New Hampshire Jury Members Announced for 23rd Annual NHFF

PORTSMOUTH, NH (August 12, 2025) – The 23rd Annual New Hampshire Film Festival is proud to announce the members of our New Hampshire Jury!

To spotlight the creative talent that is alive and well in New Hampshire, NHFF hands out several awards specifically to local filmmakers. The New Hampshire jurors decide upon the NH Short Film of the Year Award. This year’s jury features familiar festival faces, NHFF award-winners Dan Habib and Dan Kennedy, as well as a prominent voice of the Granite State, editor for Yankee Publishing Inc., New Hampshire Magazine, and NH Business Review, Mike Cote.

MIKE COTE
(Editor of Yankee Publishing Inc.,)
Mike Cote is New Hampshire editor for Yankee Publishing Inc., where his primary duties are serving as editor of New Hampshire Magazine and NH Business Review. A native of Manchester, N.H., Cote also has worked as a reporter, columnist and editor for newspapers and magazines in Colorado and Florida. He’s a contributing editor for Blues Music Monthly and has interviewed dozens of rock, blues, jazz, folk and bluegrass musicians, including a Beatle, a Kink, an Eagle and two Byrds (but, as of yet, no Stones.) His “Long Distance Calls” Spotify playlist, featuring one track from every artist he’s ever interviewed, spans 15 hours. In an act of rebellion, his eldest son favors film scores over rock ’n’ roll.

DAN HABIB
(Director; 2024 NH Feature Documentary winner: The Ride Ahead)
Dan Habib is the Inclusive Communities Project Director at the Westchester Institute for Human Development and the founder of LikeRightNow Films. He is the Director and Producer of Intelligent Lives, Including Samuel, Who Cares About Kelsey?, and Mr. Connolly Has ALS. His current projects are the Emmy Award winning short My Disability Roadmap and the newly released feature documentary The Ride Ahead, both co-directed with his son Samuel Habib. Habib gave the TEDx talk, “Disabling Segregation,” and served on President Obama’s President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Habib and his wife, Betsy McNamara, live in Concord, NH, and have two sons: Isaiah, 28, and Samuel, 25.

DAN KENNEDY
Producer & Cinematographer; 2023 NH Feature winner: Merry Good Enough)
Dan Kennedy is a producer and cinematographer with a background in music video, commercial and narrative filmmaking. Credits include Honeydew, Merry Good Enough, Secret Mall Apartment, and The Arborist. He is currently in post production on After, starring Andy Richter, Kevin Pollak and Karren Karagulian. Dan’s work has been featured at NHFF, Tribeca, Sitges and Rome, and he has collaborated with many renowned music video and commercial directors, artists, and brands in the US.

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