Jury
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Amy O'Hara
Development & Production Executive
Amy O’Hara is Development and Production Executive at Film4. She has over nine years’ experience in film marketing, distribution and development, mostly recently as BFI NETWORK Talent Executive for Film Hub North.
Colin Pons
Producer
Colin has worked on 32 feature films, including BAFTA winning television drama "This Little Life" and the much acclaimed feature films "Acid House", "The Darkest Light", "HUSH", "iLL Manors" and feature documentary "Zoned In", which won the New York loves film documentary award at the Tribeca film festival. His short film repertoire comprises of two BAFTA winners.
Adam Miller
Senior Programmer at Big Sky Documentary Festival
Adam Miller is the Festival Coordinator and Senior Programmer for the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. He has over a decade of exhibition, programming, and coordination experience and has worked on a number of commercial and independent film productions in the Pacific Northwest. Adam resides in Portland, OR.
Maggie Ellis
Producer
Maggie Ellis is a champion of independent talent in the film industry and has helped launch the careers of some of UK’s most talented film-makers and artists. She has set up commissioning schemes, for shorts and feature films, including the Microwave production scheme. Maggie is currently Head of Film London’s Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) which also runs the prestigious annual Jarman Award.
Anna Price
Editor
Treble BAFTA-nominated for Editing Factual: 2022, 2021, 2018 and Grierson and RTS award winning editor Anna Price specialises in complex narrative and human drama told with "flair, precision, wit and emotional punch". Credits include "Once upon a time in Iraq" and numerous collaborations with Louix Theroux's including "Dark States" and "Mother's on the Edge" and the feature documentaries "The Trial of Ratko Mladic" and "Dolly Parton : Here I am" are just a handful of her many credits.
The Clarkson Twins
Writers/Directors
The Clarkson Twins – Michael and Paul – are writers and directors from Bolton who have worked for both UK and US television. Their credits include HIS DARK MATERIALS (BBC), THE WHEEL OF TIME (Amazon), THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (Netflix). Their original series RED ROSE (BBC) is currently in production - the thriller show is set in Bolton. They went to Thornleigh school.
Chris Hees
Producer
Chris is the founder of Bridge Way Films and is the Managing Director at the Kurious in Sheffield. He is a BAFTA winning and OSCAR nominated producer and alumni of the prestigious National Film & Television School. His current slate is a mixture of live-action and animation, includes adaptations, comedies, thrillers and period dramas. Chris is also on the steering group for BSF Future Leaders Programme and was proud to be on the board of trustees for the 2017 Hull City of Culture.
Sarah Anne-Kennedy
Animator / Lecturer
Sarah studied animation at the Royal College of Art before creating her own animated series for Channel 4 called Crapston Villas which won various awards including the Independent TV Award for Best Newcomer, and Broadcast Best Animation. She is known more widely for her voices as Miss Rabbit in Peppa Pig and Nanny Plum on Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. Sarah is the course leader for MA Animation at the University of Central Lancashire.
MarBelle
Directors Notes
MarBelle is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the independent film curation and interview site Directors Notes. Prior to that, he worked as editor of Shooting People’s Filmmakers Bulletin and as a contributing writer for Short of the Week and No Film School. Through DN he has curated numerous film programmes and served on festival juries for over a decade.
Rob Speranza
Producer
Rob Speranza is an American film producer and line producer. Rob has worked on several feature films including “Arthur and Merlin”, “Entity”, “Inbred”, “Small Creatures” and 16 short films with various directors and writers. Rob runs the South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network. He is also a programmer at Aesthetica Film Festival and a lecturer at various Northern universities.
Loran Dunn
Producer
Loran is a 2017 Screen Daily Star of Tomorrow & BFI Vision Award Producer with a background on BBC Dramas, independent features and major music promos. With a track record of short film screenings and awards at festivals including Sundance, Palm Springs, London Film Festival, and the Best Producer Award at BAFTA accredited Underwire Film Festival. Loran's First Feature A Deal With The Universe was the centrepiece at BFI Flare London in and released in cinemas 2019. Loran is also a Lecturer in Filmmaking at MMU, Executive Producer for British Council and BFI’s initiative More Films For Freedom.
Chris Lunt
Writer
Chris has won commissions from the BBC, ITV, Canal +, Red Productions, Drama Republic, Look Out Point, World Productions, Leopard Drama, Lionsgate, Sky, Slim Film and TV, Wall 2 Wall and Eone. Chris was nominated for two BAFTA's and two RTS awards for his debut work "PREY" he was also named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit of 2014.
Beth Hewitt
Creative Director - Media City Directorate
Beth Hewitt is Creative Director for School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology, and is responsible for leading industry engagement and enterprise. Based at University of Salford’s MediaCityUK campus, Beth's focus is on foatering and enhancing sustainable and meaningful industry partnerships.
Having worked at ITV and BBC as Producer Director, Beth was appointed as Director of Broadcast Media for School of Arts, Media and Creative Technolgy in 2018, leading the academic staff team, expanding the curriculum and enhancing industry partnership.
As Director of Nations and Regions: Media Futures, Beth has developed the event into one which champions new talent and is aligned with its media partners, working innovatively and creatively with all sectors of the industry.
Barrington Paul Robinson
Creative Producer
Barrington Paul Robinson is a Creative Producer. With a background in short films and music promos. His films have been screened around the world.
Having relocated to the Northwest Barrington is working with exciting talent across the regions to develop Film and Television ideas through his production company Redbag Pictures. Working with BBC Film, BFI & New Creatives North.
This year has seen Barrington break into HETV, Where he is Co-Producing The Responder a BBC1 Drama with Dancing Ledge starring Martin Freeman and is signed up to Produce more HETV later this year. He is now repped for TV by Paul Stevens at Independent.
Barrington is a BFI Insight Producer, BFI x BAFTA CREW and Alumni of EIFF Talentlab, Barrington is a former UKFC Breakthrough Brits and Screen International Star of Tomorrow.
Dr Kirsty Fairclough
Reader in Screen Studies at SODA / MMU
Kirsty has published widely on popular culture and is the co-editor of The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (Routledge), The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury) The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television. (Palgrave) and Music/Video: Forms, Aesthetics, Media. (Bloomsbury) and Pop Stars on Film (Bloomsbury). Kirsty’s work has been featured on BBC 2, BBC 4, Channel 5 and in The Guardian and Creative Review amongst others. She is the co-curator of Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film and the curator of In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers film seasons at HOME, Manchester and is Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival, Manchester's longest running music festival.
Aaron Wood
Animation Producer
Aaron is the Co-Founder and Producer at London animation company, Slurpy Studios, who create a range of animated content for commercials, education and entertainment platforms. Away from Slurpy, he is a co-owner and writer at Skwigly Animation Magazine and also runs animation-festivals.com, the only website dedicated to listing and covering animation-specific film festivals around the world.
Isabelle Croissant
Programmer & Event producer at HOME
Isabelle works at HOME, Manchester’s new international multi arts venue. She programmes and produces events and schemes that aim to showcase and develop creative talents and forge connection between practitioners in all creative sectors. She manages Filmed Up, HOME’s regular regional short film night and was the co-director of exposures UK student Film Festival, which ran for 18 years at Cornerhouse.
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Rob Scott
VR Manchester Community Chair
Rob is the chair of the VR Manchester community group and has been dabbling with immersive technologies since the latest wave of consumer VR launched in 2016. In his day job as a User Experience Architect at the BBC, he has worked on defining Augmented Reality interaction frameworks, conducted user research for head mounted mixed reality experiences, and also designed prototype app experiences to explore the benefits of AR in Educational contexts. He was previously a judge for the 2018 and 2019 editions of the VR Awards.
David Thacker
Theatre, Film & TV Director
A leading theatre, film and television director, David has directed over 150 productions throughout the UK and internationally. At the Royal Shakespeare Company as Director-in-Residence, he directed nine productions including Pericles for which he was awarded two Olivier Awards. He then moved into television drama directing more than 30 films for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and many more.
Jon Turner
Animator
Jon co-founded the animation studio Kilogramme in 2005, having previously worked for five years at Cosgrove Hall films. In the past he has provided content for CBBC, Cbeebies, CITV, Kaspersky Lab, the V&A, TBWA and McCann Erikcon, while writing and directing his own shorts in his spare time. His animation "Tall Tales" has reached over 100,000+ viewers.
Mike Todd
Producer
Mike is the founder of Northern Docs and for the last ten years has run Riverhorse a production company specialising in creative documentaries. Mike has directed and produced numerous films that have been broadcast and screened internationally, working with broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, PBS, Starz and ESPN. His feature doc on Joe Frazier was US streaming giant Hulu’s first ever documentary of the month and his recent feature doc on Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly was released theatrically here in the UK prior to its national broadcast by the BBC.
Bridget Appleby
Animation Creative
Voted as one of the top ten women in animation by "Animation Magazine" Bridgets long and illustrious career is enviable. A personal BAFTA and Emmy award winner her designs and productions have been broadcast and licensed all over the world. Her credits include Roary the Racing Car, Fifi and the Flowertots, Postman Pat, Little Robots, Enjie Benjy and the Reluctant Dragon
Gerard Kearns
Actor
Gerard has been working professionally in Film, Theatre and Television for the past fifteen years. Gerard has worked on Feature Films which include “Looking for Eric”, “Trespass Against Us”, “The Mark Of Cain” and well known series such as “Shameless”, “The Smoke” and “The Last Kingdom”. Gerard has a huge enthusiasm for short film - most recently starring in “Bunny and Clive”.
DJ Clark
Multi Media Director
Over 25 years experience working with media organisations across the world as a video producer, photojournalist, presenter, writer, trainer and multimedia consultant. Currently a multimedia director at China Daily Asia, video adviser to the Asia News Network and a contributing video producer to The Economist and National Geographic.
Chair of the World Press Photo Short Form Digital Story Telling jury in 2017
Annabeth Robinson
Electronic Artist / Filmmaker
An Electronic Artist and Filmmaker based in Leeds, predominantly using screen based virtual worlds and game platforms since 2005, to explore multi-user interactive artworks and education experiences. Currently the Course Leader in BA(hons) Animation at University of Salford - supporting students development in Creative Development, Industry Engagement and Practice Based Research across the Animation discipline.
Steve Boot
Animator
Steve Boot is a professional stop-motion animator who has worked on many high profile and successful children’s television series, including “Andy Pandy”, “Bob the builder”, “Little robots”, “Roary the Racing car”, “Raa Raa the noisy lion”, “Postman Pat”, “the Clangers”, and “Twirly Woo’s”. Steve has also co-founded his own production company “Gadzooks Animation” with whom he has written, produced and directed several short films and television commercials including the Dr. Oetker campaign screened during The Great British Bake Off and the short film ‘Mad Dogs’, for Sky’s Art 50 project.
Danilo Godoy
Artist Film-maker