Jurors

Best Short Documentary Jurors

Giovanna Morales
Giovanna Morales Vargas is a Colombian Canadian filmmaker whose work has travelled around the globe and has earned her multiple awards. Her latest feature film, A Perfect 14, is currently streaming on Prime Video making the platform’s top ten most watched documentaries in Canada for several weeks after its release. Giovanna is now in development for a docuseries and a feature doc both explored through the lens of feminism and pop culture.

JJ Neepin
JJ Neepin is an Indigenous writer & director based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is a member of the Fox Lake Cree Nation.
JJ is the founder of JJNeepinFilms INC. and has screened many of her works in festivals around the world.
She began her TV career directing for several documentaries including APTN’s Michif Country and Taken.
In 2022 JJ made the move from documentary to scripted television and directed an episode of CTV’s Hudson & Rex, season 5.

Francine Zuckerman
Francine Zuckerman and her company, Z films inc. has won numerous awards and been recognized at film festivals around the world.
Films include: HALF THE KINGDOM a co-production with the National Film Board; television documentary EXPOSURE: environmental links to breast cancer; a Canada/New Zealand feature co-production PUNCH ME IN THE STOMACH; the dramatic series THE ATWOOD STORIES; a feature documentary, WE ARE HERE; a short drama, MR. BERNSTEIN. Just completed a feature documentary AFTER MUNICH and in development on a dramatic series based on the celebrated writer Margaret Atwood’s first novel THE EDIBLE WOMAN and two feature documentaries a Canada/ France co-pro ALMA ROSE and Canada/New Zealand/ German co-pro A PLACE CALLED HOME.

Atlantic Filmmaker Award Jurors

Arshad Khan
Arshad Khan is an acclaimed Montreal-based filmmaker of Pakistani origin. He creates intersectional works that explore identity and sexuality in a way that is relatable across generational divides. Khan’s award-winning autobiographical documentary Abu (2017) has played at over 100 film festivals around the world. Always busy with set life, Khan has recently worked on two features: Queen of my Dreams (Tiff 23) and Mustache (SXSW 2023 audience award winner). Khan is currently developing his first scripted feature comedy and his first comedy series (part of the Reelworld screenwriting incubator 2022).

Bethan Mowat
Bethan has worked in the film and television industry as an assistant director for over 25 years, with the last eight as a First Assistant Director. She has worked on both Canadian and American productions in various countries including the US, China, Czech Republic, Morocco, South Africa as well as every province across Canada. She presently serves as the Chair of the Directors Guild of Canada Quebec Council.

Shane Smith
Shane Smith is a documentary consultant and festival strategist. From 2015- 2023 he was programming and artistic director at Hot Docs, North America’s largest Festival and Market for documentary film. Smith previously worked at the Toronto International Film Festival as the director of special projects, where he oversaw initiatives and events at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, including TIFF in the Park, Nuit Blanche, the digiPlaySpace traveling exhibition and Short Cuts programming for TIFF. Beforehand, he was the director of public programs at TIFF.

Best Canadian Documentary Jurors

Brishkay Ahmed
I crafted my storytelling practice through film production and screenwriting at New York University and the Iranian Young Cinema Society. This creative education is enriched with solid research and legal knowledge through a diploma in journalism and further supported through a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from Simon Fraser University.My latest feature, In The Rumbling Belly of Motherland, won the Outstanding Feature Award at the 2021 Reelworld Film Festival. It was also nominated for the DGC Allan King Excellence in Documentary Award. My latest short, Fatima In Kabul, was nominated for a 2021 Canadian Screen Award and a 2021 Banff Rockie Award. It won Best Short Documentary at the 2022 Leo Awards, too.

Ramin Azersam
Ramin Mohseni is an award-winning film director, writer and producer from Iran and Canada. He is known for his poetic feature film ‘From Afar’ (2006) which was a ‘Warrior Jaguar’ award winner for Best Film at Acapulco International Film Festival in Mexico. ‘Azerbaijan’ historical documentary series (2012), a popular TV magazine show ‘Iranian Cinema’ (2002-2006), that was covered the Iranian film industry, and ‘Persia and I’ (2023), a feature documentary about war and cinema are among his long portfolio. Ramin Mohseni is founder of Azersam Film & Media company based in B.C. that has various media content productions for Canadian and international audiences. He is currently working on his new feature film ‘Exile’ (2024), a docufiction that was filmed in France, Iran and Canada.

Noura Kevorkian
Lebanese-Syrian Noura Kevorkian’s debut was the award-winning VEILS UNCOVERED (Competition IDFA), followed by ANJAR (MED Rome), and the drama-doc hybrid 23 KILOMETRES (Competition Karlovy Vary). Kevorkian’s unparalleled BATATA (PEABODY AWARD, AMNESTY AWARD Durban, AUDIENCE AWARD Hot Docs) follows 10 years in the life of a Syrian refugee woman.

Best International Documentary Jurors

B Glick
B Glick is just your typical cancer-surviving disabled non-binary gay agnostic Jewish film sales entrepreneur. Their company GQue Films focuses on films by, about and for under-represented demographics. This year they launched a first of its kind film sales/distribution initiative for films from self identified disabled filmmakers.
B has spoken about creative approaches to distribution, accessibility & inclusion at festivals/markets around the world such as Sundance, European Film Market, SXSW, Outfest, Hot Docs, Bogota Audiovisual Market, and Doc Edge NZ.

Chris Metzler
Chris Metzler’s film career has taken him to some strange places as he has pursued making subculture documentaries on subjects as far ranging as rogue economists, lucha libre wrestlers, swamp rat hunters, ganja-preneurs, Black punk rockers, and evangelical Christian surfers. His award winning films include: PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA, EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE and RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE. He also serves as the Director of Programming for two irreverent film festivals, SF DocFest and SF IndieFest.

Krushan Naik
Based in Los Angeles, Krushan Naik is an award-winning Filmmaker with extensive experience in advertising from his time in India. He was the successful proprietor of an advertising agency where he collaborated with Bollywood celebrities and top artists in the film and fashion industries. Krushan is passionate about producing thought-provoking, emotionally moving, spiritually enhancing, and psychologically introspecting stories that captivate the audience. He is Avid and Adobe certified and enjoys creating immersive audio-visual experiences from hours of footage. Krushan has won multiple awards for his films, including the Telly Award, and has premiered films at prestigious film festivals, including Oscar®/Academy Award®, BAFTA, and Canadian Screen Award qualifying. In addition, he has served as the Head of Programming, taught film production and editing, and has been featured in various publications, including Variety, ShoutOut LA, Outclique, and Independent Streak Magazine. He holds a Master’s in Film & TV Production from Loyola Marymount University and a diploma in 3D Animation and VFX.

2023 Lunenburg Doc Fest

2023 Lunenburg Doc Fest