Judging Panel Announced for Film Matters Masoud Yazdani Award
Photo by Todd Collins
Film Matters has announced the judges for the 2025 Masoud Yazdani Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Film Scholarship. (Judging for the 2025 competition was delayed due to the magazine moving to University of Utah).
This award is named after Masoud Yazdani, who founded Intellect, the publishing house that publishes Film Matters. Yazdani was a champion of Film Matters, and film scholarship by extension.
Essays under consideration for the 2025 award are from institutions across the globe, from Chapman University to Kings College London to University of Hong Kong.
This year’s cohort of judges features students and staff within the University of Utah community. Read their bios below.
Devin Glenn is a filmmaker and media scholar pursuing an MFA in Film Production at the University of Utah (2025-2028), expanding upon his MA in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Southern California (2022-2024). His interests reside at the intersection of feminist studies, queer theory, and cultural analysis. As a published writer in Film Quarterly and presenter at national conferences hosted by UC Berkeley, Northwestern University, and the American Society for Aesthetics, Devin engages in research and creative practices that explore embodiment, memory, and community through scholarly inquiry as well as active directing, screenwriting, and editing. Across his work, Devin is passionate about bridging scholarship and production—approaching film as both an artistic medium and a critical framework.
Daiyaan Hutson is an English instructor and aspiring film scholar at West Georgia Technical College. His interest in film studies began during his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of West Georgia, which led him to studying the road movie in particular. Outside of that genre, he also is interested in ephemeral and sponsored films produced during the Cold War, the New Hollywood, and the Japanese New Wave. He joined Film Matters as an advisory board member in 2024.
Merritt Mecham is a Marketing and Communications Specialist for the University of Utah’s College of Fine Arts. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing for Film & Television from Emerson College. Her writing has appeared in Bright Wall/Dark Room, RogerEbert.Com, The Female Gaze by Alicia Malone, and City Weekly, Salt Lake City’s Alt Weekly newspaper. Prior to joining the College of Fine Arts, Merritt worked for the U’s Film & Media Arts Department, Sundance Film Festival, and KSL NewsRadio. Outside of work, Merritt is an avid movie-theater-goer, and enjoys collecting hobbies—from beading to cooking to embroidery.
Nora Price is a filmmaker, dancer, and experimental musician based in Salt Lake City, UT. She trained with the Milwaukee Ballet Academy and Second Company and is currently a Film & Media MFA and Screendance certificate candidate at the University of Utah, from which she also holds a degree in Linguistics. She has been a performing member of SB Dance since 2023.
Mihir Pyakuryal is an MFA candidate in Film and Media Arts at the University of Utah. His creative and scholarly interests lie at the intersection of global cinema, sound-driven storytelling, and film theory. As a filmmaker, his work often engages with the emotional textures of everyday life, drawing from transnational experiences between Nepal and the United States. In addition to his creative practice as a filmmaker, he teaches and mentors students, with a particular interest in helping emerging filmmakers develop their voices. His films and scholarship draw on transnational experiences, reflecting an ongoing interest in how cinema can capture the textures of everyday life and cultural identity.
The announcement for the 2025 Essay Competition award winner will be announced soon, as will details on the upcoming 2026 competition.