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 journalist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the Editor in Chief of Beyond the Cinerama Dome, News Editor for Film Obsessive, and senior editor for the Disc Dispatch column for Movie Jawn. Her work has been featured on Layered Butter, Girls on Tops’ Read Me, Film Daze, and more. She is a GALECA member, Online Film Critics Society member, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.
Beth Davison
Beth Davison, PhD, is a sociologist turned documentarian whose films trace the lived histories of Appalachia and beyond. A faculty member and co-director of App Docs at Appalachian State University, she leads the Boone Docs Film Festival and has produced award-winning documentaries for festivals, PBS, and the National Park Service. Whether in the field or the classroom, she is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of ethical, community-engaged storytellers.
Emma Crow-Willard
Emma Crow-Willard’s career spans disciplines, starting as a planetary scientist at NASA, working in Hollywood on various television productions including The Amazing Race and The Voice, advising water utilities on groundwater use across California, and more recently producing science explainer videos, events and podcasts at Climate Now and SRM360 and supporting the U.S. Department of Energy’s community engagement efforts to strengthen America’s energy independence and reduce pollution. In 2019 her Climate Refugee Stories team was awarded a National Geographic grant to document stories of people displaced from climate-related events across the world. Today, she continues to produce multimedia content as Managing Director at Roots of Unity Media. Emma’s work is driven by curiosity and a desire to cultivate meaningful connections with people of all different backgrounds.
Bekah Murray
Bekah Murray is a freelance filmmaker who is drawn to the heartfelt, the authentic, and the magical. She attended film school in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and then headed to NYC to work in the production department of a church on Broadway, where she produced several stage shows and a few short films. She then joined her friends from film school in Atlanta, GA, working as an assistant on big blockbuster movies there before moving to West Virginia, where she’s focused on writing and enjoying a slower pace of life. Bekah is passionate about making and sharing art within the community wherever she lives and is honored to be a part of the MTN Craft Film Festival this year.
A.J. Thomas
A.J. Thomas started watching movies religiously thanks to WatchMojo's Top 10 lists in 2014 and hasn't slowed down since. A.J. is not native to Appalachia, but he has lived here for over a third of his life. So at this point, he might as well be. He currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia (by way of Chicago and Lubin, Poland) with his wife and two cats. He currently works as the Operations Manager and Repertory Film Programmer for the Grandin Theatre, a 4-screen non-profit cinema and cultural center.