Asheville-based Jill Boniske is a reviewer at Chickflix.net (recognized by Lifehacker and O, The Oprah Magazine), which offers fun, informative, easy-to-digest thoughts on movies—from a female perspective. As “Arty Chick,” Jill usually covers documentaries, foreign flicks, and indies. Her film career began after a stint in film school, when she moved into production and development to work on features ranging from cult classic The Toxic Avenger to director Sidney Lumet’s Power.  An industry insider, Jill also wrote the screen adaptation of Clyde Edgerton’s Raney, has directed a science documentary, served as associate producer, and shared the screen with Kevin Bacon—so, if you meet her, you’ll be 2 degrees!  Her credits also include stints as a TV writer/producer for a number of series in the US and China. Currently, she is patiently waiting to get back to completing The Secret of B, a documentary about a secret Hong Kong adoption that has an American filmmaker searching for clues to his origins.

Dr. Alisa Johnson teaches introduction to film study at Meredith College and is coordinator of the Meredith College Documentary Film Festival. On the faculty of Meredith College for 25 years, she is assistant dean in the School of Arts and the Humanities and also teaches American and African American literature and supernatural fiction. She is a resident of Durham and a lover of cats, coffee, meditation, and movies.

Screenwriter N.C. Jones has a unique voice that has been shaped by diverse experiences, including stints as a birthday party clown, a pirate disc jockey, a call center supervisor, and more. This eclectic past informs her screenwriting, which champions tales of misfits, miscreants, and misanthropes. She has written and produced four short films, including Merit Badges and Lungs—which premiered at Longleaf Film Festival in 2019 and 2023, respectively—and has been recognized as a semifinalist and quarterfinalist in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting (administered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Her work exemplifies a deep passion for bringing nuanced narratives to life.

Craig Lindsey has been a Longleaf judge since year one! He is a journalist and film critic—an award-winning writer and blogger for several publications including Muck Rack, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Houston Chronicle, the Philadelphia Weekly, the Baltimore City Paper, LA Weekly, Vibe, and the Nashville Scene. Craig knows film. And music. And pop culture. And if you’re lucky, he knows you, too.

Frank Thompson is a film historian whose background includes authoring more than 45 books, including The Compleat Beau Geste (2023); Asheville Movies, Volume I: The Silent Era (2017); and Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman (with John Andrew Gallagher, 2018). In addition, he has published hundreds of articles, interviews, and reviews in newspapers and magazines across the country and has produced, written, and directed several documentaries and television shows. He also maintains The Commentary Track, a website of podcasts featuring in-depth interviews with authorities on film history—people who preserve it, who write about it and, in some cases, who made it.

Lawrence Toppman has a BA in English and history from Duke University and an MA in journalism from the University of North Carolina. He retired in 2020 after 46 years of daily writing, 40 of them covering all sorts of culture for the Charlotte News and the Charlotte Observer. He is a lifetime emeritus member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and serves on the board of advisors for classical radio station WDAV-FM. He has sung bass in the Opera Carolina chorus for 40 consecutive seasons, the longest tenure in the company’s history.