Corey Esse has an especially detailed understanding of what it’s like inside an ADFEST jury room.
The Managing Director and Executive Producer of FINCH in Australia and New Zealand judged Film Craft and New Director, plus the Integrated, INNOVA and Lotus Roots categories this year.
If you’ve ever wondered what lights the ADFEST judges’ fires, here are some of Esse’s tips:
New Directors.I think there’s a real opportunity for production companies in the region to enter this category and get the work of young talent seen. In some New Director categories, we had three or four pieces to judge and that’s it. For me, focusing on young directors matters and I think that ADFEST is a great way to launch them and get them seen by a lot of people who gather at ADFEST for the Awards Presentations. Not doing so is a missed opportunity.
Film Craft.The number of long-form entries has increased phenomenally. About two thirds of entries were longer than two minutes. This really challenges the jury, we watched a lot of very long pieces – it get laborious, which makes assessing work harder. You can't necessarily afford to detail a two-minute piece the way you would a 60-second film. So something that’s perfect in a 60-second film will feel stronger. Of course, there was one film in there that was long and stunning, picked up medals in several categories AND was really enjoyable to watch.
Diversity.The challenge for a lot of the work is that you have to appeal to seven people from seven different countries and feel relevant to all these people. Sometimes, as a judge, you really rely on other judges from other countries to help you understand the cultural significance of the film. I think that’s the good thing about ADFEST, the festival really does build juries with that right mix of diversity. Your jury will explain if an actor is famous, what something means, what a song is, why something is relevant. That’s especially important with work from countries that have unique cultural rules like India and Japan. Our jury was great and super fair.
- Story by Candide McDonald
- Video filmed & produced by Miles Cooper, featuring reporting by Kyle Towb
