IMFF 2025 Jury

The 10th Indie Meme Film Festival comes to Austin in-person from April 9 - 13, 2025 and is held at the Austin Film Society Cinemas.

Each year, we assemble a prestigious group of filmmakers, industry experts, veteran film festival programmers and other film aficionados. These esteemed jurors dedicate their expertise to selecting the films deserving of recognition in various categories.

The winners from each category are revealed during the Closing Night Party. These announcements are then accompanied by special citations presented by the jury.

Narrative Jury

Documentary Jury

Shorts Jury

Narrative Feature Jury

Chelsea Hernandez

Chelsea Hernandez is an Emmy®-nominated Mexican-American Director and Producer based in Texas. Named as DOC NYC’s 2021 40 Under 40 Class, her first feature documentary BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM (SXSW, PBS) won a Silver Telly Award for Social Impact and was nominated for a National Emmy in 2021. Chelsea’s producing work spans over 15 years in television and film including United Tacos Of America (El Rey Network series); and That Animal Rescue Show (Paramount +). Her second feature documentary BREAKING THE NEWS (Tribeca), a co-production with ITVS was broadcast on Independent Lens/PBS in February 2024. Chelsea is a Ford Foundation/Just Films grantee, BAVC National Mediamaker Fellow, Firelight Doc Lab Fellow and Tribeca All Access Alum. She is also a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and co-founder of Tejanas in Film.

Bryan Poyser

A two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee, writer/director Bryan Poyser has made 4 features, numerous short films as well as projects for Comedy Central, the USA Network, Ridley Scott Associates and HBO. Bryan’s feature LOVERS OF HATE premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards. His first feature DEAR PILLOW was also nominated for a Spirit Award in 2005. Bryan’s third feature LOVE & AIR SEX premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and was released by Tribeca Films. His work for television includes directing the pilot OVERANALYZERS for Comedy Central and writing an episode of the Duplass Brothers HBO series ROOM 104. His most recent short film DON'T YOU GO NOWHERE screened at 40 festivals throughout 2022-2023 and won 18 awards and his most recent feature, LEADS, recipient of an Austin Film Society Grant, will have its festival premiere in the late Spring of 2025. Bryan lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter and teaches filmmaking as an Associate Professor of Practice at Texas State University.

Celeste Quesada

Celeste Quesada is an artist, community builder, real estate professional and a two-term Austin
Music Commissioner, appointed by Mayor Kirk Watson.

Known for creating community by weaving together 25+ years of working within the cultural arts, social impact and home-building space. Quesada loves to inspire, educate, and share her
expertise with others. Quesada received her BFA at the University of Texas, co-founded Cine Las Americas, and has worked with numerous non-profits including Planned Parenthood, I Live
Here I Give Here, Austin Film Society, SIMS Foundation, HAAM, American Gateways, El Buen Samaritano, Forklift Danceworks, Creative Action, Austin Music Industry Awards and Austin Music Awards. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Austin Film Society and the leadership council for American Gateways.

In 2024, Quesada started getting hands dirty with ceramic art. Her artwork can be found at the
Get Lucky Gallery in Lockhart, Texas.

Quesada is a proud South Austinite living in District 3. She also owns a second residence in Lockhart, Texas with her husband, grammy-winning producer & musician Adrian Quesada; their daughters, Amelie and Marcelle and their canine toddler, Martiza Chichén Itzá Quesada (or Itzá for short).
for short).

Documentary Jury

Khaula Malik

Khaula Haider Malik is an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker and programmer based in New York City. She most recently co-produced Apple TV+'s GIRLS STATE. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, HBO, the Doris Duke Foundation, CAAM, Islamic Scholarship Fund, PBS, The Gotham, and others. She is currently in post-production on her first feature doc, THE NOBLES, which has been supported by DOCNYC and the Catapult Rough Cut Retreat. Khaula’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Sight & Sound, PBS and she has worked with Netflix and HBO. She is a graduate of the MFA program at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and served as a programmer for the True/False Film Festival from 2022-2024.

Tim Tsai

Tim is a Taiwanese American filmmaker whose feature debut SEADRIFT chronicles the racial hostilities that erupted during the early days of Vietnamese refugee arrival on the Texas Gulf Coast. SEADRIFT premiered at Slamdance 2019 and was broadcast on PBS, garnering awards from the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Dallas International Film Festival, the Houston Film Critics Society, and others. Recent work includes editing POWERLANDS (AmDocs '22 Best US Feature), about global Indigenous resistance against resource extraction, and directing MI CASA ES TU CASA (2023), a short documentary on the founders of Woodlake Botanical Garden. Tim holds an MFA in film production from U.T. Austin, served as the former executive director of the Austin Asian American Film Festival, and is a Firelight Media Documentary Labs alum. He is now based in California's Central Valley.

Shorts Jury

Miriam Chandy Menacherry

Miriam is a Fulbright scholar and a filmmaker dedicated to creating a brand of documentaries that have won acclaim in India and internationally. She has been chosen as BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Breakthrough Talent from India. She is one of 18 fellows selected in the first cohort of the Global Media Makers Fellowship by Film Independent and US State Department of Education and Cultural Affairs. She is the recipient of the 70th National Film Award for Best Direction for her documentary From the Shadows.

Her award-winning films are about everyday heroes, From the Shadows, The Leopard’s Tribe, Lyari Notes, The Rat Race, Robot Jockey, Stuntmen of Bollywood and a 7-part series Back to the Floor. Her films have streamed on Netflix, BBC, National Geographic Channel, Arte France and Al Jazeera.
She has done 2 years of research in India on the contribution of Women in Cinema and Collectivism supported by India Foundation for the Arts that has now been supported for further research by the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship. She is currently a visiting scholar at UT, Austin, Texas until July 2025.

Jordan Levin

Jordan Levin is a highly accomplished media executive, producer, and strategist with over three decades of experience shaping the entertainment industry. He has played a key role in launching and managing major entertainment franchises across television, film, digital media, and sports. Levin has held leadership positions at The WB (now The CW), Awesomeness, the NFL, Xbox Entertainment Studios, and Rooster Teeth, where he guided content strategy, production, and business operations. He is widely recognized for his expertise in engaging young audiences and driving innovative storytelling across scripted and unscripted formats, documentaries, podcasts, and live events.

In 2024, Levin transitioned into academia as a Professor of Practice at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication, where he teaches media production and industry studies while developing a new Sports Production and Broadcasting minor. Alongside his academic role, he continues to serve as a strategic advisor for select entertainment and sports enterprises. Throughout his career, Levin has been a thought leader in media, sports, and technology, contributing to industry boards, speaking engagements, and creative ventures that have left a lasting impact on popular culture.

Brad Limov

Brad Limov is a postdoc in media, AI, and ethics at UT-Austin. As a scholar, he researches how communities use media to communicate, come together, and take action. In addition to what this means for media industry norms, he has a particular interest in communities of practice and how they interact within online spaces and offline at events.

Before making the move to Austin, Brad studied East Asian cinemas at Nagoya University in Japan. His focus on film festivals led him to opportunities as a translator for the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and as a communicator for Xining FIRST International Film Festival. He was trained in writing and film production as an undergraduate at Colorado College.

Brad's academic writing has appeared in media and communication journals like Critical Studies in Media Communication, the International Journal of Communication, and NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies.

Jenny Nulf

Jenny Nulf is a film distributor and programmer. She currently works as the Theatrical Programs Manager at the American Genre Film Archive, a non-profit focused on film preservation. She has had a dedicated career in film, and previously she has worked as a programmer for Alamo Drafthouse and the Austin Asian American Film Festival, and was nominated four years in a row as Best Film Critic in Austin by the Austin Chronicle. She loves finding audiences for under-the-radar, diverse, and thought-provoking cinema.