Narrative Jury
The Narrative Jury bestows the award for Best Narrative Feature Film and Best Narrative Short Film.
Geralyn Dreyfous
Geralyn Dreyfous has a wide, distinguished background in the arts and participates on numerous boards and initiatives.
She is the founder of the Utah Film Center and co-founder of Impact Partners Film Fund with Dan Cogan. In 2013, Geralyn co-founded Gamechanger Films, a film fund dedicated to women directors.
Her independent producing credits include the Academy Award-winning BORN INTO BROTHELS; the Emmy-nominated THE DAY MY GOD DIED; Academy Award nominees THE SQUARE and THE INVISIBLE WAR; and multiple film festival winners.
Geralyn was honored with the IDA’s 2013 Amicus Award for her significant contribution to documentary filmmaking. Variety recognized Geralyn in their 2014 Women’s Impact Report, highlighting her work in the entertainment industry.
Ebon Moss Bachrach
Ebon Moss-Bachrach is an actor whose film credits include LOLA VERSUS, HIGHER GROUND, EVENING, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, THE BELIEVER, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, TOKYO PROJECT, and MONA LISA SMILE, among many others.
Moss-Bachrach is now filming the new AMC show NOS4A2, and starred in the hit Netflix/Marvel series The Punisher. He was a series regular on HBO’s Girls. Other TV roles included TNT’s The Last Ship; Believe, the J.J. Abrams drama on NBC; FX’s Damages; and the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries John Adams.
On stage, Moss-Bachrach played opposite Amy Irving in the Guild Hall production of The Glass Menagerie (directed by Harris Yulin), and starred in Lost Girls at MCC Theater, in Verite at LCT3, and in Three Sisters (CSC). Other stage work includes Christopher Shinn’s On the Mountain (Playwright’s Horizons), Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July (Signature Theatre), Naiomi Iizuka’s 36 Views (Public Theater), and Daisy Foote’s When They Speak of Rita (directed by Horton Foote, Primary Stages).
Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Moss-Bachrach is a graduate of Columbia University. He resides in New York with his girlfriend and two daughters.
Linus Sandgren, FSF
Linus Sandgren is an acclaimed Director of Photography who previously collaborated with Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling on LA LA LAND, for which he won an Academy Award® for Best Achievement in Cinematography.
Prior to LA LA LAND, the Swedish cinematographer worked with David O. Russell on his critically acclaimed films JOY and AMERICAN HUSTLE, and with Gus Van Sant on PROMISED LAND.
Sandgren is an advocate for celluloid film, and his latest film FIRST MAN (HIFF 2018 Saturday Centerpiece) is photographed in 16mm, 35mm and 70mm IMAX.
Documentary Jury
The Documentary Jury bestows the award for Best Documentary Feature Film and Best Documentary Short Film.
Rory Kennedy
Credit: Lyndie Benson
Rory Kennedy is one of America’s most prolific documentary filmmakers.
An Academy Award-nominated, Primetime Emmy Award-winning director/producer, Kennedy’s work deals with some of the world’s most pressing issues including poverty, political corruption, domestic abuse, drug addiction, human rights, mental illness.
Kennedy has made more than 30 highly acclaimed documentaries, including TAKE EVERY WAVE (2017), LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM (2014, Academy Award nomination), ETHEL (2012), and GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB (2007). Two documentaries she produced also received Academy Award nominations: STREET FIGHT (2009) and KILLING IN THE NAME (2011).
Kennedy’s films have appeared on HBO, PBS, Lifetime Television, A&E, Court TV, The Oxygen Network, and TLC.
Kennedy is a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and the cofounder of Moxie Firecracker Film. A committed activist, Kennedy continues to fight for social justice and human rights.
Jamie Patricof
Jamie Patricof produces auteur-driven narrative features and television, documentaries and digital content, including most recently the Netflix original film THE AFTER PARTY, written and directed by Ian Edelman and starring the rapper Kyle.
Other narrative features include THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE, starring Jessica Chastain; CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, starring Viggo Mortensen, who was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe; THE ACCOUNTANT, starring Ben Affleck; Tim Burton’s BIG EYES, starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz; Derek Cianfrance’s THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes; Cianfrance’s BLUE VALENTINE, for which Ryan Gosling was nominated for a Golden Globe and Michelle Williams was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar; and finally HALF NELSON, also starring Gosling.
Additionally, Patricof has earned both a Peabody Award and an Emmy for documentary producing.
Alissa Wilkinson
Alissa Wilkinson joined Vox in 2016 as a staff writer and film critic. Before Vox, she spent a decade writing criticism and essays for a wide variety of publications, including Rolling Stone, Vulture, RogerEbert.com, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Pacific Standard, Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Paste, and many more.
Alissa has appeared as a commentator on radio and TV programs including BBC America’s Talking Movies, NPR’s On Point, AMC’s James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, WNYC’s The Takeaway, ABC (Australia)’s Religion & Ethics and The Drum, Mars Hill Audio Journal, and many more.
Alissa is also an associate professor of English and humanities at The King’s College in Manhattan, where she teaches criticism, film studies, and cultural theory. She’s a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and was a 2017-2018 critics fellow with the Sundance Institute’s Art of Nonfiction initiative.
Alissa holds an MA in humanities from New York University and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Seattle Pacific University. She lives in Brooklyn.
