SCHEDULE

Join us for the Awards Ceremony to see who wins the Pittsburgh Shorts Jury Prizes and Audience Awards voted on by you!

THREE $1,000 JURY PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED

• Best Animation
• Best Documentary
• Best Narrative

PROGRAMMER’S CHOICE $1,000 PRIZE

Our programming team created a special award for a film that really moved them this season.

AUDIENCE AWARDS

We’ll also present Audience Awards based on your ratings throughout the festival so make sure to get a ballot and vote after each screening you attend!

Following the Awards Ceremony, we’ll screen a selection of the winning short films that represent the Best of the Fest!

OUR 2023 JURORS

Sharon Badal - Narrative Juror

Sharon is former VP of Programming for Tribeca, with the festival since its inception through 2023. She spent ten years in distribution and marketing for three major studios followed by extensive live-event producing experience. Recognized as a Distinguished Teacher at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she created and teaches the Producing in London summer study abroad program. She is the author of Swimming Upstream – A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution, published by Focal Press. Sharon has been a panelist or juror at numerous festivals and for industry organizations globally and in 2022 was one of six programmers worldwide invited to curate BBC Longshots. At Tribeca she programmed short films for the festival’s Academy qualifying competition programs and produced special projects and events. 

Ida Melum - Animation Juror

Ida is a BAFTA-nominated and Annie Award-winning animation director based in Sweden. After receiving her acting diploma in Norway, Ida earned her BA in Animation at Middlesex University, London. She worked as a stop motion animator on films such as the BAFTA-winning Poles Apart and Facing It before deciding to get her master's degree in Directing Animation at the National Film and Television School. During her time at the NFTS she made several films, including her graduation film Night of the Living Dread, which went on to win over 25 awards and screened at over 80 festivals. Some of her most recent works include Attenborough's Wonder of Song, a nature documentary for the BBC, and the trailer for Fredrikstad Animation Festival 2022, which she directed and animated. She is currently developing her new short film Ovary-Acting.

Njaimeh Njie - Documentary Juror

Njaimeh is a multimedia artist. Her photography, filmmaking, and installations explore contemporary Black life, with a focus on how the past shapes the present. Njie’s work has been featured in outlets including CityLab and Belt Magazine, exhibited in spaces including the Carnegie Museum of Art and The Mattress Factory, and she has presented at venues including TEDxPittsburghWomen and Harvard University. Among several awards and grants, Njie was named the 2019 Visual Artist of the Year by the Pittsburgh City Paper, and the 2018 Emerging Artist of the Year by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Njie earned her B.A. in Film and Media Studies in 2010 from Washington University in St. Louis.