CONGRATS TO THE DIFF 2021 AWARD WINNERS!
Best Innovative Technique
Golden Age Karate
Best Student Film
2020: Through Our Eyes
Best Fiction Film
THE SPINNING MAN
Best Documentary
The Girl Inside
Best Bite Size Flick
Come on, Shake Your Body Baby, Do the Conga!
Best Local Film
Slushie
Best of Festival
We Still Make Things
Thank you to our 2021 DIFF Judges!
Ashlei Shyne
Ashlei Shyne, is a comedy writer, actress, and filmmaker hailing from the home of US innovation Dayton, Ohio. She's an LA-based writer who loves writing character-driven comedies with BIPOC & LGBTQ+ leads. She has studied at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, IO West and Second City LA. During her time performing improv, she noticed an insufficient amount of LGBTQ+ writers and performers not being represented within the comedy community. From that awareness, Ashlei created Rainbow Bright Comedy, a BIPOC LGBTQ+ improv troupe. As a filmmaker, she's best known for her short film Bifocal, and web series #TMI. #TMI follows Aaliyah Jones, a bisexual woman who struggles to find love, acceptance and career success while living in Los Angeles. As a Black queer artist, her priorities are to use her intersectionalities through storytelling to shine a light on stories, worlds, and characters that live amongst us who haven’t had their stories told. Ashlei's past time is spent traveling, Googling useless information, and tending to her forty-plus plant children.
Destinye Arnold
Destinye Arnold, Dayton native, is a passion driven worker and volunteer in her community. Destinye’s undergraduate career was completed at Ohio University where she obtained a BA in psychology. Immediately following, she began to work at the University of Dayton as a Residence Coordinator while completing her Master’s in Business Administration. Currently working at YWCA Dayton, Destinye is able to fulfill her passion of influencing children by working as the Manager of Children’s Programs. She spends additional time working as a board member for The Conscious Connect where she is able to focus on revitalizing urban communities and literacy for young children.
Justin Reifert
Justin Reifert is a filmmaker, producer, and educator. He holds BAs in International Relations and Russian Language from Michigan State University, a graduate certificate in Documentary Filmmaking from The George Washington University, and an MFA in Documentary Media from Northwestern University. His films have screened nationally and internationally and have won several awards including a CINE Golden Eagle Award. He has been an Assistant Professor in Residence at Northwestern University in Qatar and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Oakland University in Rochester, MI.
Sadie Rogers
Sadie Rogers is a director/writer living in Chicago. She makes films that focus on metaphor through experimental glimpses into fantasy and science fiction worlds parallel to our own. Her short films are innovative and ambitious and have had a successful string of festival runs including Palms Springs International ShortsFest, Sun Valley Film Festival, Bend Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, and many others. Her comedy/drama short, RPG, now lives on Shortoftheweek (30K+ views) and her recent Science Fiction short, How is this the World received digital distribution on the Dust Channel (150K+views).
Shamea Knight
Shamea Knight was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. Shamea attended Trotwood Madison High School in 2003 where she continued her education at Xavier University and received her Bachelor's of Science in Psychology. After receiving a B.S., Shamea received a Master’s of Science in Industrial Organizational Psychology. Currently, Shamea is a Program Specialist for the Children’s Program at the YWCA Dayton, in which she has been for 8 months. She has 4 beautiful children Dayne age 9, Noah age 6, Arrington age 3, and Miaira age 2. When Shamea is not spending time with her children, she enjoys reading, dancing, singing, and Zumba.