Meet the Jurors

METROPOLIS

1. Julie Anderson is the Executive Producer of Documentaries and Development at WNET. She oversees production and, post-production, delivery and distribution, and coordinating broadcast and non-broadcast aspects of productions for documentary limited series, single documentaries and is responsible for developing new programming ideas. Previously, Julie was programming executive for HBO Documentary Films, and the Executive Producer for ESPN’s 60-minute magazine series, E:60. Anderson was also a senior producer and director for HBO Sports and an Executive Producer at ESPN. She was nominated for a 2012 Academy Award ™ for her short documentary film, God is the Bigger Elvis.
2. Yoruba Richen is a documentary filmmaker who has directed films in the U.S. and abroad. Her latest film, The New Black, has won numerous Audience Awards and also won Best Documentary at the Urbanworld Film Festival. It will open at New York’s Film Forum next February and air on PBS next June.
3. Elizabeth Sheldon is Kino Lorber’s vice president. She oversees acquisitions and business development, as well as the company’s educational division. She is a frequent industry speaker, panelist and festival juror. She was recently recognized as one of the ’50 Most Powerful People’ in the documentary world by POV.

VIEWFINDERS

1. Jeff Cooperman is Managing Producer of The Colbert Report.  He has been on staff since its debut in 2005, and has developed/honed some of the broadcast’s signature elements, including the Better Know A District and Nailed ‘em! franchises.  He brings many years of experience producing network news to his current position.
2. Debra Fisher is the Global Director of Digital Sales at Cinedigm. In this role Debra oversees sales strategy for the company’s transactional digital business worldwide. Prior to joining Cinedigm, Debra was the Head of Digital and Television Sales at Oscilloscope Laboratories, where she oversaw the digital distribution of all Oscilloscope titles, including We Need to Talk About Kevin, Meek’s Cutoff and Shut Up and Play the Hits.  Debra also served as Head of Sales at Cinetic Media and Head of Ancillary Sales at Filmbuff, where she worked on over one hundred films, including Precious, Exit Through the Gift Shop and Taxi to the Dark Side. Debra began her career at Fremantlemedia and later worked at Sundance Channel and Lifetime Television.
3. Lucy Kennedy is Commissioning Producer for the Al Jazeera current affairs documentary series Fault Lines. She was Field Producer for the films Two American Families and The United States of ALEC. She produced investigative pieces for the PBS series “Need to Know” and worked on the PBS international documentary series Wide Angle.

SHORTS

1. Kathleen Lingo is the coordinating producer of The New York Times Op-Docs, the editorial department’s forum for short, opinionated documentaries.  Before joining The Times, she worked on news and documentary projects for outlets such as HBO, the IFC channel, WNYC, HDNet, El Diario-La Prensa, and Jigsaw Productions.
2. Libby Geist is a two-time Peabody Award winning producer and Director of Development for ESPN Films where she has worked for over five years.   She oversees development for all of ESPN’s long form documentaries, including the 30 for 30 and Nine for IX series’. Libby lives in NYC with her husband and baby boy.
3. Milton Tabbot is the Senior Director of Programming at the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) in New York.  Mr. Tabbot served as the U.S. Consultant for the Locarno International Film Festival for the 2006-2009 editions under Artistic Director Frédéric Maire and has served on festival juries for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Ashland Film Festival, and review panels for P.O.V. and BritDoc Foundation’s Good Pitch.  He served as a writer, editor and film programmer for first two years of the Tribeca Film Festival and a contributing writer for the Miami International Film Festival.