Meet The 2025 Jury.
Poulomi Pal
A Nehru Fulbright Post-Doctoral Gender Studies Research fellow affiliated with the Sexuality, Gender and Women’s Studies Centre, Amherst College, USA, Poulomi Pal has over seventeen years of experience in the development sector in India. Her work has been at the intersections of issues related to gender and gender-based violence, women and work, and formulation and critical analysis of policies.
Poulomi has worked with a diverse range of research institutions, non-profits, grantmaking organizations and the government in India. She has worked on a range of issues including women and work, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, technology facilitated online violence and violence faced by LBTs in forced marriages, among others. Currently, she is working as Program Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women at the India Country Office of UN Women. Previously, she has worked as Technical Specialist―Violence Rights and Inclusion at the Asia office of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).
Poulomi is passionate about films as a medium of expression and tool of politics, activism, poetics and aesthetics. It has been her longstanding dream to have her research, activism, programming world closer to the world of cinema and films. This jury work is in her individual capacity and not reflective of her organizational affiliation/s.
Sarah Gross
Sarah Gross is a politically engaged filmmaker, writer, and mother of three young adults. Her feature documentaries have been broadcast on public television internationally, and shown in festivals around the globe. Having grown up in a multi-racial family in the U.S., Sarah Gross has a deep personal connection to stories of racism, identity and belonging. She has dual nationality in the U.S. and Germany.
Maha El Boukhari
Maha El Boukhari is a Moroccan-Canadian actor known for her roles in Dark Hearts (Amazon Prime), No Man’s Land (Hulu), and Razzia. She also appeared in Deserts and played a lead role in the MBC studios series Asrar Al Nisaa for three seasons. Based in Vancouver, Maha is actively involved in the local film industry and works on both international and local productions. Fluent in several languages, she brings a broad cultural perspective to her work.
Nina Gielen
Nina Gielen is a producer-writer-director whose short films have been shown at numerous festivals in the U.S. and internationally. An independent filmmaker and nonprofit arts administrator, her professional interests also include festival programming and creative project development. She is a longtime screener for the Austin Film Festival and a judge for the NYC Midnight short screenwriting competition. She is eager to foster female-identifying and gender-nonconforming creators in the arts, contributing to on-screen and behind-the-scenes representation of women, as well as to elevate creators from all underrepresented groups.
Nina is Director of Operations of Filmshop, a nonprofit filmmaker collective based in New York, whose mission is to foster artists in developing new work through peer support and collaboration.
Elizabeth Weitzman is the author of Renegade Women in Film & TV, which chronicles the remarkable hidden history of Hollywood pioneers onscreen and behind the scenes. She was also a film critic for the New York Daily News from 2000-2015, and currently covers movies for The Wrap. She has interviewed hundreds of actors and filmmakers, and written about entertainment for publications like the New York Times, the Village Voice, Marie Claire, and Harper’s Bazaar. She has a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies from NYU, and is a longstanding member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Laura Sivis
Courage Films founder, Laura Sivis has worked for, co-developed and/or coproduced with major film companies including Goldtream Capital, Future Films, and Tapestry Films. Laura was a Fox Studios Executive, producer liaison for: MOULIN ROUGE, FARSCAPE, STAR WARS II, RED PLANET, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE2, THE MATRIX. Laura has over 30 producing credits including features OUR LIPS ARE SEALED (MK & Ashley Olsen, Warner Bros/Foxtel), ONE LAST LOOK, COLD & DARK (Luke Goss, Matt Lucas), I WISH I WERE STEPHANIE V (Screen Producers Australia Best Film nominee, IndieFest Winner, NYC IFF), S21 3D (Cannes, SMPTE’s 3D Award), Documentaries: INFERNO WITHOUT BORDERS (Best feature: Melbourne Documentary FF, Nature without Borders), MADHATTAN; Web Series: TRUMPED BY MUSIC; and awarding winning shorts: WRONG ANSWER (25+ FF), DESY (Tropfest). Former WIFT President, Mentor, Festival Judge. Passions include: new technologies, the environment, equality, justice, and tales of courage.
Guilds, Memberships & Committees: Australian Screen Industry Guilds’ board, Screen Producer Australia (SPA), SMPTE, Australia Screen Sound Guild (ASSG), Australian Cinema Pioneers, WIFT.
Elizabeth Weitzman is the author of Renegade Women in Film & TV, which chronicles the remarkable hidden history of Hollywood pioneers onscreen and behind the scenes. She was also a film critic for the New York Daily News from 2000-2015, and currently covers movies for The Wrap. She has interviewed hundreds of actors and filmmakers, and written about entertainment for publications like the New York Times, the Village Voice, Marie Claire, and Harper’s Bazaar. She has a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies from NYU, and is a longstanding member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Festival Sponsors.
Festival Partners.
