The SHORTSNONSTOP Festival is pleased to present its Jury members.
Eileen Arandiga, Director of Partnerships & Events, Canadian Film Centre
Eileen Arandiga is the Director of Partnerships & Events at the Canadian Film Centre, prior to that she was the Festival Director of the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, a festival she was associated with for over 10 years in various capacities. Eileen has previously worked for the Toronto International Film Festival – Industry Programming and Services, and various arts organizations in Australia. She has also run film making workshops for young women in Toronto, has sat on festival juries and has programmed shorts for Signals Festival in the UK and the Australian Canadian Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. Eileen is a passionate film curator with a special interest in dance films.
Adam Besserman, Head of West Coast Development for original video programming at Yahoo!
He is responsible for sourcing, identifying and developing compelling original programing across Yahoo! properties, brand partners, and strategic areas to inspire and delight Yahoo! users, drive engagement, and attract new audience.
At Yahoo!, Adam has played an instrumental role in facilitating the financing, licensing, development and distribution of over 50 premium original programs, including Tom Hanks’ ELECTRIC CITY, Anthony Zuicker’s CYBERGEDDON, Ben Stiller’s BURNING LOVE, Morgan Spurlock’s MANSOME, Jack Black’s GHOST GHIRLS, Ed Helms’ TINY COMMANDO, and many more.
Prior to joining Yahoo!, Adam worked for Endemol, Paramount Digital Entertainment and CBS Interactive, where he was responsible for developing original digital programming.
Ian Birnie, Program Director, Louisiana International Film Festival
Ian Birnie is a Canadian-born film professional with experience in script development, cultural and festival programming, and film marketing and distribution. The former Curator of Film and Director of the Film Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1996 -2010) Mr. Birnie’s prior positions include Director of Distribution for Janus Films (NYC), Head of English-language Script Development for Telefilm Canada (Toronto), Cultural Attaché for the Government of Ontario (NYC) and Project Director for European Film Promotion (Hamburg). He has been a programmer for the Toronto, Bangkok, Palm Springs, and Perugia Film Festivals and has served on film juries at the Berlin, Hamptons, Abu Dhabi and Geneva Film Festivals. He is currently the U.S. Representative for the Mumbai International Film Festival in India, and the director of Programming for the Louisiana International Film Festival in Baton Rouge.
Cynthia Kane, Programming Manager, ITVS and ITVS International
In January 2007, Kane moved cross-continent to work as Programming Manager for ITVS International overseeing the initiative and the International Call for funding. ITVS International promotes an international exchange of documentary films made by independent producers, bringing international voices to U.S. audiences and stories from the U.S. to audiences abroad. ITVS International has co-produced 107 international documentaries since its inception in 2005, including the multi-award winning Waltz With Bashir, The English Surgeon and Last Train Home. Prior she’s had many incarnations from actor to writer to producer. She co-created DOCday on Sundance Channel during her 10-year tenure there.
Amber J. Lawson CEO Comedy Gives Back/ Scripted & Brand Development at Rigler Creative
Amber J. Lawson is the co-founder, CEO and executive producer of the 2014 IAWTV Award Winning Best Live Event @CES, Comedy Gives Back, leveraging comedy across multiple platforms in order to raise money for charities, a global digital telethon, in partnership with YouTube, SXSW, Yahoo!, Team Coco, IFC and Dailymotion. Lawson is a branded content development, programming and distribution executive, super connector and multiplatform storytelling strategist of platform appropriate high-quality long & short form entertainment with a hands-on knowledge of digital media content business including business planning, interactive and social network integration & activation and monetization across platforms. Scripted & Brand Development Rigler Creative, Founding partner of Storytech, served as Head of Video Programming & Originals at AOL and led the US acquisitions and development efforts for pioneering video platform Babelgum.com overseeing their international comedy business. Lawson is a judge of the 2014 AdWeek Watch awards and recent host of the 2014 MIPTV digital fronts. Lawson has been a featured speaker at MIPTV, NAB, CES, LATV Fest, AlwaysOn, JFL Montreal Comedy Festival, Digital Hollywood, Comedy Content Summit, SXSW, Silicon Beach, NATPE, ITVfest & SMWLA.
Amber J’s digital leadership and forward thinking resulted in her nomination for 2010 PGA Top 25 in Digital and being awarded the 2011 NATPE Luminary Award. She is the chairman of the Membership Working Group of Interactive Media Peer Group of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, an active member of the New Media Council at the Producers Guild of America. Lawson serves on the advisory board Open Slate, TFF NOW, Fanatical, Pwrd By and is Co-President of LOCA.
