The 1570
The moat · Who judges

The Panel

Credentialed tastemakers. Verified craft. No open signup.

The Cut is only as credible as the people who vote on it. Every panelist is an individually verified, working craftsperson — editors, cinematographers, colorists, VFX supervisors, critics — with a public voting history and disclosed conflicts. Creators are the ranked; the Panel is the jury.

The roster below shows fictional example archetypes for the prototype — no real panelists yet.

The roster

12 seats shown · example archetypes

  • Film editor
    2.1× weight

    The Feature Editor

    18 years cutting studio features; two award-season campaigns; teaches graduate editing.

    18
    Years
    3,120
    Votes cast
    94%
    Consistency

    Los Angeles, US

  • Director of photography
    2.0× weight

    The Cinematographer

    15 years across commercials and prestige TV; large-format specialist.

    15
    Years
    2,874
    Votes cast
    92%
    Consistency

    London, UK

  • Senior colorist
    1.8× weight

    The Colorist

    12 years grading feature documentaries and music videos; HDR pipeline expert.

    12
    Years
    3,540
    Votes cast
    90%
    Consistency

    Toronto, CA

  • Visual effects supervisor
    2.0× weight

    The VFX Supervisor

    16 years in feature VFX; supervised generative-AI integration on two studio pictures.

    16
    Years
    2,210
    Votes cast
    93%
    Consistency

    Wellington, NZ

  • Documentary filmmaker
    1.9× weight

    The Documentary Director

    14 years directing broadcast and festival docs; jury service at three major festivals.

    14
    Years
    1,980
    Votes cast
    91%
    Consistency

    Copenhagen, DK

  • Animation director
    1.8× weight

    The Animation Director

    13 years in feature and series animation; leads a hybrid AI/hand-key studio team.

    13
    Years
    2,650
    Votes cast
    89%
    Consistency

    Tokyo, JP

  • Music video director
    1.6× weight

    The Music Video Director

    11 years directing label-commissioned videos; early adopter of AI-assisted pipelines.

    11
    Years
    4,110
    Votes cast
    87%
    Consistency

    Atlanta, US

  • Critic & programmer
    1.9× weight

    The Film Critic

    17 years reviewing for print and festivals; programs a genre film festival.

    17
    Years
    2,380
    Votes cast
    95%
    Consistency

    Paris, FR

  • Creative technologist
    1.5× weight

    The Creative Technologist

    10 years building real-time and generative pipelines for agencies and artists.

    10
    Years
    3,860
    Votes cast
    86%
    Consistency

    Berlin, DE

  • Sound designer & mixer
    1.7× weight

    The Sound Designer

    15 years in feature post; evaluates picture the way a mixer hears a room.

    15
    Years
    1,720
    Votes cast
    90%
    Consistency

    Mexico City, MX

  • Commercial director
    1.7× weight

    The Commercial Director

    12 years of brand film work across three continents; represented by a major production house.

    12
    Years
    2,940
    Votes cast
    88%
    Consistency

    São Paulo, BR

  • Verified ranked creator
    1.0× weight

    The Working Creator

    Active on The Cut; may not vote on their own work or a current client's work.

    6
    Years
    5,230
    Votes cast
    84%
    Consistency

    Rotating seat

How a panelist is credentialed

01

Verified body of work

A public, attributable track record in a moving-image craft — editing, cinematography, color, VFX, direction, sound, criticism. Portfolio review by two sitting panelists.

02

Peer nomination + orientation

Every seat requires a nomination from a sitting panelist and a short calibration orientation. There is no open signup and no pay-to-join.

03

Disclosed conflicts

Panelists may not vote on their own work or work commissioned by a current client. All relationships are disclosed on the record.

How votes are weighted

Every vote is a head-to-head matchup scored by the same Elo engine (K = 24). A panelist's vote carries a credential weight between 1.0× and 2.1×, set by seniority of craft, calibration consistency, and category expertise — a colorist weighs more in a color-driven matchup than a critic does, and vice versa. Weights are public on every panelist profile and re-derived each audit cycle.

Weighting shapes how fast a result moves the score, never whether a panelist may vote. Skips are tracked but never scored. The full math is public in the methodology.

Read the methodology →Conflicts of interest →

Panelists judge. Creators are judged.

These are two deliberately separate populations. A ranked creator can hold a Panel seat (one rotating seat is reserved for a working creator), but the roles never blur: on the chart you are scored; in the booth you score. See the ranked artists on the Top Creators chart.