LITTLE JUDAS, 6min,. USA
Directed by Greg Boose
Young and mischievous Judas Iscariot dreams of ruling the streets of Nazareth while reluctantly befriending his strange and annoying new neighbor, Jesus of Galilee. The kids attend the first day Josaphat's School of Shepherding, learning how to handle bear attacks and first crushes.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26671036/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I went to Catholic school for 12 years and had a lot of biblical characters always bouncing around in my head. Judas Iscariot always stood out to me because we knew so little about him: He was a greedy backstabber who betrayed Jesus. I wondered, "How did Judas end up like that? What was his childhood like?" So, a few years back, I wrote an animated pilot about Judas Iscariot being an asshole punk teenager on the streets of Nazareth, and Jesus and his weird family move in next door. The two of them attend shepherding school together and form an unlikely friendship by the end. The pilot script got pretty far in some screenplay contests, but ultimately nothing happened with it.

Hadas Goshen, executive producer of "Little Judas," read the script in 2022 and got really excited and wanted to help me create it. She reached out to the brilliant animator Bradley Oliver Wilkinson, and soon the project was in motion: We would create one scene from the pilot as an example of what we can do together.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

Well, I wrote it in 2019, sending it to friends and contests, and then nothing happened with it for years until my friend, Hadas, read it in late 2021 and wanted to create something from it. From a production standpoint, I met my animator, Bradley Oliver Wilkinson, over Zoom in February of 2022, and the final edit came in almost exactly a year later in February of 2023.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Religious parody.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

The biggest obstacle was nailing down each character's look with the animator, getting them to look like what I had in my head, and then after that was finding the right voice actors. We went through several people before finding our Jesus and Judas.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I was nervous, to be honest. This is a religious parody and it can trigger people; I've had people read the script and tell me I was going to hell and that they were mad they read it in the first place. So, I was bracing for that, but luckily the audience reactions were positive and I loved hearing what stood out for them.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

I kept hearing successful filmmakers say that if you want to get something made, then you gotta make it yourself. So, when I was tired of getting positive reviews on my scripts but then "thanks but no thanks," I knew I had to try to make my own film. And here we are!

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

The Goonies.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Honestly, I'm pretty new to the whole festival experience, so I don't have that answer. I will say, however, that the audience feedback is a great benefit to being included in this festival.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Incredibly user friendly. I've been submitting projects and pitching things for 20 years, and FilmFreeway stands out as a top-tier submission platform all around.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Fish tacos.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

I'm finishing up a new murdery mystery novel called Variegated Communities: When an aspiring plant influencer finds his idol murdered, he decides to take the idol's expensive plant collection home with him, setting off a series of events that leads him all over San Francisco to solve the murder before he becomes the next victim.