Jury for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction at IDFA 2021
Myriam Achard
Myriam Achard is the voice and face of multidisciplinary arts and culture organization PHI internationally. Her mission is twofold: to promote the development of local and international artistic avant-garde, while paving the way for new creators. As head of new media partnerships and public relations, she travels the world in search of the most innovative and immersive works in order to present them in Montreal.
Since 2006, Achard has worked with Phoebe Greenberg to promote PHI’s creative impulse, driven by an ambitious message: to develop and promote artistic innovation in the world. Thanks to its efforts, the group today occupies a prominent place in the artistic avant-garde, both as producer and distributor. PHI exports its creative impulse to three continents, from New York to Tokyo, via Venice.
Avinash Changa
Avinash Changa is a VR-maker, director, and international speaker on the topic of immersive works. He founded award-winning studio WeMakeVR, producing immersive works such as Ashes to Ashes (2016), Meeting Rembrandt (2017) and most recently Angels of Amsterdam (2021), which was part of the official 78th Venice Biennale selection and the first Dutch VR work ever to be selected for the competition. Currently he is working on the next generation of immersive experiences, including live social VR performances, a hybrid theater/VR performance, educational works, and hyper-realistic volumetrics.
A true VR-evangelist, Avinash Changa often speaks about the role of immersive technologies in our society, and the industry’s collective responsibility in shaping the future of the metaverse, at organizations such as BBC News, MIT’s EmTech, Taipei Film Academy, The Next Web, CodeMotion, and the Guangzhou International Innovation Festival China. Changa is also coach for the Venice Biennale College program and NAPA representative Interactive.
Eleanor (Nell) Whitley
Eleanor (Nell) Whitley leads ambitious work in a variety of forms: live events, art installations and digital media. She is Executive Producer at Marshmallow Laser Feast and in 2016 was awarded the BFI Vision Award, which provides support and funding to some of the UK’s most promising producers. Described as a producer at the vanguard of immersive storytelling, Whitley was the first in the field to receive this award.
She has produced the critically acclaimed In the Eyes of the Animal (winner of the Wired Award for Innovation in Experience Design in 2016) and other mixed reality works including Chameleon (2016), A Colossal Wave (2018), Treehugger (winner of the Storyscapes Award at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival) and most recently We Live in an Ocean of Air (winner of the British Animation Award 2020) and Sweet Dreams (2019). In 2020, Whitley was made a Governor of the British Film Institute.
