytelling is in good hands!
Howard Libov
Fairleigh Dickinson University's Film Program Director; Chair, Visual & Performing Arts Dept. holds two master degrees and is an award-winning film director, producer and screenwriter whose work has been distributed theatrically, on HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and PBS. He has also worked as a writer and producer of newscasts and documentaries for the CNN cable network. Howard attended the film programs at New York University and The American Film Institute. His films include the feature Favorite Son (Director/Co-writer) with Pablo Schreiber (HBO’s The Wire) and Connor Paolo (World Trade Center) and is presently in distribution with Panorama Entertainment. The film won "Best Director" at the Hoboken Film Festival and the "Gold Remi Award" at the Worldfest International Independent Film Festival , besides being a selected feature at numerous other film festivals.
Sarah Klein and Tom Mason
Filmmakers and co-founders of Redglass Pictures. Redglass is as a platform for directing short films and video installations for partners and clients including The New York Times, The Atlantic, WETA, PBS, Ken Burns/Florentine Films, Thinc Design and Mercer. Sarah and Tom recently co-directed the NYT Op-Doc “How To Win An Election” about how campaigns use storytelling to manipulate voters. They co-directed a sixteen-part video installation series for the USA Pavilion at Expo Milan featuring the President and Michelle Obama. Before that, Redglass created a twenty-part digital series: Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies with Ken Burns and PBS. Learn more: www.redglasspictures.com
Erin Harper
Filmmaker and educator at Pratt Institute. Erin produced the feature film, “My Best Day” which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Her first short film, “Passion” received New York state funding for development into a live improvised film about a Polish jazz violinist, which toured jazz and film festivals internationally. She worked as Barbara Hammer’s first digital cinematographer on her award-winning short, “Maya Deren’s Sink” (awarded a Teddy for Best Short Film at Berlin International Film Festival) and as a camerawoman on her latest project, “This House, A Film about Elizabeth Bishop.”
About Our Screener:
ZACHARY TOWLEN—Film producer, director and writer. Director of “The Not-So-Wright Brothers” and "You, Me and Bananas?" which was screened at the Hampton International Film Festival. Zach also serves on editorial staff of Films in Review magazine. Learn more: www.zacharytowlen.com