TFF Awards & Jury

Jeremy Cropf (he/him) is a seven-time NW Emmy® Award-winning producer, director, and editor specializing in documentary filmmaking and broadcast television. As Creative Services Director at Cascade PBS in Seattle, he has produced nationally distributed programming for PBS and American Public Television, contributing to acclaimed series including Sesame Street and Rick Steves' Europe. He is currently serving as editor on The Fall, the latest feature documentary from internationally acclaimed filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe (LynchOz, 78/52).

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and artist between Oaxaca, Mexico, and Seattle, Washington. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE magazine and recent Editor at South Seattle Emerald and International Examiner. Prior to that, they were the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a groundbreaking role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences. Their feature film, Reckless Spirits, a metaphysical, multilingual POC buddy comedy, is in post-production.

Ryan Saunders (he/him) is a graduate of DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts and cut his teeth in the festival world working with the Chicago International Film Festival for ten years as an archivist, technical manager, programmer, and ultimately as the CineYouth Festival Director. He currently leads NFFTY, the world's largest film festival for emerging filmmakers, while also curating year round repertory series at SIFF.

Stefan Gruber (they/she) is an experimental animator and festival curator born in Seattle. You can usually find them creating films in their studio along the greenbelt, traversing the country to share their films live in theaters, galleries, and backyard shows or playing a three-person hexagonal chess variant of their own invention in Seattle cafes. Stefan curates Rock Paper Scissors festival of hand made animation yearly in Seattle.

Ellen Ito is an artist, programmer, and curator based in the Puget Sound region. She currently serves as Curator of Collections and Special Projects at the Tacoma Art Museum, where she established the TAM Cinema moving image series, now entering its fifth program year. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Haunted, Rirkrit Tiravanija: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Green? and the 2027 Northwest Triennial (in partnership with the Museum of Northwest Art). Beyond TAM, Ellen is a collaborator on the monthly multidisciplinary moving image series On Site with curators David Dinnell and Jay Kuehner.

Megan Leonard is an award-winning creative producer and festival programmer from Olympia, WA based in Seattle. Her films have premiered at top-tier festivals around the world including Sundance and SXSW, debuted on global streaming platforms including Hulu and MUBI, and received five Vimeo Staff Picks. She is a Sundance Institute and Gotham alumni, a Webby Honoree, and has been featured in publications including Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine and MovieMaker Magazine. Notable works include: Dream Creep (dir. Carlos A.F. Lopez), Harbor Island (dir. Calvin Lee Reeder), The Influencer (dir. Lael Rogers), and Mixtape Marauders (dir. Peter Edlund).

Natalie Lew (she/her) grew up by the ocean, always harboring a fascination with the strange universes bubbling right below the surface. Imbued by both a sense of wonder and trepidation, debut full length Diving For A Prize is a haunting vision of Lew’s own creation, a vividly assembled snapshot of a place that is both fantastical and deeply curious. As Sea Lemon, she has opened for artists like Death Cab for Cutie, American Football, Suki Waterhouse, Hatchie, and more.