Judges Announced for 2023 Highbridge Film Festival

WILMORE, Ky., March 2, 2023 – Asbury University’s acclaimed School of Communication Arts will host the 2023 Highbridge Film Festival on the Asbury campus, April 13 through 15. Programming kicks off Thursday, April 13 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 14 in the Miller Center for Communication Arts; the Emerging Artists Short Play Festival Thursday, April 14 at 9 p.m. and Friday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.; and culminates with the 18th-annual Highbridge Film Festival showcase screening and awards show at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 15 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 three weeks prior to the festival.

“Famed Auteur Akira Kurosawa said about filmmaking, ‘It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.’” said Todd Wold, Festival director. “Stories emerge within a timeline, literally and figuratively. Our Highbridge filmmakers create stories that both draw from a rich human experience of cinema, and spark the audience’s imagination with new narratives. In that sense, all films become ‘Stories Past and Future.’”

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 2023 panel of judges includes writer, actor, director Cory Edwards, film and television producer Brady Nasfell, writer Andrea Nasfell, and production design artist John DeCuir, Jr.

CORY EDWARDS

Cory Edwards made his feature film debut with Hoodwinked, but he’d already had a long career as a filmmaker before that. Involved in almost every creative area of the business for over 25 years, he has served as a writer, director, producer, actor, animator, art director, and editor. After directing music videos and commercials, Cory produced and acted in his brother’s feature debut, Chillicothe, an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. His animated hit Hoodwinked is widely regarded as the most profitable animated movie ever. He's written for VeggieTales, Ninja Turtles, Fraggles and Woody Woodpecker. His recent film, Fearless debuted as the #5 film in the world on Netflix. Cory still enjoys working as a standup comic, and is always excited to share his adventures of taking Christian ideals into the mainstream entertainment world.

BRADY NASFELL

Brady Nasfell has produced feature films and television for Netflix, Sony, Lionsgate, Fox Sports, NBC, VH1, Discovery Networks and independent distributors. Recent films include Fourth of July (starring Joe List) and Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters (starring Bart Johnson and Robyn Lively). Brady produced the Grammy Award-winning comedy special Sincerely Louis C.K., as well as the upcoming Kevin James special (Fall 2023). Other specials include Joe Rogan: Strange Times, Tom Segura: Ball Hog, and Chris D’Elia: No Pain. His documentary work includes The Last Dispatch, Overcomer with Justin Wren, UFC Road to the Octagon, UFC Ultimate Insider, and the UFC Embedded web series, which won the Best MMA Programming award in 2016. A member of the Producer’s Guild of America and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Brady received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Media Communication from Asbury University.

ANDREA NASFELL

Andrea Nasfell is the screenwriter of theatrical faith-based comedies The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (Blumhouse) and Moms’ Night Out (Sony Affirm), which won a Dove award for Inspirational Film of the Year. She has also written a number of television movies including Every Other Holiday (Lifetime) and The Vows We Keep and Holiday for Heroes (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) as well as several other Christmas movies for UPtv/Pure Flix. Her movies Christmas with a Capital C and What If… were both nominated for Epiphany Prizes in TV and film. What If… was selected by Movieguide as one of 2010’s “Ten Best Films for Family Audiences.” Andrea is a member of the WGA and teaches screenwriting at Asbury University and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University.

JOHN DECUIR, JR.

It was inevitable that John DeCuir Jr. would become a film designer, as he literally took his first steps on a sound stage and later helped his father design and build Oscar winning film sets that included Rome, Alexandria, and Fourteenth Street New York 1890. John worked as an art director on the five-year London-Rome production of Cleopatra, perhaps the only person whoever worked their way through college on one film. After completing his graduate work at the University of Southern California he took on designing Spaceship Earth & Communicore for Disney Imagineering. In 1980 John founded Cinematix, Inc. and contracted for the design and construction of film sets which included Top Gun, Sister Act II, Turner & Hooch, and theme park films such as Jim Henson's 3-D Muppet Movie, Alien Encounter, and EPCOT's Energy Pavilion. John has taught at the UCLA Performing Arts Program, USC’s School of Cinema, and the American Film Institute. He currently teaches graduate classes on the art of production design at Asbury University’s School of Communication Arts.

For additional information about the 2023 Highbridge Film Festival or to make a film submission, please visit our submissions page at highbridgefilmfestival.com. The film submission deadlines are March 27th for high school students and March 31st for Asbury students. Tickets are $15 and available via the online portal, with in-person sales available at the Asbury Student Center and Cafeteria Kiosks beginning three weeks before the Festival weekend.

About Highbridge Film Festival

The Highbridge Film Festival 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. Each year the festival selects about a dozen student films and provides a venue for special presentations from Communication Arts and the panel of judges from the film and television industry. The film festival is entirely produced and promoted through the combined efforts of the School of Communication Arts’ Special Events class and student volunteers. Those with interest in sponsoring or donating to Highbridge Film Festival, connect to our Cinema Circle Partners program. 2023 marks the 18th edition of the festival, which has grown into a nationally recognized collegiate film festival delighting audiences and attracting wide-ranging interest from the film industry.