The Atlanta Film Festival 2025 Jury

Craig Zobel
Filmmaker

Craig Zobel recently executive produced and directed the first three episodes of THE PENGUIN with Colin Farrell for DC. Prior to that, he executive produced and directed every episode of HBO’s MARE OF EASTTOWN, starring Kate Winslet. His television work includes such shows as WESTWORLD, AMERICAN GODS, and ONE DOLLAR. His “International Assassin” episode of THE LEFTOVERS is a fan favorite. 

Zobel’s fourth film, THE HUNT, was produced by Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures. His first three features all premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. GREAT WORLD OF SOUND which played the 2007 Atlanta Film Festival, and won both the Narrative Grand Jury Prize and Grand Jury Award for Best Actor. The film also earned him Breakthrough Director honors at the Gotham Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards nominations for Best First Film and Best Supporting Actor.

Critically acclaimed COMPLIANCE, won a Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, a nomination at the Critic’s Choice Awards,and an Independent Spirit Award of Best Supporting Actress for Ann Dowd. Z FOR ZACHARIAH, starring Margot Robbie premiered in Sundance’s US Dramatic Competition, and was released by Roadside Attractions.  

Matt Grady
Film Producer & Distributer

Matt Grady is the founder of Factory 25, an independent film production and distribution company launched in 2009. Factory 25 is a home for conceptually provocative narratives and documentaries. Grady was named "One of the Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture,” by Brooklyn Magazine and
has been called "One of the most important curatorial voices of new, independent American films." His mission is to expose the world to under-the-radar films, music, and other curiosities theatrically and digitally, as well as on TV, VOD, VHS, vinyl LPs and books. Factory 25 titles include: Joel Potrykus’
Ape, This Closeness, Family Portrait, Sun Don’t Shine, Actual People, Ham on Rye, Other Music, All This Panic, MA, Sylvio, August at Akiko's, Uncle Kent 2, Stinking Heaven, Alex Ross Perry's The Color Wheel, All the Light in the Sky and the restoration of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film In
the Soup by Alexandre Rockwell which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival in 2018 . Grady also produced Joel Potrykus' Vulcanizadora, Nathan Silver’s Tribeca premiering The Great Pretender, Onur Tukel's Applesauce and Summer of Blood, Theodore Collatos & Carolina Monnerat's Queen of Lapa along with You Mean Everything to Me by Bryan Wizemann, and Inspector Ike by Graham Mason. Factory 25’s headquarters are located in Brooklyn, New York.

Amy Nicholson
Documentary Filmmaker & Commercial Director

​​Amy Nicholson is a New York-based filmmaker and commercial director whose projects often explore the essence of Americana with a humorous eye and a warm respect for her subjects. Nicholson has produced and directed three short films and three feature-length documentaries. Her projects have screened at Hot Docs, Dok Leipzig, Sheffield, BFI London, Full Frame, Camden, Rooftop, DOC NYC and the MoMA. Nicholson’s highly-awarded films have been nominated for Cinema Eye Honors and IDA Awards, selected for the New York Times’ Op Docs, and broadcast on Independent Lens.

Kiyoko McCrae
Program Director, Chicken & Egg Films

Kiyoko McCrae (she/her) is a documentary filmmaker and Program Director at Chicken & Egg Films where she strategizes and oversees its programs and partnerships. Previously, she was Director of Documentary Programming and Filmmaker Labs at the New Orleans Film Society. She has served on pitch panels for Camden, Big Sky, IDFA, CPH:DOX. She has reviewed projects for NEA, ITVS, BAVC Media, Sheffield MeetMarket, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and has been a speaker at IDA Getting Real, Cannes Docs, The Gotham, Palm Springs Int’l ShortFest, Hot Springs. Her films have screened at AFI Docs, Calgary, Hot Springs, Flickers Rhode Island, IndieMemphis, Cucalorus, Milwaukee and have been supported by CAAM, Firelight Media, Reel South, World Channel, Southern Documentary Fund. Recently, she executive produced Hold Me Close (Sundance), Tessitura (Big Sky) and The People Could Fly (Blackstar). She is a 2018 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, a 2020 John O’Neal Cultural Arts Fellow, a 2023 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader and a proud member of A-Doc and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Riel Roch-Decter
Filmmaker

Riel Roch-Decter is a creative producer and the co-founder of MEMORY, a Los Angeles based artist-driven motion picture studio specializing in producing and releasing innovative works that push the formal boundaries of their medium. For over 10 years the studio has collaborated with multi-hyphenate filmmakers and artists on a mix of feature films, episodic, live performance and exhibits cutting across fiction and nonfiction.

Jessica Wolfson
Executive Producer

Jessica Wolfson, Executive Producer at Indeed, leads production for the in-house creative agency and initiatives like Rising Voices, a film fund and mentorship supporting underrepresented filmmakers. A filmmaker herself, Jessica has produced numerous critically acclaimed films throughout her career.

Marya E. Gates
Freelance Film Critic and Historian

With an expertise in silent film, film noir, and female directors, Marya E. Gates is a freelance film writer and historian based in Chicago. She has a BA in Comparative Literature from U.C. Berkeley and an MFA in film production. Before turning to writing full-time, she worked in social media marketing and editorial for Warner Bros., Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies/FilmStuck, and Netflix. Her work has appeared in various film publications including Vulture, IndieWire, Letterboxd, and Emmy Mag. She writes a monthly interview column for RogerEbert.com called "Female Filmmakers in Focus" and a weekly newsletter called the "Directed By Women Viewing Guide." Her first book "Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words," which features career-spanning interviews with 19 trailblazing female filmmakers, is out now from Rizzoli.

Celia Boussebaa
Filmmaker

Celia Boussebaa is a filmmaker and activist whose work blends experimental documentary with decolonial and human rights advocacy. Holding a BSc in Psychology from King’s College London, she began her career in psychiatric research at the IoPPN, contributing to multiple publications before transitioning to film. After roles as Assistant Editor and Assistant Producer at 4th Row Films, she co-founded Razjernurk Productions, focusing on hybrid and innovative documentaries from the Global South. Her debut feature, Amakki, won Best Documentary at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival and has screened at major festivals worldwide. Alongside filmmaking, she engages in media and activism with the BDS movement in the Netherlands, using storytelling to challenge oppressive systems and highlight creative resistance.

Merrill Sterritt
Field of Vision's Senior Manager of Partnerships & Innovation and Director of IF/Then Shorts

Merrill Sterritt, Field of Vision's Senior Manager of Partnerships & Innovation and Director of IF/Then Shorts, is a Burmese-American field-builder and filmmaker advocate with 17 years of experience supporting artists. Previously as the Head of Alliances and Cultural Engagement at Cinereach, Merrill expanded Cinereach’s impact by developing methods of support for regional and community-focused film organizations and collectives. In 2010 Merrill co-founded Film Presence where they led theatrical outreach campaigns to connect films with crucial audiences outside the arthouse bubble. Merrill was named as one of DOCNYC's inaugural New Leaders cohort and was a 2022 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellow.

Pam Torno
Supervising Producer, Independent Lens

Pam Torno is a Supervising Producer and the Senior Manager of Short-Form Content at ITVS. Her work includes award-winning short docs and web series for Independent Lens/PBS. Prior to working in public media, Pam has written and produced for Current TV, Revision3, and Discovery.

Kitty Anne Byrge
Festival Director

Kitty is the Director of Hauntsville Film Fest, the Southeast’s only woman-run horror festival spotlighting queer and femme voices in genre cinema. They also lead Hello Huntsville Horror, North Alabama’s horror film club and community, coordinating monthly screenings and building space for local horror fans to connect year-round. In addition to organizing and curating events, they guest program at independent theaters across the South, host film talks and screening conversations, and write for small publications with a focus on horror and independent film. They’ve collaborated with organizations like Sidewalk Film Festival and hosted the opening night of Southern Fried Film Fest in Huntsville. Outside of programming, they create film zines that explore cinema through a personal lens. Kitty remains engaged in a wide range of projects that support inclusive film culture, highlighting underrepresented voices.

Kristina Kromer
Film Editor

Kristina Kromer is an editor at Moonshine Post Production in Atlanta, GA. She has cut network television for AMC, Netflix, CW, Sony and others as well as independent features and various commercial work.

Elizabeth Yoo
Movie Poster Artist, Writer, Film Curator

Elizabeth Yoo is a Brooklyn-based fine artist, movie poster illustrator, and writer who specializes in key art for movie posters and physical media. The poster she illustrated for Academy Award-winning director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY was named one of the best movie posters by Posteritati, Letterboxd, and Little White Lies. Select clients include: Film Movement, Big World Pictures, Vinegar Syndrome, and Severin Films. She has illustrated Blu-ray covers for films by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Tsai Ming-liang, Éric Rohmer, Paul Morrissey, Radu Jude, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Asghar Farhadi, and many more.

Gurleen Rai
Founder of Zim + Teemo Studios

Gurleen is a maker and the founder of Zim + Teemo Studios.
 Zim + Teemo Studios is an experimental space that bridges fashion design, animation, and art.

The studio’s goal is to explore ideas and create meaningful work that is environmentally conscious, ethically made, and resonates deeply on a personal level.

Her animated projects have screened internationally at festivals like Slamdance, New Orleans Film Festival and Sydney Underground Film Festival. Her animated mini series, Rosie & Joe was developed for and screened on FX.

She's currently delving into storytelling through textiles and design.

Rachel Mow
Filmmaker

Rachel Mow is an award-winning director, nominated for both a Student Academy Award and a College Emmy. Her animated film The Sun is Bad earned the title of "Best Animated Film" at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Rachel's deep passion for storytelling and animation fuels her drive to craft compelling narratives. With a unique cultural perspective, she is dedicated to creating stories that entertain, inspire, and resonate emotionally with audiences worldwide.

Stephanie Williams
Animator

Stephanie J. Williams is a tinkerer and doodler. Her work primarily navigates hierarchies of taste, unpacking how “official” histories are constructed in order to understand contemporary social coding. She received her MFA in Sculpture from RISD under a Presidential Scholarship, has shown in Fictions, part of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s F-show exhibitions, as well as with Washington Project for the Arts, Lawrence University, the Delaware Contemporary, and the Walters Museum as a Sondheim Finalist, with residencies at the Corporation of Yaddo, Sculpture Space, Williams College, the Nicholson Project, VCCA, and ACRE. Recent projects have screened at Slamdance (2024), Ann Arbor Film Festival (2024), the New Orleans Film Festival (Best Animated Short, 2022), Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival (2023, Jury Citation - 2022), the Atlanta Film Festival (2023, 2024) and Outfest LA LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (2023). She has received support from the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund in Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University and multiple DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellowships. She is based in DC/Baltimore and currently teaches stop motion as Full Time Faculty for Maryland Institute College of Art.

Lacinea McBride
Filmmaker

I'm a filmmaker based in Minneapolis, where the thread of the arts community weaves through everything I make. I have experience in both short-form digital content and feature-length narrative film. I’ve collaborated with a range of creatives to produce engaging, low-budget visual projects, and I recently served as cinematographer on the feature film Poor Clare, directed by Blaine Redden, which screened at the Atlanta Film Festival last year.
I come to filmmaking with a DIY spirit, often working with barebones equipment and a belief that film should be an accessible medium for anyone with something meaningful to express. I’m most interested in how moving images can hold small, poetic moments with honesty and care. My work spans producing, cinematography, and editing, with a focus on creating work that resonates.
It’s an honor to be part of this year’s Atlanta Film Festival jury — a space that continues to celebrate a wide range of voices and approaches to filmmaking.

Noah Clement
Cinematographer & Gaffer

Noah Clement is a Cinematographer and Gaffer located in Atlanta, Georgia. Experienced in lighting for both motion and stills. Noah jumps back and forth between both photo and video commercial sets as a freelance creative. For the past 3 years Noah has explored new and emerging filmmaking tech through virtual production. With the help of digital agencies such as Remedy Films and Form Studios he has had the opportunity to work with brands such as Metabo HPT, Delta, and Shark Bite products, Noah blends both the virtual and real worlds to create seamless lighting for major commercial brands.

Noah is currently also exploring 16mm Film and combining it with his virtual production workflow. Experimenting with both a physical/tangible medium and digital medium together. He's excited to continue to push the envelope on new and emerging ways to blend tech and cinema.

Samuel Laubscher
Cinematographer

Born to a British mother (ER Nurse) and an All-American father (Paramedic) who met passing off the injured to each other at a hospital in Los Angeles, California. Their early years were spent in the perfect weather of Southern California before they moved out to Atlanta, Georgia.

Always holding an interest in photography and motion pictures, Samuel began religiously pursuing the art of the photographic process when they were 15, working solely with 35mm film.

Since 2010 they have been working freelance in narrative and commercial cinematography and portrait and documentary photography. They specialize in working with or mimicking natural light and tactile camerawork.

Their work includes multiple feature films including The Devil And The Daylong Brothers. The History Channel special Return to Roanoke: Search for the Seven, Discovery ID's Dead Silent and Your Worst Nightmare, a pilot for Sony PlayStation Network, and a series of spots for Amazon Echo featuring Pentatonix.