Round 2 Judges for Africa, Asia & Europe!

Introducing the ShakeMeUP Film Festival Round 2 Senior & Junior High Juries for Africa, Asia and Europe! These two teams of judges will determine which films submitted by students in North, South and Central America will enter ShakeMeUp's 3rd and final round. The winners will compete on a global stage against contestants from North and South America. Round 2 winners will be announced on Friday, May 5. In the meantime, feel free to review Round 1 winners at www.youtube/shakmeupfilmfestival. For more detail about the the ShakeMeUp Film Festival, contact Director Doug Hart at [email protected].

Biographical Info about ShakeMeUp Judges

Beth Dagitses spent the first half of her life in the Midwest of the United States before relocating to California as an adult. After several years in the film industry, Beth decided that her passion was teaching and changed her career from Story Analyst/Literary Manager to educator.

She has been teaching Film Studies in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) for 6 years. She delivers workshops for the IBDP Film course, and is an assistant examiner/moderator for DP Film assessments as well.

Beth is currently working at the International School of Estonia in Tallinn, where she serves as the IBDP Coordinator.

Sserunnya (Kaddu) Earnest lives in Uganda and is the C.O.O., Director and Producer at Ssedsha Film Productions Ltd & Uganda Action Cinema (as well as Ssedsha Arts Film Academy and Ssedsha Film Street Kids Foundation).

Sserunnya joined Ramon Film Productions Wakaliwood in 2008 and remained there until 2013. He has worn just about every hat in the production process, including serving as a script writer, actor, choreographer, director, set designer, prop maker, make-up artist and manager of special effects.

Sserunnya has acted in over 50 movies in 9 years. In 2012, he started bankrolling and producing such films as "With Blood &Tears of Shanita”, "Ugandan pollock September 2016” and "Innocent Kids 2016.” Sserunnya is currently working on a film project related to child drug trafficking. It’s scheduled for release this year.

Josiah Emery lives with his family in the Czech Republic and is currently a Directing and Documentary Production Instructor at The Prague Film School as well as a Media History Instructor at the University of New York in Prague.

Josiah has a long and rich history in filmmaking. Before moving to Prague, he led Acre Island Productions in Los Angeles, an independent film production company which he founded in 1998. Josiah wore many hats in this business, i.e. raising funds and acquiring material for feature films, hiring and collaborating with writers to develop story ideas and polish scripts, and writing, producing and directing an independent feature film in Maine and a documentary which aired on PBS.

Andrew Kocsis recently completed his PhD at Murdoch University, combining Theatre-in-Education and Shakespearean studies. He has also completed a Bachelor of Education (Secondary), a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Media, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Arts with Honours (First Class). As the Artistic Director of The Revellers Australia, Andrew has adapted and produced ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Hamlet’. He has also performed in various Murdoch University productions, including ‘As You Like It’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Titus Andronicus’, ‘Twelfth Night’ and an international performance of ‘A Winter’s Tale’. Andrew is the Education Director for Shakespeare WA, where he has developed educational packages for ‘The Tempest’, ‘Comedy of Errors’, and ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, as well as performing in Shakespeare in the Park’s ‘Twelfth Night’. As a playwright, Andrew has written and directed ‘Twenty Questions’, ‘Charlie’, ‘Doctor Roo and the Jewel of the Kimberly’, ‘Daisy Sunflower and the Aqua-Dragon-Growl-a-Creature’ and ‘Shades of Grey’.

Alex MacTaggart started his stage career at Corona Academy in London at the age of six, where he was cast for the role of Yoda in the Empire strikes back: but his mum turned Steven Spielberg down. Thanks mum.

For many years Alex worked as a youth theatre leader and drama teacher in Central Europe. Formerly the director of the Vienna based 'Youth Thru Theatre', and Vice President of the European Youth Theatre 'Shakespeare in Styria". Alex has also worked for many years in international schools promoting the arts and global citizenship education.

In 2005 Alex and his team won best youth play at the Krakow theatre festival. In 2015 Alex directed and toured 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' from Azerbaijan, to Germany, to Austria. Alex is a proponent of youth theatre, and believes the orientation of youth drama requires didactic specialism, and a developmental understanding.

Alex is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and treasures youth theatre as its own, and very special area. It is a force for good in developing critical understanding of self, the world, and our place within it.

Justin Matters (Sydney, Australia) is a project manager, filmmaker, digital video producer and post production specialist with a Masters of Arts/Digital Media and a Bachelor of Film and Television Production Justin currently is a Production and Strategy Co-ordinator at Totem Social Advisory and Studio, the #1 social video agency globally and also a freelance video producer and editor across various industry brands.

Justin is also currently in post-production of two projects. These include Nightmare, a horror film anthology filmed in America and Australia and Popular, an Australian dark-comedy sitcom based on the perils of public school including the lives of it’s students and teachers. Justin was previously a Digital Video Producer at Pacific Magazines developing video content across all social media channels and the Seven network for Pacific's flagship magazines to raise engagement levels across all core target and secondary markets.

Previous to his role at Pacific Magazines, Justin established himself as Creative Video Producer at JMC Academy from 2013 - 2015. In this newly created role, Justin collaborated with the Halogen Foundation, JMC Academy International, The Berklee College of Music and produced content across partner tertiary institutions including the International Film School Sydney (IFSS) and the Actors College of Theatre and Television (ACTT). This was Justin's first video centric full time role whilst juggling university commitments.

Justin has amassed a portfolio of short films, music videos, corporate videos, TVC's and experimental films to develop his growth as a versatile film and video producer.

Paige Newmark is the Artistic Director of Western Australia’s classical company, Shakespeare WA. He has directed theatre all over the world including England, Australia (where he was Artistic Director of the Australian Shakespeare Festival), South Africa (where he was Artistic Director of Shakespeare SA (South Africa)), China (as Consultant to the Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival) and throughout the USA. Acting credits include David Zucker’s film For Goodness Sake with OJ Simpson, a brief appearance in Frank Marshall’s Roller Coaster Rabbit, Kavanaugh QC with John Thaw, and featuring in the BBC documentary A Very English Education.

In addition to his theatrical work, Paige is also an academic. He has taught and guest lectured at numerous renowned academic institutions including the University of Oxford, Stanford University, Williams University, UCLA, USC, Rhodes University in South Africa, the Shakespeare Association (India) and more locally at the Universities of Western Australia, Tasmania, Murdoch, and Notre Dame (Australia) where he is Adjunct Professor of Theatre.

He is currently an Editorial Consultant for the journal Shakespeare in Southern Africa, on the Performance Editorial Board for the Digital Renaissance Editions, and Artistic Advisor for the Annapolis Shakespeare Company in the USA. He has recently published a chapter on maps and Marlowe in a new book entitled Renaissance Poetry and Drama in Context.

On a more personal note, Paige has a nineteen-year-old son Timothy, and is married to Australian prima ballerina, Lisia, with whom he has a daughter called Rose and son Noah.

Peter O’Byrne teaches at The Gaiety School and is also facilitator and improv coach at The Irish Film Academy. Since 2001, Peter has established both "The Bankers Comedy Club" as well as one of Ireland's leading improv troupes "The Craic Pack". Peter's acting credits include the following popular Irish television productions (Fair City, Killinaskully, The Clinic, Damo & Ivor) and theatre productions (An Enemy of The People at The Gate Theatre, and Anu Productions award winning Laundry & Boys of Foley Street).

Peter was also a cast member of independent short fim "Caper", winner of the Richard Harris Award in 2016. In July 2017, Peter begins shooting on "This Day", an independent film production support by The Irish Film board. This Day shines a light on mental health and well being of families caught up in the highs and lows of our modern world. Check it out at www.thisdayfilm.com.

Wesley Pantoja began his career in Shanghai as a foreign expert teaching Western Culture at Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1999. 

He earned his MA in Multicultural Education from George Mason University and shortly thereafter founded Available Light Films where he serves as founding partner and Executive Producer.

He also teaches Photography and Film Making at the Wan Yuan campus of the Shanghai United International School, and he is cofounder of the Shanghai I Love You Student Film Collective.

Natalie Hall - Poole! Natalie is from Manchester, United Kingdom and is a secondary teaching specialist in television and film. She is currently teaching Media and Expression at Walkden High School and is also an official moderator and examiner of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) Media Studies. Prior to teaching, Natalie was a production coordinator. She has also achieved the Higher National Diploma (HND) in Television Production and Operations, Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia.

Paul Prescott is Reader in English at the University of Warwick and has acted, adapted and taught Shakespeare in a range of countries and contexts. He writes mainly on Shakespeare in performance, and is the author of Reviewing Shakespeare: Journalism and Performance from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Cambridge, 2013), a critical biography of Sam Wanamaker for the Great Shakespeareans series (Bloomsbury, 2013), and, as co-editor and contributor, A Year of Shakespeare: Reliving the World Shakespeare Festival (Arden, 2013) and Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year (Arden, 2015). He is currently working on a book on Shakespeare festivals, and is General Editor of ReviewingShakespeare.com, and ShakespeareontheRoad.com. 

Joe Ruocco lives in the United Kingdom and currently teaches media and film studies at Pimlico in London. He has taught media and film other schools as well including The Forest School in Horsham and St. Paul’s Catholic College in Burgess Hill. Joe received a National Diploma and Distinction in Media Production and Theory, a Bachelor’s Degree in Media and Film and successfully completed the Graduate Teacher Programme at the University of Sussex where he received Qualified Teacher Status for Media and Film.

Reem Saleh lives in Doha, Qatar and is the Deputy Director for Ajyal Youth Film Festival at the Doha Film Institute.

Reem is an accomplished and high achieving professional with compelling success working at a senior level in the TV and Film sector. Reem has also had rich experience as a content producer, film critic and web writer. Interestingly, she served as a producer on Al Jazeera Children’s Channel from 2006 to 2010.