2025 Judges

Dick Grunert grew up in Cedarburg, WI but always had his sights set on Hollywood. Grunert has written for film, television, theater and even podcasts. He was a writer on the Emmy Award winning Cartoon Network series Adventure Time. His other television credits include Apple & Onion, We Baby Bears, Bunnicula and Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs.

In 2019, Paramount Pictures bought Grunert’s horror screenplay Curfew.He has also written, produced and directed numerous short films, including the award winning sci-fi/horror/comedy “The Trap,” which screened at over 30 film festivals all over the world and has over 100K views on YouTube.

Grunert lives in Los Angeles with his wife, dog and cat. Currently, he is voice directing shows for Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim as well as writing and developing several new film projects.

This Wisconsin-born Entertainment Attorney and Los Angeles writer, ghostwriter, and hands-on producer, makes for a varied career in the entertainment field. As an indie producer, Carey has a hands-on approach participating in hiring crews, casting, location scouting, publicity and obtaining budgets and sales estimates. She has packaged a multitude of projects, ghostwritten or been a script-doctor on over 60 films and thirty film business plans and executive summaries, some of which have been optioned and she herself has optioned a number of scripts over the years.

Having been both in front of the camera as a stand-in for Cameron Diaz on a commercial and model since the age of five, she also works behind the camera. In addition to completing some camera work for the feature film "Scare Me" which she produces with writer and director hometown favorite Mark Borchardt, she also cherishes her time working alongside Hollywood stars such as Jason Alexander. Carey worked on the "The Whitey Show" with him at the Radford studio where the TV show synonymous for "sitcom" aka "Seinfeld" was shot in front of a live audience for a number of years.

Carey acquired a variety of educational qualifications with three business degrees from UW-Madison (Real Estate, Finance and Marketing), and obtained her Juris Doctor from Pepperdine Law School (Malibu, CA) where she studied for one semester at the Imperial College in Knightsbridge and one summer at UW-Madison Law School. She also attended Art Center College of Design Night Program for three years in Pasadena, California, studying Art History, Photography and Life Drawing. Perhaps her greatest scholastic achievement is her MFA in Film & TV from UCLA, earned from 1994 to 2002.

During her tenure at UCLA she worked as a crew member, doing sound and/or acting in a plethora of shorts and student films. She was the Student Government Representative for the Film School at UCLA and hosted weekly gatherings in the sound stage so the Master of Film students could mingle and form alliances for future work upon graduation. In addition to working on other student's projects, she wrote, shot and edited her own 16mm live-action films, a number of animations and won a Five Thousand Dollar award from Lew Wasserman for a film she made called, "Saving the Rainforest". She shot the images used in the animation in Brazil and did sound in Santa Monica. She went on to direct and produce five-camera shoots at the House of Blues in Hollywood and managed a stable of screenwriters for a number of years before moving back to Milwaukee. Since that time, Carey worked for six years with Mark Borchardt of Northwest Productions, of "American Movie" and "Coven" fame and they produced and worked together on a number of music video's and indie projects in the midwest, In addition to helping Frankie Latina with a few locations for his film, "Modus Operandi" she also worked with Mr. Borchardt on the cable show "Made" and the feature film, by Jon Springer, "The Hagstone Demon". A highlight of her film career was filming "The Mark and Mike Show," whereby Jeff Stilson, executive producer of "The Osbournes," followed Carey and Mark Borchardt's crew around as the subjects of a reality Comedy Central show during the filming of "Scare Me". She learned being on a reality show was a lot more difficult and intrusive than one would first imagine. She also obtained cast and performed as a zombie one below freezing night for G4's "Mark and Mike's Halloween Special".

As an artist and photographer, Carey has gathered acclaim and sold her works in galleries, via private commissions and at numerous festivals and plein-air events. She has judged both the IFP in Los Angeles and Scriptapalooza screenwriting contests and is truly honored to be a judge at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival for the fourth time.

Joe Lefeber is an award-winning filmmaker and the co-founder of Snowdrift Films, based in the Fox Cities. He works as a producer, cinematographer, and director, driven by a passion for visually compelling and emotionally resonant storytelling. His film credits include Mittens, Unspoken, Blood of Bad Men, When We Meet Again, and Between the Ears. 

Outside of filmmaking, he co-hosts Scene by Scene, a podcast dedicated to in-depth film discussion and analysis. As a festival judge, Joe brings a sharp cinematic eye and a deep appreciation for the art of storytelling.