Filminute is thrilled to welcome Neill Blomkamp to the 2010 Filminute jury. Neill is the Canadian-based, South African director of “District 9,” the sensational, independent, feature film that garnered 7 BAFTA nominations and 4 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture). The film, which film critic Lev Grossman calls a “grimy little scare-fi thriller from South Africa” brilliantly explores themes of xenophobia and social segregation and is inspired by events that took place in Cape Town’s District 6 during the Apartheid era. The film was produced by independent film great Peter Jackson.

Watching Neill’s six-minute science fiction short film Alive in Joburg (released by Canada’s Spy Films in 2005) will be an inspiration to Filminute participants. The leap from the short film into the feature length “District 9” perfectly demonstrates the potential of a strong core story idea and how it may extend into a successful feature film with global appeal. We look forward to his judging and feedback on this year’s collection.

This year Filminute is very pleased to announce that Mark Tutsell, Global Chief Creative Officer for Leo Burnett Worldwide, will represent the marketing and advertising industry on this year’s festival jury. Mark is one of the most awarded creative directors ever with his work garnering every major creative award in the industry, including the International Advertising Festival’s Cannes Grand Prix, 40 Cannes Lions, and the first-ever D&AD Black Pencil in Digital. He divides his time between Chicago and London, overseeing the work of Leo Burnett’s 94 offices worldwide.

Mark has also chaired and served on the advertising industry’s most prestigious awards juries, including this past May’s Cannes Lions where he was the Worldwide President of the Cannes Lions jury for film and press. Commenting on his role at Cannes he said that in today’s ‘Screen Age’, ‘film’ in all its forms “has taken on new meaning and importance” for the advertising and creative industries. Filminute shares Mark’s enthusiasm for the wide array of new opportunities that the Screen Age offers ‘filmmakers,’ and looks forward to his thoughts on Filminute 2010.

Filminute is once again very pleased to announce our cooperation with FIPRESCI, the international federation of film critics. This year FIPRESCI will be represented by Jan Lumholdt, the Scandinavian film critic for the popular Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Jan is also the author/editor of books on Lars von Trier, Harriet Andersson, and Per Fly.

FIPRESCI’s ongoing support of Filminute underscores the importance that the world’s leading film critics place on the impact of emerging technologies and media platforms on filmmaking today. Thank you FIPRESCI and welcome Jan!

Filminute is very excited to welcome film historian and critic Ronald Bergan to this year’s jury. In addition to his regular contributions to The Guardian, Bergan has also written over a dozen books on subjects ranging from Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Renoir & Francois Truffaut, to the Coen brothers. His Eyewitness Guide to Film (2006) has been published in 8 languages. He is also a frequent university and conference lecturer and has served on many of the major film festival juries around the world.

In 2009, Bergan’s Guardian article “One Hot Minute: How Long is a Piece of Film?” highlighted a growing sense among critics that films today often feel too long and that frequently it’s the result of director’s both forcing their films into a pre-established time frame as well as failing to engage audiences at the story level. The article praised Filminute’s collection of “technically impressive mini-movies” and the festival’s commitment and focus on ”story”. We couldn’t agree more! We are delighted to have Ronald Bergan join us on the Filminute 2010 jury.

Filminute 2010 is delighted to welcome Indian director & writer Tanuja Chandra to the jury. Chandra began her career in television before moving on to write and/or direct 7 feature films, including the 2008 film Hope & A Little Sugar which was her first English language film. She is one of a small number of successful women film directors in India.

Filmmakers from India embraced Filminute from the beginning, with a generous volume of films submitted, leading to some very strong shortlisted films including Missing, the People’s Choice winner from 2007. India also represents a significant portion of the festival’s international audience and we look forward to deepening the festival’s relationship with film fans in that country.

Tanuja Chandra was introduced to Filminute through our ongoing collaboration with the Santa Maddalena Foundation, the retreat for writers in Tuscany. We look forward to her unique perspective on this year’s collection.

Hillman Curtis is a designer, author, and filmmaker, and the Principal and Chief Creative Officer of hillmancurtis.com, inc. His numerous and prestigious design and communication awards, his pioneering work with Flash, and his widely popular books on design and film have earned him a reputation as a leading voice in interactive media and graphic design worldwide.

In 2005, Hillman Curtis published On Creating Short Films For the Web , an inspiring and instructive work on the subject. Since then, he has turned his attention increasingly to filmmaking and won acclaim for his documentary series; Artist Series, as well as an exceptional array of short films (one of which, ‘Soldiers,’ was adapted for the Filminute 2007 Shortlist).

Filminute 2009 is delighted to have Hillman Curtis on the jury. The shear extent of his creative experience mixed with his deep passion for film and the internet - “the most relevant medium of our time” – will no doubt lead to new and important insights for the world of one-minute films. Welcome Hillman Curtis!

Kamila Shamsie is a London-based, award-winning Pakistani novelist. Her first novel The City By the Sea, published in 1998 when she was just 25, won the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in Pakistan and was shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys award in the UK. Since then she has gone on to write four more novels which have picked up various awards and garnered her a selection as one of Orange's 21 Writers of the 21st century. Her latest work, Burnt Shadows, has been shortlisted for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction and hailed by Salman Rushdie as “an absorbing novel that commands, in the reader, a powerful emotional and intellectual response.”

Filminute 2009 is thrilled to have a writer of such talent, ambition and cross-cultural orientation on this year’s jury. We look forward to her take on this year’s group of stories.

We would also like to thank the Santa Maddalena Foundation for its ongoing support of Filminute and for nominating Kamila Shamsie for the Filminute 2009 jury.

Tham Khai Meng is the Worldwide Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather and widely recognized as one of the world’s most awarded creative directors. Advertising Age calls him “one of the world’s most influential people in the communication business.”

Born in Singapore, educated in London and based in New York, Khai’s career includes stints in Chicago, London and across Asia Pacific. where Under Khai's leadership, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific network was ranked the top creative agency in Asia for 8 years. He has also chaired and served on a number of jury panels around the world including Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, The One Show, and The London International Awards.

Filminute 2009 is thrilled to have Tham Khai Meng on the jury and looks forward to the insights that his worldwide experience will bring to the review of one-minute films. Welcome Tham Khai Meng.

The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) will be represented at Filminute 2009 by Pamela Biénzobas, a Chilean critic and journalist based in France. Ms. Biénzobas is a freelance writer for different media, and is co-founder and member of Revista de Cine Mabuse. She is also a vice-president of FIPRESCI and has sat on a number of prestigious FIPRESCI juries including Cannes, Toronto and Berlin.

The ongoing presence of FIPRESCI jurors on the Filminute jury is a point of great pride for Filminute, underscoring as it does the validity, influence and impact of the format on contemporary film culture. Pamela Biénzobas’ wealth of experience will no doubt bring new and exciting insights to the world of one-minute films.

Filminute 2009 is very pleased to welcome New York-based, Grammy award-winning graphic designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister to this year’s jury. Famous for album cover designs for Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, David Byrne and others, his design firm Sagmeister Inc has also mounted Solo shows in Zurich, Vienna, New York, Berlin, Japan, Osaka, Prague, Cologne, and Seoul. Sagmeister Inc’s client list includes HBO, The Guggenheim, and Time Warner.

Stefan Sagmeister has also presented at TED, the highly acclaimed conference on technology, entertainment and design. His most recent visit focused on his book Things I have learned in my Life so far, an excerpt of which screened at Filminute 2008.

Sagmeister’s has said that, "Great design is that which needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these guts in the final execution.” Such a statement could just as easily be applied to one-minute films. We eagerly look forward to his perspective on this year’s group of films.

Filminute is thrilled to welcome Taketo Oguchi to our 2008 jury. Mr Oguchi is editor-in-chief/publisher of SHIFT Magazine, hailed as one of Japan's and Asia's leading cultural webzines. Today, SHIFT serves as a vibrant cross point between Japanese and overseas creative cultures with a focus on international lifestyle, culture, art & design. The magazine is translated into 12 languages, features innovative applications like World Culture Maps, and generates 1,500,000 page views per month.

SHIFT is dedicated to promoting new artists and ideas and goes to great lengths to ensure that they are covering the leading creative events and happenings in Japan and around the world. SHIFT's own DOTMOV Festival in November happens to explore the possibilities of digital films and reaches out internationally with events in Sapporo, Sendai, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sao Paulo, to complement the online presentation of works.

Filminute welcomes Mr Taketo Oguchi and his vision of SHIFT as a perfect complement to the Filminute 2008 jury.

The Filminute 2008 jury extends a warm welcome to Francisco Goldman, prize-winning Guatemalan-American fiction writer and journalist. Mr. Goldman is the author of three acclaimed novels about cultural and political conflict in the Americas: The Long Night of White Chickens (1992), The Ordinary Seaman (1997), & The Divine Husband (2004) and has been hailed by critics as one of the freshest and most original new voices in American fiction as well as a "literary emissary between North America and its seething Hispanic underbelly." - "Guardian" (UK)

Francisco Goldman began his writing career covering the Central American wars in the 1980s, first for Esquire and later for Harper's, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. Like other Latin American writers, his relationship to narrative journalism has remained strong, resulting recently in his first book of non-fiction The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?(2007). The book, which began as an article in the New Yorker, is an account of the assassination of Guatemalan Catholic Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera, a crime perpetrated by the Guatemalan military.

We look forward to Francisco Goldman's worldly and insightful critique of this year's collection of one-minute films.

Filminute once again would like to thank the Santa Maddalena Foundation through whom the invitation to Mr. Goldman has come. The Santa Maddalena Foundation, a writer's retreat located in Tuscany, has supported Filminute since the festival's inception in 2005.

Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) is one of the largest, independently-owned advertising agencies in the world. With offices in Portland, New York, Shanghai, London, Tokyo, Amsterdam, New Delhi, and Beijing, W+K is also one of the most awarded and respected agencies of the 20th century. W+K was recognized as AdWeek's "Global Agency of the Year" in 2007.

The agency was founded in 1982 by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy. The agency's memorable campaigns for Nike, ESPN, Coke, and Honda, among others, have left an indelible mark on contemporary culture, eg. "Just Do It". The agency's creativity extends well beyond ads and into the creation of original content in music, graphics, and film.

Filminute 2008 is thrilled to welcome W+K co-founder David Kennedy to the Filminute 2008 jury.

Once again, Filminute is pleased to welcome a jury member from the prestigious International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).

Dr Andrea Dittgen is a board member of FIPRESCI and head of the German Film Critics Association. She is also the editor of the German daily newspaper Die Rheinpfalz, and writes for the bi-weekly film magazine filmdienst. She has published a book on German silent movie director Franz Hofer and contributes to various books on Cinema such as the International Film Guide.

Ms Dittgen has been a FIPRESCI juror at numerous international film festivals including Cannes, Miami, Mannheim and Oberhausen.

As a journalist, film critic, and seasoned juror well-versed in the history of film, Ms Dittgen's comparative insights and opinions at Filminute 2008 will be highly valued.

Welcome Dr Andrea Dittgen.

Filminute is very excited to welcome Academy Award-winning screenwriter, producer and film director Paul Haggis to the Filminute 2008 Jury. In 2005, he became the first person in history to have penned two consecutive Best Picture Oscar-winners for Million Dollar Baby and Crash. His other screenplays include Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, In the Valley of Elah (which he also directed), Casino Royale and the upcoming Bond film Quantum of Solace.

In addition to numerous other prestigious international film awards including a BAFTA , the Writers Guild of America in 2005 awarded Paul Haggis the Valentine Davies Award for "bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere."

Given the emphasis Filminute places on strong narrative, we look forward to Paul Haggis' insights and experienced eye for good stories.

Welcome Paul Haggis

Michael Ondaatje is an award-winning novelist and poet. His Booker Prize winning novel, The English Patient, was adapted into a film by director Anthony Minghella and went on the win an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1996. Michael Ondaatje has also won numerous other awards for fiction and poetry.

Filmamkers also owe a debt to Michael Ondaatje for his book The Conversations: Walter Murch & The Art of Editing Film, an invaluable non-fiction work that explores the uniquely powerful role of the editor within the creative process of filmmaking. "This is a sublime example of how to produce a fearsomely intelligent book about the aesthetics of film-making." Sunday Times (London)

The invitation to Michael Ondaatje comes through Filminute's ongoing relationship with the Santa Maddalena Foundation, the acclaimed writers' retreat and foundation in Tuscany whose focus is on celebrating and promoting the cosmopolitan and global reach of writing today.

Samira Makhmalbaf is an award-winning Iranian filmmaker. In 1998, at the age of 18, Makhmalbaf's first film Sib (aka The Apple) was accepted to the official selection at Cannes Film Festival making her the youngest director to achieve that feat. Makhmalbaf has gone on to win numerous international awards including Cannes jury prizes in 2000 and 2003.

Widely recognized as one of the best directors of contemporary world cinema, Samira Makhmalbaf is also a leading light in the New Wave movement of Iranian cinema. Artistically, Iranian cinema is consistently ranked among the world's most important cinema traditions.

The Filminute 2007 invitation to Samira Makhmalbaf was enabled by Wild Bunch, a film company dedicated to the development of the radical, the innovative, the visionary, and the truly extraordinary in cinema worldwide.

Kevin Roberts (http://www.saatchikevin.com/) is Chief Executive Officer Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world's leading creative organizations, employing over 7000 people in 83 countries.

Kevin Roberts is also the author of Sisomo: The Future on Screen, a book that looks at the central role of sight, sound and motion and the impact these element have in accelerating emotional connections in the digital age. In 2005, we first started exploring the significance of one-minute films as a valid, contemporary, and relevant genre. Our readings of Kevin Roberts and the concept of Sisomo were particularly inspiring. A great one-minute film will indeed bring sight, sound, and motion together to deliver a memorable impact.

Klaus Eder is the General Secretary of FIPRESCI (Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique) , the international body of professional film critics and film journalists based in Munich.

Filminute believes one-minute films need to be critiqued at the same level of scrutiny as feature films.. Klaus Eder's presence at Filminute 2007, as well as the presence of the other respected jurors, sends a clear signal to filmmakers and creative producers worldwide that Filminute's core interest is in featuring one-minute films that reach the highest standards of quality available today.

Kenichi Kondo is a curator with a specialty in video art at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. The Mori Art Museum is one of the most exciting and innovative international contemporary art museums in Asia.

The Mori's acclaimed open attitude toward contemporary art and culture was clearly demonstrated in its massive 2006 Bill Viola retrospective and its 2007 John Wood and Paul Harrison Show, both of which Kondo was involved in. These and other exhibitions underscore the Mori's commitment to showcasing ground-breaking work from the contemporary, moving image field, as well as to providing an international platform for emerging and established artists and filmmakers throughout Japan, Asia and the world.

Filminute Executive Director, Head of Jury.

Filminute Executive Director.