NIGERIAN filmmaker Funa Maduka is one of the 16 jurors granting awards at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday, January 19, 2023.
Maduka is distinguished as one of the three jury members of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, alongside Shozo Ichiyama and Annemarie Jacir.
The 2023 Sundance film festival will take place between January 19, 2023, and January 29, 2023, in person in Utah. Sixteen jurors will grant the awards for feature and short films, which will be announced on Friday, January 27. The jurors of the 2023 edition are Jeremy O. Harris, Eliza Hittman, and Marlee Matlin for U.S. Dramatic Competition; W. Kamau Bell, Ramona Diaz, and Carla Gutierrez for U.S. Documentary Competition; Shozo Ichiyama, Annemarie Jacir, and Funa Maduka for World Cinema Dramatic Competition; Karim Amer, Petra Costa, and Alexander Nanau for World Cinema Documentary Competition; Madeleine Olnek for the NEXT competition section; and Destin Daniel Cretton, Marie-Louise Khondji, and Deborah Stratman for the Short Film Program Competition.
Maduka is an award-winning filmmaker and the former head of International Original Films at Netflix where she worked with the world’s top global and emerging filmmakers. Over six years, she was positioned at the frontline of the company’s global expansion, managing the launch of the film offering across 100+ countries. She pioneered Netflix’s move into international film production, building a development slate across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Meanwhile, her film acquisitions brought Netflix its first film nominations at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.