2019 AWARD WINNERS

Best Canadian Feature Film Winner

The Hottest August

Brett Story

Best Canadian Short Winner

Biidaaban (the dawn comes)

Amanda Strong

poster-biidaaban

Best International Feature Winner

Mossville

Alexander John Glustrom

Mark Haslam Award Winner

Zagros

Shahab Mihandoust & Ariane Lorrain

Best International Short Winner

Plantae

Guilherme Gehr

Industry Conference Green Pitch Winner

Eulogy for the Dead Sea

Polina Teif

2019 JURIES

Best Canadian Feature Jury 

Ana Serrano

Chief Digital Officer, CFC

Ana Serrano is the Chief Digital Officer of the CFC and Founder of CFC Media Lab, the world-renowned and award-winning institute for interactive storytelling created in 1997. With her visionary direction and digitally-forward approach to organizational growth, Serrano is driving the digital transformation of the CFC into a unique blend of talent, product and company accelerator and creative production house. She continually evolves the CFC’s programs as digital media demand new approaches – from the early exploration of web-based storytelling to today’s world of audience-driven multiplatform entertainment.

Alison Zemell

Reel Canada

Alison Zemell is the Administrative & Programming Director for REEL CANADA, an organization that brings festivals of Canadian film to high schools across the country, as well as organizes National Canadian Film Day. In her role since 2011, she constantly watches new Canadian films. Previously she worked at TIFF and CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival after having worked in film production. Alison holds a Master’s in Film from Birkbeck University of London.

Marc Glassman

Programmer

Marc Glassman wears many hats in the Toronto cultural scene. The recipient of the Toronto Arts Award in literature in 2000 and the Tom Berner Prize for support of independent filmmaking in 2003, he is an editor, film programmer, writer, broadcaster, an instructor at Ryerson University’s Masters of Fine Arts in Documentary Media programme and the Artistic Director of This is Not a Reading Series, a multi-disciplinary project that explores the creative process in literature. Marc is the Editor-in-chief of POV (Point of View) Canada’s leading periodical on documentary culture.

Best International Feature Film Jury

Juliana Paniagua

Artistic Director, Festiver Eco Festival

Producer, artistic director, fashion designer at LaSalle College, image consultant at the Marangoni Institute in Milan, special effects makeup artist for film with a background in Production Design and founder of Festiver. She has designed costumes for cinema and theater, and participated in the Circle of Fashion with a film costumes project inspired by gore cinema.

Gilad Cohen

Executive Director & Found, JAYU

Gilad Cohen is an artist, human rights advocate and founder of JAYU, a charity committed to sharing human rights stories through the arts. JAYU’s annual programming includes iAM – an initiative that empowers and trains underserved youth through the arts as well as The Human Rights Film Festival. Gilad has been actively involved in the human rights scene since 2006. In 2015, he was selected as a Rothschild Fellow through The University of Cambridge in the UK, as well as a fellow with the Toronto Arts Council Leaders Lab in 2017. He is currently the co-host of The Hum, a human rights podcast.

Natalia Sterlikova

Distributor, F3 Media

Natalia Sterlikova started her career in film development and production in 2004 and moved into TV distribution in 2011 when she began working for Digital Rights Group (DRG). After 3 years with DRG, Natalia made the move to All3Media International where she became Format Sales Executive looking after CEE and the Middle East working on projects like Gogglebox and Undercover Boss. Read More

In 2015 she moved to the position of Director of Sales for CEE, Russia & CIS at FremantleMedia International looking after brands like Jamie Oliver, Got Talent and scripted content such as the Young Pope. After 2 years with Fremantle, Sterlikova set up F3 Media,  a consultancy firm specializing in the distribution of Formats, Documentary and Feature Films  to Central & Eastern Europe. Working with a wide variety of content from companies such as Rabbit Films (Finland), Magnify Media (United Kingdom) and IRIS Films (US). 

Best Canadian Short Film Jury

Adriana Chartrand

Institute Manager at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

Adriana Chartrand is the Institute Manager at imagineNATIVE. She has a B.A. and an M.A. in Film Studies and an Arts Administration & Cultural Management diploma. Previously, she worked within the social services community and more recently she has pre-screened short films for TIFF. Born and raised in Winnipeg, MB., she is Salteaux-Métis from the Red River region, Treaty 1 territory, and Irish/Scottish/Welsh/French.

Kate Petriw

Marketing Manager, Pure + Simple

Kate Petriw leads Marketing Strategy at Pure + Simple, an eco-conscious skincare spa (voted #1 facial in the city). All of their products and facials are non-toxic, and based on holistic Ayurvedic principles. Her background in marketing and advertising spans 15 years, having worked in communications in New York as well as Paris. She also also handles marketing for Extinction Rebellion (Toronto chapter), and is the co-author of the globe and mail bestselling book Let That Sh*t Go.

Farhan Umedaly

Winner Best Canadian Short 2018

Farhan Umedaly is a filmmaker with a background in neurobiology, renewable energy and as a multi-instrumentalist music producer with over 19 years of experience in digital audio and video production. Farhan started VoVo Productions in 2009, with the original premise of producing videos and digital media to help explain complex subjects through turnkey video productions using his diverse background. Behind VoVo Productions’ work is Farhan’s vision to help create positive change in the world.

Best International Short Film Jury

Stavroula Logothettis

Acting Executive Producer, TRT World

Stravroula has 35 years of media experience in both on and off-camera roles. She has played various roles in film and television, including a supporting role in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) and has as a director, producer, EP, writer and presenter with programs such as AJ Eats. Stavroula has been with TRT World for 2 years as Senior Producer, acting EP and the host of In the Loop, a round table show that brings journalists together to discuss the personal journeys behind the stories they cover. Her latest series for TRT World Life in Ruins will follow female aid workers on the frontline.

Eric Daniel Metzgar

Winner Best International Short 2018

Eric is a two-time Emmy Award nominated filmmaker and fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program. He directed, shot and edited Reporter (2009), about New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof, which premiered at Sundance, aired on HBO, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Long-form Programming, and the International Film Award by Cinema for Peace. He also directed, shot and edited Life.Support.Music. (2008) which was broadcast on POV, and The Chances of The World Changing (2006) Read More

which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and broadcast on POV. Metzgar also works as an editor, having recently cut Crime + Punishment (Sundance 2018, Special Jury Award for Social Impact), as well as Give Up Tomorrow (Emmy-nominated), High Tech Low Life, Thank You for Playing (Emmy winner), and Almost Sunrise.

Ravi de Costa

Planet in Focus Board Member

I originally came to Canada from Australia to take up a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster University. Prior to joining FES in 2007, I also taught at Trent University in the Department of Political Studies. My research and teaching interests are in comparative and global approaches to the legacies of colonialism and Indigenous politics. My PhD dissertation was a comparative study of treaty-making in Canada and reconciliation in Australia. Read More

During my postdoctoral work I  broadened my research to include Indigenous politics beyond the nation-state and to examine Indigenous peoples’ activism both in transnational networks and in global institutions. My current projects include collaborative work on Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission as well as research that examines the conflicts and alliances between Indigenous communities and environmental actors.

Mark Haslam Award Jury

Julian Carrington

Planet in Focus Programmer

Julian Carrington is a freelance writer and film programmer based in Toronto. He has contributed to publications including The Globe & Mail, Indiewire, and Cinema Scope, and, in 2014, served as a programming associate with the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2015, he became manger of the Documentary Organization of Canada’s Festival Concierge initiative, supporting filmmakers in developing distribution and audience engagement strategies. Julian joined Planet in Focus as the festival’s associate programmer in 2016.

Lesley Johnson

Planet in Focus Programmer

Lesley Johnson is a director, producer and programmer, based in Toronto and Yellowknife. She studied Film Production in York University’s MFA program, and holds degrees in wildlife and environmental sciences. Before becoming a filmmaker, she worked in community-based research in the Northwest Territories, and on studies chasing after the likes of terns and wolverines. She is the former director and programmer of the Yellowknife International Film Festival, and of a Cinema Politica chapter.