Ms. Walborsky is the former Program Coordinator for the FIRST LOOK film series, a non-profit organization sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company, The New York Foundation for the Arts and the Tribeca Film Center. FIRST LOOK screens new independent films not yet acquired for distribution. During her tenure at FIRST LOOK, Ms. Walborsky oversaw a complete image overhaul of the program, put in place an Honorary Board of Trustees, and conceptualized and launched a major sponsorship/fundraising campaign. She acted as the liaison between the organization's co-chairs and its advisory and an honorary board of trustees as well as with filmmakers, actors, distributors, members of the press and the independent community in general. Her position at FIRST LOOK allowed her to mentor new filmmakers in their distribution and marketing plans.

Ms.Walborsky has served as juror for grants for the Department of Cultural Affairs for New York City, for the student awards for the Hamptons Film Festival as well as for the Wasserman Awards for New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She assisted in the production and casting of Ethan Silverman's short film, Central Park (Sundance 1997).

Ms. Walborsky created and organized the Film and Lecture Series for the Museum of Jewish Heritage, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, that demonstrated the various and complex issues of the Holocaust. The series became so successful that a major funding campaign was launched to meet the demands of the growing audience.

She has over ten years of national award winning marketing and promotion experience which includes working for Hill and Knowlton, Burson Marsteller, Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart and National Director of Corporate Communications for Baume & Mercier, Cartier Group.

Jeremiah Newton is co-founder of the Shorts International Film Festival as well as the Film, Television and Video Industry Liaison for New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He is in charge of the Mentor Program and conducts a weekly Directors Series involving well known American, European and Asian directors and producers such as Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, Joel Silver and Agnes Varda, etc. who interact with undergraduate and graduate film students. He is also in charge of the Master Workshop involving master directors such as Beeban Kidron, Spike Lee and Wayne Wang, the Mentor Program involving Susan Seidelman, Mary Harron and Barry Sonnenfeld and the A.I.C.E. Editors Mentor Program.

Mr. Newton is co-founder of the Student Awards for the Hamptons International Film Festival, now in its fifth year, which has awarded over $150,000 in cash prizes to student filmmakers. Mr. Newton serves as a pre-judge for the Student Academy Awards, the BACA Awards and the EMMY Awards.

In 1995, Mr. Newton was a juror on the first Naguib Malfouz Awards for Independent Filmmaking at the Cairo International Film Festival. Since 1994, he has lectured and presented programs of student films at the High Cinema Institute, the largest film school in the Middle East, and at the American Center, in Alexandria.

Advisory Board:

Rhonda Barad,  Grace Blake,  G. Mac Brown,  Charles Burnett,  Joel and Ethan Coen,  Beth Dembitzer,  Richard Dooley,  Sandra Forman,  Steve Garfinkel,  Taylor Hackford,  Bob Hawk,  Gill Holland,  Annette Insdorf,  Julia Judge,  Debra Kent,  Katia Krousova,  Ang Lee, 
Jim Jarmusch,  Graham Leggat,  Larry Meistrich,  Sheila Nevins,  John Penotti,  Linda Schaffer,  Jeff Scher,  Susan Seidelman,  Gaby Tana

More Information:

Shorts International Film Festival
545 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10017

phone: 212-907-1288
fax: 212-907-1266
info@shorts.org