2025 Grand Jury
Bill Farmer - Chairman of the Board
Bill Farmer is an award winning voice actor, comedian and impressionist. He is best known for being the voice of Disney’s Goofy since 1987. In addition, Bill has voiced the characters of Pluto, Horace Horsecollar, Practical Pig, and Sleepy as well as numerous other character voices in tv shows, video games and feature films including Space Jam, Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, A Bug's Life and A Goofy Movie.
Bill was named a “Disney Legend” in 2009, and is the on-camera host of the Disney+ original series, It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer.
Sharon Badal
SHARON BADAL is former vice president of programming for the Tribeca Film Festival. She was with the festival from its inception through 2023 and is now Tribeca’s Music Video Programmer. Sharon is an Associate Arts Professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She judged the Soho House Screenplay competition for several years, and has been a reviewer for Screen Ireland’s Focus Shorts Funding Program, evaluating screenplays and required applicant elements. In 2022 she was invited by the BBC as one of six short film programmers worldwide to help curate the BBC Longshots program. Sharon has been a panelist, presenter or juror at numerous festivals and for industry organizations globally and is the author of Swimming Upstream – A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution.
Jasmeet Baduwalia
In 2013, Jasmeet competed in the IMTA talent competition, and went on to sign with Momentum Talent Agency. At the age of 16 , he decided to make the move to Los Angeles, California to pursue his dreams. There he had the opportunity to train with Anthony Meindl, Howard Fine, and Marnie Cooper.
Since then, he has been featured in a commercial for Nike and co-starred in Easy Waltz, led by Al Pacino & Vince Vaughn, as well as being a lead in productions such as Werewolf World, Power Rangers Beast Morphers, and many more productions.
Dawn Gilliam
Dawn is a 33-year Script Supervisor in the entertainment business. Her first movie, Boyz In The Hood, was the catalyst that launched her career.
Her credits includes an iconic list of movies and television shows, such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Hunger Games, Lost, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dawn also penned an online course, The Art of Continuity| Filmmaking as a Script Supervisor. It is in its 10th year.
Favorite Dawnism: "A closed mouth, don't get fed. Speak up!"
Bill Guentzler
Bill Guentzler is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Obscured Releasing, a recently launched filmmaker-focused distributor that partners with filmmakers to develop audience interaction through festival play, publicity campaigns, and marketing outreach via thoughtful release windows and strategies. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Operations for Gravitas Ventures, which had a library of over 3000 titles and released over 150 new films each year. After spending a summer studying in Berlin in 1998, he joined the Cleveland International Film Festival as an intern and grew with the organization, ultimately being named Artistic Director in 2005, a position he held for 15 years. During his tenure, CIFF was one of the largest and most well-respected film festivals in the US and one of the first in the world to transition to an online format in 2020. In 2021, he served as Program Director of Medworks, a Cleveland-based nonprofit organization linking people who are uninsured and underinsured with vital healthcare services. He holds a BA in Communications from Cleveland State University, which named him one if its inaugural 50 Fascinating Alumni. He also proudly serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborate Cleveland.
Adam Karm
Adam Karm is a co-founder of AKA Prod Co, a new Reno-based production company. He’s held various positions within the independent film space and has extensive experience in development, production, post-finishing, marketing, and distribution. In his capacity as storyteller, he’s produced a variety of commercials, short-form content, unscripted and scripted TV, as well as feature films. In his most recent stint with MarVista Entertainment, he oversaw a pipeline of 250+ films from greenlight through final delivery. Adam is particularly drawn to stories that inspire hope and change.
Philip Kruener
Producer/writer Philip Kruener began his television career working behind the scenes atHBO on a series of comedy documentaries and specials, including the Emmy-nominated A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman. A crossover to scripted led to stints as VP Development/Production for multiple TV production companies, working in both one-hour drama and long-form. As a Show Runner, Kruener has made multiple two-hour holiday-themed rom-coms for FreeForm; overseen a live-broadcast from Easter Island for Nat Geo; exec-produced and written a 10-hour series on The Kennedys; and show-run a two-hour documentary special on the once-silent family of polygamist Warren Jeffs. His most recent credits include Executive Producer of It’s A Dog’s Life, with Bill Farmer, for Disney+, as well as supervising producer roles on docu-series for Apple TV and Warner/Discovery.
Bilali Mack
Bilali Mack is a Filmmaker and VFX Supervisor based in NYC. Born in Accra, Ghana, and based in Brooklyn, Bilali has spent the better part of the last decade honing his craft at visual effects.
Bilali is best known for his work as the overall VFX Supervisor for Lionsgate’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Power Book II: Ghost. Bilali has had an extensive and varying career working in commercials, episodic, and film. His most recent work was with Darren Aronofsky on the Oscar award-winning film, The Whale with Brendan Fraser.
In his spare time, he produces the Legends of VFX podcast and is passionately directing films and commercials.
Ellen Rand
Ellen Rand is a Network and Studio Executive having most recently been Senior Vice President at The CW working on shows Superman & Lois, In The Dark, Nancy Drew, Walker, and Roswell among others. Prior to her time at The CW, she was a Vice President at UCP, a division of NBCUniversal. During her time with UCP she developed multiple projects and was the studio executive on all 9 seasons of Suits, as well as on The Magicians, The Sinner, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, Difficult People, the Psych movies, Playing House, and many more.
Previously, she was employed at Trilogy Entertainment Group where she worked on such shows as The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.
Rand holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Daniel Sol
Daniel Sol, Co-Director, Co-Founder HollyShorts Film Festival
With a passion for film and filmmaking since childhood, Daniel decided to move to California in 2000 with an interest in the film business. After working on commercial productions as a production assistant for Tony Kaye Films and then acting in various films, he gained an understanding of the filmmaking process.
After graduating at Cal State Northridge in 2006, he realized that young filmmakers had very little access to industry professionals, and few options for screening their films. And thus, the HollyShorts Film Festival was born. Now in its 20th year and Academy Award Qualifying in 4 categories, HollyShorts has quickly become the most influential short film festival in the World, with Daniel guiding it as Festival Director and lead programmer and the HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series, which takes place each month at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres.
Aside from HollyShorts, Sol also battled daily with domestic exhibitors as a theatrical sales executive at Lionsgate from 2008-2014. Mr. Sol is also the co founder of the premium Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV content channel BITPIX along with co-founder of the production company 88th Street Productions. He proudly serves on the Film Augusta Advisory Board. Sol is also an Executive Producer of the short films THIRST and DESMONDS NOT HERE ANYMORE, currently airing on Hulu and is the Festival Co Founder of the 9th annual Hollywood Comedy Shorts Film Festival.
Wes Studi
Born in Nofire, Oklahoma, Wes is a Cherokee American actor and film producer who has won critical acclaim and countless awards. Hehas appeared in Academy Award-winning films, such as Dances with Wolves and The Last of the Mohicans, and in the Academy Award-nominated films Geronimo: An American Legend and The New World. He has also appeared in the films Hostiles, Heat, Mystery Men, Avatar, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and in the television series Penny Dreadful.
An Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member, Wes received an Academy Honorary Award in 2020, becoming the first Native American and the second North American Indigenous person to be honored by the Academy.
Ben Wagner
Ben Wagner is a co-founder of AKA Prod. Co., a production company with roots in the Reno/Tahoe area. Wagner is a writer, director, and producer who has created award-winning features and TV shows for studios including IFC, Lionsgate, Netflix, Millennium, and Hulu.
Kelly Ward
Kelly Ward is a past V.P. at Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Universal Studios. He has a Humanitas Prize for writing children’s animation and a Daytime Emmy for directing. He co-authored the animated feature films Once Upon a Forest, and All Dogs Go To Heaven 2, the latter of which he co-produced.
Ward began his career as an actor, co-starring in the movies Grease, Samuel Fuller’s The Big Red One, and Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit. Ward currently writes for film and television, and directs voiceover for Disney Television Animation, among others. For more than 20 years, Ward was a part-time faculty member of the USC School of Dramatic Arts, where he directed and choreographed dozens of stage productions ranging from Shakespeare to Sondheim.
CIFF Invited Guests
These are just a few of the special guests joining us this year! Stay after each screening for a chance to meet the filmmakers
and cast during the Q&A sessions!
Lillian Carrier
Actress - Tribeca Winner
NCIS: New Orleans, Horsegirls
Kristoffer Polaha
Actor, Writer & Director
The Shift, Wonder Woman 1984
Chris Parnell
Actor & Comedian
SNL, 30 Rock, Rick & Morty
Stephen Tobolowsky
Actor
Groundhog Day, Freaky Friday