Programming
Programming Jury:
Andre La Guardia (he/him) is an editor and photographer from Winnipeg Manitoba.
Andre attended the Red River College Polytechnic Creative Communications program, where he specialized in Media Production. After graduating, he began his career as an editor with the award-winning production company Farpoint Films. Since then, Andre has worked on numerous television series, edited a feature film trailer that later screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, and designed key art for several shows.
When Andre’s not editing, he manages Farpoint Films’ social media accounts. During his spare time, Andre likes to spend his days thrifting and up-cycling previously loved furniture.
Iyunade Judah (b.1998) is a Nigerian born photographer and filmmaker based in Winnipeg, Canada.
Drawing on his Nigerian heritage, his photographs and films explore history, sexuality, identity, and love as a way of centring the African diasporic experience.
His unique style regularly incorporates elements of west African studio photography in his portraits often capturing vulnerable and intimate moments. In 2020, he was also one of the PLATFORM Photography Award winners.
Taryn Edgeworth is a writer, director and actress born and raised in Winnipeg, MB.
As a storyteller, Taryn has always been drawn to film as a means of connecting people and articulating internal worlds. She is inspired by introspective stories about the female experience, existentialism, self-discovery, and connecting with one another. After falling in love with writing, directing, and acting as a teenager, Taryn took to the industry with a passion to learn and share her vision. Taryn completed her Bachelor of Arts in Film & Theatre in 2024. Since graduating, Taryn has worked both on set and in a production office, and continues to pursue developing her own directorial works.
Award Jury:
Andrew Burke is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Winnipeg where he primarily teaches film and television studies. His book, Hinterland Remixed: Media, Memory, and the Canadian 1970s, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2019. His current project examines the representation of graphic and industrial design in films from the 1960s and 70s and is provisionally titled “Cinema and the Object-World of Modernity.”
Olivia Norquay is a film programmer and curator from Treaty One lands in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since 2021, she has been the Programming Coordinator at the Dave Barber Cinematheque. She is responsible for regular Cinematheque programming as well as a variety of special events, such as the monthly Trash Cult Tuesdays series and Bikini Drive-In, a monthly horror screening and discussion series. Along with Cinematheque programming, she is also a programmer for the Winnipeg Film Group’s annual Gimme Some Truth Documentary Film Festival.
Jeremy Guenette is a director, editor, writer, and producer working in the French and English film and television industry. His career spans feature film, television, documentaries, and short films, that have screened internationally. Some of his creative credits include writing and directing the award-winning feature film Mia. He attended the TIFF Filmmaker Lab with his feature script Among the Trees, currently in development, and recently completed production on the feature film Melaleuca, slated for release in 2024.
Other credits include directing the documentary series La Terre en nous - shining an indigenous perspective on climate issues and solutions across Canada. He was the picture editor for the award-winning feature film The Return and was a producer on the French drama series Edgar, El Toro, and Gabrielle Roy seasons 2 and 3.
Directing scripted film and television though, has always remained the ultimate goal: it is what excites and motivates him like nothing else.
Festival Staff
Festival Director
Eric Peterson
University of Winnipeg Department of Theatre & Film
Department Chair
Christopher Brauer
Office Manager & Student Advisor
Melinda Tallin
Theatre and Film Department Staff Advisors
Delton Kreller, Milos Mitrovic, Lise Raven, Colin Weins
Festival Founder
John Kozak