2026 SFiFF AWARDS
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient - Pam Grier
Visionary Award Recipient - Zahn McClarnon
Overall Audience Choice Award:
La Bola Negra - directed by Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi
Audience Choice Narrative Feature:
Wild Horse Nine - directed by Martin McDonagh
Audience Choice Documentary Feature:
Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff - directed by Nanette Burstein
Audience Choice Documentary Short:
Gladice - Directed by David Byars
Audience Choice Narrative Short:
Empty Lands - Directed by Karim ElDin El Alfy
Audience Choice Animated Short:
Till Death Does His Part - Directed by Nathan RJ Fox
Best Narrative Feature Jury Award Presented by Panavision:
Smudge the Blades - Directed by Cody Lightning
Special Jury Award Narrative Feature:
La Gradiva - Directed by Marine Atlan
Best Documentary Feature Jury Award:
Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising - Directed by Shane Belcourt
Special Jury Award Documentary Feature:
threeASFOUR: Full Circle - Directed by Sean Ono-Lennon
Best New Mexico Feature Jury Award:
Burn, Scar - Directed by Hillary Bachelder
Academy Award® Qualifying Best Narrative Short Jury Award Presented by Panavision:
The Oracle - Directed by JJ Adler
Academy Award® Qualifying Best Documentary Short Jury Award:
The Baddest Speechwriter of All - Directed by Ben Proudfoot
Academy Award® Qualifying Best Animated Short Jury Award:
Acid City - Directed by Jack Wedge & Will Freudenheim
Best New Mexico Short Jury Award:
In Between - Directed by Brent Morris
Best Indigenous Short Jury Award:
Mirumiru (Bubble) - Directed by Allan George (Ngāti Kahungunu)
Best Experimental Short Jury Award:
Yonsei - Directed by Rachel Michiko Whitney & Jeff Mizushima
SFiFF Jury 2026
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Alexandra Fredricks - Alexandra Fredricks handles Non-Theatrical Distribution and International Sales at Oscilloscope Laboratories. Alexandra has also been Programming and Operations Senior Manager at Metrograph and Film Screening Operations Manager at the Doha Film Institute. Over the past 15 years, she has served over the years on a number of Jury and Screening Committees, and as a talent liaison for New York Film Festival.
Danny Rubin - An award-winning screenwriter and playwright, Daniel Rubin co-wrote with Harold Ramis the screenplay for Groundhog Day, for which the two received a BAFTA Award.
Kathleen Broyles - President of the Board of The Milagro Initiative, and is a consultant to Sundance Institute, where she has worked since 1990. Broyles is also a location casting director known for productions like Honeydripper and Silver City.
Jhane Myers - A Sundance and Time Warner Storyteller Fellow known for film producing, Native language, Native cultural advising, acting, fine art, and most recently for the film Prey.
Cassidy Freeman - Known for her roles in television's The Righteous Gemstones, Smallville, and Longmire, actress and musician Cassidy Freeman also acted in and produced the stunning New Mexico-filmed feature length drama, Cortez.
Maura Dhu Studi - A Two-time Emmy winner for writing and producing the award-winning documentaries Canes Of Power and However Wide The Sky by Silver Bullet Productions, Maura Dhu Studi also Associate Produced and wrote narration for A Thousand Voices and Defending The Fire.
Max Geschwind - Former editorial at The Hollywood Reporter and host of “The Hollywood Podcast,” Max Geschwind works at Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Glenn Silber - An Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker and long-time network television news producer who produced more than 80 primetime news stories for CBS News and ABC News, as well as several feature documentaries for broadcast on PBS. Two-time Academy-Award® nominee Glenn Silber is an influential producer, and he has directed films like The War At Home and Atomic Artist.
Kirby Dick - Academy Award® nominated director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith and The Invisible War.
Sandrine Cassidy - USC’s School of Cinematic Arts director of Festivals and Distribution, Sandrine Cassidy counsels current students and alumni on how best to work their shorts in the festival circuit. Sandrine is also the Producer of award winning shorts and features. She has been on the Tribeca Festival screening committee since 2015 and serves as a mentor for the Film Independent Global Media Makers.
Alexandria Bombach - Alexandria Bombach is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor from Santa Fe, NM. Her feature-length documentaries, Frame by Frame (2015), On Her Shoulders (2018), and It’s Only Life After All (2023) have earned her nominations for Film Independent Spirit Awards and numerous film festival awards. Alexandria is the founder of the Santa Fe Editing & Writing Residency, a 2019 Sundance Institute Momentum Fellow, and a 2019 Chicken & Egg Award Fellow.
Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso - An Award-winning queer Navajo filmmaker, and a recent fellow with the Firelight Media Documentary Filmmaker Lab as well as director of the multi-award winning documentary, Powerlands.
NEW MEXICO FEATURES
Ed Khmara - Known for his work as an American screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is best known for his work on Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
Ryan Lacen - Hailing from New Mexico, Ryan is an award-winning writer and filmmaker whose first feature, The Dust Storm, was produced and sold to HULU. His follow up feature All the World is Sleeping flipped the narrative on substance abuse with a stellar cast of Melissa Barrera (In the Heights, Scream) and Jackie Cruz (Orange is the New Black); the film won the Best New Mexico Narrative Feature at 2021 SFiFF.
Amanda Lundquist - Amanda Lundquist is a director, editor and writer. She is known for her work on the recent feature film Pinsky, which won SFiFF’s 2017 Best Narrative Feature Award, as well as for television shows on PBS, A&E, and Discovery.
Jenna Naranjo Winters - Director of the 2025 Best New Mexico Documentary Feature, Dream Touch Believe, Jenna Naranjo Winters is an award-winning journalist, television producer and first-time documentary filmmaker with over 25 years experience specializing in investigative reporting.
NARRATIVE SHORTS JURY
Kate Chamuris, Barr Potter, David Brownlow, Tracey Adlai, Stacey Pianko, David Greenspan
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS JURY
Yvonne Ashley Kouadjo, Ivan Williams, Michael Renov, Doe Mayer, SK Baudhuin
ANIMATED SHORTS JURY
Kimberley Browning, Barbara Doyle, Toby Cochran, Andy Pollack
IINDIGENOUS SHORTS JURY
Deanna Allison, Natalie Benally, Sisa Quispe, Sabrina Saleha
NEW MEXICO SHORTS JURY
David Gil, Nina Conti, Scott Rorie
EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS JURY
Matthew Spain, Deborah Torres, Yalian Li
