Evaluation Juries

Writer, producer and content strategist He is currently serving as a consulting producer on several European TV series and films as part of the Pitch UA program in Ukraine. He was a writer for the virtual reality game, Archangel, for Skydance Media and was a writer for an interactive documentary extension of “Free Lunch Society – Come Come Basic Income” for Golden Girls Productions.

Adam served as a writing consultant and story editor for Steven Spielberg on his video game project for Electronic Arts. He has created an action series for director John Woo called “The Red Book” and was a writer and producer of the award-winning series “Afterworld” for Electric Farm Entertainment and distributed by YouTube and Sony International TV. He has written features and TV for Alcon Entertainment, Sony, Fox and Paramount among others. He has also served as a writer and producer for digital/interactive/game content for Disney, Arte, Sony, NBC/Universal and The National Film Board of Canada (NFBi). He has also developed content and interactive experiences for companies such as Microsoft, Activision, Cisco, Unilever, Suzuki and GE.

He has been a speaker and consultant for organizations such as Nordisk Film and TV, Screen Australia, Torino Film Lab, Creative Europe, Mediamorfosis (SA), SUPSI/Visions du Réel i_doc workshop, Independent Filmmaker Project, Berlinale Talent Campus, Atlantic Film Festival, Power to the Pixel, Canadian Media Fund, Merging+Media, Distrito Cinema of Columbia, Forum Brazil. Adam studied film production at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and graduated with high honors from Wesleyan University (film and history). He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

Adriana Chartrand is the Institute Manager at imagineNATIVE. She has two degrees in Film Studies, including an M.A. from the University of Toronto for which she received a SSHRC grant. She also has an Arts Administration & Cultural Management diploma from Humber College. She has previously pre-screened short films for the Toronto International Film Festival and worked on the Canada's Top Ten Film Festival. She attends festivals and film markets globally as part of her role at imagineNATIVE, including the Berlinale/European Film Market, the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in France, the inaugural Indigenous Film Summit in Winnipeg, and numerous multi-media festivals in Toronto. She was born and raised in Winnipeg, MB. and speaks English and French. She is Métis from the Red River region, Treaty 1 territory, and has also Irish, Scottish, Welsh and French ancestry.

Alejandro Ángel is a Colombian Producer and Director of New Media, Cinema and Audiovisual content.

He is currently Executive Producer of Armadillo: New Media & Films, Director of #NarrarElFuturo (#ToNarrateTheFuture): Bogotá CC & New Media Film Festival, from where he coordinates the experimental spaces #NewMediaLab and #HackathonVR360, General Tutor of the Project “360 Filmmakers,” led by CDI and Facebook Colombia, and Advisor of New & Interactive Media of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia.

His most recent projects currently in production and postproduction are the transmedia documentaries “All the Flowers,” “Granada: Story of Forgiveness,” “Hands of Light” and the fiction short film “Chakero.” In previous years he directed the documentaries “To the 10th street,” “Inhabitants of Babel” and “Slow Death: The Uitoto people cornered by mercury.” With this last project, he won the 2018 Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award and the 2019 Digital Journalism National Award in the transmedia category.

He trained as a Journalist (Uninorte, Colombia) and did a master’s degree in Design and Development of Television Content and Formats (Madrid’s Complutense University). He is currently working on a PhD in Communication at the National University of La Plata (Argentina).

Alison Norrington is a storyteller, producer and experience designer. She is founder of storycentral, a London-based entertainment studio that incubates and develops ground-breaking IP with global partners in film, television, Virtual Reality, theme parks, animation, gaming and advertising. She specializes in storytelling and experiences crossing traditional formats, live events, digital and location-based entertainment. Alison explores new frontiers of experiential storytelling and has designed and led labs at the London Film School, Singapore Media Academy/MediaCorp, Swedish Design Institutes and the Royal College of Art. She is an expert program and event organizer, working with many global events and partners including Canada Media Fund, ITVFest, Canada Screen Awards, Festival de Television, The Children’s Media Conference, Banff World Media Festival and Canada Media Producers Association. Alison is Conference Chair for StoryWorld Conference, Exec Producer of the Virtual Reality Thread for The Children’s Media Conference, is a two-time TEDx speaker and has presented at a number of entertainment and media conferences worldwide. She is featured on the BAFTA Guru series and is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, The Writers Guild of Great Britain and Women in Film & TV.

Amandine Gay divides her time between creation and advocacy. Filmmaker-producer (Speak Up -2017; A Story of One’s Own -2021), writer-scholar (A Chocolate Doll -2021) and afrofeminist activist (founder of Adoptee Awareness Month in the francophone world), she defines herself as a political author working to reclaim the narrative as an act of liberation. In 2022, she moves back to Montreal to fulfill this ambition by creating a Black owned production company: Caïssa Productions.

Amber MacArthur is the co-host of App Central on CTV, a television show that features the latest developments in mobile technology and social media. The show airs in Canada, Singapore, Australia and South Korea. She is also the President of Konnekt Digital Engagement, a digital marketing agency based in Halifax and Toronto. After receiving a post-graduate degree in Journalism, majoring in the digital realm, she moved to San Francisco to work for two tech start-ups during the dot-com boom. Upon returning to Canada, Amber worked as a web strategy manager with Microsoft Canada, leading the development and editorial teams to create a female-focused lifestyle portal. She was also the country’s first new media reporter, covering digital news for Toronto’s Citytv. In 2010, Canadian Business named Amber Canada’s top social media expert on how to build a brand.

With more than 22 years of professional experience, Ana Cecilia Springefeldt is the Co-founder of CIVETTA ENTERTAINMENT, a company dedicated to the financing and development of audiovisual projects and the acceleration and strategic positioning of content production companies. Throughout her career, she has built a broad and strategic market view, having worked in the public sector as an advisor to the board of directors at ANCINE (Brazilian National Film Agency) and RIOFILME (Public Audiovisual investment company, linked to the Rio de Janeiro City Hall), as well as privately at top audiovisual production companies and at the Film Fund RB Cinema 1. For the past five years, she has been working as a consultant and facilitator of audiovisual events and training programs, focusing on project development and accelerating content companies through innovation.

As the winner of two “Gémeaux” awards and producer at Zone 3, André has an impressive track record of producing over 500 half-hours of youth television, including Mixmania and Méchant Changement. As the Executive Producer of the mobile game studio at Electronic Arts, he has developed games for well-known brands such as Tetris, Scrabble, Clue, Rock Band, Fight Night, and SimCity. As the Director of the Digital Studio at Cirque du Soleil Média, he has created captivating content in the realm of virtual reality. His accomplishments include being honoured with a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media for his work on the VR production of Inside the Box of Kurios. Additionally, in his role as a producer and head of Moment Factory, André has orchestrated large-scale experiences, including permanent video projections on the Harry Potter castles at Universal Studios in Orlando, Hollywood, Osaka, and Beijing.

After earning a Double Honours degree in English and History at the University of Toronto, Andrew Burrows-Trotman (ABT for short) moved to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute’s Screenwriting MFA programme.

After graduation, Andrew was hired by independent producer, Miles Maker, to write a feature screenplay based on the real story of the Valley Manor Retirement Home about a cook (Maurice Jones) and a janitor (Miguel Alvarez) who stayed without pay to care for abandoned elderly residents when their assisted living home was shut down. The feature script entitled, IF WE LEFT was shortlisted for the prestigious San Francisco Film Society’s Hearst Grant.

Upon returning to Canada, ABT was hired by Conquering Lion Productions co-founders Damon D'Oliveira and Clemente Virgo to rewrite a pilot script for Lawrence Hill’s award winning novel THE ILLEGAL which was set up at CBC to be their follow up mini-series to the smash hit Book of Negroes. More work soon followed when Andrew was hired by Insight Productions and Canadian basketball legend Steve Nash’ Cntrl_Media to write the pilot for their grassroots basketball drama HARDWOOD for CBC. Riding this wave of momentum, ABT was hired as a story editor on the inaugural season of the Shaftesbury produced period detective drama

Anita Ondine is an internationally renowned transmedia creator, consultant and educator, who has overseen the concepting and development of over a dozen original transmedia properties, including Lance Weiler’s groundbreaking Pandemic 1.0 which was the first fully transmedia story experience to debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Anita also produced the companion short film “Pandemic 41.410806,-75.654259,” which premiered in competition at Sundance and was distributed via a US cable network reaching 28 million homes. Anita runs her own production company, LivOn Productions. Anita has also worked with several major broadcasters in Europe, Asia and the United States to develop their own transmedia programs. She co-founded the popular Transmedia Next workshop series where she is Creative Director and Lead Trainer. Anita is a vocal advocate of the power and potential that transmedia in particular, and digital media more broadly, provides storytellers and has a specific interest in using transmedia in the context of social change. She speaks internationally on themes related to transmedia and the intersection of technology and entertainment, and is a Board Member of Screen Tasmania.

Annelise Larson comes from a background as an independent film producer, with training at such prestigious institutions as UBC, the Canadian Film Centre and Banff Centre for the Arts. Since 1995 she has been working in the field of online marketing and is an avid gamer and consumer of digital content. She works extensively with government organizations, educational institutions, creative industry associations and media production companies in North America & Europe. Her focus is helping creatives and storytellers use the digital opportunity to define, find, attract and engage their audiences and work toward strategic and sustainable business models. Her podcast STORY+AUDIENCE with screenwriter Jill Golick can be found on all major podcasting platforms. She has also recently launched a new digital marketing online course for media in conjunction with the National Screen Institute – Canada and released a study with Telefilm Canada entitled "Thanks COVID! 15 Lessons for Film Distribution from the First Wave."

Head of the Level Design program at the ADN CampusCampus ADN (Cégep de Matane et Cégep du Vieux Montréal). In the video game industry since 1997, I decided to reorient my career towards teaching in 2008. Since then, I am responsible for the development of Level Design programs and I teach full time at Campus ADN. My tasks vary from content development, teaching Level Design, Game Design and programming, as well as managing/technical support of our students’ final projects.

Annika Gustafson is the executive director of BoostHbg, a ground breaking development and funding incubator for innovative media and film in Helsingborg, Sweden. Previously based in Montreal, Annika spent many years developing her creative and business expertise in the international film industry. Returning to Sweden in 2010, she produced the Financing Forum for Kids Content before joining BoostHbg as the Nordic countries' first Transmedia Commissioner.

In Montreal, Annika was a board member of Doc Quebec and in Sweden she’s a board member of DocLounge and Nemo. She’s a well sought after speaker and panelist who also coaches companies on storytelling and audience/consumer reach.

With her passion for strong stories that can develop organically over several platforms, Annika draws on her years of experience as an award winning filmmaker to help clients and talents increase reach, impact, and financing possibilities. She continues to nurture her passion for social change through documentary story telling. Her Sundance supported film Brown Gold will premiere in 2015.

Aonan is a co-founder of film production company GreenGround, focuses on producing films that are boundary pushing with high artistic merits, as well, of filmmakers who are visible minorities and from under represented film communities. His latest production includes two poignant works of Denis Côté - HYGIÈNE SOCIALE, Best Director at Berlinale 2021 in the Encounters section and WILCOX , Locarno 2019; THE NAMES OF FLOWERS by Bahman Tavoosi, Jury Prize at Tallinn Black Night IFF 2019 and Best Feature at Venice Film Week 2020; documentaries PRIMAS by Laura Bari, TAMING THE HORSE by Tao Gu, and IN THE WAVES by Jacqueline Mills, winning awards at True/False, Mar del Plata, RIDM, DOXA, VIFF and Xining First, China. He is Canadian producer in spotlights at Cannes 2019 and alumni of Trans-Atlantic Partners 2019. He also served as Executive Producer for the award-winning film Geographies of Solitude by Jacquelyn Mills, winner of 3 awards at Berlinale Forum 2022. Aonan is an active guest speaker in film schools like Concordia University and University of Toronto, and severed as jury member at RIDM and Canada Council for the Arts. He is also a co-founder of CineGround Media, a unique camera and post production hub in Montreal catering to local film productions and abroad.

After more than 15 years as an executive producer on more than thirty films and television series, Audrey Pacart then went on to manage the content, programming and digital strategy of Tou.tv and Groupe V Média. Currently, within her new company, Very Story, she acts as an immersive content consultant and helps digital producers as well as artistic and cultural agencies to develop VR/AR financing and distribution strategies as well as installation projects. She also coaches and mentors creators while they develop their projects, namely in Columbia and France. Audrey regularly facilitates creative workshops and is currently working on the production of a VR fiction selected during the last Gap Financing Market at the 2018 Venice Festival.

Baljit Sangra is a Vancouver-based filmmaker whose films highlight underrepresented and marginalized voices and stories.

An award-winning storyteller and six-time Leo Awards nominee, she directed the acclaimed NFB-produced Because We Are Girls, a feature documentary exploring the impact of sexual abuse on a Punjabi family living in BC. The film has garnered over 18 million minutes viewed on Amazon.

As of 2023, Sangra is finishing a feature documentary for Telus Originals/TVO that explores hockey dreams and the South Asian community. She is also working on the documentary A Ballad for Judi for Knowledge Network. Her other broadcast documentaries include the award-winning Many Rivers Home, a personal story about seniors living in assisted care at the end of life; Have You Forgotten Me, which, anchored by the letters of a wife left behind, shines a light on North America’s oldest Sikh Temple; and Warrior Boyz, which examines the long-running gang scene unique to the Indo-Canadian enclave of BC’s Lower Mainland.

Sangra is the president of Viva Mantra Films Inc., which produced several seasons of A&E series VIVA! for City TV/Omni. The series centred artists of colour pushing boundaries along with established creators to elevate mainstream success.

Benjamin Hoguet writes and designs new kinds of narratives. His interactive and social projects strive to find a balance between engaging storytelling and audience involvement. His works range from interactive documentaries to digital comics, from virtual reality projects to native stories for social networks. These projects have been published by leading media company in France such as Le Monde and France Télévisions and by large institutions such as the French Ministry of Education, the European Parliament or an agricultural UNESCO chair in Paris.

He also writes about creating new narratives, having published four books on interactive storytelling and virtual reality. As a keynote speaker, during major events and in his weekly newsletter followed by thousands, he shares insights into writing and producing for the digital age and curates the largest collection of interactive works.

Britta brings nearly a decade of insights, strategy, brands and advertising to the table, as well as a lifetime of being a digital native. Passionate about developing and implementing great strategy and innovative insights to help brands and business achieve, Britta also has a special expertise in the digital and social space.
Britta has worked on digital, brand and innovation insights and strategy as well as creative campaigns and a few launches for a diverse group of brands including Coca-Cola, American Express, MTV, HBO, eos, P&G, Virgin America, Agent Provocateur, Jawbone, and the nonprofit Nanhi Kali. Most recently serving as Director, Digital Strategic Insights at MTV.

A new technology and digital media specialist since 1994, Bruno Guglielminetti worked as a director at Radio-Canada from 1987 to 2010, where he directed the Christiane Charette en direct show on Radio-Canada’s Première Chaîne radio station from 2006 to 2010. He wrote for La Presse from 1996 to 2003 and for Le Devoir from 2005 to 2010. He served as Director of Digital Communications and Strategic Information at the public relations firm National in Montréal from 2010 to February 2014, and has served as Digital Communications Director at the Just for Laughs Group since February 2014.

He is the author of the best-seller Les 1 000 meilleurs sites en français de la planète, published by Éditions Logique. In 2003, he received the Communicator of the Year Award from the International Association of Business Communicators (Canada). In 2004, he received the Mérite de la langue française award in the field of new technology from the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF). In May 2009, he received the Excellence in Science and Technology Reporting Award from the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, in Ottawa.

Caitlin Burns has spent a decade working with narrative intellectual property franchises, independent artists, brands and philanthropic initiatives. Developing content strategies, overseeing multiplatform storyworlds and supervising localization campaigns spanning the globe, she understands what it takes to create a success story. Her independent feature McCarren Park, a film distributed by a geolocated mobile app, premiered at the Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive Day and screened at the New York Film Festival.

Her past work includes: Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney Fairies, and Tron Legacy for The Walt Disney Company, James Cameron’s Avatar for Fox, Halo for Microsoft, Happiness Factory for The Coca-Cola Company, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon and Transformers for Hasbro. She has also worked with Sony, Showtime, Pepperidge Farm, Scholastic, Tribeca New Media Fund, FEMSA, Wieden+Kennedy, Odd Division, Tool of North America, Campfire, Reebok, Stratasys and The Disney Channel.

She regularly speaks to educational institutions including: Ithaca College, New York University, The New School, Ontario College of Art & Design, Bloomfield College, SUNY Purchase and Columbia University. She also travels internationally to speak and educate on business models and changing production practices in the entertainment industry.