Meet Your 2024 Judges
Brian Trenchard-Smith is an Anglo-Australian film and television director, producer, and writer, with a reputation for large scale movies on small scale budgets. His body of work has been honored at the Paris Cinema, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Brisbane and Toronto Film Festivals. In 2016 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia recently hosted a three city retrospective of his films. He is a member of the Masters of Horror Circle, and is a contributing guru to Trailers From Hell. https://briantrenchard-smith.com/
Enie Vaisburd was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her film work is often lyrical, integrating characteristics of experimental and documentary forms. Language, translation, cultural identity, and displacement are large themes in her work. She is an award-winning filmmaker and has been the lead filmmaker in community engagement projects, including the “Oregon Latino Video Project”. She is Associate Professor in film and video at Pacific University Oregon with an emphasis in studies and practice. and was Lead Faculty at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, OR, for more than a decade. https://www.evaisb.com/
Nik Whitcomb is the Producing Artistic Director of Bag&Baggage Productions, Hillsboro's only professional theatre company. He came to Oregon after working on Broadway as the Program Director for the Black Theatre Coalition. Nik worked for nearly five years as a Casting Associate with the Emmy-Winning casting team at Paskal Rudnicke Casting in Chicago, IL (The Bear, Fargo - Season 4, Southside, Joe Pera Talks with You) and can be seen in the indie film I Used to Go Here and the pilot episode of Station Eleven on MAX alongside Himesh Patel. www.NikWhitcomb.com
Marcia Gwendolyn Jones is a prolific animation producer with an international career spanning three decades. She is a new resident of Hillsboro, OR having recently joined LAIKA Studios as Development Producer. Jones' credits include producing and story development on My Little Pony, Monster Inc, Monster at Work, and stints on staff at Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Studios, and PIXAR just to name a few. Marcia is known for being a catalyst to take a story from script to screen and is often referred to as "The Closer" because she delivers films on-time and on-budget while balancing artistic goals and vision.
Cindy Cosenzo is a social impact consultant and founder of Just Create Community, LLC which has been cultivated compassionate workspaces and community events across California and Oregon for over 20 years. Prior to her community work Cindy worked in television production and animation. She was a Production Manager on the War of the Worlds television series (Triumph Entertainment), Senior Producer at both Pizazz Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation, and was a Unit Production Manager on Disney's Finding Nemo. www.justcreatcommunity.com
Dustin Morrow is an Emmy-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, programmer and educator. He is a tenured Professor in the School of Film at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches courses in digital cinema production and film studies. He previously taught at Temple University, Monmouth College and the University of Iowa. Before re-entering academia, Morrow was an editor and director of short-form projects and series television in Los Angeles. www.dustinmorrow.com