Festival Judges

Michael Armstrong Barr is an award winning storyteller. As an actor & singer, he’s created roles in Broadway workshops and performed in TV/film, Off-Broadway, and in national tours. Mike’s debut short as a filmmaker, DEAR AUNT NOA, played 40+ festivals, including GBFF 2020, and won over 20 awards including Best of Fest, Audience Favorite, Best LGBTQ Short, Best Actor, and Best Writer. He’s currently shooting a shepherd documentary and pitching a sci-fi pilot. In all of his stories, Mike is passionate about elevating the voices of underrepresented communities and fostering fellowship between diverse humans. He’s honored to view this year’s important work. 

Christie Conochalla is a writer/director from Los Angeles who has a passion for telling widely relatable sapphic stories. She is known for her screwball romantic comedy “Once Upon A Zipper,” her award-winning dramatic short “August in the City” and her feature film “Forever Not Maybe.” Most recently Christie is working on and releasing her sitcom entitled “Welcome Home” which can currently be seen on LesFlicks and other streaming platforms.

Deborah Espect is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in Brighton, UK.  

Deborah’s focus is on queer content and her mission is to bring positive queer stories into the mainstream. She also seeks to elevate other independent, LGBTQ+ filmmakers by showcasing their work as part of the festival that she runs, FilmPride, which is Brighton & Hove Pride’s official film festival.  

She is currently developing her first feature with Makelight Productions  and a documentary on local lesbian punk band Siren, with band members in their 60s and 70s.  

Deborah also works as Film Programmer for local TV channel Latest TV, where she hosts regular shows.  

Rick Hamilton is an award-winning filmmaker whose short films including “Seeing Glory, “Choices” and “The Fear Inside” have screened around the world and are available on multiple streaming platforms. He is Managing Director of the Chain NYC Film Festival and the Chain Theatre. He directed the hit Off-Broadway show Fabulous! The Queen of New Musical Comedies and the AUDELCO-nominated Gypsy. For more information on past and current projects, please see  www.rickhamilton.nyc  

Saif Hyder is founder of India’s Premiere Short Film Distribution Company ‘CineShorts Premiere’. An Artist at Heart with an Entrepreneurial bent of mind. With an eye for detailing & precision in understanding the business dynamics he has single handedly grown the company into multi-folds within a span of 18 months to become one of the fastest growing Indian short film distribution companies with a portfolio of more than 100+ titles to its credit. 

Shant Joshi is a queer Indo-Canadian producer based in Los Angeles and Toronto. His credits include the films Porcupine Lake (Toronto), International Dawn Chorus Day (Berlin, TEDDY Award Winner), Framing Agnes (Tribeca), and Noor & Layla (BlackStar); the hit web series Teenagers (CSAs); and the Dekkoo original series, I’m Fine (Outfest). Shant co-founded the Future of Film Showcase as a launchpad for emerging Canadian filmmakers, and he previously worked at the United Talent Agency, Buchwald, and Lit Entertainment Group (fka Madhouse Entertainment).  He is an alum of the Producers Lab at the Canadian Film Centre, holds a Certificate in Entertainment Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, and was named to York University’s inaugural Top 30 Changemakers under 30. 
 
Shant is currently a sitting member of the Restructuring, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Action Committee at the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Board of Directors at BIPOC TV & Film, and the Advisory Board at the Future of Film Showcase. 

Shawna Khorasani is an independent filmmaker who loves telling queer feel-good stories. She considers herself passionate about positive and accurate LGBTQ+ media representation, and strives to deliver that in her works. Shawna graduated with two English Literature degrees, but discovered her passion for film and story-telling in her last year of college. She adapted, wrote, produced, and directed a modern literary webseries based on Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. From there, she dedicated herself to learning everything she could about the film industry. From taking classes to working on sets to networking and making connections, Shawna loved every second of it. Her award-winning lesbian romcom LoverGirl was a major hit in film festivals during 2020. Shawna’s new romance short Popping the Question premiered on various streaming platforms in summer of 2021. Original and unique stories about women, the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and other marginalized groups inspire her to keep telling them. 

AJ Mattioli is the founder of Mattioli Productions, a Trans-owned and Queer-operated Film Production and Distribution company. We serve the LGBTQIA+ community by sharing our stories through groundbreaking globally distributed content. We believe representation matters. Queer Liberation, not Rainbow Capitalism.

Times Square Gossip, (AJ) “could very well be considered the voice of the LGBT community in the independent film world.”

AJ Mattioli (He/Him) is a Queens born, NYC based, Trans Producer/Director with 16+ years in the entertainment industry. 

His work has been celebrated at the Queens Museum, The United Nations, The NY Times, The Advocate, Huffington Post, Gay Star News, Go Magazine, and many others!

As the go-to Trans Producer for Queer filmmaking, he’s worked with some of the hottest LGBTQ+ celebs, including Sasha Velour, Shakina Nayfack, Bob The Drag Queen, Cory Wade, Rain Dove, Vincent DePaul, Carmen Carrera, Miss Fame, and many more.

Rosa Park is a sound artist and designer whose research interest is centered on the study of psychoacoustics, experimental music, Avant-Garde cinema, digital/mixed media, and the physicality of sound. Park explores various aural mediums and their sonic characteristics for film, video, and sound work, seeking unusual ways of seeing and hearing that unlock new experiences. She currently serves as Assistant Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, teaching courses in sound design and production, interactive cinema, and experimental filmmaking.  

Victor M. Rocha is a queer Mexican-American writer-director, born and (mostly) raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California. After graduating from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, he worked at Sony Pictures Entertainment in feature and television development while pursuing independent writing and directing. Currently, he is developing his half-hour comedy script, RAPTURED, with Sony Pictures Television and set to direct an independent pilot in the spring. 

Great story telling has been at the core of Victor Zaborsky’s 25-year career with the iconic got milk? campaign. A frequent judge of outstanding creative for national marketing programs, this is the first time as a judge for a film festival. Victor discovered his love of film, theater, and the arts at an early age. He performed as a young actor in dozens of local and semi-professional roles before and during college. And as a producer of memorable milk commercials, he has a keen understanding of the intense effort behind the scenes. From the inception of the idea, scripting, casting, directing, lighting, set directing, costuming, filming, and editing, it takes tremendous dedication, arduous work, and passion to bring these stories to life.  
Victor is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and lives in Miami, Florida.  

Born and raised in Montreal, Christine Zivic obtained an undergraduate degree in film editing from Université du Québec à Montréal. She worked on film sets as a Scripty, as well as a photographer before moving to Los Angeles to study directing and screenwriting. Currently completing her thesis at the UCLA school of Theatre Film and Television, Christine strives to give representation to outcasts and underdogs. Her upbringing in a French-Canadian and Serbian family, with an Autistic family member, informs her progressive outlook on cultural diversity and inclusion. She is inspired by themes of coming of age and invisible lives.