ShortFest 2021 Awards and Jury

Best of the Festival Award

Unforgivable (El Salvador), Directed by Marlén Viñayo

Special Mention: Palma (France), Directed by Alexe Poukine

Best Animated Short

Step Into the River (China), Directed by Weijia Ma

Special Mention: Navozande, the Musician (France), Directed by Reza Riahi

Best Documentary Short

The Queen of Basketball (USA), Directed by Ben Proudfoot

Special Mention: The Interview (USA), Directed by Jon Miller and Zach Russo

Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes

The Criminals (France/Romania/Turkey), Directed by Serhat Karassian

Special Mention: The Girls Who Burned the Night (Saudi Arabia), Directed by Sara Mesfer

Best Live-Action Short 15 Minutes and Under

The Mohel (Canada), Directed by Charles Wahl

Special Mention: Aly (France), Directed by Thomas Wood

Special Mention: The Long Goodbye (UK), Directed by Aneil Karia

Best International Short

Howling (Belgium), Directed by Laura Van Haecke

Best U.S. Short

Inheritance (USA), Directed by Annalise Lockhart

Special Mention: Please Hold (USA), Directed by KD Dávila

Local Jury Award

Dying In Your Mother’s Arms (USA), Directed by John Beder

Special Mention: Don vs Lightning (UK), Directed by Big Red Button

Young Cineastes Award

Americanized (USA), Directed by Erica Eng

Special Mention: Little Bear (France), Directed by Nicolas Birkenstock

Best Student Animation

Love Is Just a Death Away (Czech Republic), Directed by Bára Anna Stejskalová

Special Mention: Misery Loves Company (South Korea/USA), Directed by Sasha Lee

Best Student Documentary

The Void Inside (Germany/Iran), Directed by Julian Dietrich

Special Mention: Joychild (USA), Directed by Aurora Brachman

Best Student International Short

Her Dance (Israel), Directed by Bar Cohen

Best Student U.S. Short

El Clásico (Mexico), Directed by Joel Vázquez Cárdenas

Special Mention: Fourth of July (USA), Directed by Major Dorfman

Best Comedy Short

Break In (USA), Directed by Alyssa Lerner

Special Mention: Snowy (USA), Directed by Kaitlyn Schwalje and Alex Wolf Lewis

Best LGBT+ Short

Eggshells (Bulgaria), Directed by Slava Doytcheva

Special Mention: F1-100 (USA/Malaysia), Directed by Emory Chao Johnson

Best Midnight Short

Night Bus (Taiwan), Directed by Joe Hsieh

Special Mention: Night of the Living Dicks (Finland/Denmark), Directed by Ilja Rautsi

Vimeo Staff Pick Award

The Nannies (Denmark), Directed by Signe Barvild Staehr

Watch THE NANNIES on Vimeo HERE

MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award

A Broken House (USA/Lebanon), Directed by Jimmy Goldblum

Special Mention: Bambirak (Germany/USA), Directed by Zamarin Wahdat

Special Mention: On My Way (Belgium), Directed by Sonam Larcin

To watch available video statements from the award winners, CLICK HERE

Best of the Festival Award

Bérangère Mc Neese is a Belgian and American actor and director. Her acting career begins in Brussels as a child. She since then has played in various French and Belgian feature films (“Eyjafjallajokull”, “Belle comme la femme d’un autre”), short films and TV series. In 2017, she was one if the two leads in “The Rape” by Alain Tasma (France 3), then starred in many TV series: “Like Moi (France 4), “Le roi de la vanne” (Canal+), and HPI (TF1), to name but a few. She also starred in various features such as “Photo de famille” by Cécilia Rouaud, “Noise” by Jeremy Laval, and shorts such as “Air Comprimé” by Antoine Giorgini (selected at the 2019 French Cesars) and “Nique Verlaine” by Viktor Milletic. She was recently awarded with a Best Actor award for her performance in Emma Semeria’s short film “June/July”. In 2015, she wrote, directed and produced her first short-film, “The sleep of the amazons” which has since travelled and received awards across the world. Her second film, “Pure Bodies”, followed the same path and was presented at the Palm Springs Festival. “Matriochkas”, her third film, won the Best of the festival award during the 2020 Palm Springs Filmfest edition. She currently lives and works between Paris and Brussels.

Ania Trzebiatowska is a feature film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, she was a Sales & Acquisitions Executive for the doc sales agency, Autlook Filmsales. Prior to that she was with the NYC-based agency, Visit Films, where she served as the Senior Director of Acquisitions since 2015.

Best Animated Short

Chance Huskey is from Nashville, Tennessee and received his B.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University. Now the Director of Distribution at GKIDS, he has overseen theatrical releases for numerous international animated features, including Mamoru Hosoda's MIRAI, Makoto Shinkai's WEATHERING WITH YOU and Cartoon Saloon's WOLFWALKERS, which was nominated for best animated feature at the 2021 Academy Awards. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Josephine Lohoar Self is a British Writer and Director working predominately in stop motion animation. Josephine's short film 'The Fabric of You', was longlisted for Best Animated Short at the 2021 OSCARS and nominated for a Scottish BAFTA. Currently based in Berlin, Josephine is developing her next animated film with support from the British Film Institute. She is represented by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates for Film and Television and Cardel Entertainment for Commercials & Music Videos. Josephine is an alumnus to the 2020 Berlinale Talents programme at The Berlin International Film Festival.

Julia Pistor has over twenty years of leadership in family entertainment with a background that spans Films, TV, and Digital. As an executive, Julia spent over 12 years at Viacom running the award-winning family feature division, Nickelodeon Movies, producing numerous films including The SpongeBob movie, The Rugrats films, Nacho Libre, The Series of Unfortunate Events, and Jimmy Neutron. Julia runs her own production company and is currently
producing The Magician’s Elephant for Netflix and Executive Producing a slate of animated programming for Great Wolf Lodge. Julia is a member of AMPAS, The PGA, Women in Animation and The Television Academy.

Best Documentary Short

Samah Ali is a distributor and film programmer based in Toronto and NYC. A lover of documentaries and virtual reality, she programs for Academy Award qualifying festivals Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, DOC NYC, and Hot Docs Film Festival. She is also the founder of Sisterhood Media, a production and distribution company streaming films on their platform, Sisterhood Media TV. You can interact with her on Twitter @sistersamah.

Doug Hawes-Davis co-founded High Plains Films 1992. Since then, he has created more than 30 documentaries. His most recent feature documentary, ALL THE LABOR, premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. His film, FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON, a co-production of ITVS and Montana Public Television, was broadcast on the national PBS series, Independent Lens. FACING THE STORM won the NW Regional Emmy for Topical Documentary the same year. His documentary feature LIBBY, MONTANA was broadcast nationally on the acclaimed PBS Series, POV, and was nominated for a National Emmy Award the following year. Other well-known High Plains Films include, BRAVE NEW WEST, KILLING COYOTE, VARMINTS, THIS IS NOWHERE, and THE NATURALIST. Hawes-Davis has also worked extensively as free-lance camera operator, producer, director, and editor, assisting with documentaries, television, web video, and non-profit/corporate video production. Hawes-Davis is the founder of the annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The festival is an Academy qualifying event for the Documentary Short Oscar category and is consistently recognized as one of the world’s finest documentary cinema events. Additionally, Hawes-Davis has taught filmmaking at the University of Montana and in the Colorado College Film & Media Studies Program. He is currently in-production on a feature documentary concerning global insect decline, which scientists are calling the “insect apocalypse.” He is also the producer of THE MONTANA EXPERIENCE: STORIES FROM BIG SKY COUNTRY, a youtube channel dedicated entirely to stories about the great state of Montana.  

Lindy Leong is the Senior Film Programmer at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, the first non-profit organization in the nation dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayal of the Asian Pacific American peoples, communities, and heritage through the media arts. In her other professional lives, she is a film and media educator, arts administrator, and audiovisual archivist. She co-chairs the annual conference for the Association of Moving Image Archivists, a nonprofit international association dedicated to the preservation and use of moving image media.

Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes

Kentucker Audley is a filmmaker, actor, and programmer. His latest film Strawberry Mansion debuted at SXSW to critical acclaim. His previous film Sylvio was named one of the Best 10 Movies of 2017 by The New Yorker. As an actor, he recently starred in Amy Seimetz's psychologically thriller She Dies Tomorrow distributed by Neon. He founded NoBudge, "one of the best places to sample what’s happening in low-budget cinema worldwide" (The New York Times) and Movies Brand. NoBudge was profiled in The New York Times, The Guardian and Vulture. Audley lives in Brooklyn with his wife Caroline.

Inbar Horesh is an Israeli writer&director. She studied cinema at Minshar School of Arts in Tel Aviv, where she currently teaches film directing. She directed several shorts, among them her graduation film, THE VISIT, that premiered at the 67th Cannes Film Festival and won multiple international awards and BIRTH RIGHT that won the Best Short Film Over 15 Minutes Award at the 2020 Palm Springs ShortFest. Inbar is currently developing her first feature film BIRTH RIGHT at the Cannes Film Festival Residence in Paris and is creating a drama series for the the Israeli TV.

Angelique Jackson is a film and media reporter for Variety, based in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Variety, she worked as a producer for Entertainment Tonight, winning three Daytime Emmy awards for her work. She is a graduate of Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia.

Best Live-Action Short 15 Minutes & Under

Marja Bål Nango is a Sámi film director, scriptwriter, and producer from Norway. She studied directing at Nordland College of Art and Film and producing at Sámi University. Her latest short film The Tongues won Best International Short Film at Palm Springs Shortfest 2020, Best Director at Rhode Island Film Festival in 2020 and Best Live Action Short at Academy-qualifying ImagineNative Film Festival 2020. Marja and co-writer Ingir Bål Nango are in development of their first feature film together –I love my Guođoheaddji. Marja is Merata Mita Fellow at Sundance Film Festival 2021.

Kari Kim | Vice President of Animation Development, Nickelodeon

Shelagh Rowan-Legg is a writer and filmmaker. She is the Executive Director of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, a Programmer for FrightFest, and Contributing Editor for ScreenAnarchy. She has made several award-winning short films with her company Thirteenth Tiger Films, as well as working as a script and festival consultant.

Best International Short

Ingir Bål Nango is a scriptwriter,from a Sámi reindeer husbandary family in North Norway. She studied creative writing for children and young adults at the Norwegian Book institute for children. Her latest short film The Tongues won Best International Short Film at Palm Springs Shortfest 2020, Best Director at Rhode Island Film Festival in 2020 and Best Live Action Short at Academy-qualifying ImagineNative Film Festival 2020. Ingir and co-writer Marja Bål Nango are in development of their first feature film together –Ilove my Guođoheaddji.

Jaie Laplante has led Miami Film Festival, since 2010, as Executive Director through a period of international growth and change. In 2018, he received the decoration Knight’s Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica from Felipe VI, King of Spain, for his career work in bringing contemporary Spanish cinema to the state of Florida. In 2017, he was named one of 25 Knight Champions by The John S. & James L. Knight Foundation. He has worked on numerous independent productions and developed screenplays, and received an Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Genie Award nomination for writing.

Amanda Salazar is the Head of Programming and Acquisitions at Argo. She is also the Programmer at the Northwest Film Forum, a two screen arthouse in Seattle and the co-Director of Camera Obscura, a pop-up cinema and event that celebrates experimental cinema. Previously she was a Programmer with SFFILM and before that, the VP of Acquisitions at Fandor. She has guest programmed at Oak Cliff Film Festival, Sonoma Film Festival, and was the Director of Programming at Newport Beach Film Festival and she currently prescreens for Sundance.

Best U.S. Short

Mimi Brody is an independent film programmer/curator focusing on documentaries, world cinema, and repertory/archival films. Current and former organizations include the Tribeca Film Festival, the California Film Institute/Mill Valley Film Festival, American Film Institute, the San Francisco International Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, UCLA Film &Television Archive, and several other institutions.

Greta Hagen-Richardson is a programmer and producer with a decade of experience in the industry. As a programmer, she works to elevate the contributions of storytellers working outside the traditional industry. Currently, Hagen-Richardson is the Director of Programming at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and the Lead Features Programmer at the New Orleans Film Festival. In 2020, she participated in Project Involve at Film Independent as a Creative Executive Fellow. She is currently producing the short, Pearl & Henry, and the feature, Long Eye with director Gibrey Allen.

Logan Jackson is an American film director, producer, and writer. Originally from New Orleans LA, He has directed, written and produced numerous short films. His latest short film "My Hero" went on to win Best United States Short Film at the Palm Springs ShortFest 2020 as well as numerous other awards, it has also been selected in multiple Oscar qualifying festivals and is still on the festival circuit as of 2021. Often Logan Jackson has been praised for his passion and work ethic which has become a staple within his art.

Best Comedy Short

Five years ago, Tim Gray was on his way to Austin with his car packed with everything he owned and his sights set on attaining a degree in film from the University of Texas. While in college, he was able to intern with the film department at Austin Film Festival. After spending a year after graduation bouncing between productions, he found his way back to the festival he loved in a new role as the shorts programmer.If he is not watching shorts, you can find Tim exploring one of the many parks around Austin or sleeping in his hammock.

Sarah Winshall is an independent producer championing personal films with unique worldviews. Feature films include CLARA’S GHOST, ¡LAS SANDINISTAS!, WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR, and STRAWBERRY MANSION. She has also produced several shorts that have played at Sundance, SXSW, P.S. ShortFest, AFI Fest, Aspen ShortsFest, Outfest, Rotterdam, BAM Cinemafest, MoMA, and on the Criterion Channel. Sarah received a BA in cinema studies from New York University and a Master’s Degree in media studies from The New School.

Best LGBT+ Short

Mey Rude is a writer and entertainment journalist who has been working in LGBTQ+ media for nearly a decade and currently writes for Out Magazine and the Advocate. She also has written for Autostraddle, Buzzfeed, Them.us, and more, and works as an Authenticity and Sensitivity Reader consulting on books, scripts, and media with transgender characters. She is a trans woman, a Latina, a lesbian, and lives in Los Angeles with her girlfriend Daisy.

Brighid Wheeler has been (willingly) held captive in the festival world for most of her adult life. Having run the gamut from volunteer to THE ‘Queen B’ (nickname as Festival Coordinator), she's currently the Senior Programmer for Indie Memphis. Outside of the festival, you’ll find her mentoring, guiding & encouraging the filmmakers in Memphis. She attributes this as her main source of inspiration & what drives her work at Indie Memphis. Brighid has served on countless juries at festivals across the country&considers each experience an honor as it allows her the opportunity to support the current and next-generation storytellers.

Best Midnight Short

Radhika Apte is an actor, writer, and director. She began her acting career in theatre and now has worked as a lead actor in feature films across international industries. She won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival in the international narrative feature film category. She was also nominated for an international Emmy Award for Best actress. Her directorial debut short film won the best midnight short award at the Palm spring International Short Film Festival.

Roxanne Benjamin is a filmmaker of genre film and television, known for working in the anthology space on titles like the V/H/S franchise (producer 1-3), SOUTHBOUND (producer/writer/director) XX (producer/writer/director) and the recent CREEPSHOW television series (director). Other television directing credits include CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, RIVERDALE, and NANCY DREW. Benjamin worked in development, acquisitions, and production for over a decade as an executive before moving into producing, directing and writing full-time. Her most recent feature BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK was released in 2019 by Magnolia Pictures. She’s currently working on her next feature, the supernatural thriller ‘HIDE!’

Rachel Walker has worked in the film industry for 15+ years in programming, press, producing and publicity with organizations like Comic-Con, Sundance Film Festival, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and more. Among the films she has produced, her most recent, DEEP TISSUE, (dir Meredith Alloway) premiered at SXSW 2019 and went on to play 30+ festivals including AFI, BIFAN, Overlook, Palm Springs, and Denver, winning a number of awards.The past few years, she has taken a detour into the realm of programming full time for Alamo Drafthouse LA/Alamo on Demand, and producing immersive events with her company Interwoven Immersive.

Best Student Animated Short and Best Student Documentary Short

Emily Apter is a curator, archivist, and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She works as a Cinema Programmer and Development Associate at the Maysles Documentary Center, a nonprofit micro-cinema and education center founded by Albert Maysles. She previously worked as the Assistant Director/Curator at the NYC Film-Makers’ Cooperative, where she assisted with the distribution, archiving, and curation of their collection of 16mm experimental films. Emily is a graduate of Wesleyan University’s Film Studies program. Image-making,
archives, labor, and landscape are core themes of her work.

Daniel Wineman | Senior Director, Development at Nickelodeon Animation Studios

Best Student International Short

Doug Jones got his first job in film — shoveling popcorn behind a candy stand — when he was 14. Since then, Jones has programmed films at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival, where he served as Associate Director of Programming. A founding member of the nominations committee for the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking and a multi-year screener for SXSW, Jones has also written for publications like Indiewire, Twitch and Film Comment. He is currently Executive Director of Images Cinema, a nonprofit art house in Williamstown, MA.

Julietta Korbel was born in 1996 in Frankfurt, Germany. From Swiss and Slovakian origin she received her degree in 2019 at École cantonale d'Art de Lausanne, cinema department. She since develops film projects in Switzerland. Her film "Still Working" won last year's Best Student International Short at Palm Springs.

Megan Leonard is a producer and festival programmer based in Seattle, WA. She started working for film festivals in 2010 and is currently the head Programmer for New American Cinema and ShortsFest at Seattle International Film Festival. She has also programmed for Indie Memphis, DOC NYC, and Cucalorus. Leonard has produced multiple award-winning shorts which have premiered at festivals around the globe, including her film "Mixtape Marauders" which was awarded Short of the Week’s 2019 Best Comedy of the Year. She attended the 2019 Sundance Creative Producing Summit and 2020 Sundance Talent Forum with the feature adaptation.

Best Student U.S. Short

Carlos Aguilar | Originally from Mexico City, Carlos Aguilar was chosen as one of 6 young film critics to partake in the first Roger Ebert Fellowship organized by RogerEbert.com, the Sundance Institute and Indiewire in 2014. Aguilar’s work has appeared in prestigious publications such as Los Angeles Times, Variety, The New York Times, The Wrap, Indiewire, Vulture, RogerEbert.com, MovieMaker Magazine, Remezcla, Filmmaker Magazine, Slate, Bustle, Americas Quarterly, among others. He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).

Christina Routhier is the Executive Director of Theaters and Festivals for the Savannah College of Art and Design. Routhier currently oversees the programming, production, and management of the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, Trustees Theater, SCAD Savannah Film Festival (Savannah,GA) and SCAD a TVfest (Atlanta, GA). She has been a part of the theater and film industry in many capacities for over 21 years. She resides in Savannah, GA.

Yuan Yuan is a Chinese writer/director based in New York. She is currently a thesis MFA student at New York University, where she is named an Ang Lee Scholar and Spike Lee Production Fellow. Yuan’s short films have screened at numerous festivals worldwide, and won 'Grand Prize' at DGA Student Film Award, 'Best Student Film' at Aspen ShortsFest, 'Best Student Film' at Palm Springs, 'Grand Prize' at Rhode Island IFF, and 'Jury Prize' at Hong Kong International Film Festival. Currently, Yuan Yuan is working on her first feature script.

Local Jury Award

Tammi Cooper is a native New Yorker who traded the freezing temperatures, chaotic lifestyle, traffic jams and humidity for endless sunshine, palm trees, serenity and great hair days in magnificent Palm Springs. On her first day volunteering for the Palm Springs International Film Festival, she was hired permanently by Destination PSP, the official merchandising partner of the festival where she is the National Wholesale Sales Director. Prior to relocating to California, Tammi was an event planner in NYC and LA. She is a passionate world traveler and photographer. She’s happily married with a son in sports and the other in cinematography.

Deborah Glickman | Growing up in Santa Monica, I have always been a big fan of films. I hold both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Art History and have worked in the visual arts for nearly 30 years, including working in public art and at museums and auction houses. I have lived in the Coachella Valley for more than 18 years, and one of my favorite parts of living here is spending time at the film festivals where I have seen countless films. I am thrilled and honored to a part of the Short Film Festival this year.

Brielle Leon | My name is Brielle Leon and I have been a Coachella Valley local my whole life. I most recently worked in clinical research and am now entering my first year of medical school at the University of Southern California. In my free time I love to listen to music, play soccer, and, of course, watch movies and shorts! Attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Shortfest has brought me so many memories and friends over the past years and I’m so thankful to be participating as a local juror in this year’s festival.

Dr. Joseph Palacios (Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, Berkeley) is a Sociologist specializing in the intersection of culture, politics, and religion. He is a leader in the development of community-based learning and research programs.  He teaches Sociology at the College of the Desert and is Contributing Fellow at USC’s Center for Religion and Civic.  From 2015-20 he was Lecturer in Sociology and the NGO Practicum at USC. From 2001-13 he taught in Georgetown University’s Department of Sociology and Latin American Studies Program.  From 2011-13 he served as a consultant for HRL Labs on big data cultural trends in Latin America.

Xochitl Peña moved to the Coachella Valley 18 years ago from Michigan and prefers triple digit desert summers over freezing Midwest winters. She's been at Desert Water Agency for the past 3 years as an Outreach Specialist helping share DWA's message to employees, customers, community groups and the media. Prior to that she was an entertainment columnist at The Desert Sun newspaper helping cover all the major events across the valley.

MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award

Keely Badger is Executive Director of MOZAIK, a new millennial-led philanthropic organization committed to exploring and modeling new practices in philanthropy with disruptive, creative, and catalytic potential. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Keely leads the foundation’s strategic grantmaking, programs and community engagements, working with a range of nonprofit organizations in the local, national, and international advocacy space. As a millennial expert and advocate on international human rights and development issues, Keely pioneers’ durable solutions for underrepresented voices, communities and causes by working to democratize philanthropy through participatory grantmaking praxis.

Susan Morgan Cooper is a Director/Producer/ Writer, and her credits include: To the Moon and Back, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2016 (A cinematic act of love and courage’ … Broadway World) – Hopper [In his own words] Documentary, Producer/Writer 2013 (“I was moved to tears” Mike Medavoy) – Mulberry Child, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2012 (‘A powerful and touching film’… 31/2 stars. Roger Ebert) – An Unlikely Weapon [The Eddie Adams Story]..Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2008 ( ‘A terrific documentary’ The Hollywood Reporter) – Making Of Shadows in The Sun, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2005 – Heroes And Sheroes. Television Series, Director/Producer/Writer 2000 – Mirjana: One Girl’s Journey, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 1997 – Stringers, Narrative Short Director/Producer/Writer 1990 – Hadley’s Rebellion, Narrative Feature Associate Producer 1989

Hossein Jafarian is one of the leading cinematographers of Iranian cinema and an Academy Awards member that his work has been featured in prestigious film publications such as American Cinematographer. Hossein has shot over 50 feature length films over the course of the past four decades, films that have won much critical praise in international film festivals from Cannes to Berlin to the Academy Awards. His credits include collaborations with some of the masters of Iranian cinema, including Through the Olive Trees with Abbas Kiarostami, Crimson Gold with Jafar Panahi, Under The Skin of the City with Rakhshan Bani Etemad and most recently three films with Asghar Farhadi; Fireworks Wednesday, About Elly and the Oscar-winning The SalesmanHossein Jafarian is also an author of several books on filmmaking and cinematography.

Vladek Juszkiewicz | Born in Glogow, Poland. He graduated from the Szczecin Technical University with a degree in Engineering. While attending the University he became a member of The Szczecin Technical University Choir, serving as a President and manager of the group. His travels with the choir to 18 counties including United States where he visited the White House. When he moved to Warsaw, he became the manager of the Polish international star singer Maryla Rodowicz. After immigrating to the United States, he worked on 11 films with the late Paul Leder. In 1999 he founded the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles and served as a director till 2019. Now is serving as the Festival’s Programmer. Served on the juries of the Los Angeles Hungarian Film Festival, the Los Angeles South East European Film Festival, New York Polish Film Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival. Awarded by Polish Government with the Cavalier & Officer Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and Gloria Artis for promoting Polish culture abroad.

Farah Nabulsi | Filmmaker

Bijan Tehrani a film director, film critic and writer, works as Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders and CineEqual. Bijan has won several awards in international film festivals and book fairs for his short films and children’s books. He has been a film critic and historian writing over 4000 articles in the past five decades. Bijan has been a jury member in many international film festivals around the world and he has also organized several film festival and events. Bridging The Borders Award founded by Bijan fourteen years ago is now offered in ten film festivals, in the US, Germany, UK and Australia. 2021 marks the 15th anniversary of the Cinema Without Borders. For the tenth anniversary of Cinema Without Borders, Bijan had received Ambassador of International Cinema Award from South east European Film Festival, Friend of the Festival Award from Polish Film Festival, LA and Gateway to International Cinema Award from Hungarian Film festival. Bijan Tehrani is recently working on a screenplay for a feature films that he plans to direct himself.

2021 ShortFest Archive