Judges

pieroBorn and raised in northern Italy, PIERO BASSO studied Cinema and Art Studies at the University of Turin where he graduated manga cum laude. There he analyzed the work of directors such as Truffaut, Kubrick, Lynch, and Wenders and developed a deep interest in visual storytelling. He was inspired by the images of artists like Boris Kaufman, Sven Nykvist, Robbie Muller and Conrad L. Hall. He graduated with a thesis on the works of David Lynch, knowing that cinematography would be his ultimate pursuit.He shot nine feature films, four with very low budgets showing a great capacity for managing the problems of limited equipment and crew while maintaining a distinctive visual character, as well as many short films and documentaries. They have been awarded important prizes and received international recognition, including nominations at the European Film Awards & at the David di Donatello and several victories at Festivals around the globe (including Oberhausen, Edinburgh, Turin, and Huesca). The latest feature film, Piu Buio di Mezzanotte (Darker than midnight), will have the world premiere in competition at the Semaine de la Critique at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.The main characteristics of Piero’s work are the strong visual personality, connected with a deep understanding of the moviemaking process and a great capacity of adaptation to work in various and demanding conditions and with different crews. He is able to work on large productions as well as with small crews using only available and practical light.
Piero believes strongly that the work of the director of photography is to understand the facets of the vision of the director and translate the whole, with special sensitivity to creative integrity, to the silver screen.
Marc MauceriA graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, MARC MAUCERI got his start in the film world as a production assistant, sound recorder and assistant editor on documentaries such as Blood in the Face, a look at neo-Nazis in contemporary American society. In 1988 Mauceri joined the independent film distribution company First Run Features, which specializes in award-winning documentaries and foreign films. Now its Vice President, he oversees the acquisition and release of forty to fifty films annually. Mauceri also produced and directed the documentary Lavender Limelight: Lesbians in Film, which played the festival circuit before premiering on the Sundance Channel. Mauceri lives with his wife and two daughters in Harlem.
RANIA ATTIEH, is a filmmaker and 2014 Guggenheim and 2012 U.S. Rockefeller Fellow in Film/Video. She was also named among the 25 faces of independent film by Filmmakers Magazine in 2011. Rania is from Tripoli, Lebanon. She has receivedrania_photoher MFA in Media Arts Production as awriter/director of Fiction from the City College of New York. She is an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch Graduate School of the Arts, MFA Film Program.Together with Daniel Garcia, she has co-written, co-directed, co-edited and produced many films to date. Their films have screened at the Forum de Images in France, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, MoMA, the Walker Art Center, and many prestigious film festivals around the world.Ok, Enough, Goodbye, 2011, their feature-film debut, has received many supporting grants (CINEREACH, SANAD) and garnered rave reviews (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Cahiers du Cinema, Reuters) and Best New Director in Abu Dhabi Film Fest, a Jury Prize in San Francisco IFF, Torino FF, Buenos Aires (BAFICI), Philadelphia, and Belfort. Recommended by Enrique, a narrative feature shot in Texas, will have its world premiere in main competition at the LA Film Fest, June 2014. They are currently in post-production of another feature, H., set in Troy, New York. H. has won production support and funding from the  Venice Biennale Cinema College program and will have its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, August 2014.