Julian Katz Interview(s)

I love working on juries because it affords me a chance to sit down and focus on the creative and craft of world class work, much of which I have not previously been exposed to. If there's an opportunity to discuss with other leaders from creative, production and business fields - all the better.

I think that inviting a broader range of thinkers can only be a good thing. The insight that a strategist brings will be very different from that of a creative, or a producer, or a marketer. Having these perspectives come together will inform a richer consensus than if only one field of thought was represented on the jury.

I think that's an interesting innovation. One knock on some creative festivals is that they are so motivated by profits as to corrupt the process, like if there are too many categories that entrants might not know which ones to enter their work in - so they enter in extra categories to cover their bases (which rigs the system towards those that can afford to over-enter), or they mis-enter into inappropriate categories and waste their money. I think PHNX's approach can help to avoid some of these pitfalls, ensuring that entrants are paying only for entries that have a fighting chance of breaking through and being honored.

An original piece of impeccably crafted work which makes you feel something - whether it makes you laugh or cry, excites you or changes the way you think about something, or is just visually stunning.

The attention economy. We are all constantly being inundated with images, sounds and pieces of communication hurtling at us a mile a minute across all of the myriad screens we are glued to 24/7. To create anything which stands out, strikes a chord or leaves any kind of a lasting impression in this environment is the greatest challenge that we all face as communicators.

This is tough. I keep thinking of the creatives who had the largest impact, like Taylor Swift or Christopher Nolan - but those are so obvious and mainstream, I want to give a cooler answer. Let's say...Nadia Lee Cohen, Boots Riley, and Duke Riley (no relation!).