Meet the Judges
Each year, a panel of judges from across Appalachia is assembled to help Mtn Craft determine which films walk away with their exclusive awards. These professionals spend countless hours to sifting through each entry and managing quality control. We’re endlessly grateful to the work of these entities and the dedication they prove to our program. Get to know them below:
Tina Kakadelis
Tina Kakadelis is a freelance film critic and festival programmer based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the News Editor for Film Obsessive and the editor-in-chief of Beyond the Cinerama Dome. With her father, Tina co-hosts Movies with My Dad, a podcast that takes place during the car ride home after they've seen a movie together. It features a lot of laughter and usually a little bickering. From time to time, Tina finds herself behind the camera. Her two latest short films, "daisy chain" and "Heaven on Earth," have screened at film festivals across the country.
Ahmed T. Ragheb & Lily Ekimian Ragheb are a married experimental filmmaking duo based in Pittsburgh, PA. Lily (American, Russian and Armenian) grew up between Washington, D.C., and Cairo, Egypt. Ahmed (Egyptian, Dutch and American) was born and raised in Cairo. Their films emphasize identity, feminism, cultural dislocation and domestic relationships, and are noted for their use of voiceover and mixed media. Their work has screened at world-renowned and Oscar-qualifying festivals including International Film Festival Rotterdam (Tiger Short Competition), Cairo International Film Festival, Uppsala Short Film Festival (Nominated, Ingmar Bergman Award) and Athens Int’l Film + Video Festival, as well as the Arab American National Museum and the Mattress Factory Contemporary Art Museum. They have received artist residencies at the Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center (Buffalo, NY, Summer 2024) and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE, Fall 2025), and were awarded the Gift to America 2.0 Artist Commission (Millvale, PA, 2025-26) by the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka. Together they founded the independent film production company Studio Ragheb.
Bob is an independent filmmaker based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, using the medium of film to explore the complexities of the human experience through a dark, emotional lens. His short films reflect personal observations and lived experiences, often delving into themes of psychological tension, isolation, and unpredictable human behavior.
He’s drawn to narratives where characters face challenging situations, escalating tension, and unexpected outcomes—stories that provoke raw emotion and spark honest conversations about what it means to be human.
Seth is a film producer, creative executive, and educator with over two decades in the entertainment industry. As Creative Director of the Rome International Film Festival, he has hosted icons such as Francis Ford Coppola, Ethan Hawke, and Tim Blake Nelson while forging global partnerships with festivals and cultural institutions in Israel, The Bahamas, England, and Italy. He co-founded the Flannery O’Connor Award for Storytelling and has produced films including You’re Killing Me (2022), Signing Tony Raymond (2025), The Life and Many Deaths of Wilcon Shedd (2026). Ingram also chairs Humanities at Georgia Highlands College, where he founded the Film and Digital Communications Program.
Emily Conzett
Emily is an avid supporter of the arts and currently assisting Foundry Theater, a non-profit in Huntington, WV, as their Chief Operations Officer to hopefully encourage the flourishing arts community in the area. She is also building a freelance portfolio in Production Design for local films and commercial projects such as ad spots for the West Virginia Lottery and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.