Film professor Ellen Shepard has been invited by David Potorti, literature and theater director for the NC Arts Council, to serve as a judge on the NC Arts Council Fellowship Panel in the playwrighting/screenwriting category. This would entail reading, evaluating, and rating 60 work samples from applicants, consisting of a minimum of 20 and up to 30 typescript pages, double- or single-spaced, taken from scripts for theatrical production, scripts for film and television, or an adaptation of a nontheatrical work for the stage or for film.

Additionally, Shepard is judging the Experimental, Animation, and New Media category for the University of Film and Video Association Carole Fielding Student Grants Competition. All the students in this finals category are attending graduate film programs from across the country.