Judging art is hard. Everyone has different tastes. We take judging very seriously at Z-Fest and have spent countless hours and a lot of money on a unique custom web application that makes the films easily accessible to the judges. Huge thanks go to Matt Peterson – the web genius that has designed, redesigned, and continued to make this app nothing short of magic! And to Adam Colt who came up with and continues to drive the functional design.
This app allows us to solicit and have a very diverse range of judges by age, gender, ethnicity, geography, and experience in the film industry. The goal of the app is to gain as much of a consensus as possible. The Z-Fest staff is not directly involved in the final judging, but we do spend a lot of time poring over the results and ensuring that there weren’t any clerical or computational errors.
Judging starts with a pre-screening process. A panel narrows the selection of films that go to the final round of judging. This typically cuts the field of films by about half.
If you are interested in being a judge for Z-Fest, please send us an email. We’d love to have your help!
Here is the preliminary list of the judges for this year:
Roxanne Williams attended Metropolitan State University and obtained a BA in Screenwriting and degrees in Film Production and Creative Writing. She started working in media at the age of 20 for CTV in Roseville. She loves participating in different facets of filmmaking. Her roles have included: actress, writer, director, producer, script supervisor, and BTS photos. ...
Kurt Paulsen entered the film and video industry in 2005 as a promotions editor. He entered academia as an adjunct instructor at MCTC and went on to finish his MFA in Motion Media Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He is now an Assistant Professor at Bethany Lutheran College and Adjunct Instructor ...
Kelly Sarri is an unconventional director, and editor based in Los Angeles, California with a helicopter view and a mission to convey meaningful stories through captivating visual and original aesthetic. With 8+ years of experience, she possesses demonstrated excellence in the Entertainment industry crafting and directing a wide variety of short films, documentaries, comedies and ...
Bobby Marsden works as an Executive Producer and is based in Los Angeles, California. He predominantly works on television commercials and digital campaigns for a variety of production companies across the country. He has collaborated with agencies which include BBDO, DDB, VML (along with many other agencies who have decided to go by acronyms), Saatchi ...
After graduating from MCTC in Minneapolis, Ira started his film career as a city producer for the 48 Hour Film Project in 2004. In 2006-2008 he had made Minneapolis one of the 3rd largest competitors in the world. Currently, he is working with the 50-Fifty Reel Challenge to help professional and amateur filmmakers gain more ...
Cynthia Hotvedt has worked in video production and media management for more than 25 years. She is currently the Corporate Media Manager for Medtronic‘s Executive Communications Department. Half of her time is spent overseeing the technical production of live events for Medtronic’s CEO and the other half is spent producing video projects, both internal & external, ...
Michael Guncheon is an award-winning video editor who has cut a wide range of projects, including music videos for Prince, a documentary on Genesis, and numerous commercials and corporate pieces. He is a partner at HDMG — a Minneapolis video production and post-production company. Guncheon is the technical editor for HDVideoPro magazine and writes the ...
Medical writer by day and screenwriter by night, Karen Frank has been writing screenplays for nearly twenty years. After studying screenwriting at MCTC, Karen had a stack of scripts sitting in a drawer and eventually dusted them off and entered them in contests. A former McKnight Screenwriting Fellow, her screenplays have reached the semi-finals and ...
Sandra Capra of Capra Creations, LLC is a Minneapolis based film writer, director, and producer. She is currently in post-production with a documentary for P.ink, focusing on women having their mastectomy scars tattooed. Her formal filmmaking career began about ten years ago after studying filmmaking with the NYFA in CA. Recently she’s been writing, directing ...
Jaclynne Wolff has worked for Sony Electronics for 12 years. She lives in Los Angeles, CA where she helped train various camera crews on the F65, F55 and 4K technology. Today she is an account manager focusing on Sony’s high-end production cameras – including the VENICE, F55, the newly released FX9 and the Alpha camera ...
Oscar Oboza is a Senior Colorist at Nice Shoes Minneapolis. With over 25 years of color grading experience, his work focuses mainly on commercials, for brands such as Arby’s, Target, Valspar, TCF Bank and The Venetian. He also collaborates with many Twin Cities directors and cinematographers on various documentaries, independent features, music videos and short ...
I’m an editor and Director of Post Production at Media Loft in Minneapolis. I’ve been fortunate to work on a variety of projects over the years, from cable network programs to TV spots and short documentary style pieces. Although I studied film and video production at the University of Iowa, I learned what I know ...
Brianna Deihl is an award-winning film and art director. Her promo spot work has earned five telly awards while her narrative work has won local awards and screening internationally. Currently, an adjunct professor at Minneapolis College in cinema production she is finishing up her Master’s Degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her focus ...
