Finalists:
My Family Trees - Roshi Givechi, New York, NY
Good Morning! This is Lana... - Sergio M. Vaccaro, Brooklyn, NY
Free Meal - April Raine, Boise, ID
The Little Tea Shop - Matteo Servente, Molly J. Wexler, Memphis, TN
A Piece of Cake - The Bragg Brothers
The Audition - Eric Liberacki
Crossing Over the Dark - Jordan Ellis, Hickory, NC
The Maroon Bomber - Joshua M. Thomas, Aptos, CA
The Longest Summer - Meicen Shen
These finalist will be screened right here on our website January 29th, 7:30PM EST, and the winner(s) will be decided by our guest judge! Thank you to all who submitted, and a special thank you to all of our judges! Be sure to come back here on January 29th to watch the finalist films and see who will take home a cash prize!
The 2020-2021 Judges:
Caryl Burtner is an award-winning conceptual artist whose movie-loving mother took her to her first movie, "The Snow Queen" at the age of two. Thousands of films later, and despite a growing collection of ticket stubs, she still watches avidly. She is proud to be a long-serving juror of the J R Short Film Showcase.
Tom Campagnoli remembers watching "Moby Dick" and Hitchcock movies with his father as a youth, and later worked for over a decade at the Biograph, Richmond's beloved repertory theater. He starred as Kosmo in the local animated cult favorite, "Futuropolis", directed by Steve Segal and Phil Tumbo. He is currently employed at UR Libraries.
Ken Hopson oversees "The Workshop" at VCU Libraries where for decades he has assisted the universtiy and Richmond community in shooting editing and converting video, in addition to 3D scanning, 3D modeling and 'extended realities'. His personal narrative is loosely based on an unscripted adaptation of a true story.
Jere Kittle is an award-winning artist, photographer and experimental filmmaker based in Richmond, where she attended classes in VCU"s Mass Communications Dept. and School of the Arts. She was a finalist in the London International Super-8 Festival: Straight 8, and one of six winners in the Phillips Collection juried show, "American Moments" in Washington, DC in 2015.
Kevin McNeer is a Richmond antive who studied filmmaking in Moscow, where he resides. He has produced numerous documentaries on subjects as varied as Russian animation and the exotic flora of Yemen, and his feature film, "Stalin Thought of You", won numerous international awards; Currently he's developing a feature based on "The Blind Owl".
Raasa Leela de Montebello is an award-winning filmmaker and actress who divides her time between NYC and Ashland VA. A graduate of NYU's Film program, she currently freelance edits and directs, organizes retreats and classes in foraging. In 2018 her film "Decay" won six awards in Richmond's 48 Hour Film Project including Best Picture. She was the 2019 Awards Judge for the JR Short Film Showcase at the VMFA.
Jameson Price is a local musician and multi-media artist, Vice-President of the James River Film Society and founder/host of Silent/Music Revival, for over 15 years pairing silent era films with live musicians who create spontaneous soundtracks for movies they've never seen before!
Todd Starkweather holds a PhD in English from Universtiy of Illinois-Chicago, where he first studied film theory. He has taught literature, writing and film studies at various universities in the past twenty years, and currently teaches English at Manchester Middle School. He is a supporting member and volunteer of the JRFS.
Awards Judge:
Jeff Roll is an award-winning photographer turned filmmaker, with a 15 year tenure as part of the JRFS, including curator/host of the "Filmmakers Forum" from 2009-2018. He currently curates via Contact the Facts Productions (w/ PJ Sykes), featuring documentaries on artists and musicians that would normally be overlooked by mainstream RVA venues.