News

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - August 1, 2023

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The Jury of the

Aladerri International Film Festival

2023 edition and its President unveiled

Anand Varadaraj Founder and Artistic Director of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival in India will be the President of the Jury of the Aladerri International Film Festival 2023 Edition. Together with twenty one jury members, will select the winner of the Aladerri Award along with the winners of each Category of the 50 films in competition.

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The Jury

Anand Varadaraj - President
Director, actor, producer
India

Jovanny Evans – Vice President
Film critic

United States

Arti Savchenko
Film Director
Israel

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Carlos Camacho
Film Director
Mexico

Claudia Murdoch
Producer

United States 

Brent Kado

Artistic Director at Chicago Comedy Film Festival
United States 

Erik Bradley

Top 40 radio programmer
United States

George Cederquist
Stage director
United States

Jim Farmer
Festival director 

United States

Jitse de Graaf
Film director
Netherlands

John Capo
Professor at Lycoming College
United States
 
Jon Gann
Film Producer and Director
United States

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Jonah Koslofsky
Film director

United States

Komeil Soheili

Film director, writer & journalist

Iran

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Kristen McCabe

Actor & Producer

United States

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Laurence Gagne-Fregeau

Writer, film director & producer

Canada

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Lisa Rose

Festival Director

Australia

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Martijn Kramer

Film director
Netherlands

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Maya Ochoa
Film programmer

Mexico

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T.C. De Witt
Writer & film director

United States

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Xavier Diskeuve

Film director & producer

Belgium

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Stephanie Ripstein

Talent Agent & international Manager

United States

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Founder and Artistic Director of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival in India.

Actor, producer and ex-President of Suchitra Film Society - 50 year old organization. He is now the Director of Suchitra Cine Academy, where works are underway to start a first of its kind Cinema School.  Anand is also the Trustee of the Centre for Film and Drama.

Additionally, Anand collaborates and mentors many independent filmmakers and producers for their new ventures.

His experience with cinema is global with several International cultural Forums in his repertoire, including curating of Film Festivals and also as Jury for organizations across the globe.

The members of the Jury

Jovanny Evans – Vice President
Film critic

United States

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Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Jovanny Evans has called Chicago home since 2015. He received a degree in Media Art and Animation from the Art Institute of Portland and had previously studied Design at ITESO in Guadalajara. He is extremely passionate about film, TV and animation, and he’s very interested in the future of media and entertainment.

Currently he works for Univision Chicago as a Producer. His passion for film drove him to introduce movie segments to several of Univision's programming and has since become the film critic for the station and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

His impressive style and unique ideas have landed him opportunities to promote major productions from studios like Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, and Universal Pictures. On his segment Jovanny interviews A-list celebrities every week such as Halle Berry, Tom Cruise, and Anthony Hopkins, as well as Latino stars like Eugenio Derbez and Mauricio Ochmann. Jovanny is also invited to cover major local and national film industry events such as Sundance, SXSW, Cinema Con, San Diego Comic-Con, CLFF, and CIFF.

Jovanny produces weekly content that reaches thousands of film fanatics through TV, digital, and social media. With his unique style, charm, and personality, Jovanny is connecting Hollywood with the Hispanic audience. His segment ‘Movies con Jovanny’ air on Despierta Chicago and can also be seen in 18 Spanish-speaking countries on the morning newscast La Voz de la Mañana.

Arti Savchenko
Film Director
Israel

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Arti Savchenko is an Israeli filmmaker who was born in Chernihiv, Ukraine. He graduated from Tel-Aviv Minshar School of Art with Honorable Mention in 2020. His graduate film "Vlada Goes to London" won 65 awards and has been screened at 120 international film festivals including Palm Springs, Tallinn Black Nights, and BendFilm. Arti has a background in music, theatre, writing, and worked as a script supervisor in several feature films that included Oscar-nominated actors. Arti is currently finishing his first feature-length script in Tel Aviv.

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Carlos Camacho

Film Director

Mexico

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Carlos Camacho, film director and creator of social media content. With more than a million followers across all his plataforms, he is responsible for disseminating cinematographic and television content to the Spanish-speaking audience. In turn, he was recognized for being the director of "Sara", a short film that won the audience award at the Aladerri International Film Festival 2022.

Claudia Murdoch
Producer

United States 

As a co-founder of Cup of Joe Film, Claudia has produced Peter Azen's feature film, Cacaya, and she was an Executive Producer on Natasha Kermani's sci-fi feature film, Imitation Girl. She is currently in post-production with the narrative feature film Sora, written and directed by April Xiong, a New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Women’s Fund grant recipient. Claudia works as a Senior Human Resources Associate for the Jacob Burns Film Center, and she supports the organization’s artist-development programs.

Brent Kado

Artistic Director at Chicago Comedy Film Festival
United States

Brent Kado is content creator whose films, web series and commercials have played at top film festivals worldwide and have garnered him millions of online views.  He is artistic director at Chicago Comedy Film Festival, Actors on Script and LA Comedy Film Festival. Kado is also a professor at Columbia College. Most recently, Kado has founded a new talent management company, FlowFeel Arts. Visit Flowfeelfilms.com for all his information.

Erik Bradley

Top 40 radio programmer
United States

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Erik Bradley is Brand Manager / Music Director in Chicago and is the recipient of more than thirty Music Director of the Year awards from every music industry publication as well as the Radio Music Awards.

In addition to music radio programming, Erik formerly was the manager of the electronic dance production crew Jump Smokers (Ultra Records recording artists). Jump Smokers produced remixes for countless major artists and toured all over the world.  Erik booked the talent lineup for over 50 legendary radio station concerts in Chicago, working with a who's who of pop music superstars in the process.

George Cederquist
Stage director
United States

George is the Artistic Director of Chicago Fringe Opera (called “the city’s alt-opera company” by the Chicago Tribune), which premieres operas in English including experiential, immersive, and site-specific works. Directing credits include WOYZECK, THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER and THE GREAT GOD PAN, as well as the company’s long-running hit show THE ROSINA PROJECT, a Hip-Hop adaptation of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE. Camera opera filmwork includes L’ASSASSINO for Resonance Works Pittsburgh and the award-winning CORSAIR for the Decameron Opera Coalition.
In addition, George has directed opera scenes at Wolf Trap Opera and Chautauqua Opera, and new productions with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Pittsburgh Opera, the Bay View Music Festival and Chicago Folks Operetta. An inspiring mentor, George is the Producing Artistic Director of Opera and Theatre at North Park University and has taught courses, masterclasses and guest lectures at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, DePaul University, the University of Illinois and CCM.

A recipient of two American Prizes in Directing, George’s production of SILENT NIGHT was chosen as a winner of Opera America’s 2013 Director-Designer competition. As one of ten Americans to receive the 2011 German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, George served as a Regieassistent at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. George’s training includes residencies with Pittsburgh Opera, the Merola Opera Program, and Wolf Trap Opera, and an improvisation intensive at the Annoyance Theatre. He holds an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University and a BA in Theatre Studies and English from Yale University. George is a member of Steep Theatre Company and the American Guild of
Musical Artists, and a dual US-UK citizen.

To learn more about George, visit gjcederquist.com.

Jim Farmer
Festival director 

United States

Jim Farmer is the festival director of Out On Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival. He has overseen Out On Film since 2008 and has helped lead the organization to become an Oscar® qualifying film festival in the Live Action Short category. Earlier this year, Out On Film was named as the top film festival in the nation by the readers of USA Today/10 Best. Farmer has served on film festival juries across North America. Named as the 2019 Business Man of the Year from the Out Georgia Business Alliance, Farmer has been named to Atlanta Magazine’s Atlanta 500 Most Powerful City Leaders list in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.  As well, Farmer is an award-winning arts reporter for various publications across the U.S. He lives in Avondale Estates, GA with his husband, Craig, and dog Douglas.

Jitse de Graaf
Film director
Netherlands

Jitse de Graaf  (21) is a Dutch documentary filmmaker. His debut documentary Bloody Tradition - Agree to Disagree about the pilot whale slaughter on the Faroe Islands was an instant success at many film festivals around the world. The counter now stands at 16 prizes and his next documentary 'How to Handle the Wolf' will be released soon. He made the two documentaries together with fellow jury member Martijn Kramer. With his journalistic approach he creates an objective picture of the subject. In this way he tries to remove polarization and bring people closer together.

John Capo
Professor at Lycoming College
United States

John Capo is a professor at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in entertainment industry promotion, advertising, public relations, and related topics. He founded FEARnyc, New York City's biggest horror film festival, and co-founded The NYC Drone Film Festival, the world's first film festival dedicated to movies shot by drones, sponsored by NBC News and GE. He is a member of The Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts and a past winner of the New York Television Festival Pitch Contest.

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Jon Gann
Film Producer and Director
United States

Jon Gann is a film producer and director, creating award-winning commercial, documentary and narrative films since 2000. His most recent award-winning productions include the feature documentary "Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection", exploring the singer's career and struggle with an eating disorder through her friends and never-heard recordings, and the short documentary, "Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color," detailing the incredible life of the DC-based Black Woman abstractionist painter.

Jon has been a force in the film festival world, having created, consulted with and fostered dozens of events around the globe. He is the Founder of DC Shorts, a non-profit organization championing short filmmaking, and the creator of the DC Shorts Film Festival, one of the country’s premier short film showcases. Jon is also a founding Board Member and former Executive Director of the Film Festival Alliance, the first organization to professionalize the festival space. 

His books are staples for filmmakers and events organizers alike. “Behind the Screens: Programmers Reveal How Film Festivals Really Work” examines how programmers and organizers curate, collect, watch and select films for their festivals, with frank insights reveal the inner-workings of an industry that is often misunderstood. His follow-up tome, “So You Wanna Start a Film Festival,” explores the trials and tribulations of starting a new event, with lessons from both for- and non-profit festivals.

Jon has received the Television and Internet Video Association’s (TIVA) Community Partner Award, has been recognized by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities as an Artists’ Fellow. He has presented at over 120 universities, film organizations and film festivals worldwide, and has spoken at the International Film Festival Summit, Art House Convergence, and TEDxWDC. Jon has recently finished 10-years as the senior Advisory Board member at George Mason University’s School of Film & Video Studies. 

Jonah Koslofsky
Film director

United States

Jonah Koslofsky is a filmmaker and film writer living in Chicago. He has written extensively about the works of David Lynch and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he makes narrative short films about relationships. His last project, "In You, I'm Lost," was the 2022 winner of the Aladerri International Film Festival prize for Best Illinois Short Film. 

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Komeil Soheili

Film director, writer & journalist

Iran

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Komeil Soheili, is an award winning Iranian film director and producer. He graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Tehran before embarking on an inspiring journey of backpacking around the world for over five years.

Soheili has collaborated with a number of global networks, such as BBC, National Geographic, CNN, and Business Insider. His films have been screened on over hundred film festivals around the world, earning him prestigious awards such as the NAFF award at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) and the Golden Kapok Award at GZDocs. In addition to his filmmaking prowess, Komeil is an author, having written an instructional book on cinema and a book documenting his global ethnographic travels. Komeil has also served as a jury member at esteemed film festivals including the Busan International Short Film Festival in South Korea and the Meihodo International Film Festival in Japan. Komeil is the founder of Yooran Film, an independent film company based in South Korea.

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Kristen McCabe

Actor & Producer

United States

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Kristen is a midwestern girl who — to the dismay of her parents — was born with the heart of an actor. Her professional career began in Australia with film, national commercials, television, and theatre. While living in the Land Down Under, Kristen also worked for some of Australia’s biggest production and post-production companies. Upon moving to Chicago, Kristen combined her love of acting, marketing, and a good spreadsheet, and has produced eight short films. To date, they have earned over 45 laurels, including nine Best Comedy wins. Kristen is passionate about furthering women in film and has earned eight Best Acting awards. You can see Kristen’s work or get in touch at www.kristenmccabe.org 

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Laurence Gagne-Fregeau

Writer, film director & producer

Canada

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Theatre being her main background, Laurence is interested in the particularities of cinema, in all genres spectrum. From this curiosity emerges a first fictional short film "Parvis" which she scripts, produces, directs and edits in 2021. The following year, she directs the documentary short film "Cherry", which she also produces, directs photography, records the sound and edits. This artist is moved by human struggles, exchanges and interactions. She strives to contribute to an emphatic and kind dialogue within society.

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Lisa Rose

Festival Director

Australia

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Lisa was appointed as Queer Screen’s Festival Director in May 2017, after serving four and half years on the not for profit charities Board of Directors, including stints as Membership Director, Vice-President and President.

She was a founding board director of Queer Screen Film Fest who’s 10th edition will hit Sydney screens in August and curated her 6th Mardi Gras Film Festival in its 30th year in February 2023.

During her time at Queer Screen, the organisation has launched two industry initiatives to help fund Australian LGBTIQ+ films with the Queer Screen Completion Fund and Queer Screen Pitch Off awarding 30 projects $192,000 since their inception.

A passionate believer in giving voice to all forms of queer entertainment, Lisa is focused on showcasing and championing diversity and is also known for her somewhat amusing film introductions and her love of Australian Rules Football.

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Martijn Kramer

Film director
Netherlands

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Martijn Kramer (21) is a Dutch documentary filmmaker. In recent years Martijn Kramer has developed into an objective and critical journalistic documentary maker. With his documentaries Bloody Tradition - Agree to Disagree and How to Handle the Wolf - which he made with Jitse de Graaf, he made productions about polarized human-animal subjects. Despite this, he has also developed a passion for the game of football in his life. In the future he wants to combine his love of sports with making powerful documentaries.

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Maya Ochoa
Film programmer

Mexico

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Maya Ochoa is passionate about cinephilia, media culture, and film audiences. In particular, her interest is in reshaping how the public interacts with cinema from different social and cultural approaches in a much more globalized world. She has worked in a variety of roles at different film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, True/False Film Fest, Camden Film Fest, Los Cabos Film Fest, Ambulante, and many more. In addition to her programming roles, she is a freelance film development consultant and occasionally writes film reviews.

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T.C. De Witt
Writer & film director

United States

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T.C. De Witt is a multi-awarded writer/director of the feature films Friday the 13th Vengeance, A Christmas Sunset, and The Demon Detective. Originally from Wisconsin and now based in Los Angeles. His life has been devoted to the arts since he was a child. He’s been a stage performer, playwright, stand-up comic, film and television actor, radio DJ, podcaster, published author, recorded musician, and comic writer/illustrator. He is now a professional screenwriter and has been thriving for the past decade, regularly offering his talents to production studios in LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, and internationally. He’s provided content for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and several YouTube partners.

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Xavier Diskeuve

Film director & producer

Belgium

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Xavier Diskeuve is an Award Winning Director born in Belgium.

Filmography: La chanson-Chanson (2002, 22'), Mon cousin Jacques (2004, 28'), Révolution (2006, 16'), I Cannes get no (2008, 22'), Jacques a vu (2015, 85'), Uncle Maurice (2021, 22'), The Little Prodigy (Le Petit prodige) (2022, 22'), Domicile fixe (Sweet home) (2024, 22’).

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Stephanie Ripstein

Talent Agent & international Manager

United States

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Stephanie Ripstein founded S.K. Ripstein INC. in 2000. Since then, she has worked tirelessly on international screen projects in the United States (Hollywood), Mexico, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.

She represents great and well known talent from various backgrounds, which have performed in productions such as Traffic, L.A. Confidential, Fear the Walking Dead, Rambo, Sicario, Soulmates, The Rommanoffs, New Order, Narcos, 007's Licence to Kill, Gomorrah, Monarch, Mission Impossible, Human Animals, Coyote, How to Survive Single, Barb & Star Go to Vista del Mar, No man's Land, La Casa de las Flores, Selva Trágica, The Mosquito Coast, Luis Miguel, Gringa and many more international and Hollywood projects. 

The most recent international achievements for her agency are booking the leading role in “Cry Macho”, directed and starred by Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood; a co-starring role in the apple TV series “Acapulco” starring Eugenio Derbez, two of her new actresses in the female leading roles the “Billy the Kid” series (Epix) and “La Gloria”, an independent feature film starring David Morse and Bill Heck. Another big achievement was booking one of her actors in a co-starring role in the upcoming movie  directed by Angelina Jolie, “Without Blood”, starring Salma Hayek.

S.K. Ripstein Inc. has been crossing geographic barriers and handling international entertainment since the year 2000. Both the diversity of Hispanics in the USA and other global trends have led to diverse Latin American cultures prosperity. The fact that Hispanics represent the fastest-growing group of movie theatre attendees in the USA has helped make S.K.Ripstein Inc. team a vital promotional tool for the entertainment industry.

Today Stephanie Ripstein's name is a benchmark for professionalism, dedication, passion for her work, dedication, and honesty. 

It is no coincidence that she is one of the most respected and sought after managers and now agents in the international art scene.

To learn more please visit www.skrpr.com

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Alejandro Gonzalez

Festival Director