Judges

Genevieve Jacobs has been a journalist for 30 years, working in print and radio. She spent more than a decade as a broadcaster for ABC Canberra, and is now the Group Editor for Region Media and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Genevieve chairs the ACT arts minister's Creative Advisory Council and co-chairs the ACT Reconciliation Council. She sits on the boards of the Cultural Facilities Corporation, the

National Folk Festival and Canberra International Music Festival, and is a director of the Conflict Resolution Service and a board member of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. She is also a champion for a number of organisations including the Capital Region Landkeeper's Trust and ACT Wildlife Rescue. Genevieve has an enduring interest in building and strengthening community engagement.

Máximo Gowland took up office as Ambassador of the Argentine Republic to Australia on 8 December 2021. He entered the Argentine Foreign Service in January 1997 after several years practising law in Buenos Aires. He has previously served as Deputy Consul General in Miami, USA (1999-2007), where among other activities he was in charge of Cultural Affairs, and also in the Political Section of the Argentine Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay (2011-2015). He is also currently Ambassador to the Republic of Fiji and to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

Whilst in Buenos Aires he has specialised in Antarctic affairs as a result of working and leading the Argentine Foreign Ministry’s Antarctic Directorate and his involvement at the Antarctic Treaty Consultive Meeting (ACTMs) and meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). However, among his past cultural activities, his passion for film has also led to his involvement in several Argentine film festivals in Miami and Latin American Film Festivals in Australia, apart from an active intervention in several other cultural events such as art exhibitions, lectures, concerts and festivals, throughout his overseas postings.

Miriam Pickard is an Australian based performer, educator and ceremony-maker. In her practice she explores regenerative mythology as sources of stories, laws and patterns which contribute to individual and societal health. Miriam focuses on creating immersive and participatory mythic story events and designing ceremonial experiences marking beginnings, endings and transitions for individuals and groups.

Genevieve Jacobs has been a journalist for 30 years, working in print and radio. She spent more than a decade as a broadcaster for ABC Canberra, and is now the Group Editor for Region Media and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Genevieve chairs the ACT arts minister's Creative Advisory Council and co-chairs the ACT Reconciliation Council. She sits on the boards of the Cultural Facilities Corporation, the

National Folk Festival and Canberra International Music Festival, and is a director of the Conflict Resolution Service and a board member of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. She is also a champion for a number of organisations including the Capital Region Landkeeper's Trust and ACT Wildlife Rescue. Genevieve has an enduring interest in building and strengthening community engagement.

Richard was Ordained a priest in 1993. He directs the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting, is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University; has been a visiting scholar within the School of Theatre, Film & Television at UCLA and a Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Fr Richard has served on juries at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Montreal, Brisbane and Melbourne International Film Festivals and he has lectured on faith and culture all over the world.

He has been published in America Magazine, Eureka Street, US Catholics, is a regular columnist with The London Tablet and is a regular guest on ABC Radio.

He is the author of ten books:

• What does it all mean? New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2017;
• What are we doing on earth for Christ’s sake? New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2015;
• What are we hoping for? Reflections for Lent & Easter New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2015;
• Why Bother Praying? New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2013;
• What are we waiting for? Reflections for Advent & Christmas New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2010;
• Where the Hell is God? New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2010;
• Preaching to the Converted, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2007; Movies That Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith, Chicago: Loyola University Press, 2006;
• The Mystical Gaze of the Cinema: the Films of Peter Weir, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005;
• Beloved Daughters: 100 Years of Papal Teaching About Women, Melbourne: David Lovell, Toronto: Novalis, 1996.

His forthcoming book: Hatch, Match & Dispatch: a Catholic Guide to Sacraments will be published by Paulist in 2019.

James Mairata is an award winning short film maker, television producer, writer and director with more than twenty five years of production and teaching experience in Australia and South East Asia. His short films have screened at numerous international festivals and publisher Palgrave Macmillan recently released his book on the analysis of film style in the films of Steven Spielberg.

He has a PhD in film theory from Macquarie University and currently lectures in film and television theory and production at Charles Sturt University. He is also working on a biography of famed Australian film and television producers Hal and Jim McElroy.

Andrew Pike, is a film distributor, film historian and documentary film-maker. He co-authored with Ross Cooper the seminal book, Australian Film 1900-1977 (Oxford University Press). Andrew’s company, Ronin Films, has distributed many Australian films including the feature films Strictly Ballroom and Shine. Today the company specialises in the distribution of social documentaries. In 2007, Andrew Pike was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to the film industry, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Canberra. For ten years he was a member of the Board of the National Film
and Sound Archive of Australia.

As a documentary writer-director, his films include Angels of War (released in cinemas and broadcast by ABC), The Chifleys of Busby Street (released in cinemas), Emily in Japan (broadcast by ABC and NITV), and Message from Mungo (released in cinemas and broadcast by NITV). His films have won many awards including the Sydney Film Festival Best Documentary for Angels of War, and a United Nations Association Media Award for Message from Mungo.