Meet the Judges
Lance McDaniel
Lance McDaniel is an Emmy nominated filmmaker from Alva who has worked on 22 feature films, including Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby. Lance has directed and produced five narrative features, two documentaries, four shorts, and a Virtual Reality film. Lance spent a decade as Executive Director of the deadCenter Film Festival.
Brian Cates
Brian Cates is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker and is the writer and director of FAMILY CAMP, a feature-length family comedy from SONY / Provident Films and K-LOVE Radio. Over the past 15 years he has directed and/or produced nearly 500 short films with The Skit Guys, and with them has built one of the largest faith-based short film distribution networks in the world. Brian lives in Oklahoma City with his wife and best friend, Jina, and their three daughters.
Jenny Mirković
Jenny was part of the original AirVūz management team, and as Chief Operating Officer, she currently is responsible for the Site Editing, Social Media, Community Relations, and Digital Signage / OTT functions within AirVūz. With a 20+year background in communications, technology and management, her previous posts in corporate, start-up, non-profit, and education settings include management positions with Citibank, IP Commerce, Business Aviation, and Augustana University. Jenny holds a MA in Rhetorical Criticism and a BA in Organizational Communication from the University of South Dakota.
Jacob Blaeser is the Director of Media Relations at AirVuz. He also hosts various AirVuz Originals such as their weekly news segment World of Drones, AirVuz After Hours, and the monthly FPV Award show. Over the past few years, Jacob has found ways to connect his sports media past with his current work in the drone and film industries. Through that, he’s been a part of Emmy-nominated projects with both HBO and Major League Baseball. Now, as he dives more into the FPV side of the drone world, his goal is to help grow the awareness of the importance of FPV - and other high-performance drones - within the film industry.
Jacob Blaeser
Marcus Möller
Marcus is a multi awarded cinematographer and drone operator. His nature and feature films films has been shown on festivals around the globe. He is specilazied in drone cinematography and most of the jobs are drama and commercials. The passion for nature has always been there. that reflects in a lot of his work, which have a hightened version of reality but at the same time looks naturistic. He's not afraid of playing with colors and light. He is a easy going and calm guy, even in stressful situations. He began working as a gaffer. The understanding of how to light and the practical experience in lighting a scene is really important skills to know as cinematographer. Through out the years he has learned to master the light as well as the camera.
Lynzi Carlson
Lynzi is the Executive Director of Simply Indie Film Fest in Edmond, Oklahoma, and works as a Lead Genius at Apple. Having co-founded Simply Indie three years ago, she loves bringing the arts through independent film to the community.
Marisa Carlson
Marisa is the Director of Programming for Simply Indie Film Fest and the Event & Program Coordinator at the Edmond Fine Arts Institute. She co-founded Red Dirt Film Festival in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2013 and was the Festival Director there for seven years. Simply Indie, now in its third year, was created to highlight film as an important part of the art community in her hometown of Edmond, Oklahoma. Marisa’s passion lies in telling and showcasing great stories in all genres.
Nick Hodge
Nick Hodge is based in Oklahoma City with a background in film, music, and communications. Nick holds a Bachelors degree of arts from the University of Oklahoma in Film & Media Studies. He has worked on film and television sets, assisted in a casting office, & currently does work with the Simply Indie Film Festival in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Sonni Adams
Sonni is an Oklahoman artist, adjunct professor for ACM@UCO and creative director for Freestyle Creative. As the creative director of Freestyle, Sonni brings her obsession for creating vibrant solutions while developing teams to deliver dynamic, integrated advertising systems across all platforms. She is active in the Oklahoma film scene by creative directing poster design and character photoshoots for films Freestyle produces. She thrives on moving brands forward by inspiring human connections with award-winning work created for the Oklahoma City Convention Center, Film Education Institute of Oklahoma, Braum's, OU Medicine, OKC Thunder, Chesapeake Energy Arena, and Onyx Lane.