Judging Team

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Maddalena Kingsley is an award-winning director, cinematographer, writer, and the founder of Random Magic Productions; an independent film production company specializing in narrative films, based on classics, myths, legends, history  and fairytales, including Prometheus Bound, Psyche and The Brothers Great.  Kingsley has worked with well-known actors and composers from across the industry. Her work has been featured in more than 30 prestigious film festivals.  

For more than thirty years, Johanne Chagnon has adopted a diversified artistic practice (installation, photography, video, writing, performance, community art, artivism) in addition to exploring various forms of distribution and various types of presentation venues, often unconventional. More recently, she has turned to art video in which she can bring together her past experiences. Her videos have won several nominations in various festivals around the world. She has been involved for over 15 years in the art magazine ESSE as coordinator and editor. From 2000 to 2017, she also developed Engrenage Noir, an organization which works to support community action art. Last year, she published the monograph «Naviguer malgré tout [Navigate anyway]» which traces her practice from 1986 to 2015.

Nikita Hattangady is a filmmaker and writer in the DFW metroplex in Texas, USA. 

Her film Falafel, an internationally award-winning Romantic Comedy set in London, has travelled to over 50 festivals across the globe. She is in pre-production of her next film, an inspirational drama set in Mumbai, India.

She is Head of Programming at Indica Pictures, a platform for independent filmmakers who showcase India’s heritage, and advance pluralism through their craft.

Her publication, “We Are American” is a children’s book on diversity in America and is used in various school districts as a teaching tool.  

Nikita’s greatest passions are storytelling, spending time with her family and learning new cultures and languages. Nikita has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration and Telecommunication Engineering.        

Born  in Rome, Italy, and based in New York, Stella is an actress, playwright, screenwriter and producer. She has been working in Theater since the age of 16 as an actress and started writing and producing when she was 23 after graduating in Languages at the University Roma Tre. Among all her productions, she was awarded for several plays including  “How To Become  Widows Without Affecting the Criminal Record", “There It  Comes The Light, “My Birthday", “Lions Don’t Hug". She also co-wrote, acted and co-produced  the short movie L’Appuntamento (The Date), awarded with the Golden  Globe in 2013. She  is currently writing her first feature film in English and she is  working on her first direction of the Off Broadway play Lions Don’t Hug,  selected at the New York Theater Festival and on stage at the end of  January 2020. In 2018 she founded the blog Ninablablà.

Francis Amat started his career as a musician, music producer, score-writer, and songwriter in Spain. Francis Amat has 30 years of experience in arts and entertainment. His professional career began at 17, with the formation (and Warner Bros. signing) of his band Pato de Goma (Rubber Duck.) In the ensuing years, his career as a songwriter and producer flourished through collaborations with some of Spain’s most recognized talents, including: Ana Torroja, Azucar Moreno, Estopa, Ana Belen, La Oreja de Van Gough, Guarana, etc. For over 20 years, he wrote and produced the scores of countless television shows, including the title score for Hospital Central—one of Spain’s longest running television dramas.  His work for Hospital Central was awarded the prestigious international Award Premio Ondas in Spain.  In 1998, his score for “Canal Cocina” (Spanish Cooking Channel) won the Bronze Medal for Original Score at the New York Festivals.  He has also written original musical scores for documentaries such as “De Campo y Sin Merienda” (“At Camp and Without a Snack”) (Telemadrid, 1992); “Fauna Callejera” (“Street Fauna’) (RTVE 1997-98); and “Vietnam: Vida Tras La Muerte” (“Vietnam: Life After Death”) (RTVE, 1997-98)— a Finalist at the New York Film Festivals as Best Documentary.  In 2009, he wrote the score for the full-length feature film 25 Kilates (“25 Carats,”) winner of the Silver Medal for Best Film at the 12th Film Festival of Malaga, Spain (2009) and the original score for the short “MUS.”  What began with music production has transitioned into filmmaking. In 2020 He produced, wrote and directed the feature documentary “Unraveling Athena”. A documentary about the journey of the female number one tennis champions of all time, featuring 20 number one players in the film. The film has been awarded with 13 awards from all over the world, as best sports documentary, best feature documentary and best edit, including the festival award at the Manchester film festival for best editing. The film was licensed by Amazon prime. He is working in some new projects. 

Born and raised in Florence (Italy), Massimiliano is a film director and screenwriter. He had a degree in film directing at the Immagina Film School of Florence. Between 1995-2003 he worked as assistant director, editor, camera operator, for more than 20 music videos and commercials (Gucci, Tim, Gas Jeans, UnoAerre Jewellery, Piaggio, Coop, etc). In 2000 he has taught film directing at Immagina Film School of Florence. Between 2000-2003 he has edited and conducted the movies column for Interpuntonet magazine. He has been a Jury member for: Roma Fiction Fest, London Indie International Film Festival, World Music & Independent Film Festival (Washington D.C), New York International Screenplay, Tulipani di Seta Nera Festival in Rome. He wrote and directed nine short films and one commercial and he wrote four feature-length screenplays. He won 144 awards (47 first places) around the world: 89 awards (31 first places) with his short films and 55 awards (16 first places) with his feature-length screenplays.