Seven distinguished jurors screened the competing films selected for viewing at this year’s festival and determined a winning entry in each category. 

Cathy Karol-Crowther (Animation) – Animator Cathy Karol-Crowther began her career in animation in 1973. She started as a background artist and assistant animator on TV specials, commercials, titles, and theme park films. She has completed eight independent animated short films that have played in film festivals around the world. She is a member of the Short Films and Animation Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is also a well-respected teacher at Santa Monica College in the Academy of Entertainment and Technology.

Peter Fox (Narratives) is a writer, actor, director and artist with 32 years of experience in Hollywood. He started writing while acting on the TV series Simon and Simon which bought and produced one of his scripts. He has been writing ever since and taught writing and directing in the nationally recognized “Making the Short Fiction Film” course at UCLA. As an actor Mr. Fox was a regular character on The Waltons and Knots the hit film. He has guest starred on Hill Street Blues, Dallas, Murder, She Wrote, and many other shows. In film he starred in Paramount Pictures’ Fraternity Row; A Minor Miracle with John Huston and Pele; and Airport ’77 with Jack Lemmon and Jimmy Stewart. His short film The Sorrowful Mysteries of Boomer Pastor, which he wrote and directed, was the recipient of the top CINE Golden Eagle Award. It can be seen on YouTube

Jürgen Gottschalk (Documentaries) a cinematographer born in Munich, Germany, works as a cinematographer, editor, and motion graphics designer. Having taught at various film schools around Southern California and the United Kingdom, he passionately promotes the power and value of documentary film and has enabled countless students to tell the story that inspires them. He is currently producing media for UC Merced.

Roger Hartman (Narratives) received BA’s in Communication Arts – Radio, TV, Film and South Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin. During a year in India, he produced and assisted with the production of multiple documentary films funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

While at Metrotape West, a subsidiary of Metromedia Inc., he worked with Norman Lear and other producers on numerous television shows and pilots including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, What’s Happening, One Day at a Time, A Year at the Top, All’s Fair, Fernwood Tonight, and Maude; also Soul Train, CrossWits, and Wheel of Fortune, as well as the film, The China Syndrome; and productions with Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Allen, Vincent Price, Ava Gabor, Charlton Heston, William Shatner, Carrol O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sherman Hemsley, Andy Kaufman, Paul Schaffer, Bernadette Peters, Richard Crenna, Michael Keaton, Mohamed Ali, and Jane Fonda.

For several years, Roger worked at RKO, General’s KHJ-TV, and on film production for Dimension Pictures. During a stint at Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios, Roger worked on a number of productions including One From the Heart, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish and The Black Stallion Returns.

Roger co-founded the Wisconsin Institute for Intermedia Studies (WIIS). During his tenure with WIIS, he received funding from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts to produce Cycles, a Circular Cinema Project, exhibited in a custom-built 360° theater, on eleven screens simultaneously using a restored Circarama system.

Heather Havens (Narratives) brings a lifelong passion for movies to her role as a juror for the Ojai Film Festival. She studied film theory and literary criticism at UC Santa Cruz, where she earned a BA in Literature before completing an MA in English at the University of Washington. Heather’s senior thesis on class, gender, and the male gaze in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda drew on the work of critical theorists Laura Mulvey and Kaja Silverman and was awarded the Dean’s and Chancellor’s Awards for Academic Excellence. After completing her education, Heather moved to Ojai, CA to raise her daughter. She has applied her background in film theory as a publicist and screener for the Ojai Film Festival since 2004.

Elizabeth Pepin Silva (Documentaries) – Writer, Director, Producer. For more than 20 years, She’s made films independently and as a staff producer at KQED, the PBS station in San Francisco. She has won five Emmy Awards and numerous film festival awards for her television and documentary film work including La Maestra, Coastal Clash, and One Winter Story. She is also a music licensing and archival research specialist. Elizabeth is currently working on a documentary featuring Ojai residents Dan Malloy and Charlie Benton, as well as a film on 1960s women surf pioneers Linda Benson and Joyce Hoffman.

Karin Stellwagen (Documentaries) – Producer Karin Stellwagen’s production experience includes national television series and cutting-edge video installations for major museums worldwide. She received a master’s degree in visual anthropology from USC and taught documentary film production at Brooks Institute in Ventura. Credits include New Heroes for PBS, Hannibal for the History Channel, “Wright Brothers” for PBS Nova, Rocket Challenge for Discovery, and Bataan Rescue for PBS American Experience. She served as production manager for renowned video artist Bill Viola, working at numerous museums, including the National Gallery of England, the Guggenheim, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Screeners

Thank you to our many screeners who did the first elimination round of over 300 films. The Screening Panel is made up of professionals with backgrounds in film or theater, as well as serious film fans from our local community.

Adrian Arriaga
Alessa Carlino
Angie Williams
Ann Horton
Art J. Amelio
Audrey Laubender
Bob Blackmur
Bobbi Corbin
Carla Mezori
Chris Gutschow
Connie Howard
Dessie Gomez
Heather Havens
Jackie Spafford
Norman Siderow (deceased)
Peter Parziale
RaeLynne Rein
Roxanne Abell
Roxanne Morales
Sarah Barrick
Sharon McBee
Sue Williams
Tisha Morris
Virginia Lawrence