2021 Festival Jury
Get to Know the 2021 BCEFF Jury
Pete Allen
Project Manager & Editor-In-Chief
Pete Allen is currently a project manager at the Hakai institute and is also editor-in-chief at Creative Guy Publishing and Liaison Press, and writes screenplays of his own.
Tyee Bridge
Writer, Editor & Story Producer
Tyee is an award-winning journalist and writer passionate about resilience, justice and biodiversity. His essays, profiles and investigative features have received four National Magazine Awards and seven Western Magazine Awards since 2007.
Doros Demetriou
Cinema Hostorian
Doros is a cinema historian, event organizer, and curator of film screenings. A member of Centre International de Film pour l’enfance et La Jeunesse (CIFEJ), he is one of the artistic directors of Images and Views of Alternative Cinema, an internationally acclaimed film festival which is held annually in Cyprus.
HOSSEIN MARTIN FAZELI
Film Maker
Hossein Martin Fazeli has been producing, directing, and writing fiction and non-fiction television and film for more than two decades. His films have been broadcast around the world, including on CBC, BBC, ARTE, and Canal+, winning 37 international awards in the process.
Dr. Banafcheh Hejazi
Physician, Professor, & Filmmaker
Dr. Banafcheh Hejazi is a family physician, a professor at the Family Medicine Residency Program at the McGill University, and a documentary filmmaker. Among many other achievements, Dr. Hejazi is the recipient of the prestigious Diamond Jubilee Medal from Queen ELIZABETH II for her 15 years of volunteer work at Shield of Athena which is a shelter for family violence.
Koom Kankesan
Film Reviewer, Writer, & Teacher
Koom Kankesan is a fiction writer and arts journalist living in Toronto. He has published three works of fiction (The Panic Button, The Rajapaksa Stories, and The Tamil Dream) and regularly writes about film for Comicon.com. He has a background in film studies and has always loved the medium.
Kathy Kovosi
Art Teacher
Kathy Kovosi has taught high school fine art and media art for over 10 years. She has studied film and film making at university and continues to pass on her passion for the film medium and the protection of our planet to her students.
Thomas K Mkare, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Dr Mkare has been working for the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute in Mombasa as a research scientist since April 2012. Dr. Mkare specializes in conservation genetics and population genetics of many fish species, including endangered seahorses and pipehorses. Although his research focuses on Kenyan coastal waters, he has worked on projects throughout the southwest Indian Ocean.
Iraj Raminfar
Production Designer & Art Director
One of the founding members of the Iranian Society of Film Art Directors, Iraj has been a set, costume and production designer for over four decades. He has received six Iranian House of Cinema awards for Best Art Direction between 2002 and 2008, as well as awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design at four of the International Fajr Film Festivals—Iran’s annual film festival—between 2001 and 2011.
Parjad Sharifi
Scenographer & Associate Professor of Theatre
Parjad Sharifi is a Vancouver-based theatre scenographer and stage designer. The recipient of the Jessie Richardson Award for outstanding lighting design, Parjad has collaberated with theatre and dance companies in Vancouver and across Canada, such as Neworld Theatre, Leaky Heaven, Theatre Replacement, Theatre Conspiracy, Rumble Theatre, Pi Theatre, 605 Collective, and Kokoro Dance.
Allison Webb
Senior Executive
Government of Canada
Allison is an executive in the Government of Canada and spent most of her career in Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Before she left DFO, Allison was the lead for Canada’s team on the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.