2026 Davey Short Film Grant Jurors: Albert Birney & Laurel Parmet
About Albert Birney
Albert Birney is a Baltimore-based filmmaker. He has directed six feature films: The Beast Pageant (co-directed with Jon Moses), Sylvio and Strawberry Mansion (both co-directed with Kentucker Audley), Tux and Fanny, Eyeballs in the Darkness, and OBEX. Sylvio was named one of the ten best films of 2017 by The New Yorker. His films have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, the Maryland Film Festival, Slamdance, and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. In 2021, he released a Tux and Fanny video game that he made with Gabriel Koenig.
About Laurel Parmet
Laurel Parmet is a screenwriter and film and TV director. Her debut feature THE STARLING GIRL premiered in competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award. She is an alumni of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program and received her MFA in filmmaking from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She’s also an avid lap swimmer and a pretty decent baker.