Evaluation Juries

Jean-Christophe Yacono (yako) has developed an impressive photographic and digital body of work in numerous artistic projects over the years. His oeuvre has been featured at the Biennale d’Art Numérique (BIAN), the Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA), the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC), the Cirque du Soleil, PdA’s ArTV studio, the Centre Pompidou, and the Centrale Powerhouse Gallery, among many others.

Since 1993, yako has focused on new forms of digital writing on screens and in public spaces. Through photography, interactive “new realities” and “freeze-frame,” he began his ongoing reflection on gesture, on the fly or choreographed, in movement, experimental or theatrical, in forms on image, in sequences, and on the shifts and blurs that motion makes on the sensor itself.

Yako has developed a practice in media and visual arts through projects that include Wonderland (2008), a public performance of immersive theatre and live audiovisual creation, Musicbox 2 (2009), an interactive installation presented at BIAN, and the production of interactive videos in short and medium formats such as Noirceur (2020), and Fear in Motion (2019) presented at the Imperial Cinema during FIFA 38 and in a selected number of other festivals.

Mark Greenspan has spent the last 20 years supporting digital media and advertising professionals. He has done this by building a wide variety of industry recognized training and business development programs. Mark started off is career during the first dot com boom working with internet consultancy firm Razorfish in London and Milan where he sold and delivered digital solutions to Fortune 500 clients. He then went on to run the training programs for the Canadian Film Centre’s Digital Media Accelerator and build nextMEDIA and the Digi Awards. Most recently he founded The Digital Growth Lab which created influenceTHIS, Canada’s first conference series and marketplace dedicated to influencer marketing. Mark holds a Masters of Education from the University of Toronto and is passionate about building inclusive business ecosystems that create economic impact.

Mia Consalvo is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the co-author of Real Games: What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames (2019) and Players and their Pets: Gaming Communities from Beta to Sunset (2015). She is also co-editor of Sports Videogames (2013) and the Handbook of Internet Studies (2011), and is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames (2007) as well as Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Context (2016).

Mia runs the mLab, a space dedicated to developing innovative methods for studying games and game players. She's a member of the Centre for Technoculture, Art & Games (TAG), she has presented her work at industry as well as academic conferences including regular presentations at the Game Developers Conference. She is the Past President of the Digital Games Research Association, and has held positions at MIT, Ohio University, Chubu University in Japan and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dr. Richard Lachman directs Zone Learning for Ryerson University, Creative Technology Development for FCAD, and the Experiential Media Institute. He is an Associate Professor, Digital Media in the RTA School of Media, and also serves as a Technology and Creative Consultant for entertainment and software-development projects. A Gemini award-winning producer, Richard has worked on many highly successful Canadian and US interactive and convergent-media projects over his career.

Richard completed his doctorate at UNE in Australia studying software recommendation-engines, did his undergraduate work in Computer Science at MIT, and holds a masters degree from the MIT Media Lab’s “Interactive Cinema” group. He was part of a startup acquired by Mattel, ending as Lead Designer and Lead Engineer for the Petz software with over 3 million units shipped worldwide. The software has received awards from ID Magazine and Communications Arts, was featured in the New York Times, USA Today and Time Magazine, and was part of an exhibition at the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York.

His later work in transmedia has garnered a Gemini, CNMA and Webby Honouree awards, and he has lead collaborative design exercises with UNICEF, TIFF, Penguin UK, Kobo, the CRTC, and others. His areas of research include transmedia storytelling, digital documentaries, augmented/locative/VR experiences, mixed realities, and collaborative design thinking.

Suzanne Lortie holds a diploma in production from the National Theatre School of Canada and an MBA from HEC Montréal. She has been a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM ) since 2012. She’s been head of the production strategies profile for the bachelor’s degree in communications at the UQÀM École des médias since 2013, and is a member of the René Malo Chair in Cinema and Production Strategies.

Initially a tour manager for LaLaLa Human Steps, the Almeida Theatre in London, and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, she has been production manager for numerous festivals in Montreal over the years. Television production director and executive producer since 1992 (Gémeaux and ADISQ multi-award winner for major variety and cultural series, documentaries, and digital productions), she’s also a consultant in digital strategies and an incubation coach-expert. Suzanne Lortie has participated as well in the Canada Media Fund Trends Report, in the development of the Canada Council Strategic Digital Funds, and in jury work for the CMF Experimental Stream.