As founder and director of CUIFF, Max has been grateful to see this vision become a reality, and plans are underway for next year’s festival. Additionally, CUIFF is excited for its new partnership with Ebertfest and honored to have one of its films showcasing in the Ebertfest 2023 Short Film Program. To learn more about CUIFF, visit www.cuiff.org.
EDSON ODA, panelist
Edson Oda is a Japanese-Brazilian writer/director based in Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of São Paulo – bachelor’s in Advertising – and completed his Master of Fine Arts in Film and Production at the University of Southern California.
His first feature film “Nine Days” – starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard and Tony Hale – premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 (US Dramatic Competition), winning the Walt Salt Screenwriting Award.
Oda also wrote, directed and supervised projects for Amazon, Philips, Telefonica, Movistar, InBev, Whirlpool, Johnson & Johnson, Honda, Nokia.
JENNY OYALLON-KOLOSKI, moderator
Jenny Oyallon-Koloski is an assistant professor of Media & Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and a Certified Movement Analyst in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. She serves as the movement analysis specialist for the Media Ecology Project (Mark Williams and John P. Bell, PIs, Dartmouth College) and is a faculty affiliate of the Eye Tracking / Physiology Lab in the College of Media at the University of Illinois.
Her current book project argues for the storytelling power of figure movement and dance in musical cinema. She is also the director of the movement visualization (mv) lab and co-creator, in collaboration with Michael Junokas, of the mv tool, an embodied motion-capture research environment to study the manifestations of human movement in cinematic space.
BRENDA ROBINSON, panellist
Brenda Robinson is an entertainment attorney and producer with extensive experience in the film, television, and music industries. Brenda is currently Head of Film Finance and Inclusion Strategies for HiddenLight Productions, a global studio creating premium documentary, scripted and unscripted entertainment for film, TV and digital, founded by Hillary Clinton, Sam Branson, and Chelsea Clinton.