On the festival’s opening night, our panel of distinguished jury members will be presenting The Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Black Harvest Film Festival Prize to deserving filmmakers, made possible through a generous gift from Richard and Ellen Sandor. This year, a $2,500 prize will be awarded to a short film, and a $5,000 prize will honor a feature film.
The winning films will be presented at the Gene Siskel Film Center during the 32nd Black Harvest Film Festival.
32nd Black Harvest Film Festival Jurors
Eddie Chambers
Eddie Chambers is Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor in Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He previously held the David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been professionally involved in the visual arts for four decades, first as an artist, then as a writer of art criticism and art curator. More recently, since the early 2000s, he has moved into academia, first as a Visiting Professor at Emory University, Atlanta, before going on, in 2010, to a position at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his PhD at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His doctorate concerned press and other responses to a new generation of Black British artists who emerged in the 1980s. His broad areas of scholarship are the art and art history of the African Diaspora.
Briana Clearly
Briana Clearly (she/her) is a Chicago-based filmmaker, community curator, and mentor. She is a graduate of DePaul University with an MFA in directing (2023). Clearly’s works have been screened at places such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Black Harvest Film Festival (2019, 2024). Her short experimental documentary, The Sum of Her Parts, won Best Chicago Short at the Windy City Film Festival (2019), as well as the Dear White People Film Competition (2019). Most recently, Clearly founded Filmmaker’s Mixtape, which builds on her practice in independent filmmaking and her passion for community and mentorship through its flagship program, #FM12for12, a year-long challenge in which she guides a cohort of filmmakers in making one film a month for twelve months.
Danielle A. Scruggs
Danielle A. Scruggs is a photo editor, photographer, writer, and founder of Black Women Directors, a digital archive dedicated to highlighting the work of Black women and nonbinary filmmakers across the diaspora. Based in Chicago, she is a Visuals Editor at NPR and has worked at The Wall Street Journal, Getty Images, Vox Media, ESPN, the Chicago Reader, and The Washington Post. Her photography has appeared in The New York Times, Bon Appétit, People, and ProPublica, and her writing on visual culture and film has appeared in Teen Vogue, RogerEbert.com, Letterboxd Journal, Ebony, and The Triibe. Her work with Black Women Directors has earned two Webby Awards. Scruggs holds a journalism degree from Howard University and a master’s degree in digital art from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
