We’re incredibly excited to announce the selection of three esteemed jurors for the 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival, scheduled for March 24–29, 2020. The three will attend the six-day festival, viewing more than 120 films in competition and awarding roughly $22,500 in cash and in-kind awards. In addition, each juror will present a specially curated program of work during the festival. Check out their bios below!
The 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) will be presented as a free live-streamed six-day event March 24-March 29, 2020! We made the decision to suspend all in-person events for the 58th AAFF due to growing health concerns surrounding COVID-19, and instead present short and feature films in competition entirely online.
The online event will be streamed through Vimeo as a one-time event and will be accessible worldwide. All listed times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC -04:00). Moderated live Q&As with filmmakers will be streamed following the film screenings in order to continue discourse between filmmakers and our audience. Jurors will fulfill their commitment of reviewing programmed films in competition in order to confer the $22,500 in awards.
Each program is different. Films are not rated. All programs are intended for mature audiences, unless otherwise noted. Some films have imagery of a stroboscopic nature.
Judges
Osbert Parker
Three-time BAFTA-nominated director Osbert Parker is perhaps best known for his signature style of using cut-out animation mixed with live-action to create one-of-a-kind imaginary landscapes within commercials and short films. He directed eight short films for the Channel 4 series Misfits (2012) and co-directed (with Laurie Hill) the short film Sir John Lubbock’s Pet Wasp (2018) for Instagram, based on Untold Stories, commissioned by animate projects and Anim18. As a freelance director, Parker worked at Quentin Tarantino’s production company, A Band Apart, as its first commercial director in 1995 and as Steve Barron’s second unit director on Hallmark’s TV feature Arabian Nights. Parker’s short films have received great acclaim on the international film festival circuit. Film Noir was nominated for best short animated film by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in 2006 and was also nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Yours Truly, was awarded Best Short Animated Film at the British Animation Awards.
Lisa Steele is a pioneer in video art, educator, curator, and co-founder of the Toronto-based organization Vtape, an award-winning media center and distributor of video art. She has collaborated with her partner Kim Tomczak since 1983 in producing videotapes, performances, and photo/text works. Their awards include the Bell Canada Award in Video Art, a Toronto Arts Award for media arts, and in 2005, a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Currently, Steele teaches at the University of Toronto as part of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
Lynne Sachs makes films, installations, performances, and web projects that explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together poetry, collage, painting, politics, and layered sound design. Between 1994 and 2009, her five essay films took her to Vietnam, Bosnia, Israel, Italy, and Germany – sites affected by international war – where she looked at the space between a community’s collective memory and her own subjective perceptions. Sachs has made 35 films, which have screened at the New York Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney. Lynne studied history and studio art at Brown University and studied film at both the San Francisco Art Institute and San Francisco State University. She lives in Brooklyn and teaches experimental and documentary film. In 2014, Lynne received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Film and Video. “Lynne Sachs is a filmmaker and poet whose moving-image work ranges from short experimental films to essay films to hybrid live performances,” according to filmmaker Kelly Spivey.