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
Bruce Beresford
Bruce is an Australian Director who has made more than 30 films over a 50 year career. Beresford’s films include Breaker Morant (1980), Tender Mercies (1983), Crimes of the Heart (1986) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989) which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture. His other films include Black Robe, Silent Fall, Ladies in Black and Mao’s Last Dancer, which broke records at the Australian box office and won numerous film-festival honours. In addition to films, Bruce has also directed several operas and theatrical productions.
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.
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.
Streaming Platform Awards (Available in Australia) Jury
Adrienne Mckibbins
Film journalist Adrienne has had a long-standing interest in Indian Cinema. She has published a number of articles on Indian cinema, and was a member of the nomination council advising on Indian film for the Australia Pacific Screen Awards.
She acted as researcher on Indian cinema for the co-production between APSA and CNN film on Asian cinema.
Adrienne has served on a number of Asian film juries including the FIPRESCI jury at the Delhi Film Festival . Adrienne is currently the awards manager for the Film Critics Circle of Australia.
Anna M.M. Vetticad
Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning Indian journalist and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller, The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. A profile by DailyO in 2017 described her film reviews as “brilliant feminist sociocultural and political dissections of seemingly harmless cinematic extravaganzas”.
In a 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 hosted a weekly interview show. Her writings as an independent journalist since 2011 have been published by Caravan, Al Jazeera, Times of India, Forbes, Hindustan Times, Himal Southasian, Firstpost, The Hindu and BBC online among other platforms. She also runs the blog annavetticadgoes2themovies. Anna is a sought-after speaker on gender, cinema, free speech and various social and political issues at national and international forums.
Naman Ramachandran
Naman Ramachandran is an international correspondent with Variety with South Asia, Southeast Asia, U.K. and Ireland as territory specialities. Naman’s work as an author includes Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography (Penguin) and Lights, Camera, Masala: Making Movies In Mumbai (IBH). He is the writer and a producer of Netflix original film Brahman Naman.
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!
