THE JURY

INTERNATIONAL JURY

Sarah is the project founder of the State of Guanajuato’s Film Commission and was the director for a number of years.

She is the founder and director of the International Film Festival Expresión en Corto, which is held every summer in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, Mexico. The festival was created to provide an alternative and dynamic space for audiovisual expression as well as to award quality short films and documentaries.

Today, Expresión en Corto is Mexico’s largest film festival, and the most important of its kind in Latin America.

In 2004, Sarah organized the first Pitching Market in Mexico, resulting in the complete financing of five Mexican films, and partial financing of another three, an unprecedented event in the history of Mexican film industry.

Sarah is the President of the Expresión en Corto Foundation, which was created in response to the growing necessity to offer opportunities to a new generation of filmmakers in Mexico. Together with the State of Guanajuato, Sociedad General de Escritores de Mexico, Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia and Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Producción Cinematográfica, formed the screenwriting contest for short and feature film “Expresion en Corto… y Largo”, with the purpose of stimulating screenwriters to contribute to the strengthening of the national film industry.

Sarah Hoch organized the First Women in Films and Television International in Mexico, which established as an institution a few weeks later in Mexico, being the first one in Latin America.

INTERNATIONAL JURY

Roy’s career has been extensive in Australia and New Zealand over the last thirty years covering film, television, and theatre. An established voice artist Roy’s NZ credits are substantial and he has won NZ acting awards for film & television and he’s been nominated for Australian awards. Roy Billing has been based in Australia for the past twenty years.

Most recently Roy finished shooting the third instalment of the much awaited follow up feature The Chronicles of Narnia; other film credits include Charlie And Boots, Unfinished Sky, $9.99., Strange Bedfellows, The Bet, Razzle Dazzle, Aquamarine, Thunderstruck, Rabbit Proof Fence, Black and White, and The Dish, for which he received a Film Critic's Circle nomination, and Siam Sunset for which he received an AFI Award nomination as well as one from the Film Critics Circle.

Roy Billing television credits include playing the role of Robert (Aussie Bob) Trimbole in the second series of Underbelly 2 for which he received a 2009 AFI nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama. Other Television credits include: Chandon Season 2, All Saints, Packed to the Rafters, Out of The Blue, Valentine’s Day, Two Twisted, Hell has Harbour Views, Small Claims 2, Always Greener, Don’t Blame Me, Blue Heelers, Bad Cop Bad Cop, Hampton Court, Over the Hill, All Saints, Wildside, Secret Life of Us, Water Rats, Murder Call among many, many other.

Roy has appeared to rave reviews and in the sold out season of Ruben Guthrie for Company B, other theatre credits include Run, Rabbit, Run for Company B, Art, Scam and After Play and the international tour of Company B’s Cloudstreet directed by Neil Armfield where he played Sam Pickles. He has worked at The Stables, Ensemble, and Marian Street theatres.

INTERNATIONAL JURY

Andrew Lancaster graduated from AFTRS where he directed and composed two short films, Palace Cafe in 1993 and Universal Appliance Co. in 1994 which between them have won fifteen awards world wide.



In 1994 with a BA in Film and TV, he co-founded Supersonic a music production company with Antony Partos and Paul Healy.


Over the past fifteen years Andrew has had a career combining music and film. From scoring West and Garage Days, working on projects such as Chunky Move Dance Co, directing over 20 music videos for acts such as Custard, You Am I, Josh Pyke, and Midnight Oil, to winning two ARIA awards for Best Australian Music Video in 1996 and 1999.  In 2000 Andrew formed the band Lino who were signed to Virgin records and released two albums.



In 2001 his short film In Search of Mike was invited to have its World Premiere at Sundance and won the internationally-contested Best Film Award at Flickerfest in 2002.  The film also picked up the Dendy Award and the prestigious Rouben Mamoulian Award at the Sydney Film Festival.  

In 2002 he was awarded the Best Rising Talent at the IF Awards.  In 2003 he directed Syntax error for the POV short film collection.


Andrew’s debut feature film, Accidents Happen (starring Geena Davis) premiered at Tribeca Film festival and is due for release through Hopscotch in March 2010.  Andrew’s next feature Valve will be produced by Vincent Sheehan from Porchlight films.

AUSTRALIAN JURY

Dan’s television performances include a leading role in the award winning series Love My Way  which garnered him several award nominations and for which he won the TV Week Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series in 2006.

Some of Dan’s other stand-out television performances include roles in Channel 9’s acclaimed series Underbelly, Two Twisted produced by Bryan Brown and the ABC. series Bastard Boys and Curtin. He also played the lead role in ABC mini-series The Shark Net, an adaptation of the Robert Drewe memoir.

Dan’s close association with Sydney’s Company B Belvoir Theatre and its artistic director Neil Armfield includes productions of The Leiuntenant of Inishmore, The Alchemist, Suddenly Last Summer, Twelfth Night  and most memorably the international tour of Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet in which he played Fish Lamb.

Dan's latest work includes a leading role in the new children's drama series My Place being film for the ABC, to air in 2010.

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Pete joined National Geographic Channel in 2004 and has been Program and Acquistions Manager since July 2005. Bringing 20 years presentation and scheduling experience, Peta has worked at free-to-air networks Seven, Nine and Ten.

Peta is responsible for strategic short and long-term program planning for both National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Adventure.

As the programming manager for NGC in this region, Peta also works with local Australian and New Zealand production companies and independent producers, cotinuing to boost NGC's local offering while scouting for Australian content for NGCI global distribution.

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Bob Connolly trained as a journalist at the ABC and then spent a decade there as a foreign correspondent, current affairs reporter and documentary filmmaker. He made 30 documentaries for the ABC, winning several national awards for production and direction.

In 1978 Connolly left the ABC to work independently with Robin Anderson, producing First Contact (1983), Joe Leahy’s Neighbours (1989) and Black Harvest (1992). Shot in the PNG Highlands over ten years, these 3 films won 30 national and international awards, including an Oscar nomination for First Contact. All three won the Grand Prix at France’s Festival Cinema du Reel, and AFI awards for Best Documentary.

In 1996 Connolly and Anderson released Rats in the Ranks. The film ran  for 5 months in Australian cinemas. Their last film together was Facing the Music (2001) that, like all its predecessors, enjoyed a lengthy national theatrical release and was judged Best Documentary by the Australian Film Critics Circle. It too won the AFI Award for Best Documentary, and was voted most popular film at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals.   

In March 2002, Bob Connolly’s wife and professional colleague Robin Anderson died aged 51.

Bob has won a series of prestigious industry awards and written several books. In 1992 the Australian Film Institute awarded Connolly and Anderson the prestigious Byron Kennedy Award, and in 2001 they picked up the Brisbane Film Festival’s Chauvel Award for their “Outstanding Contribution to Australian Film Making.” Later that year they were presented with the inaugural IF Living Legend Award. In  2008 Connolly was awarded the Stanley Hawes Award for his “Outstanding Contribution to Documentary Filmmaking.”
 

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Producer Darren Dale began his career with Australian public broadcaster SBS Television in 1997. He has been a production manager for various SBS TV programs and was associate producer on Headlines Across Australia, an Indigenous news and information series. He produced shorts films Mimi for director Warwick Thornton and Flat for Beck Cole, both of which screened at numerous overseas festivals including Sundance and Edinburgh. He has co-curated the film program for the Message Sticks Indigenous Festival at the Sydney Opera House since 2002.

Since 2001 Darren has been a company director of Blackfella Films, Australia's premiere Indigenous production company and recently completed producing the landmark multi-platform history series First Australians,  broadcast on SBS in October 2008 to over 2.3 million viewers. In addition to the series a significant interactive website has also been produced in addition to a companion book.

Blackfella Films is currently working with BAFTA winning UK director Brian Hill, who's unique musical documentaries have won him international acclaim. Redfern the Musical, will explore the iconic Aboriginal inner city Sydney precinct of Redfern, with Hill directing and Dale producing, production is due to begin in 2010.

AUSTRALIAN JURY

Nicole O'Donohue is an award-winning producer of many accomplished short films that have gone on to huge success and acclaim at festivals around the globe including Flickerfest, Sundance, Venice and Clermont-Ferrand Film Festivals.

Nicole has just produced her first feature Griff the Invisible with award-winning director Leon Ford, with whom she also produced Katoomba (Flickerfest 2008), and The Mechanicals (Flickerfest 2006), to be released in 2010.  She also produced Flickerfest (2008) favourite Spider, directed by Nash Edgerton.

Nicole was the Associate Producer on recent children's TV series Lockie Leonard for Channel Nine and line-produced the Australian feature film Cedar Boys, released in 2009.

AUSTRALIAN JURY

Rachel Okine’s move from Exhibition into the world of Film Distribution was to the acquisitions department of FilmFour in London (Channel 4’s standalone film division). Returning to Australia in 2002, Rachel was a founding member of leading independent film distribution company, Hopscotch.

She has worked across the publicity and marketing campaigns of films ranging from Bowling For Columbine, Touching the Void, Somersault, Spellbound, Downfall and Mrs Henderson Presents
among many others, and advising on all international and local acquisitions. Since mid-2006, Rachel has headed up Hopscotch’s production division, producing a number of interactive DVD projects and has recently completed a 13-part food series for SBS My Family Feast which went to air in 2009.

Rachel is currently developing several projects under the Hopscotch Productions banner including animation, television and interactive projects, in addition to her continuing role as acquisitions executive for Hopscotch Distribution.
She is also General Manager of the recently formed Hopscotch Features, a joint venture with writer John Collee and producer Andrew Mason, in which she will oversee the development of high end feature film projects.
 

AUSTRALIAN JURY

Darlene Johnson is one of Australia's most promising and talented Indigenous filmmakers.

She is from the Dunghutti tribe of the East coast of New South Wales. Johnson graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) at the University of Technology (Sydney) specialising in Indigenous and Post-Colonial Cinema. Johnson's award winning documentary and drama work is extensive and includes Two-Bob Mermaid winner of the Australian Film Critics Circle Award for Best Australian Short Film (1996), nominated at the Venice Film Festival for the Baby Lion Award. Stolen Generations - nominated for an International EMMY Award and Best Documentary at the 2000 AFI Awards, Stranger in My Skin winner Tudwali award for Best documentary series, Following The Rabbit Proof Fence on the making of Phillip Noyce's feature film, Gulpilil - One Red Blood nominated for a Logie Award, an Australian Film Critics Circle Award and an ATOM Award, drama Crocodile Dreaming starring David Gulpilil and Tom E Lewis, nominated for an AFI Award in the visual effects category, an IF Award for Best Short Film and a DEADLY Award, and River of No Return, opening night film at imagineNATIVE Film Festival in Toronto, official competition at the prestigious Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York, Best Documentary at the Montreal First People's Film Festival 2009.

Darlene was recently shortlisted for the Kit Denton Scriptwriting Fellowship 2008 and is currently completing her first feature script 'Obelia' to be produced by Phillip Noyce.