Highbridge Film Festival 2022 Judges Announced
WILMORE, Ky. (March 25, 2022). Asbury University’s acclaimed School of Communication Arts will host the 2022 Highbridge Film Festival on the Asbury campus, April 21 through 23. Programming kicks off Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. with The Sounds of Stage and Screen Concert in Hughes Auditorium; festival seminar sessions throughout the day on Friday, April 22 in the Miller Center for Communication Arts; the 10-Minute Play Festival Friday night at 7:30 in the Greathouse Theater; and culminates with the 18th-annual Highbridge Film Festival showcase screening and awards show at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 23 in Hughes Auditorium. Tickets for the film festival showcase and red-carpet reception following are on sale online now. In-person sales begin on campus two weeks prior to the festival.
“Film historian Mark Cousins calls cinema ’a dark room where light matters,’ which underscores this year’s theme, ‘Every Story in the Light,’” said Todd Wold, Festival director. “We’re eager to shine a light on a new set of stories from Asbury Filmmakers as they continue to inspire audiences.”
Official film selections for the festival are screened by an esteemed panel of film and creative industry professionals to determine student award-winners in the Narrative, Documentary, and Super Short categories. Our 2022 panel of judges includes filmmaker and attorney Mandi Hart, actor and writer Joel McCrary, and screen composer and conductor James Covell.
Mandi Hart is a filmmaker and attorney specializing in creative content development and intellectual property. She worked in documentary film production for three years before obtaining her J.D. She is president of Cave Pictures Publishing, an independent publisher of spiritually resonant comic books and graphic novels, and of MORE Productions, a firm that both produces culture and provides consultation services regarding culture creation. Hart is also a screenwriter and published author of articles concerning product placement as a film financing technique, tax incentives for film production, and the challenges of maintaining copyright protection in the social media age.
Joel McCrary grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he began acting in community theater at 13 years old. Later he attended the University of Southern Mississippi. He then moved to Orlando, where he became a founding member of the award-winning SAK Theater Comedy Lab, which opened in 1990 and is still in operation. In 1995 he moved to Los Angeles and began working as an actor in commercials, TV, and Film. He currently plays Court Magician Baldric in Dwight in Shining Armor, now in its 5th season. His notable roles also include Prime Minister Motaz in The Princess Diaries 1 & 2, Don the mechanic on Seinfeld, and Bobby Wasabi on Disney XD’s Kickin’ It. His other credits include
James Covell began his career writing music immediately after graduating in music composition from USC, where he studied with Morten Lauridsen. He has been working ever since scoring, songwriting, conducting, and arranging in every medium. James has written scores for many feature films, including Left Behind, recorded with the London Symphony. That Soundtrack CD and others are available on iTunes. Along with his work in film, James has worked for all the major networks. Currently running is the award-winning Netflix series Beastmaster, and he recently completed creating music for HBO’s upcoming animated series to be named. James has also written a full-scale musical play entitled A House Divided and an orchestral trumpet concerto. His other commissioned orchestral works premiered with great success by the Denver Symphony. James lives in Valley Village, California, with his wife Karen, and they have two wonder wiz kids, Christopher and Cameron, who are both filmmakers.
NOTE: Seating for news media at the April 23 Showcase and Awards is available upon request. If you would like more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Highbridge Film Festival Media Relations: hbfilmfest@gmail.com.
About Highbridge Film Festival
Highbridge Film Festival is a nationally recognized collegiate filmmaking competition dedicated to expressing and exploring the human condition through the power of the visual story. It began in 2005 as a vehicle for Asbury University’s School of Communication Arts to showcase student films and, in the process, encourage visual storytelling. This year marks the 18th anniversary of the festival, which has grown into a nationally recognized collegiate film festival delighting audiences and attracting wide-ranging interest from the film industry. Each year 12-15 films are selected from among 70-80 submissions and are screened for an enthusiastic audience and judged by movie and television industry professionals who decide the awards given for technical and narrative skills.