Jesse Wente

Jesse Wente is the Head of Film Programmes a TIFF Bell Lightbox. His responsibilities include film scheduling, programming new releases, and overseeing series and TIFF Cinematheque programming. Some of his contributions to programming include retrospectives on Roman Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ousmane Sembène, and Studio Ghibli. The First Peoples Cinema: 1500 Nations, One Tradition and its accompanying gallery exhibition Home On Native Land marked Wente’s first major curatorial project t TIFF Bell Lightbox. Wente has also been a programmer for the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Festival.

Alex Rogalski

Alex Rogalski programs for Hot Docs and is a Short Cuts Canada programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival. Rogalski regularly travels across North America as the Co-ordinator of the One Take Super 8 Event. His Super 8 programmes have been featured at the National Arts Centre, Images Festival, Pop Montreal, and the WNDX Festival of Avant Garde Film. He has also curated film programmes for the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Toronto, Pacific Cinematheque (Vancouver), and Winnipeg Cinematheque.

Iris Ng

Iris Ng is a Toronto-based freelance cinematographer who has been collaborating with award-winning filmmakers and artists for over a decade. Her credits in narrative, art, and documentary films in addition to commercials, music videos, and series television have taken her to dynamic locations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and across North America. Her work has been screened in festivals aninstallations around the world.

Howie Shia

Howie Shia is a Toronto-based illustrator, animator, and composer. His is a co-founder of PPF House, an animation, design, and music studio dedicated to creating both inependent work as well as commercial animation, illustration, and music for the likes of UN-Habitat, Disney, Nike, and the NFB. Shia’s short films have screened and won awards at festivals and galleries around the world, and he is currently developing series concepts for Disney UK.

Sharlene Bamboat

Sharlene Bamboat is a Toronto-based mixed media artist, working predominantly in film, video, and performance. Her work explores queering the narratives of diaspora, migration, and nationalism. Bamboat’s work has screened across Canada, Germany, India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. She is on the programming committee of the Pleasure Dome Film & Video Collective and is the programmer for the South Asian Visual Arts Centre.

Barbara Goslawski

Barbara Goslawski has worked in several key areas such as writer (POV, Globe and Mail, CinemaScope), broadcaster, and independent programmer for diverse organizations such as the Independent Film Channel, FilmForest Cine-Club at the University of Brussels, and the Surprise Film Festival in Taiwan. Other career highlights include her arts administration position at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and her recent Canadian Bureau Chief service for Box Office Magazine (USA).

Silva Basmajian

Silva Basmajian‘s catalogue of more than 80 NFB films has garnered numerous awards and has led to screenings at many international festivals, including Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance. Basmajian is currently an Executive Producer at the NFB’s Ontario Centre and champions projects that redefine documentary film, such as the award-winning and ongoing Highrise, a multi-year, multi-media collaborative documentary project about the human experience in global vertical suburbs.

Paritosh Mehta

Paritosh Mehta joined OMNI Television, a division of Rogers Media Inc. and one of Canada’s largest integrated media organizations, in December 1998. As Director of Independent Production Development, Mehta is responsible for directing original programming from 28 community groups, enforcing compliance with OMNI’s licensing commitments, and managing the overall budget and contract management function for independent productions.

Richie Mehta

Richie Mehta‘s debut feature film Amal shot to critical acclaim and helped define him as one of the stars of Canadian film. It has won more than 30 international awards, was nominated for six Genie awards, and was named on of the Top 10 Canadian Films of the Decade by Playback Magazine. Also written by Mehta, Amal is currently being adapted into an American remake by Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Films. Mehta’s short films have screened and won prizes at international festivals including Berlin, Telluride, Worldwide Shorts, Palm Springs, and the United Nations.

David Wu Tai-wai
Special Guest Pitch Juror

David Wu Tai-wai is a prolific director, editor, producer, actor, and writer who first established his name as a creative force in his native Hong Kong before bringing his impressive talents to the North American film and television industry. Wu has teamed with long-time collaborator John Woo on action clossics including A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled. Recently, he has helmed many TV series and directed & edited Plague City, a CTV feature movie about the SARS epidemic in Toronto, for which he as nominated for Best Director at the 2006 DGC Awards.