Meet the jurors for the 2026 Seattle International Film Festival.
Learn more about the incredible collection of film professionals who make up the five feature juries and two shorts juries. Feature film juries include New Directors, New American Cinema, Ibero-American, Official Competition, and Documentary. Short film juries include Narrative and Documentary & Animated.
Doc & Animation Shorts Jury
Amman Abbasi is a Pakistani American writer director and composer. Most recently, he Co Produced the Oscar nominated documentary short Armed Only With A Camera, The Life and Death of Brent Renaud. His work blends neo-realism, narrative and genre, as his debut feature, Dayveon, premiered at Sundance, was selected at Berlinale, and earned two Independent Spirit Award nominations. His second feature, Yasmeen’s Element, premiered at SXSW 2024 and is being released later this year. As a composer he has composed several documentaries, and films including The Exorcist: Believer, and scores for the Daniels.
New Directors Jury
Born and raised in Hong Kong, PoChu is trilingual in English, Chinese, and French. She holds a B.A. in Communications and Film Studies from Concordia University in Montreal. Work experience after graduation includes stints at CBC, Radio-Québec in Montreal, and the OECD in Paris. After moving to Vancouver in 1988, PoChu joined the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), where she served as Program Manager and Senior Programmer. As a key curator for the international program until 2024, she played a vital role in shaping the festival’s global vision. In 2025, she transitioned from her full-time role to continue as a curator with a focus on East Asian cinema. In recognition of her long-standing commitment to promoting French cinema and its emerging talents, she was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2023.
Narrative Shorts Jury
Marcus Baker is a Writer/Director based out of Seattle. He has previously directed the short films Counterweight, One Hundred, and Three Women and a Possible Fire Next Door. Having loved film from an early age, Marcus's creative vision and relentless ambition have converged seamlessly in his work, characterized by engaging narratives, flawed characters, and complex themes.
Marcus is also the Founder and Creative Director of the Seattle Film Society, a filmmaker-run project dedicated to organizing, cultivating, and celebrating the Greater Seattle filmmaking community. He is a proud native of Bremerton, WA.
Official Competition Jury
Chad Charlie is a Black and Indigenous Peabody Award-winning television writer from Seattle. Known for crafting bold, authentic stories that center marginalized voices without sacrificing heart or humor. A Sundance and Film Independent Fellow with credits that include "Reservation Dogs," Amazon's upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series, "Elle," and "Running Smoke," a 3-part docu-series that will premiere on CBC.
New American Cinema Jury
Mary Elder is a screenwriter and novelist. She was named one of the Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2025 by the International Screenwriters Association (ISA). Mary’s original screenplays have been acquired by three major Hollywood studios. She’s the recipient of a Disney Fellowship, two Hedgebrook writer-in-residencencies, an Athena Film Festival Screenwriting Lab fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award. Mary taught the UW Certificate in Screenwriting course for three years with screenwriter Mark Handley. Originally from New Hampshire, Mary attended Cornell University. She currently lives in Seattle.
Documentary Jury
Max Geschwind works in the Media Finance department, which focuses on packaging, sourcing financing for, and/or selling the distribution rights to independently financed films, at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Geschwind, who joined the agency in 2021, is a member of CAA Elevate, a state-of-the-art program for agents and executives in training. He graduated from the University of Southern California with degrees in Cinema and Media Studies and Political Science. Geschwind is based in Los Angeles.
New American Cinema Jury
Rebecca Fisher has worked in independent film publicity for over two decades. Currently serving as VP of Publicity at Magnolia Pictures. She began her career in film at the Seattle International Film Festival, where her passion for storytelling and dedication to fostering emerging voices in cinema blossomed. Then she worked for The Sundance Festival in 2002 after which she moved to Los Angeles. Fisher has worked at top film PR agency Block Korenbrot where she spearheaded campaigns on Sony Pictures Classics films such as An Education and A Separation. In 2016 she went over to the distributor side with The Orchard and started at Magnolia in 2020.
Official Competition Jury
Alison Foreman is a Features Writer at IndieWire covering TV, film, and industry trends. She’s a journalist with a passion for blood, spectacle, and basic human decency. Also, the creator of the midnight movie column IndieWire After Dark.
A Georgia Tech graduate, Ali previously worked at CBS News, Showtime, and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” In 2020, she won Best Online TV Feature from the Los Angeles Press Club for her reporting at Mashable on police procedurals.. She has two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award nominations. Her work spans video games, music, web culture, science, politics, business, and tech, with bylines at The AV Club, Refinery29, and CNN.
Ibero-American Jury
After graduating as a doctor in medicine in Peru, Javier Fuentes-León studied film at CalArts. His short film Rooms (1997) won the Peruvian National Award. His debut feature, Contracorriente (Undertow), won 50+ international prizes, including the Sundance Audience Award. It was Peru’s 2011 Academy Award submission. His subsequent films include The Vanished Elephant (Toronto 2014) and The Best Families (Rome, Busan 2020). Fuentes-Leónhas directed and co-written two Netflix series: "Wild District" (Season 1) and "Contigo Capitán." He’s the songwriter and lead singer of the indie rock band Left Avenue Joiners and also serves on Film Independent’s Board.
Narrative Shorts Jury
Laura Henneman has worked for film festivals for longer than she would like to admit. Favorite projects include developing a live music and film programming track at the Mill Valley Film Festival and curating themed short film programs at the Palm Springs ShortFest. Currently she’s the Assistant Director of Industry Relations at the Sundance Institute, while also maintaining a number of creative side projects. She’s a compulsive doer of crosswords and jigsaw puzzles, a four-time fantasy baseball champion, and a modestly good knitter. She is probably drinking coffee right now.
Ibero-American Jury
Will Janowitz is a writer, actor, and producer drawn to character-driven stories that sit at the intersection of genre and prestige. An Academy Award nominee for Best Picture for Train Dreams, he shepherded the acclaimed film from development through release. He got his start as an actor on "The Sopranos," where an early immersion in richly layered, character-first storytelling shaped his creative instincts and continues to inform his work.
He is currently collaborating with Shaka King at Amazon Studios on a project exploring Buster Douglas’s historic upset victory over Mike Tyson, and is producing the story of Darius McCollum—the infamous New York City train imposter—with River Road, to be directed by Liz Sargent, recipient of the Waldo Emerson Award. He will next appear in Grant Singer’s film Reenactment in 2026.
Janowitz continues to develop original IP across film, television, and comics, with a focus on dark, psychologically charged narratives and unconventional protagonists.
Official Competition Jury
Aaron Katz is SVP of Acquisitions and Development at Oscilloscope Laboratories, the New York based independent film distributor founded by Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch. Since joining Oscilloscope in 2011, he has acquired and executive produced acclaimed films including Matthew Rankin's Universal Language, the Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent, and the documentary sensation Kedi (which was discovered out of SIFF in 2016). Aaron is also a board member of the Bristlecone Film Collective, a non-profit film venture based in California's Lake Tahoe region, dedicated to making cinema an essential part of the community's mountain culture.
Narrative Shorts Jury
Jas Keimig is an arts writer based in Seattle. Their work has appeared in The Stranger, The Seattle Times, the South Seattle Emerald, Vanity Fair, i-D, Cascade PBS and beyond. They curate Unstreamable, a column and screening series featuring films you can't find on streaming services, and file away discs and tapes as a video librarian at Scarecrow Video. They won a game show once.
New American Cinema Jury
Stephen “Dr.” Love is an award-winning producer and trailblazer in film and advertising. A country boy with city hustle, Stephen Love’s journey began as a four- year-old salesman on his grandfather’s peach farm in rural South Carolina. As a graduate of Morehouse College and USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program, Love’s entertainment career launched after producing “The Land” directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed 2, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), which premiered at Sundance and was theatrically released by IFC Films before landing on Netflix.
Between films, Stephen produced award-winning advertising campaigns such as T- Mobile’s Boost Your Voice, which won AdAge Campaign of the Year; and Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix-winner P&G’s “The Talk”, which was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial in 2018. Shortly after being awarded the Emmy, Love co-founded Invisible Collective to usher diverse directors into the advertising industry.
Stephen’s film and television production company, Made with Love Media, recently released They Cloned Tyrone, which became #1 film in 13 countries on Netflix. Relentless in his pursuit for creativity, Love also released the action-packed film Shadow Force, starring Kerry Washington and Omar Sy, and he is in post production for the indie romantic comedy That’s Her. Stephen was named to Hollywood Reporter’s Top 35 Executives Under 35 and most recently Variety’s 10 Producers To Watch.
Doc & Animation Shorts Jury
Lucas Marchi is an Emmy nominated animation director, story artist, 2D animator, and teaching artist. He lives in Seattle, WA, and spends his time teaching at Cornish College of the Arts, helping organize Sea Slug Animation Festival with his partner, and doing freelance animation work for companies like Cascade PBS.
Documentary Jury
Lu Mukerjee (they/them) is a queer, non-binary British-Indian community builder and cultural worker dedicated to elevating the careers of underestimated storytellers. In 2023, Lu became the Director of the Documentary Lab fellowship at Firelight Media, the premier destination for nonfiction cinema by and about communities of color, founded in 2000 by Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith.
With 20+ years of experience producing films, programming festivals, and curating artist development programs, some of Lu’s career highlights include Director of Programming at Outfest and NewFest LGBTQ+ Film Festivals, Senior Programmer at the Tribeca Festival, as well as Industry Programmer for Dok Leipzig, and Co-Curator of the immersive cinematic experience You Are Here: 100 Years of the City at the Museum of the City of New York. Since its inception in 2020, Lu has also been on the programming team for Wildscreen’s Official Selection, the UK’s leading festival dedicated to championing new voices in natural world storytelling.
In 2019, Lu co-founded the Programmers Of Colour Collective, a global grassroots group of BIPOC film festival curators calling for programming inclusion on-screen, on-stage and on-staff at film festivals worldwide. Lu is a vocal advocate for ethics and accountability across the film industry ecosystem and believes in the power of storytelling to expand perspectives and change cultural narratives.
Doc & Animation Shorts Jury
Jason Reid is an award-winning producer, editor and director. He directed and produced the Emmy® award-winning documentary feature Man Zou: Beijing to Shanghai and the Webby award-winning Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, which aired on both CNBC and ESPN. He also produced the documentary features K2: Siren of the Himalayas and Evergreen: The Road to Legalization, which both streamed on Netflix, and Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey, which won 26 awards at film festivals and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. He is also producer of Super Frenchie, a documentary feature that aired on National Geographic. Reid was selected as a Film Independent Fellow for the ITVS funded documentary feature, Sam Now, which he produced and edited. It has screened at over 50 festivals, winning 15 awards, including 10 for Best Documentary, and was nominated for Best Editing in 2022 by the IDA. Sam Now premiered theatrically in 2023 and received The New York Times Critics’ Pick, aired nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens and streamed on The Criterion Channel. It was nominated for a 2024 Peabody Award. In 2024 he also produced and co-wrote the documentary feature Suburban Fury, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and Richard Brody from the New Yorker called it a “paranoid masterwork” and “the best of this year’s many excellent nonfiction films.” It won the Grand Jury Prize at SIFF for Best Documentary was also nominated for two IDA awards for Best Writing and Best Editing in 2025.
Ibero-American Jury
Marina Vecchi is a Brazilian audiovisual producer with a master’s degree in Film Production. She began her career in Brazil, where she worked in the Home Entertainment department at Sony Pictures Brazil as a public relations professional and founded the popular film website Super Cinema, a widely recognized platform in Brazil focused on the technical aspects of filmmaking, including production, cinematography, and post-production. Through Super Cinema, Marina was regularly invited to interview leading filmmakers and performers about their work, including Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky, Andy Serkis, Michael Bay, Tom Holland, Jack Black, and others.
After moving to Los Angeles, Marina worked as a production assistant on several acclaimed television productions, including "Westworld," "Kidding" (produced by and starring Jim Carrey), The Goldbergs, and the 2020 Emmy Award–winning YouTube Original series "Could You Survive the Movies?".
Following her relocation from Los Angeles to Washington State, Marina worked with the Washington State Film Office, supporting and approving motion picture and television productions receiving state incentives. She is the founder of the Kinetic Middle School Film Festival, an educational initiative serving middle school students throughout Washington State and dedicated to introducing young filmmakers to hands-on learning, creativity, and storytelling. Marina currently serves as the Chair of the Multimedia Committee for the Bellevue School District, and is on the Women in Film Seattle board. She continues to work as a freelance producer.
New Directors Jury
Cole Wilder is a film programmer, media pack rat, and coffee enthusiast. He received his Masters in Media Studies from The University of Texas at Austin in 2021, where his research focused on independent film exhibition in Austin from the 80s to the mid-2010s and how different groups define and create local filmgoing communities through programming, advertising, and use of space.
After leaving academia, he has worked in various capacities for True/False Film Festival, SXSW, and Wicked Queer: Boston’s Queer Film Festival. Currently, he works as the Director of Exhibition for Northwest Film Forum with the goal of fostering a sustainable and inclusive cinema space with attention to community-oriented service and support.
He also likes riding his bike, especially when drivers are paying attention to the road.
Documentary Jury
Jeffrey Winter is co-executive director at The Film Collaborative since 2010, an LA-based independent film distribution company with specialties in human rights, social justice, environmental issues, and LGBT cinema. Highlight films during this time include Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes (Oscar nomination Best Doc Feature 2023), Josh Seftel’s All the Empty Rooms (Oscar winner Best Short Doc 2026), Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory (Oscar Nomination Best Doc Feature 2024), Kirby Dick's The Invisible War (Oscar Nomination Best Doc Feature 2013), David France’s The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson and Welcome To Chechnya, Nanfu Wang's Hooligan Sparrow, Andrew Haigh's Weekend, Rita Coburn Whack and Bob Hercules' Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise; Sam Feder’s Disclosure, Jacqueline Olive’s Always In Season, David Charles Rodrigues’ Gay Chorus Deep South, Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe, Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, Louie Psihoyos' Racing Extinction, Jeffrey Schwarz’s I Am Divine, Vito, and many more. Other career highlights include five years managing strategic investments and U.S. sales/acquisitions for the largest media conglomerate in Spain (under the banners Maxmedia, Sogepaq, Sogetel, and Sogecine); several years handling grassroots marketing for L.A.’s two largest film festivals (the Los Angeles Film Festival and AFI FEST); a long tenure handling non-theatrical/festival/educational screenings for Wolfe Releasing (the world’s largest catalogue of LGBT films); and 11 years as a panel programmer/programming consultant for the Sundance Film Festival's New Frontier.
