JUDGES

As Senior Manager of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, Adam has overseen the selection process since 2005, with approximately 15,000 submissions received annually. In addition to programming the Festival’s Midnight section, he lends his past experience in television development to Sundance’s burgeoning Episodic program, which began in 2017. Prior to joining the Institute, Adam spent five years as Manager of Development and Current Series for Imagine Entertainment’s television arm. There, he worked on acclaimed series such as Arrested Development and 24. From 2014-2017, he served as Director of Programming for CIMMfest, a film and music festival based in Chicago. 

He is a firm believer that filmmakers are under no obligation to stick to any previously-established rules with regards to zombies, vampires, werewolves or Frankenstein.

Álvar Carretero has been part of Joshua Jason Public Relations (JJPR) since 2014 and currently serves as Head of Awards & Global PR. Based in Los Angeles, he works on international publicity, festival and awards campaigns for feature and short films, collaborating with filmmakers and distributors from around the world.

Throughout his career, he has contributed to the campaigns of numerous Academy Award®-winning and nominated short films, including *The Singers* and *Two People Exchanging Saliva*, which shared the 2026 Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short Film, as well as *I’m Not a Robot*, *The Last Ranger*, *Le Pupille*, among many others. His work focuses on helping films build visibility throughout their festival run and awards season.

Originally from Spain and now based in Los Angeles, Álvar is a member of the Spanish Film Academy, the Venezuelan Film Academy and ASIFA-Hollywood. He also teaches masterclasses on international film publicity, festival strategy and awards campaigns at universities and industry events in Europe and the Americas.

Named by Variety as one of "Hollywood's New Leaders," Carlberg is an Academy and Emmy Award winning film, television, new media, Broadway and Los Angeles stage producer.

Based between Austin, Los Angeles, and Jackson, Hole, WY, Carly is an actor, producer, content creator, and writer. Her most recent feature film, Lady Kings of Texas, is currently in post-production. Carly has appeared in network shows such as Duster by producer J.J Abrams (Max), Criminal Minds (Paramount+), and Landman (Paramount+). 

Carly has a deep commitment to organizations that support artists, inspire youth, and value creativity. She is a board member of the Jackson Hole International Film Festival, sits on the University of Texas Performing Arts Leadership Board, and is a board member of The Alchemy Theatre in Austin. 

When she’s not creating, Carly and her husband Clayton love to hike in the Tetons with their two kiddos, James and Charlotte.

Emily Cook is a native Angeleno casting professional with more than 15 years of experience across film and television. Her credits include projects such as Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Paramount+’s Star Trek: Discovery, and Hulu’s Deli Boys. 

Having studied with The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and the Steppenwolf Theater Company, Emily has cultivated a deep understanding of how to collaborate with actors to hone performances that elevate the material.

Emily Merlin is a Senior Manager of Programming at Hallmark Media. Merlin is based in Los Angeles, reporting to Vice President, Development, Jennifer Kramer.  

Specializing in the development and production of Hallmark Media’s original holiday movies, Merlin has overseen more than 70 projects including Hallmark Channel’s She’s Making A List, The Gift of Peace, and the Gracie Award-winning A Grand Ole Opry Christmas. Merlin has advanced in the programming department ranks throughout her 9-year tenure at the company, playing a pivotal role in creating content in the holiday, mystery, romantic comedy, faith, and series genres.  

Merlin has collaborated on three seasons of the hit series, When Calls the Heart, and multiple mystery series, including Mystery 101 and the reboot of Aurora Teagarden Mysteries for Hallmark’s streaming service, Hallmark+. 

Prior to joining the company, Merlin worked for CBS and Mavrick Artists Agency. 

Merlin holds a BFA in Acting from Elon University. 

Greg Longstreet is the owner of Empirical, an L.A. based PR firm working exclusively with filmmakers including Edgar Wright, Shane Black, Brian Duffield, Macon Blair, Drew Hancock, BriTANick, and many more. He’s also the Founder and Editor in Chief of RITUAL, a new zine whose mission is to “provide fun bite sized film related editorial to read while you wait for the movie to start.” It’s currently sold at a number of locations including The Vista, New Bev, Vidiots, Brain Dead to name a few. It’s also available through the zine’s IG @ritualzine. 

Greg Sorvig is the Artistic Director of Heartland Film, where he leads programming for the Oscar®/BAFTA-qualifying Indy Shorts and Heartland Film Festival events. He also serves as a Senior Associate Programmer for the Tribeca Festival and is an active juror, panelist, and grant reviewer across the festival industry. In 2026, Heartland Film programmed an industry-leading nine short film Academy Award® nominees and qualified Oscar® winner “The Singers” by Sam Davis at Indy Shorts.

Hayley Marie Norman boasts a distinguished list of on-camera credits. As an actor, she has received accolades from Roger Ebert to Vulture. As a writer, she has collaborated with and sold projects to top Hollywood studios and networks. The Errand, her directorial debut short, enjoyed a successful festival run and was awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick. Her sophomore film, My Black Vagina, is an absurd comedy meets social thriller. It was awarded a fellowship from Silver Lake Shorts and is currently in post production. 

Hoku is a lover of fantasy films, horror, and animation. Over the past decade he’s worked as a director (sometimes with Adam Bolt) and editor on music videos, documentaries, and advertising. Clients and collaborators include Katy Perry, They Might Be Giants, National Geographic, and YouTube.

His short film WHITCH premiered at SXSW in 2025, where it won the Midnight Short Special Jury Award.

Imani Davis is a film programmer, producer and writer. Currently, she is a film programmer at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, a 501c3 nonprofit boasting over 1,600 film screenings a year. Imani has worked to put on events with A-list filmmakers and talent such as Timothée Chalamet, Sofia Coppola, Spike Lee, Sean Baker, Jordan Peele, Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Damien Chazelle, Christopher Nolan, and many more. 

Imani is also the founder and lead programmer of the American Cinematheque's short film festival called PROOF, which is the only festival completely dedicated to proof-of-concept short films and has resulted in projects coming to fruition and premiering at festivals such as Sundance, Fantasia, and Rotterdam.

Jillian Corsie is an editor and filmmaker passionate about character-driven stories with heart. Specializing in feature documentaries, her recent project Desert Angel follows the human toll of migration across the US/Mexico border. It won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Austin Film Festival.

As a director, Corsie is committed to creating films with social impact. Her debut feature Trichster sheds light on trichotillomania, while Second Assault addresses the trauma of reporting sexual violence. Both are now used as educational tools on college campuses and in police training programs.

As Short Documentary Programming Captain at Slamdance, Corsie is deeply invested in supporting emerging documentary voices. Her work across editing and directing has given her a deep understanding of what makes documentary storytelling resonate.

Writer. Actor. Director. From Florida, but tells people she’s from New York. Joanna won the Jury prize last year at Salute Your Shorts and is delighted to sit on the jury this year. She is currently writing a romcom for Netflix and can be seen recurring on HBO’s Rooster. Joanna also casts and performs ADR voices in shows such as The Studio, Nobody Wants This, The Hawk, and many others. 

Jon has twenty-five years of experience in the independent film. As a filmmaker with impact driven Cause Pictures, he has produced a number of award-winning documentaries; and as a consultant, he has guided many independent film projects through the maze of festivals and distribution models.  

As a co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival (1995), he led the event the next two seasons before being named the Festival Director for the prestigious AFI Film Festival in 1997.  After running AFI Fest for three years (1997-1999), he created a consulting business, guiding the launch of numerous film festivals (Bahamas, Lone Star, Orlando), directing several others (Santa Barbara, Topanga and Naples), and consulting to dozens more, while sharing insights, articles and videos through On the Circuit.  

In October of 2012, Jon authored his first book, entitled Filmmaking for Change:  Make Films That Transform the World. 

I started JJPR almost 25 years ago, and have almost 30 years of successful campaigns under my belt specializing in awards PR in all categories in features, animation, documentary and shorts. 

Kelly Vrooman is a comedy writer and performer praised by The New York Times as “a master-class in rapid-fire comedy.” She’s the creative force behind many viral ad campaigns and her own comedic videos (@kellyvrooms), which earned her a feature on Parents.com. Kelly writes for The Chosen: Animated Adventures (Amazon Prime) and serves as head writer/director for the acclaimed—and hotly debated—animated series The Tuttle Twins. She has also created and sold two web series to Peacock Kids and is currently developing an original animated series, but she's not allowed to say anything more about it yet! :)

Liz Sargent is a Korean-American adoptee writer and director.

Her proof-of-concept short Take Me Home premiered at Sundance in (‘23), and went on to—win the Grand Jury Prize at American Cinematheque’s PROOF Festival in (‘24) and was featured at the White House (‘24) for the 25th Anniversary of the Olmstead Act where Liz and her sister—the film’s star—shared their personal story with key national leaders.

The feature adaptation of Take Me Home won the largest production award in the world at AT&T Untold Stories at Tribeca Film Festival (’25) and world premiered at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition with an international premiere at Berlinale in Perspectives Competition (’26) and will be have a theatrical release this September! 

Liz is a two-time NY EMMY winner (’20, ’21) and an NBCUniversal Launch Director (’24–’26) and winner of the Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriter Award and the Lumen Award.

Neal Suresh Mulani is a queer filmmaker and actor whose work explores themes of self-perception and identity in the digital age. His work has been recognized by institutions and publications such as the American Cinematheque, Rooftop Films, Vimeo and PopCrave. 

He most recently wrote, directed and starred in the horror-comedy short RAT!, which he's adapting into a feature-length film after screening at festivals worldwide including AFI FEST, Palm Springs ShortFest and Iris Prize. As an actor, he can be seen in Fernando Andrés's feature ensemble comedy RENT FREE (Tribeca 2024), with Variety and The Queer Review among several publications singling out his performance. 

Paul James directed the award-winning short film What Freedom. As an actor he played Charlie Sloan in Apple TV’s Emmy nominated Lessons In Chemistry, Jordan in Showtime’s I Love That For You, Sam in Soundtrack (Hulu), Ben Gellis in Nat Geo’s The Hot Zone, Sean Egan in Hulu’s The Path, Bobby O’Connor in TNT’s The Last Ship, and received an NAACP nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for Calvin Owens on ABC Family’s Greek as well as numerous guest stars. Paul appeared in the feature films Goldie, Unloveable, Spinning Into Butter, the Architect, and Cry_Wolf amongst others. He is also a visual artist working in the medium of collage. 

Paul Sloop is the Director of Programming at the Oscar-qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival, where he has been the Lead Programmer of Short Films since 2003.  He has also served as Director of Programming at Film Pittsburgh since 2018.  Paul lives in Mentor, OH with his wife of 24 years, Sarah Sloop who is a PA in trauma at the Cleveland Clinic's Hillcrest Hospital. He and Sarah are the proud parents of seven girls and one son.

Sean Pecknold is an award-winning animation filmmaker, director, and writer whose work spans short films, music videos, and commercials for clients including Fleet Foxes, John Legend, Netflix, DreamWorks, Google, and The New York Times. Based in Los Angeles, he co-runs Sing-Sing with production designer Adi Goodrich, creating visually inventive films known for their tactile craft, imaginative world-building, and emotional storytelling.

His latest animated short, TENNIS, ORANGES, premiered at SXSW Film Festival and has since screened at more than 190 festivals worldwide, including Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, AFI Fest, SITGES, and Raindance, winning 52 awards and earning a place on the 2025 Oscar longlist.

His previous animated short, FEATHERWEIGHT, received a 2022 Annie Award nomination and was recognized by Cartoon Brew, Vimeo Staff Picks, Motionographer, Animation World Network, and Animation Magazine. He is currently developing and directing an animated feature with the Oscar-winning production company Big Beach based on his original story.

Producer/writer Tara Hotchkis is a member of the producing team behind the 2026 Academy Award® Winning live action short film The Singers (Netflix), and a two-time Sundance alum. Her work has screened at leading festivals including Tribeca, SXSW, Clermont-Ferrand, Slamdance, Cleveland International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, HollyShorts, Indy Shorts, and Nashville, with multiple Oscar-qualifying festival awards. Hotchkis serves as a juror for the 2026 Salute Your Shorts Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Hotchkis is currently producing the feature dark comedy Ruthie Joins a Death Cult, starring Bashir Salahuddin, Michael Strassner, and Nina Concepción, and is the Executive Producer of Paper Pilots (Netflix/LFI), premiering at the 2026 Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival. Hotchkis also serves as a producer and writer on the upcoming queer television series And Also With You. Hotchkis holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, a BA from UC Irvine, and is a graduate of UCLA's Professional Screenwriting Program.

Tim is the editor of MovieMaker Magazine and moviemaker.com.

Timothy is an Emmy nominated cinematographer known for his timeless and evocative work. His philosophy behind the camera is to approach story first through cinematic engineering that brings striking visual aesthetic and empathy to the narrative. He loves pushing boundaries and experimenting in order to deliver something original, and celebrates filmmaking for it's demand for collaboration across all departments and artistry.

Recent honors include best cinematography at Salute your Shorts for his work on Kamikaze, and an Emmy nomination for 'The Politician' opening title sequence. He recently worked on the two time Emmy nominated series “Dear Mama” and the US portion of Charlie Brooker's "Cunk on Cinema." 

TREVOR JIMENEZ is currently a director at Pixar and previously spent over a decade in the story department on Finding Dory, Coco, Luca, and Soul (as Story Supervisor). His short film ‘Weekends’ was nominated for an Academy Award and won the 2019 Annie for best Animated Short, and both the jury and audience award at Annecy. Before Pixar he worked at several other studios including Blue Sky, Disney Feature Animation, Illumination & Henry Selick’s unfinished film 'The Shadow King'. Trevor is originally from Canada but now resides in Berkeley, CA.

Named one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch, Valerie Steinberg is an LA-based producer known for championing bold, original voices. Credits include "Karmalink" (Venice), "War Pony" (Cannes Caméra d’Or winner), A24’s "The Inspection" (TIFF), "Queens of the Dead" (Tribeca audience winner, Shudder/IFC), and "Esta Isla" (2026 Independent Spirit Cassavetes award winner). Her award-winning shorts—"Hair Wolf," "Fry Day," “Blocks,” “The Breakthrough," "Fishmonger," and more—have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and more, and are streaming on Criterion, HBO Max, and Hulu. She executive produced Disney’s "Bite Size Halloween" for Hulu, overseeing 21 genre shorts globally. 

Valerie has participated in labs including Berlinale Talents, Sundance x Women in Film Financing Intensive, Rotterdam Lab, Venice Biennale College, Frontières, Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum, and Film Independent Producing Lab and Fast Track. Valerie graduated from Yale with a degree in Philosophy and Chinese.

Warren Etheredge is a film maker, educator, and programmer. He is the Artistic Director & Co-founder of the Walla Walla Movie Crush, lead programmer for the Summer Shorts Film Festival, and shorts programmer for The Seattle Jewish Film Festival. He’s conducted over 4,000 interviews. 

Warren directed the short doc, AS YOU WERE, slated to premiere early 2027. He wrote and produced DOWNWIND (d. Mark Shapiro, Douglas Brian Miller), narrated by Martin Sheen. Producer credits include PERSONHOOD (d. Jo Ardinger), FUREVER (d. Amy Finkel), ALL OF THEM (d. Sylvia Sichel), THE PHANTOM 52 (d. Geoff Marslett), LAST REQUESTS (d. Courtenay Johnson), THE LOST MARINER (d. Tess Martin), EVEN THE WALLS (d. Saman Maydani & Sarah Kuck). 

He teaches screenwriting/filmmaking at the University of Washington and lectures at films schools across the country. He is one of the founding faculty of The Red Badge Project, teaching combat veterans storytelling skills to cope with PTS. He has hosted multiple television series including the Emmy®-nominated The High Bar. 

Zegan Doyle (they/them) is a writer, director, and film programmer. They wrote and directed "The Warmth of an Empty Teacup" which premiered at OutfestNEXT. Zegan is the founder of AQUA Film Club, a virtual film club dedicated to showcasing queer underground cinema. They are an Associate Programmer for SXSW and the Lead Programmer for the Film Independent Artist Development Showcase.