CINEMA COLUMBUS FILM FESTIVAL 2024
Cinema Columbus celebrates the diverse people and stories brought to life by independent filmmakers, sparking curiosity, conversation, and understanding through independent film.
Cinema Columbus works collaboratively with venues throughout central Ohio to establish an outstanding annual film festival bringing independent film from around the globe, and here at home, to our audiences.
AWARDS AND PRIZES
Cinema Columbus, in partnership with Gateway Film Center, is proud to present four awards for this year’s festival – three juried competition awards and one voted on by the audience!
Each of our competitions will have three jury members per category who will deliberate and judge what they deem to be the “best” of their respective competitions, selecting one winner to take home the prize. These jury members are esteemed individuals of the film industry across education, writing/directing, film festival programming, and more.
Our Audience Choice award will be decided by you, our moviegoers. Before each feature film screening, you will be handed a ballot to vote for the film on a scale of 1-4, with your completed ballot going to a Cinema Columbus representative after the screening.
All awards presented at our festival go directly to the creators. We believe in celebrating and empowering filmmakers, ensuring that their talent and hard work are recognized and rewarded.
Stay tuned for the winner to be announced on Sunday, April 28!
Audience Choice Award: $3,000
Documentary Feature: $2,000
Narrative Feature: $2,000
Short Film: $1,000
NARRATIVE FEATURE JURY
Narrative Feature Film: A narrative, animated, or experimental film 41+ minutes in length
SCHON DUNCAN (ᎤᎶᎩᎳ)
Schon Duncan (ᎤᎶᎩᎳ) is an Oklahoma writer-director and citizen of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee.
They made their directorial debut with the documentary, ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak), which won “Best Oklahoma Feature” at the Oscar-qualifying deadCenter Film Festival and was a previous selection of Cinema Columbus.
As an ardent advocate for the art of cinema, Duncan has sought to highlight the grassroots voices of underrepresented communities and center their own culture in all their creative works.
With that in mind, they are honored to lend their eyes to Cinema Columbus Film Festival and contribute to celebrating outstanding filmmaking and honoring new voices in independent cinema.
DREW JOHNSON
Drew Johnson is a multi-faceted, award-winning producer originally from Iowa now living and working in Columbus, Ohio.
Drew’s first feature film “Poser”, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and found theatrical distribution through Oscilloscope Laboratories. With “Poser” he was also a 2020 Gotham Fiction Feature fellow.
His work has screened at numerous festivals in the U.S. and abroad including Filmfest Hamburg, American Film Festival (Poland), and the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival.
Drew also co-produced “Schille”, a documentary short about the life of painter Alice Schille, which received a regional Emmy® nomination.
In 2017, he produced “Down & Dirty”, an indie documentary that follows busking culture in New Orleans.
He is also co-owner and executive producer of the Columbus-based production company, Loose Films.
IVONNE COTORRUELO
Ivonne Cotorruelo is a Cuban Film Curator and former producer based in New York, who has been empowering storytellers for over a decade. She is a Features Programmer at Cleveland International Film Festival CIFF, Miami International Film Festival MIFF, Outfest LA, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival TTFF.
In the past she was a Shorts Programmer for Aspen ShortFest and Features Doc for Atlanta. She has served as Juror for Film Festivals around the globe, and as reviewer for The Chicken and Egg Fund, Warner Media New Voices Initiatives, Black and Latino Inclusion Fellowship in LA, and Disney.
A Berlinale Talent Campus alumnus, she is always seeking out stories for underrepresented voices. Working on a plan of strategic diversity, equity and inclusion.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE JURY
Documentary Feature Film: A documentary film 41+ minutes in length
IRENE KIM CHIN VINCENT
Irene Kim Chin Vincent is a filmmaker based in Athens, OH.
In 2015, she produced her first film, The Lost Arcade, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and DOC NYC. The New York Times called The Lost Arcade, “part scrappy, part sweet, and wholly enjoyable”.
In 2017 Vincent directed “Friends of Wonder”, a Kurt Vile Courtney Barnett music documentary.
Her Emmy nominated documentary, Schille (2020), was distributed nationally through PBS.
She most recently completed Saturday In the Park (2023), which is narrated by Steve Buscemi.
JOANNE FEINBERG
Joanne Feinberg is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and curator. She brings over 25 years of film production experience, and thousands of hours of thoughtful film viewing, to her work.
As the Director of Programming at the Ashland Independent Film Festival for 11 years, she was instrumental in creating this nationally recognized and highly respected top regional festival admired by industry, filmmakers and audiences alike.
She was the Guest Director of Programming at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2020, 2021, and 2024, has also programmed for BendFilm, DocLands, and Mountainfilm, and serves on many juries and selection committees including the Cinema Eye Honors.
Joanne graduated with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a combined degree in Cinema Studies and Film & TV Production. Her co-producing credits include GASOLINE RAINBOW (2023) directed by Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross.
A deep love and understanding of cinema informs all of her endeavors.
CHASE HILT
Chase Hilt is the Senior Supervising Producer at Mythical, the studio that makes Good Mythical Morning with Rhett & Link. After graduating from Denison University with a BA in Cinema, he joined Mythical in 2014 and moved through a few different departments in entertainment — art, food styling and creation, research, and production — before becoming a producer.
He also hosts a podcast, Good Mythical Crew: The Podcast and appears on camera in many of Mythical’s productions.
SHORT FILM JURY
Short Film: A narrative, animated, experimental, or documentary film 40 minutes or less in length
JONNY SHENK
Jonny Shenk is a board member and the Curation Lead with the Cindependent Film Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jonny graduated with a Film & Media degree from Eastern University in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
From 2016 to 2021, Jonny worked as the General Manager of the arthouse Esquire Theater in uptown Cincinnati. Since 2021, he has worked as the film programmer for the historic Woodward Theater in Cincinnati’s OTR neighborhood.
Jonny’s favorite part of his work is the opportunity to collaborate with people from all corners of the film community – from film scholars, critics and professors, to local filmmakers, actors, and film enthusiasts.
Jonny is an active Letterboxd user, and he has a special affinity for the films of Terrence Malick and Kelly Reichardt.
C.J. PRINCE
C.J. Prince is a freelance writer and film programmer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After starting out as a writer and editor specializing in independent cinema, his writing has been published in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, EDGE Media Network, and The Film Stage.
He’s also been a film programmer for the AGH World Film Festival and the Future of Film Showcase.
MAYA DIXON
Maya Tsigie Dixon is a Writer/Director/Producer and native of Columbus, Ohio. She is a recent Film and Media Arts (MFA) graduate of American University (Washington, DC).
A lifelong lover of the arts, she paints and writes narrative screenplays which contribute to her process as a creator of original meaningful media. During her tenure at American University she was selected to participate in the highly regarded FAMU study abroad program in Prague, Czech Republic.
In 2018, she was selected to present a paper “Representations of Black Super Heroes” for UFVA (University Film and Video Association) in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
In 2021/2022 she showcased her short film “Indigo Child” on the film festival circuit which was shown at the 4th Annual Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia; 6th Annual Origin’s Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio and the 24th Annual San Francisco Black Film Festival in San Francisco, California.
In 2023, Maya began her journey in higher education as a film professor at the illustrious Columbus College of Art and Design. Recently she was selected to participate in Film Parlor Tuesdays at Drexel Theatre where she facilitates discussions of films that have an impact and influence on American culture.
She will also serve as a moderator for “Conversations with Filmmakers” for Cinema Columbus Film Festival. Maya hopes that her future endeavors challenge her abilities to grow as an artist and filmmaker.
