MEET OUR JUDGES
James Mackenzie is a graduate of Loyola Marymount's School of Film & Television in Los Angeles. His MFA thesis, Audrey Makes a Mixtape, was recognized on the US BAFTA Student Awards shortlist, and as a member of the Film Independent Incubator Lab, he helmed his award-winning first feature, American Zealot. He brought his web series Tough Love to the Tribeca N.O.W. Creators Market, and premiered Three Men Named Mantas, an international co-production shot in Lithuania, at the Atlanta Film Festival. These and other projects have been featured by Variety, Revry, WABE, and the University of North Georgia, where he serves as the Associate Director of the Film & Digital Media program.
Bobby Gutierrez is a distinguished Hollywood editor, renowned for his work on documentaries, movie trailers, music videos, and national TV commercials. Currently, he serves as a full-time professor at Kennesaw State University, teaching courses in documentary and promotional filmmaking. In addition, he is the co-founder of a film production company, where he directs, shoots, and edits promotional content for clients across metro Atlanta.
Patrick Clinton is an award-winning filmmaker and college professor. Most notably, his film The Inherited won Best Feature in the Horror category at the 2009 Great Lakes International Film Festival. More recently, he co-wrote and produced the upcoming feature, Reparashun. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Film and Video Production in the School of Communication, Film, and Media at the University of West Georgia where he founded their annual Horror Film Race and teaches a variety of film classes.
Dr. Laurena Bernabo is an Assistant Professor in Entertainment & Media Studies where she teaches Entertainment Media Industries and Representations in Entertainment Media. She also oversees the Grady LA program where she shows EMST students the sights in Los Angeles and connects them with our many outstanding alumni. Dr. B was recently awarded EMST's Teacher of the Year Award and enjoys opportunities to support her students' academic and creative endeavors. You can often find her roaming campus with her pet polar bear Sammy, i.e. Grady's unofficial mascot.
John Thornton is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work reflects anomalistic stories of strength triumphing over adversity, where the characters compel audiences to take action. He has worked with ABC Family, TLC, HGTV, AXS TV, Meddin Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, UpTV, Student Quarters, From the Root, and Broadcast Management Group on documentary short films, narrative feature films, independent short films, episodic television shows, and reality television shows. John is an active member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Documentary Association, and Film Independent.
Adam Bova has been working in the film industry professionally for over a decade. His work includes projects for Netflix, Discovery, and the History Channel, along with award winning feature films. He is a producer, editor, and sometimes award-winning writer working in Columbus Georgia where he is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication teaching film production and integrated media.
Shandra L. McDonald is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer with more than 30 years of experience in the television and film industry. Her projects have earned accolades from the Director's Guild of America, Atlanta Film Festival, IFP Film Festival, Hollywood Black Film Festival, Showtime Black Filmmakers Showcase, American Black Film Festival, AFI, and the 48-Hour Film Festival. Shandra has written, directed, and produced original content that has aired on networks including, Showtime, Oxygen, TV One, CBS, BET, NBC, TLC, The Discovery Channel, The Fine Living Network, Aspire/UP TV, and the Turner Networks.
Nili Cimand joined the Department of Communication in 2023. Prior to attending grad school at the University of Florida and receiving an MBA from Florida International University, Nili was the Associate Broadcast Producer at The Bravo Group. The role gave her the opportunity to produce many projects for the award-winning agency and its clients such as Wendy's, AT&T, Winn-Dixie, and FedEx LatAm. Nili was also the Post-Production Producer at New Art Miami / Manhattan Transfer Miami, where she supervised and coordinated all edit, telecine, audio, graphics, and post-production services for Macy’s, McDonald's, Ford Motor Company, Glade, and more. Nili's primary research interest centers on using media psychology, narrative, and storytelling techniques to enhance student engagement. The focus of her research is on intertwining fictional narratives and educational content to increase narrative engagement and therefore enhance student engagement and comprehension of course materials.
Deon Kay is an award-winning filmmaker with work screening at venues ranging from experimental film festivals, to sports stadium jumbotrons and broadcast television. He is currently Head of Film & Video Production at the University of West Georgia.
Neil Landau is an award-winning screenwriter, creative producer, author, and professor in the MFA in Film, Television & Digital Media Program at the University of Georgia. His screen credits include the cult teen comedy Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) and the 2024 remake; Melrose Place, The Magnificent Seven, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Secret World of Alex Mack, Twice in a Lifetime, MTV's Undressed. His animated movie projects include Tad: The Lost Explorer (aka Las Adventuras de Tadeo Jones), for which he earned a Spanish Academy “Goya” Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2014); Tad2 (Tadeo Jones and the Secret of King Midas), from Paramount, and Tad3 (Tadeo Jones and the Tablet of Esmeralda) from Paramount. He also co-wrote the Goya award-winning animated feature Capture the Flag (Paramount), and as Co-EP on Mummies for Warner Bros. (2023). Neil’s new projects include the award-winning animated feature Buffalo Kids (Artresmedia/Warner Bros,); Dreams for 4 Cats Pictures/Warner Bros.; and the live-action feature, Idols as Co-Executive Producer (for 4 Cats Pictures/Warner Bros.) for November 2025 release.
Dr. Shira Chess is an associate professor of Entertainment and Media Studies in the College of Journalism & Mass Communication. She is author of three books and teaches Writing for Entertainment Media and Entertainment Media Analysis at UGA.
Christopher Sieving is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Soul Searching: Black-Themed Cinema from the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation (Wesleyan University Press, 2011), an award-winning social and industrial history of African American filmmaking from 1963 to 1970. His monograph Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess was published in February 2022 by Indiana University Press.
Heath Franklin has been a fixture in the independent film scene for over two decades. After learning the filmmaking process on shows such as Dawson's Creek and films such as A Walk to Remember, Heath set out to produce his own content. He has produced fourteen feature films, working with Oscar, Emmy and Tony winners along the way. His films have been featured at over 100 film festivals across the globe as well as being distributed by high profile entities such as Samuel Goldwyn, Brainstorm, Sony, Universal and more. Heath also directs as his feature film debut, Black Balsam, which premiered at the Malibu Film Festival, was distributed across the world.
Lauren Musgrove is an 8-time Southeast Emmy winning filmmaker, and an Assistant Professor of Film and Television Production at the University of Georgia in Athens. Her feature directorial debut about teenage anxiety and imagination, Ugly Sweater, will have its World Premiere at the Boston International Film Festival in April 2024. Jared Leto’s nationwide A Day in the Life of America documentary, which premiered at Tribeca in 2019 and is now on PBS, hired her to capture a prominently featured emotional Alabama story.
John Goshorn was born and raised in a rural Virginia town an hour from the nearest movie theater. He is currently a tenured Associate Professor and the coordinator of the Bachelor's of Science degree program in Multimedia Film and Production at Georgia Southern University, having previously taught cinema studies, screenwriting, and film production at Full Sail University and the University of Central Florida. The Happiest Place on Earth, a feature film he wrote, directed and produced, landed seven official festival selections and a worldwide distribution deal via Multicom Entertainment Group. In addition, he has won awards for writing a short screenplay ('Downballot') and directing a half-hour TV pilot ('Divided States').