President of the Jury /Judges
We believe Art is universal language and Spiritual and When you embrace it gives you a peace of mind. Art requires creativity, and creativity drives world-leading economies. Cinema is a perfect key to Art, which gathers different talents and required constance changes which takes us to innovations.
Our Jury
Marc Gareton was previously Executive Vice President of International Productions at Warner Bros. where he spent 26 years around the world serving in diverse Management roles. With postings in Paris, Sydney, London, and Los Angeles, Marc managed Marketing and Distribution teams in all international territories with P&L responsibilities for Video, Digital, and Games. He greenlit over 250 films and TV series in 12 international markets, bringing non-English language premium content to global audiences.
In collaboration with Tencent, Marc designed, built, and developed China’s largest SVOD platform with over 130m domestic subscribers. He also originated Warner Japan’s foray into Anime local production.
As a Trustee on the board of LILA – Los Angeles International School, Marc participated in the expansion of the program within its community. He still serves on the Board of Tierra’s Angels, a Los Angeles-based charity supporting unprivileged children.
Marc has a master’s in business administration from NEOMA (Reims, France) Business School and attended Stanford’s “Leading Change and Organizational Renewal” program.
Douglas Montgomery
CEYIFF Jury 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Douglas Montgomery was a member of the jury for “Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia” in 2023. Short Shorts is one of the oldest and largest short film festivals in the world and is an Oscar-qualifying festival.
Douglas founded Global Connects in 2021 and serves as its CEO. He has been quoted in both Bloomberg and Nikkei, in which he shared his thoughts on foreign content potential in the United States and presented this topic at the 2022 NAB show in Las Vegas. Montgomery is featured in the 2021 Global TV Demand Awards speaking with the Most-In-Demand TV Show winner, Attack on Titan. A 20-year veteran of the media and retail space, Douglas spent more than 16 years with Warner Bros., most recently as Vice President of Category Management. Douglas is Chairman Emeritus of the 113-year-old Japan America Society of Southern California, a 501c3, building and maintaining relationships between the U.S. and Japan. He is also the founder and executive producer of “Global Stage Hollywood”, a 3-day film festival in Hollywood celebrating diverse artists from around the world. He also produced and curated the third annual Taiwan Biennial Film Festival in the fall of 2021 which featured local Taiwan Hit “Man in Love” to a sold-out live performance in Hollywood
Carlos Sanchez
CEYIFF Jury 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Carlos Sanchez serves as Senior Vice President, Global content sales at A&E Networks. In his role, Carlos is responsible for driving the growth of the company’s digital content business, securing licensing agreements for A+E Networks’ library of scripted and non-scripted programming to SVOD and AVOD platforms. His team will also be responsible for identifying new opportunities to maximize revenue and profitability for A+E’s content via emerging technologies and delivery systems including FAST Channels, as well as establishing and enhancing relationships with domestic and global digital distribution partners with the intention of extending A+E’s brands and products outside of the US market. Sanchez comes to A+E Networks after serving as VP of global distribution and co-productions at Legendary Television, where he was responsible for distributing Legendary Television’s content to premium video platforms around the world as well as identifying international co-production opportunities with local partners and platforms. Prior to Legendary, he served in various distribution and marketing roles at Warner Bros.
Oscar Gutierrez
CEYIFF Jury 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Oscar Gutierrez considers graduating with honors from San Marcos High School Majors Program in Arts and Media. He received three national awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (J.A.C.C.) for his work in Broadcast Journalism at the School of Media Arts, Santa Barbara City College.
Oscar received honors for Film Department had to offer, along with UCLA’s Best Documentary award for his senior film project.
In Oscars’ 17-year career he has worked for some of the nation’s top educational institutions like SBCC and UCSB in the fields of Journalism and Videography as well as conglomerates such as ABC, Warner Brothers, and Univision.
His work has been nominated and awarded over 30 times for national and regional awards in the fields of Journalism, Film, and Television.
Oscar is the first millennial elected to the Santa Barbara City Council and he serves his community as a city councilman.
Isabelle Carpentier
CEYIFF Jury 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Isabelle has founded Radiant Content in Los Angeles to develop and produce TV series & movies and advise production companies, distributors, and streaming platforms including France Channel, the #1 streaming service dedicated to French movies and TV shows in the US. Previously, Isabelle was COO of France Televisions Distribution, the international distribution arm of the #1 French broadcasting group, and Deputy Director of Media & Entertainment at HSBC bank.
Shanshan Sun
CEYIFF Jury 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Shanshan is an independent producer who graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory, with a master’s degree in Film Producing. She has produced and directed over 30 shorts and TV programs. She wants to become a filmmaker who can promote the diversity of talents and cultures through film. Her goal as a filmmaker is to send positive messages to the world and inspire people to pursue a better life.
Claude Gagnon
CEYIFF Jury 2022 / 2023 / 2024
“Advisor and Investor in Technology for Media and Entertainment, Los Angeles.
Formerly the President of Technicolor Creative Services, Claude has worked for over 30 years in markets throughout the world, overseeing the opening and acquisition of facilities in London, China, Italy, Spain and France, among many others”
Alar Kivilo
CEYIFF Jury 2023 / 2024
Alar Kivilo lensed the box office hit “The Blindside,” which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and won the Best Actress award for Sandra Bullock.
A native of Montreal, Kivilo began his cinematography career shooting documentaries and short films, including “Boys and Girls,” which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 1984. Kivilo, next began shooting music videos, which eventually led to commercials and the formation of his own company, Propeller. For the next ten years, he directed and shot many Bessie, Clio and Cannes Award-winning commercials.
In 1987, Kivilo lensed his first feature, “Da” in Ireland, starring Martin Sheen, followed by Sam Raimi’s “A Simple Plan.”
He has since served as the director of photography on such films as “Frequency,” “The Glass House,” “Hart’s War,” “Aurora Borealis,” “The Ice Harvest,” “The Lake House,” “The Lookout,” “Year One,” “Bad Teacher,” “The Lucky One,” “Fallen,” and “The Choice.”
In recent years he completed Nicole Holofcener’s “Land of Steady Habits,” starring Ben Mendelsohn, Haifaa al-Mansour’s “Nappily Ever After,” Natalie Krinsky’s “Broken Hearts Gallery,” and Kyra Sedgewick’s “Space Oddity.”
For his work on the small screen, he received an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture/Mini-Series Television for the acclaimed HBO movie “Taking Chance,” starring Kevin Bacon.
Kivilo previously earned Emmy and ASC Award nominations for the HBO biopic “Gotti,” and an ASC Award nomination for the miniseries “The Invaders.” His other television credits include the HBO movies “Normal,” “Weapons of Mass Distraction,” “Rebound,” and Kyra Sedgwick’s DGA nominated directorial debut, “Story of a Girl.”
In 2021 he was awarded The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.
Kivilo is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Cinematographers, the Canadian Society of Cinematographers and the Estonian Society of Cinematographers.
Audrey Abiven
CEYIFF Jury 2023 / 2024
Audrey owns and manages post-production companies in Brussels, Belgium and Paris, France. She is also an independent producer.
She was a member of the 74th Festival de Cannes Caméra d’Or Jury. She is a member of the French Academy des César and she sits at the CNC agreement board, which is responsible for validating the right for productions to access specific tax rebates in France.
Audrey graduated from Montpellier Business School in France with a master’s degree in Business and Management. She started her career in finance in Geneva and London before joining the film industry in 2009.
Isabelle Bertrand
CEYIFF Jury 2024
Isabelle Bertrand is an accomplished senior executive veteran of the media industry, having served as a key contributor to the digital disruption of media industries, video games, music, entertainment (tv, movies) across her career.
Bertrand created Media Twist a consulting powerhouse and recently shaped the first DocuTainment’s initiative of the LVMH group through the executive production of “Inside the Dream” movie collection starting with Bulgari and Dior. She now works for N9NEStudio, an incubator of content projects that aggregates talented independent producers in animation, live action, premium series and documentaries.
Previously, Bertrand was Head of acquisition and pre-buy for Amazon Prime Video in France. She established the Prime Video locally, structuring the strategic business and marketing vision for the service with a remit to anchor it on the French market. She acquired and launched a very diverse slate of French and international movies/TVs/unscripted programs.
She then oversaw a portfolio of local productions, partnering with talent such as Mylene Farmer, the PSG, Brut, Michael Young/“BDE”, Kev Adams/“Haters”, Ines Reg/“Je te veux moi non plus” structuring collaborations with public and private partners. She managed to greenlight the first TVseries on French Special Forces “Black Hearts” while launching TV series comedy “Darknet-sur-Mer” and “Escort Boys”.
During her tenure, she instigated the disruption of the long-lasting French media chronology during Covid, premiering cinema-movies on an SVOD platform and negotiated with the French Drove French regulator ARCOM, and industry bodies in the context of the French local investments obligations transposition of the EU Directive.
Prior to joining Amazon, Bertrand was managing the digital division of Warner Bros.; firsthand developing the digital department in UK and Ireland then leading and expanding the division in the French and Benelux market.
Bertrand began her career at French international Media group Canal+ responsible for the product-to-market strategy of the company videogames initiatives leveraging the group entertainment IPs. She then joined Universal Music Group, as part of the founder team of the mobile and digital division expanding the major new business across the world.
In addition to her work at N9NEStudio, Bertrand currently sits on the strategic board of Sowind, a high jewelry independent group, gathering the Maisons Ulysse Nardin & Girard-Perregaux. She is also acting as a senior mentor for 2 French media associations, PFDM and the mediaClub’Elles supporting the representativity of women in the media industry,.
Manual Roman
CEYIFF Jury 2024
Born in Washington D.C. and raised in the south of France, Manuel is a multi-faceted filmmaker who started producing videos in his mid-teens. In his early 20s, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood. Evolving from PA to AD for such filmmakers as Woody Allen.
Manuel has also worked as a commercial editor and producer for multiple Fortune500 companies. Today, he develops TV shows and is creating a film festival in Alabama. Manuel is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal.
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Contact Us Here
Ceylon International Film Festival is located in Santa Barbara, California and you can contact us here: