2022 JURORS

ERMA FIEND

PORTIA COBB

Portia Cobb is an inter-disciplinary artist deeply interested in telling stories that reflect the double consciousness of Black American identity, history, memory and forced forgetting. Her body of work and research has joined

Erma Fiend is a visual realm of mind-bending loops, otherworldly effects, and vibrant tactile animation you can’t unsee.   A multi- faceted creation of producer Lee Friend Roberts, Erma Fiend specializes in looping GIF portraits, live action special effects, interaction design, and mixed media claymation & stop motion animation. Fiend’s work centers the fluidity of embodiment, nonlinear time, and the ambiguous states that exist between past / present selves and the external world.  As an animation production company, Erma Fiend INC has developed work spanning collaborations with musicians and theater productions to film, television, games, and brands on social media.   

Fiend is known for documenting his gender transition over the years in hundreds of Escheresque stop motion self portrait loops, which play like Möbius strips in GIF form.   

With over 14 years of Emmy award-winning experience in children’s television and interactive media (and one of GIPHY’s top 10 most-viewed artist channels of 2020), Fiend has an extensive background creating captivating experiences for audiences in many forms.  Fiend has shared his work and process in presentations at colleges, film festivals, and industry panels.  Erma Fiend originals have aired on Adult Swim and screened at festivals and exhibitions internationally.  

As a drag performer and live visual effects entertainer, Fiend takes the stage and screen as his drag king persona Sweaty Eddie.  NYC’s infamous little man with long arms is a co-producer and founding member of Drag King & queer multimedia collective The Cake Boys (IG @the_cakeboys).  Fiend’s animation work can be found at ErmaFiend.com or Instagram @Erma.Fiend. 

2022 AWARDS

Thanks again to our amazing jury Portia Cobb and Lee Roberts/Erma Fiend for watching the films and making these selections!  We’re so happy that we made it so difficult for them to make their final decisions– apparently, the programming was excellent overall.  The jury chose three main Jury Prize winners, one Kodak Filmmaker Award and 12 honorable mentions in four sub categories, highlighting the films they just couldn’t get out of their minds.

The Audience Award (based on audience ballots, winner receives $100):
two sisters by Magdalena Bermudez

The Jury’s Honorable Mentions:

In Animation:
Costume Change Forever by John Harlan Norris
Baloney Beacon by Max Landman
Speck by Diane Christiansen and Alejandra Trigoso

Innovative Approaches:
Dreams Under Confinement by Christopher Harris
two sisters by Magdalena Bermudez
Dada’s Daughter by Sara Sowell

Ethereal Worlds:
Dans les cieux et sur la terre by Erin Weisgerber
life, like water, flows to greater bodies by Takahiro Suzuki
One should never be cured by Vincent Guilbert

Narrative Portraits:
Oliver Sees Indigo by Ryan Clancy
a story that doesn’t have to do with me by Kym McDaniel
Other Tidal Effects by Sofia Theodore-Pierce

Kodak Filmmaker Awards ($500 in Kodak Film Stock, donated by Kodak Film Lab Atlanta):
The Canyon by Zachary Epcar

Jury Award Winners (each film receives $100):
Grid by Alexandre Alagôa
Too Much Fun by Grace Mitchell
I Thought I Saw You by Oliver Moon & Emma McAllister

Kodak donated film stock for the Kodak Filmmaker Award! ($500 worth of Kodak Motion Picture Film. To be used with one year.) The jury will select the winner by choosing one of the filmmakers who worked in 16mm or Super 8 this year. Thank you, Kodak Film Lab, Atlanta!

joined these themes within short-form documentary video, photographic essays, field recordings, collaborative installation and community engaged performance art. She teaches at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres.