Shorts Jury Awards Program

Jake Hart – Jake Hart voices everything. He is in constant production for it all, from cartoons and video games to national commercials. As a continuing producer, and development coordinator, he assists filmmakers whenever and wherever he can. Currently, Jake is a SAG-AFTRA Native Americans Committee member, the Indigenous Development Director of Nevada's Cordillera International Film Festival, and Red Eagle Soaring board member. He has multiple animated shows and video games coming soon to screens near you. Prayers up to his family for dealing with him.

Rayka Zehtabchi – Rayka Zehtabchi is an Iranian-American director and producer working in both documentary and fiction. Her passion lies in telling human stories that bring awareness and action to little-known social causes. Rayka's Oscar-winning Netflix short documentary, Period. End of Sentence. is about a group of village women in Northern India who start a sanitary pad-making business in an effort to improve feminine hygiene and de-stigmatize menstruation. Rayka has also directed multiple branded documentary shorts, including A Woman's Place, which can be seen on Hulu. Outside of branded work, Rayka's films (SHn(y)o͞of), Just Hold On, and Are You Still There? have all received Vimeo Staff Picks and have screened and won Jury awards at prestigious festivals such as SXSW and AFI Fest. Rayka continues to work in both documentary and fiction, pushing the boundaries of each form with every project she helms.

Scott W. Hallgren – Scott W. Hallgren has an extensive list of works as a composer, producer, and musician for film, television, and games, including multiple Emmy-nominated, Telly, Golden CINE, and film festival award winners. His scores for "Gracie: diary of a coma patient" (2010), ""We Shall Not Be Moved: the Nashville Sit-Ins" (2011 - PBS), "Perfect 36: How Women Won The Vote" (2017 - PBS, and "Frank" (2020) have all won awards for his compositions. His music has also been featured on the soundtracks of Smart People, London Tango, The History Detectives, Paul Williams - Still Alive, and several History Channel shows. Scott has a forthcoming book, PERFORM: Composing for the Screen, about networking and career development due from Routledge in July 2022. He is proudly based in the Cleveland/Akron area, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Media Production at Kent State University.