Diamond Screen Festival

Judge Bios

Scott Currie

Scott Currie has over 29 years of motion picture production experience.  Scott served has production and location manager for over 500 national and regional television commercials. Since 1987, Scott has worked on over 24 feature films in capacities from Production Assistant to Supervising Producer.  Several notable films on which he had a creative impact include Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys, and M. Night Shaymalan’s Wide Awake, and Greg Hoblit’s Fallen.
Scott’s principal asset to any production is his skill with script breakdown, scheduling, budgeting and production execution.  In addition, Scott has extensive, hands-on experience guiding films through the post production and theatrical distribution.  Scott served as the Theatrical Distribution Manager on both 13th Childand Malevolence.

Lance Edmands

Lance Edmands was born and raised in a small town on the coast of Maine and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2005. His thesis film, VACATIONLAND, was winner of the Warner Bros. Film Production Award and went on screen at dozens of film festivals around the world, including the Student Academy Awards. As an editor, Lance cut the feature documentaries WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL (Berlin 2008) and BROCK ENRIGHT: GOOD TIMES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME (SXSW 2009). His first narrative feature as editor, TINY

FURNITURE, won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2010 and was released theatrically by IFC. He has also directed and edited several national commercial campaigns. His first feature film as writer/director, BLUEBIRD, was invited to the 2010 Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs and was awarded the Annenberg Feature Film Development Grant, the Richard Vague/Chris Columbus Production Fund, and a KRF production grant from the San Francisco Film Society. BLUEBIRD was shot in January 2012 and will be released early next year.

Kirsten Johnson

Kirsten Johnson works as a director and a cinematographer. She is currently editing a documentary she shot and directed in Afghanistan called I Dream Them Always. In the last year, as the supervising DP on Abby Disney and Gini Reticker’s series, Women, War and Peace, she traveled to Colombia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. She shared the 2010 Sundance Documentary Competition Cinematography Award with Laura Poitras for “The Oath”. She shot the Tribeca Film Festival 2008 Documentary winner, Pray the Devil Back to Hell and the Warner Independent/Participant Pictures Darfur Now. Her cinematography is featured in Farenheit 9/11, Academy Award-nominated Aslyum, Emmy-winning Ladies First, and Sundance premiere documentaries, This Film is Not Yet Rated, American Standoff, and Derrida. A chapter on her work as a cinematographer is featured in the book, The Art of the Documentary. Her feature film script My Habibi was selected for the 2006 Sundance Writer’s Lab and Director’s Lab and is the recipient of an Annenberg grant. Her previous documentary as a director, Deadline, (co-directed with Katy Chevigny), premiered at Sundance in 2004, was broadcast on primetime NBC, and won the Thurgood Marshall Award.

Dave Lamm

Dave Lamm is the Director of Production at Primitive World Productions. With 16 years experience in the industry, he is an experienced camera operator and DP, and also does 2D/3D graphics and animation. Dave received his Film and Video degree from Penn State, and ever since has worked both freelance and full-time for motion picture and production companies in the Philadelphia area. Every project, great or small, is new a learning experience. He firmly believes this, and enjoys sharing that knowledge with peers and students.  He approaches each project from a fresh creative perspective, loves to see and try new techniques, and enjoys getting his hands dirty in the process.

Ian Markiewicz

Ian Markiewicz is an independent filmmaker, artist, and university instructor interested in exploring the potency of independent media as a tool for social and environmental advocacy, cultural confluence, artistic vision and collaboration, and emotive storytelling. Ian teaches courses in film production and screenwriting at The University of the Arts and Temple University in Philadelphia and works as a freelance filmmaker in a range of capacities on projects and productions throughout the greater Philadelphia area. He spends most of his summers teaching students from around the world at the New York Film Academy programs in Paris, France, Budapest, Hungary, and Harvard University. Ian holds a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Arizona and an M.F.A. in Film and Media Arts from Temple University.

Andrew Nicholas

Andrew Nicholas is the founder and partner of Pixel Parlor, an interactive design firm in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. He recently relocated from Brooklyn, New York where he worked as the senior interactive designer for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) designing and creating illustrations for many film and performing arts events. Notable projects include the identity and campaign for the 2011 BAMcinemaFest, print and online marketing materials for Sundance@BAM, and the online advertising presence for the Whitney Museum of American Art. Other clients have included J.Crew and Macy’s. When not designing, he can be found riding a bicycle or taking photos of urban weeds, frequently at the same time. Andrew holds a BFA in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University and a minor in Film Studies.

Ted Passon

Ted Passon is an award-winning filmmaker and artist living in Philadelphia. Named an “Upcoming Artist to Watch” by the Philadelphia Weekly, Ted has exhibited his work in film festivals and galleries around the US and abroad; including: The Oberhausen Film Festival, The New York Underground Film Festival, The Seattle Film Festival, The Institute of Contemporary Art of Philadelphia, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts SF, Museo Tomayo Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, and Gallery Revisited in LA. In 2009 he produced and performed in Inside the Mattress; a live music and video performance project with Tender Forever (K Records) for the Whitney Museum and the French Institute Alliance Francais in NY. In 2006 he was invited to compete in the PDX Film Festival Invitational also known as “The World Championship of Experimental Film”. He has won over six awards at various film festivals and has toured nationally with his work.

Ted has also directed music videos for artists such as: Kimya Dawson, Dr. Dog, Plastic Little, and Sweatheart. His music video for Plastic Little’s track “Dopeness” was named “One of the Best Music Videos of 2007” by both GBH.tv and “The Reel” UK industry magazine.

Ted is a member of the Space 1026 art collective a co-founder of the Small Change Experimental Film Screening Series. He co-runs All Ages Productions out of Philadelphia and is currently the Executive Producer of the Activity TV Channel on Comcast.

Jason Pinardo

Jason Pinardo has over 24 feature films to his credit. His latest project, PENNHURST (starring, and directed by Michael Rooker) is slated to be released this fall. He also just signed on to Executive Produce THE ACADEMY, the first in a slate of five low budget indies – a co production between his company, Primary Pictures. and StoneBrooke International. He past works include films such as THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST (starring Neil Patrick Harris) and BAFTA-nominated filmTHE ROAD (starring Viggo Mortensen). Jason is a member of both the Directors, and Producers Guild of America, and is currently represented by Agent Laura Siegel and Attorney Justin Wineburgh.

Michael Schweisheimer

Michael Schweisheimer, owner and Executive Producer of Primitive World Productions, is an award winning Philadelphia-based filmmaker with 18 years experience behind the camera. He has been involved in the creation of over 100 films and videos ranging from corporate training and promotional projects to music videos and feature films. Michael founded Primitive World Productions in 2000 with an emphasis on nonprofit organizations, helping them to convey their missions to the public through video communication. Michael holds a degree in film and media arts from Temple University’s School of Communications and Theater.

Vineet Verma

Vineet Verma, an independent filmmaker and animator with more than 10 years of international experience in 2D and 3D animation. His animated characters have come to life in cartoon series like WordWorld, which is broadcast on PBS Kids and won a 2009 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program, in Alpha and Omega, produced by Lionsgate and Crest Animation Productions, and in many other U.S. and international animation films. An artist at heart, Vineet believes in experimenting with different forms and mediums to express his stories, which lead him to move steadily from 2D classical animation to 3D animation and now to live action film making.