AAFF Announces Jurors for the 62nd Festival

January 17th 2024

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is pleased to announce the jurors for the 62nd Ann Arbor Film Festival (March 26 - 31, 2024 | online March 26 - April 7): accomplished filmmakers, educators, and arts leaders Su Friedrich, Deanna Morse, and Wenhua Shi. Our jurors are an integral part of the festival and will view all films in competition. At the end of the six-day festival, they will award filmmakers over $23,000 in cash and in-kind awards. In addition, each juror will present a specially curated program of work during the festival.

Since 1978, juror Su Friedrich has directed twenty-five films and videos that have been widely screened, extensively written about, and featured in retrospectives at major museums and film festivals including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema, and the National Film Theater in London. Her work is the subject of two recent books: Su Friedrich: Interviews, edited by Sonia Misra and Rox Samer (University of Mississippi Press, 2022) and Su Friedrich by Barbara Mennel (University of Illinois Press, 2023). Her films have won numerous awards, including Grand Prix at the Melbourne Film Festival, Outstanding Documentary Award at Outfest, and Best Narrative Film Award at the Athens International Film Festival.

She, Her, Hers, a program of work by Friedrich and four other women filmmakers, will screen at the State Theatre on Thursday, March 28th, at 1pm.

Juror Deanna Morse is an artist, educator, and a leader in international organizations that support animators and independent film and video artists. She is the current President of ASIFA International (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation), the oldest international organization of animators. Morse has judged dozens of festivals and was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A prolific animator, she has made a film each year since the early 1970’s and has film and video work in permanent collections at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her current work considers our relationships to landscapes, exploring ideas of place, time, and seasonal change. An Emeritus Professor of Grand Valley State University in Michigan, she lives in Oregon on a lane with goats, chickens, native plants, and family.

Move Click Move, a program of work by Morse, will screen at the State Theatre on Wednesday, March 27th, at 1pm.

Juror Wenhua Shi is Associate Professor in Art and Art History at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the founder and a curator of RPM Festival. After shifting out of the medical field in his hometown of Wuhan, China, Shi went on to study experimental film in the US. Since earning his BA, BFA, and MFA, Shi explores sound, film, video, installation, and sculpture, pursuing a poetic approach to the making of moving images and investigating conceptual depth in various mediums. Shi’s work has been presented globally, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Athens Film and Video Festival, and West Bund 2013: a Biennale of Architecture and Contemporary Art. He has received numerous awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and grants from the LEF Foundation. 

On Time, a program of Wenhua Shi’s work, will screen on Saturday, March 30th, 1:00pm at the University of Michigan’s SKB 2500 Auditorium. 

We are excited to share the 109 films in competition with our jurors (and with all of you!) at the 62nd AAFF in person and online March 26-31 (online through April 7th). Visit aafilmfest.org now to get your in-person and online festival passes. Join us at the festival in person, online, or both!