SEEfest 2026 - Save the Date! April 29th - May 6th

2026 Festival Jury

Best Feature Film

Adriana Trautman

An accomplished entertainment marketing executive, Adriana has led international marketing efforts for 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, overseeing campaigns for major films including Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, Top Gun: Maverick, and A Quiet Place 2, and global franchises such as Ice Age and How to Train Your Dragon. As Head of the OHC (Outside Home Country) program at Amazon Prime Video, she helped drive the platform’s success with international originals, including Culpa Mia and Maxton Hall, both record-breakers in their categories.

As the founder of AT Consulting Group, Adriana works directly with independent producers and production companies to shape marketing strategy from development through release—whether for theatrical or streaming distribution. Her work spans genre films, prestige dramas, and family entertainment, and she specializes in helping stories break through cultural barriers and reach passionate audiences around the world. 

She is a member of the PR & Marketing branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a graduate of Georgetown University and ESEM Madrid.

Moneer Yaqubi

Moneer Yaqubi is a Los Angeles–based actor whose work spans film, television, and digital media. He recently appeared in a recurring role on Season 2 of FX’s critically acclaimed series The Old Man and guest- starred on ABC/Hulu’s High Potential.

Moneer received a Best Actor nomination at the Diversity in Cannes Film Festival for his lead performance in the anthology series Ramadan America: The Eid Gift. He was cast as a series regular on Vuguru’s Emmy-nominated serial drama Prom Queen, produced by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. His additional credits include Mike Nichols’ film Charlie Wilson’s War, as well as television appearances on Homeland (Showtime), Shooter (USA), and CSI: NY (CBS).

Moneer has also appeared in numerous national commercials and print campaigns. Outside of acting, he enjoys cooking for his family and teaching his children about different flavor profiles and creative food combinations. He lives an active lifestyle, pushing himself through challenging workouts.

Follow Moneer on social media @moneeryaqubi and learn more at www.moneeryaqubi.com.

Christopher O’Conner

Christopher O’Conner is a three-time Emmy Award–winning producer and director and the founder of Prodigi Arts, a production company he established in 2005 while pursuing a degree in film and visual effects.

Before fully transitioning into entertainment, O’Conner built a strong reputation in corporate production, helping Fortune 500 companies, including FedEx, AutoZone, and International Paper, achieve marketing and communication objectives through high-impact visual storytelling.

A native of Memphis, O’Conner developed an early passion for art and filmmaking. He spent years studying filmmaking and refining his craft before gaining professional experience as a CG artist at a Nashville-based animation studio. There, he contributed to projects for major brands, including Marvel, and notable names such as Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, and Jamie Foxx. During this time, he recognized a gap in the Mid-South market for high-quality visual media comparable to that produced in leading production hubs such as New York City and Los Angeles.

Determined to raise the standard of visual storytelling in the region, O’Conner leveraged his technical and creative expertise to build Prodigi Arts into one of the most sought-after production companies in the Mid-South. Under his leadership, the company developed a strong client portfolio while expanding its network of film and television creatives and executives.

While corporate storytelling played a significant role in the company’s growth, O’Conner’s long-term vision has always centered on creating original entertainment content. In 2017, he expanded Prodigi Arts to Los Angeles to further pursue opportunities in television and film.

Soon after relocating, O’Conner sold his first television series to WEtv. The series, A La Carte, was executive produced by Meagan Good and featured several notable actors. O’Conner served as Co-Executive Producer during the show’s first season.

He later partnered with PBS to produce several documentary projects, including the Emmy
Award–winning film A Fire in Anniston. The documentary examines the historic 1961 Alabama bus burnings and the activists who challenged racial segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. Despite significant production challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, the film went on to win three Emmy Awards and remains one of O’Conner’s proudest professional achievements.

Throughout his career, O’Conner has collaborated with acclaimed talent such as Sterling K. Brown and has been mentored by influential filmmakers including Keenen Ivory Wayans and Robert Townsend.

Today, O’Conner continues to expand his creative portfolio through the development of new film and television productions, strategic partnerships with networks and studios, and collaborations withfilmmakers across the country. His commitment to storytelling, innovation, and cinematic excellence has established him as a respected producer and creative visionary within the industry.

www.prodigiarts.com

Best Cinematography in a Feature Film

David Auner

David Auner, aac is a cinematographer based in Los Angeles and Vienna, Austria. He was born and raised in Graz, Austria. His grandfather, a retired photographer, started teaching him the “Art of Seeing” and film photography at a very early age.

After graduating from high school he moved to Vienna. During that time David started working as a photographer and in film. He began as a sound recordist and camera assistant for TV news and corporate and industrial films. Subsequently, over the next 15 years, he shot many such projects and spent thousands of hours behind the camera. Meanwhile, he worked as an electrician, grip and 2nd assistant camera on narrative projects. Later on he gaffed and key gripped several music videos and shorts. David started to photograph short films and music videos. He found his true passion in narrative feature, episodic television and long form documentary projects.

He graduated from Middlesex University, London, with a BA in Digital Film Arts and an MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles. David is a proud member of the Austrian Association of Cinematographers and his work has earned numerous international awards over the years.

David J. Frederick

A 1979 NYU Tisch Film School graduate, Frederick began his professional career as a 1st Assistant Cameraman, working on films ranging from the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple to Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy. In his recent role as an alternating Director of Photography for NBCU’s FBI International network series, he filmed in Budapest for a year. 

Films and TV series Frederick’s been a Cinematographer on include: The Age Of Disclosure, Mascotland, Survivor, The Society, Get Shorty, Muppets From Space, The Soloist, Aquarius, The Bridge, and Sons of Anarchy, Mayans, Football Town: Barrow AK. 

Frederick has been an active member of the Society of Camera Operators (SOC) since 1991, including serving as President and also a Board member for 20 years. He is a member of the National Executive Board for the International Cinematographers Guild and received his IATSE 35 year service pin. 

Michael Stampler

Michael Stampler is a cinematographer and steadicam operator from Los Angeles. An alumnus of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts Cinema-Television Production program and a member of the International Cinematographers Guild and Steadicam Operators Association, Michael has spent his career rising through the ranks of camera departments on theatrical feature films and major network and streaming scripted television series, such as How to Get Away with Murder (ABC), Fresh Off the Boat (Fox/ABC), The Blacklist (NBC), and WeCrashed (Apple), among many others. He has done steadicam and conventional camera operating on such shows as The Endgame (NBC), Ziwe (Showtime/A24), and Harlem (Amazon) and in commercial and branded work for such brands as H&M, Everlane, Bloomingdales, Sony, Scion, and American Ballet Theater. Michael’s cinematography work has ranged from Bloomingdale’s seasonal fashion campaigns to commercial and branded work for brands like Sony, Harpers Bazaar x Neiman Marcus, American Girl, Panasonic, and Blizzard Entertainment. The son of an author and a psychologist, Michael is a collaborative storyteller who views his role on set as that of a translator from feeling to imagery, using nuanced photographic choices to elucidate the emotional state of a character and the unwritten subtext between the lines of a script.

Best Documentary Film

Shiloh Strong

Shiloh Strong is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and photographer with over 30 years in the entertainment industry. His short film Irish Twins, co-directed with his brother, premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, and The Dungeon Master won Best Online Short at Tribeca. He has sold projects to Lionsgate, LD Entertainment, and Amazon Studios, and directed multiple episodes of Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World as well as music videos, and television pilots. A proud member of the DGA, WGA, and SAG-AFTRA, Shiloh began his career as an actor at age 10 with his feature debut House of Cards at the Sundance Film Festival. He is the founder of Ashes to Films, a nonprofit supporting fire-affected filmmakers in Los Angeles.

Sunil Sadarangani

Sunil Sadarangani is a Los Angeles–based producer and media strategist with over 15 years of experience supporting independent film and documentary projects across production, festivals, publicity, and international markets. His work bridges creative execution and strategic visibility, helping projects move from development to audiences worldwide.

He has produced and supported award-winning and Oscar-qualified work and participated in major international markets including the Berlinale European Film Market and Cannes Marché du Film. In addition to producing, Sunil leads media and awards strategy for independent films, drawing on his background as an entertainment journalist and festival programmer.

Sunil co-founded the Ojai Short Film Festival and has served on programming committees such as the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and Outfest; and on juries of the LA Greek Film Festival and Poppy Jasper International Film Festival (Asia). He is committed to amplifying global and underrepresented voices through film and cultural storytelling.

Juli Juteau

Starting out in ethnographic film with a documentary set in Thailand about a Buddhist monk, Juli Juteau has been a part of documentary productions that have taken her to France, Poland, the Marquesas Islands, Hawaii, New Zealand, the entire length of Route 66, Minnesota, Colorado, all over California and more. She has worked as a segment producer for E! True Hollywood stories, as well as a field producer for ESPN.  While her son was a baby, she penned twenty bio-docs for the series Close Up, which aired on the Reelz Channel and was distributed internationally. Supplying short documentary subjects for the French Canal Plus affiliate show Hollywood 26 from 1992 until the show’s end in 2001, Juli has also worked as an interviewer/writer/producer for the French networks TF1, M6, and many others. Most recently, she and her husband made short documentaries for the French magazine-style morning show Télématinthat airs daily on France 2. In addition, for the last 17 years, Juli has taught at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, primarily teaching idea development and Introduction to Filmmaking courses. Encouraging and watching students discover their talents and then project them on the big screen continues to a tremendous joy.

Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film

Claude Budin-Juteau

A film journalist since 1992, Claude Budin-Juteau studied Film and Television at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he graduated with an MFA. Born in Paris, France, he lived in England and Canada before coming to California where he became a US citizen in 1997. For nearly 10 years, he was the supervising producer of “Hollywood 26”, a bi-weekly show providing an in-depth look at the movies made in Hollywood. It was broadcast on the cable divisions of Canal+ in twelve different countries. Claude then became the film correspondent of TF1 France, before joining France Television 2 where he was a frequent contributor as a journalist and critic of American films on the daily morning show “Télématin”, that airs in the US on TV5 Monde. Having worked as a freelance producer for E! Entertainment, he also continues as an independent documentary filmmaker while writing for two publications: “Écran Total” and “Le Petit Journal.” Claude is a member of the Critics Choice Association, the Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences and the Motion Pictures Association of America. He lives in Santa Monica with his wife, his son and three squirrels that have made the garden their own.

Shaley Brooks

Shaley Brooks is a Los Angeles-based colorist and post-production specialist with over two decades of experience across episodic television, feature films, advertising, and music videos. Born in Austin, Texas, his passion for the intersection of film and technology sparked early — he grew up around broadcast engineering and developed a lifelong eye for the visual image.

Brooks founded a full-service boutique post company offering concierge-level services from dailies through final delivery. His credits include Paramount+ NCIS: Tony & Ziva, the critically acclaimed Now Apocalypse directed by Gregg Araki, and Araki’s latest feature I Want Your Sex, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He is a member of the Editors Guild and brings deep expertise in DaVinci Resolve, HDR, and Dolby Vision pipelines. Learn more about his work at Iris Digital Post — irisdigitalpost.com.

Best Short Fiction Film

Gary Shapiro

Gary Shapiro is a former Senior Vice President at Sony Pictures Entertainment who specialized in marketing, primarily within the Columbia Pictures division during the 1990s. He also worked as a SVP with Sony’s Triumph Films unit, which focused on producing specialized feature films.

Gary Shapiro primarily worked within the Columbia Pictures division during the 1990s. He later transitioned to Sony’s Triumph Films unit into the mid 2000’s, which later became Screen Gems where he was involved with production, acquisitions and marketing. He has a background in marketing for both independent and major Hollywood studio films. His career also included time at Beacon Pictures as Senior Vice President andHemdale Film Corporation as executive global  marketing director.

Gary Shapiro is a voting member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and sits on the International Film Selection Committee.

Amanda Sweikow

Amanda Sweikow is an award-winning writer/director and producer who graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University. She began her career with Filmmakers Alliance, rising to Executive Director, and has since worked across the industry in various capacities, including roles at Light Iron Digital and HotHouse Productions.

Her work includes award-winning films such as Plus or Minus: A Few Things I Thought I Should Consider and That’s Not My Mother, along with producing credits like Melancholy Baby and Quetzal. She is currently developing the omnibus project Red, White, and Blue, recently completed her third feature script Unclaimed, and writes the Substack newsletter Talk Cinema, Save Cinema.

Katharina Nimmervoll

Katharina Magdalena Nimmervoll is a Los Angeles based producer with over a decade of experience leading complex creative productions across film, VFX, and global marketing campaigns. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television (MFA, Producers Program) and the University of Vienna, she brings an international perspective shaped by her Austrian roots and career in both Europe and the United States.

Katharina has held senior production roles at Riot Games, Ntropic and Method Studios, overseeing large-scale live-action, animation, and VFX-driven projects from development through delivery. Known for her strong creative judgment, collaborative leadership, and deep understanding of post-production workflows, she specializes in shepherding ambitious visual storytelling to polished completion. 

She is passionate about cross-cultural storytelling and supporting emerging and established voices in cinema.

Best Short Documentary Film

David Fisch

David Fisch is a film editor based in Los Angeles. His experience with filmmakers and companies such as NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Hasbro, Panavision, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has provided him an instinct for capturing what resonates with audiences and shaping compelling narratives across a broad spectrum of screen arts. His work, particularly his 2020 documentary feature film, Suffer For Good, has been screened and won numerous awards at film festivals across the globe, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. David is also a published concert photographer, having captured musicians such as Trent Reznor, Lizzo, U2, and The Cure’s Robert Smith.

Bryan Honig

Bryan Honig is a Los Angeles–based creative director, currently serving as Global Creative Director at Panavision, where he has spent more than seven years shaping and maintaining the visual voice of the brand across its family of companies. His work centers on elevating brand identity through design and content, often in collaboration with leading filmmakers and cinematographers. Recent editorial collaborations include Sinners, Bugonia, Die My Love, and Wicked: For Good. Prior to Panavision, his freelance work spanned clients such as Disney, Capital Records, Walmart, American Heart Association, Comedy Central, and more.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bryan is drawn to stories that help articulate what’s often difficult to express – work that gives shape to feelings before we have the words for them. In addition to his commercial work, he is currently in production on a personal documentary exploring grief, nostalgia, and bbq. His work has received awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, American Advertising Awards, and The Telly Awards in design, advertising, and branded content.

Sarah Priestnall

Sarah is an experienced executive with a thorough understanding of production and post-production workflows.

For 7 years she served as VP Market Development at Codex, where she evangelized the use of RAW workflows as digital acquisition became the norm. Previously, she was VP Operations at Hollywood Intermediate, a boutique DI facility, building on the pioneering work she did at Cinesite, a Kodak subsidiary, managing the team that worked on O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the Coen Brothers and Roger Deakins, ASC BSC, one of the first digital intermediates. In the nineties, she was Product Manager for the Academy Award winning Cineon compositing software. Most recently she worked at Avid, as the Director of Product Management for Media Composer.
 
Sarah is an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and a board member of the Colorist Society International.

Best Short Animation Film

C. Craig Patterson

c. Craig’s work has received accolades from Sundance Screenwriters Lab, the Webby Awards, The Academy’s Nicholl’s Fellowship, AmPav at Cannes Film Festival, and the Hillman Grad Rising Voices Initiative. In addition to Cannes, his shorts have also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival. c. Craig has produced projects for Carnegie Hall, directed the critically acclaimed comedy specials for Roy Wood Jr for Paramount+ and Hulu. His new animated short ChikaBOOM! stars Daveed Diggs, Yara Shahidi, and Natasha Lyonne. 

Ron Holsey

Ron Holsey is a two-time Emmy-winning TV writer and showrunner with a passion for stories that resonate with kids and families. He has worked on series for Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, Universal, Cartoon Network, Disney, Amazon, the BBC and HBO. He is the creator and Executive Producer of Best Series Emmy nominee Interrupting Chicken on Apple TV+ and was head writer for the Kidscreen Award-winning PBS Interactive series Scribbles and Ink. Ron won Emmys for writing on Sesame Street and has been nominated for numerous others, including Interrupting Chicken, Odd Squad and Martha Speaks. Credits include Ned’s Declassified, Elena of Avalor and The Tiny Chef Show.

Ron has traveled around the world, exploring other countries and cultures, with a particular interest in the musical heritage and history of the places he visits. After a trip to Serbia, he fell in love with Balkan music and began recording covers for YouTube. Ron’s music videos have amassed millions of views, with his Balkan-style cover of OMI’s “Cheerleader” reaching #1 trending in Serbia. Ron was a semi-finalist on Croatia’s Got Talent and his single, “Nemoguće” reached #3 on the Croatian social media charts.

Originally from the Washington DC area, Ron graduated from Northwestern University where he studied film, creative writing and musical theater.