Documentary Jury
Shirley Abraham
Shirley Abraham is a Cannes-prize winning documentary filmmaker. Her debut film, The Cinema Travellers, won 19 awards globally, including the National Film Award in India. She has recently made films for New York Times and the Guardian. She is a Sundance fellow and member of the documentary branch of the Academy.
Feature Jury
Geoffrey Wright
Geoffrey Wright is an Australian film director and screenwriter whose credits include his breakthrough 1992 film Romper Stomper starring Russell Crowe (which earned him AACTA nominations for Best Film and Best Director), and the acclaimed Metal Skin starring Ben Mendelsohn. Geoffrey co-created and directed a six-part television series sequel to Romper Stomper, which won the 2018 Logie Award for Outstanding Miniseries.
Jill Bilcock
Synonymous to the world of film-editing, Jill Bilcock is an immeasurable professional with the world’s most sought-after awards and titles to her name. With four BAFTA nominations, five AACTA awards (including the International Award for Filmmaking Excellence), and an Oscar nomination for Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge – Bilcock’s prolific collection of work includes six of the 20 highest-grossing films produced by Australia. Her credits further include one of Australia’s highest honours titled – the ‘Order of Australia’, which she received in 2018 for her extensive contribution to the Australian film fraternity. Some of her beloved films include - Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo +Juliet (1996), Muriel's Wedding (1994), Elizabeth (1998), Road to Perdition (2002) and The Dressmaker (2015).
The thrilling achievements in her life as celebrated by director Axel Grigor’s documentary, Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible (2017). The documentary pays tribute to Bilcock’s amazing career which spans over three decades and features commentary by an extended list of film personalities such as Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Kriv Stenders and Rachel Griffiths.
Nadia Tass
Awarded the Screen Leader Award for Outstanding Leadership, Achievement and Services to the Screen Industry, Nadia Tass is one of Australia’s most iconoclastic screen directors. Nadia’s work is recognised internationally with Australian classics “Malcolm” and “The Big Steal”. Among her subsequent films are “Pure Luck”, “Mr Reliable”, “Amy”, “Matching Jack” which have been lauded by audiences and awarded at film festivals internationally. Tass directs films and high-end television in the US for Universal Studios, Disney, Warner Bros, CBS and ABC, as well as the UK’s BBC. She was honoured with retrospectives of her work by American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, Moscow, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Hawaii, and New Delhi. Additionally, Tass has sat on film festival juries for the Hawaii Film Festival, St. Tropez (as the head of the jury,) Asian Festival Of First Films, Pune International Film Festival (as the chair of the jury), and most recently served as Head of Jury for Cinefest Oz. She also serves as a juror for the International Chapter of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), and in 2021 and 2022 has served as a juror for the DGA documentary award.
A consummate professional, Ms. Tass has given back to the industry by presenting MASTERCLASSES around the world from NEW YORK to LONDON to SINGAPORE to nearby NEW ZEALAND (Auckland & Wellington) and, of course, in Australia's major film cities of Sydney and Melbourne on many occasions. She regularly lectures at the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne University) and Deakin University (where she is an Adjunct Professor), and has guest lectured at Beijing Normal University, Yunnan University, Wuhan, Chongqing University and Beijing Film Academy in China.
Nadia has worked with actors of note both on stage and screen including: Ben Mendelsohn, Shailene Woodley, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Mia Farrow, Marcia Gay Harden, Rachel Griffiths, Harvey Keitel, David Strathairn, AnnaSophia Robb, Richard Roxburgh, Jami Gertz, Martin Short, Danny Glover, Connie Britton, Colin Friels, Rob Morrow, Yvonne Strahovski, Claudia Karvan, Damon Herriman, Brian Cox.
Nadia’s work has received over 70 international awards including Best Director AFI (“Malcolm”); Best Director, Milan International Film Festival and Best Film Cannes Cinephile Prix du Jury (“Matching Jack”); Le Grande Prix du Cinecole and Les Mureaux Grand Prix (Cannes Junior) at Cannes Film Festival (“Amy”).
Nadia directed the documentary feature “OLEG: The Oleg Vidov story”, which won Best Documentary at Prague Independent Film Festival and Best Film at Rhode Island Film Festival (2021) and was officially selected for Moscow International Film Festival (2021) and featured at United Nations Association Film Festival. Oleg is currently screening at many festivals around the world.
Nadia has a number of film projects in different stages of development. She also directs theatre in Australia, London, New York and the US.
Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand is one of India's renowned film critics/journalists, with a vibrant career reviewing numerous movies for over two decades. Owing to his successful career as an entertainment journalist, Masand has conducted famous interviews with big names like Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Guy Ritchie, and M Night Shyamalan alongside ace Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.
His impressive work as a film critic has earned him three awards for ‘Best Entertainment Critic’ from the National Television Awards as he continues to go about his job with a passionate affection for cinema.
Vince Colosimo
Vince Colosimo is one of Australia’s renowned Australian Film Institute Awards winning film, theatre, and television actor. With several award nominations and bagging awards such as the ‘Best New Talent’ and ‘Best Actor’ at the Sydney Film Critics Circle Award and Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF), Colosimo is a celebrated personality both in Australia and the United States. He is best known for his roles in Andrew Dominik’s Chopper, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, Ray Lawrence’s Lantana (for which he won the AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor), Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies as well as Australian Box Office hits such as Wog Boy 2 and Face to Face (which got him a nomination at the AACTA awards and won him the Best Actor award at NBFF).
His television roles in numerous shows such as Underbelly and The Secret Life of Us have made him one of the most recognised and loved Australian actors which the fraternity has witnessed till date.
In addition to this, the versatile actor has enjoyed a dynamic theatre career as well. He has featured in some successful productions such as The Wogboys (which was later adapted to a feature film), The Club, Piaf for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and the infamous Shakespeare inspired play, Twelfth Night for the State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Web Series Jury
Anna M.M. Vetticad
Anna M.M. Vetticad is a feminist, award-winning journalist and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller, The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with socio-political concerns especially the representation of marginalised communities in stories and storytelling. A profile by DailyO in 2017 described her film reviews as “brilliant feminist sociocultural and political dissections of seemingly harmless cinematic extravaganzas”. In a journalistic career that began in 1994, Anna has worked with several major Indian media houses: India Today magazine, Indian Express newspaper and Headlines Today (now India Today TV) where she was the channel’s Entertainment Editor, film critic and host of a weekly interview show. She is currently an independent journalist and runs the blog, annavetticadgoes2themovies. She is also a sought-after speaker on gender, cinema, the news media and various social issues at national and international forums.
Shubhra Gupta
Shubhra Gupta is an award-winning Indian journalist, author, and film critic who currently writes columns for The Indian Express. She has crafted an impressive career as a film critic for over thirty years, and has also written the book 50 Films That Changed Bollywood which centred around the development of the Indian film Industry.
Shubhra has also served as a member of the Central Board of Film Certification from 2012 to 2015. From this, we went on to win the Ramnath Goenka Award for Best Writing on Cinema in 2012. Shubhra is one of the most regarded film critics of India. We are privileged to have Shubhra join our IFFM web series jury for the 2022 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne!
