Adjudicators
Best Director
Gabriel Byrne
The classically-trained actor Gabriel Byrne, born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, began acting with the Abbey Theatre and later joined the Royal Court Theatre in London and made his feature film debut in John Boorman's "Excalibur." Byrne has been praised as one of the finest actors of our time, in addition to an acclaimed career as a feature film actor, he is a Tony Award nominated stage actor and Academy Award nominated Producer. Dividing his time between writing, producing and acting, Gabriel has also published the book "Pictures in My Head," his autobiography, which became a critically acclaimed bestseller.
Best Irish Narrative Short
David Flynn
David Flynn is the producer of the recent Liam Neeson & Pierce Brosnan film, Seraphim Falls, and the only Irish talent agent working in Hollywood. He is agent to Irish Oscar nominated short director Gary McKendry and to John Carney, the director of Once.
Best International Narrative Short
Trevor Groth
Trevor Groth had been a central part of the programming team of Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival for eight years when he accepted an invitation to revamp the fledgling CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas. Six years along and the festival is flying, thanks largely to the help of Dennis Hopper, who stepped in as head of the Creative Advisory team three years ago and has helped to secure some big name tributes. Groth has used this celebrity leverage to create a festival that particularly supports first-time, short and experimental filmmakers while continuing to work with Sundance.
Best Animated Short
Max Le Cain
Max has taught numerous courses in film history and video production for both adults and secondary school students over the past six years. He is a filmmaker whose work has been screened at festivals across Europe, and critic whose writings on cinema have been published widely both in Ireland and abroad, and is currently filmmaker in residence with the East Cork Youth Film Project.
Best Documentary Short
Eric Simonson
Eric Simonson received an Oscar for Best Documentary Short for his film A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin in 2006. He was Tony-nominated for his direction of Steppenwolf's The Song of Jacob Zulu, with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Eric subsequently directed an Oscar-nominated documentary about the acclaimed South African singing group. He's directed and adapted Steppenwolf's Slaughterhouse-Five as well as the plays Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, Moby Dick and Carter's Way.