JURY
CHESTER ALGERNAL GORDON
Chester Algernal Gordon (Producer & Costume Designer) In 2019 Gordon became the first gender non-binary African-American costume designer to compete in competition at Cannes Film Festival with “Port Authority”. They’ve produced a fleet of acclaimed short films and documentary film “Pier Kids”, which won a Independent Spirit Award in 2019 and was nominated for a GLAAD award. Gordon was also a winner of the Tribeca Film Institute’s 2019, TFI All Access Grant and TFI Pond5 Program.
GINO PESI
Gino Anthony Pesi is an incredibly flawed human, who is also an award winning actor, writer, director, producer, and educator with over 50 professional film and television credits. He is perhaps most recognized as James Nava, in NBC’s ‘Shades of Blue’, with Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta. If you ask him what he’s most grateful for he’d say, “Thankful to God for every beat my heart takes; even the irregular ones.”
RABIA SULTANA
Born and raised in East London, Rabia performed on stage at the renowned Stratford Theatre and Criterion Theatre before studying Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, UK.
She was a fellow in the inaugural Producer’s Guild America’s ‘Create Fellowship Program’ 2021-2022. As a part of the program’s Short Film Competition, Rabia was awarded a grant from Google & PGA to produce the short film “Haider, Texas.”
ROBERT KOLODNY
Robert Kolodny is Director, Writer and Cinematographer based in New York City. He made his feature film debut as Director with the 2023 film “The Featherweight”. He served as Director of Photography on the Netflix film “Procession”, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival. The film went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards. Robert’s work on the film was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lighting Direction at the 43rd News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
ROY WOL
Cannes Producer Network fellow and SXSW mentor Roy Wol is a p.g.a. mark holding international producer, a two-time The Gotham-IFP fellow (episodic & film), and EAVE producing fellowship recipient. With strong co-production funding partnerships in Spain, Turkey, Argentina, Israel, and Canada, Wol is the founder of the critically acclaimed production company Studio Autonomous, its talent accelerator: R2W2, and its publicity arm Rakoom PR. Studio Autonomous’ projects have been the home for both Academy Award nominees and discovery talent in front and behind the camera, with winnings at SXSW, Tribeca, CAAMFest, Heartland, Woodstock, NALIP; festival programming in Venice, Sundance, and Warsaw; and with projects being acquired by companies such as Netflix, Sony International, Gun Power & Sky, amongst others. Wol has dedicated his work to developing raw talent and placing them in coveted programs and fellowships.
