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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.
Simon Nelson
BBC Development Executive
Simon Nelson is Development Executive who looks after writer development and talent searches, development schemes, partnerships and production projects. He heads up the pan-UK Indie Pilot Programme and Southwest & Southeast Voices, as well as liaising between BBC Writersroom and Drama Commissioning.
Dominique Unsworth (MBE)
Producer
A Producer for more than 22 years, Dom has worked on 50+ films nominated for awards at BAFTA accredited film festivals and has supported 100s of under-represented filmmakers. Dom’s passionate about inclusion and access within the Creative Industries and supports diverse regional talent and projects. She has developed and delivered numerous industry training and development programmes with partners including numerous studios (including Sunset, Pinewood and Sky), Disney, Netflix, Screen Skills, Arts Council England and the BFI. An alumni of Guiding Lights and Creative England Market Trader, she was selected for the BAFTA Elevate 2022 cohort of under-represented Producers and is an active BAFTA member, RSA Fellow and Member of the Institute of Directors.
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.
Gina Lyons
Producer
Gina Lyons is an award-winning scripted producer who produced the pilot for the BBC's In My Skin, which won a BAFTA Cymru award, and the pilot for Dreaming Whilst Black which went on to be nominated for an International Emmy. Gina's first series producer role is for 10-part comedy series Dinner With Parents with Big Talk Productions for CBS/Amazon Freevee after having associate produced 10 episodes of Breeders for Avalon/ Sky/ FX. Gina has been selected for the Edinburgh TV Festival Foundation's newly formed class and social equality working group Impact Unit. In 2022 she was announced as one of the first cohort of BAFTA Elevate Producers, and in 2023 Gina was named as one of Film London’s Lodestars, a celebration honouring the bright futures of creative Londoners. A working-class girl who had lunch vouchers at school, Gina is passionate about working with story tellers from diverse backgrounds.
MarBelle
Directors Notes
MarBelle is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Directors Notes, a BIFA accredited film platform which has been cracking the code of award-winning filmmaking since 2006 through considered curation and in-depth interviews that reveal the production stories of the planet's most talented independent filmmakers for a worldwide audience of industry professionals, festival curators and dedicated film fans.
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.
Sarah Smith
Festival Director & Programmer
Sarah Smith is a true multi-hyphenate force in independent film. By day, she interrogates filmmakers as a senior writer and programmer for Directors Notes, champions underground cinema as Deputy Director of Brighton Rocks Film Festival, and nurtures bold new voices as a producer with Brighton film collective The Imaginary Project. A relentless advocate for indie storytelling, she thrives on uncovering raw talent and pushing boundaries - whether through festival curation, provocative interviews, or hands-on producing. When not immersed in the film world, Sarah can be found binge-watching obscure cinema, scribbling surreal short stories (often about single shoes), or falling down a YouTube rabbit hole.
Bart Yates
Founder / Exec Producer @ Blinkink
Bart Yates started his career in the music industry before moving to London in 1999. In 2002, he joined Blink Productions as a producer, and founded their dedicated animation division Blinkink in 2005. He co-founded Blink Industries, their long-form entertainment arm, in 2012 and recently started Blink Games to focus on video game development. Blink are mixed-media specialists, renown for telling unusual stories in innovative ways across TV, film, commercials, music videos, and video games. Highlights along the way include music videos for Iron Maiden, Dua Lipa, Gorillaz and Elton John, the BAFTA-winning cult puppet horror comedy series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared for Channel 4, an Emmy-award winning episode of Love Death + Robots All Through The House for Netflix, and commercials including John Lewis' animated classic The Bear & The Hare, the embroidered BBC World Cup trailer The Tapestry, and Harvey Nichols’ Cannes Lions Grand-Prix winning The Shoplifters.
Sean McAllister
Documentary Director
From his early works like "Working For The Enemy" and "The Minders" to the Sundance Jury Prize-winning "The Liberace Of Baghdad" and "Japan: A Story Of Love And Hate", Sean McAllister has continually pushed the boundaries of documentary filmmaking. His recent projects, "The Reluctant Revolutionary" and the Sheffield Jury Prize-winning, BAFTA-nominated "A Syrian Love Story", continue to inspire, surprise, and captivate audiences. Sean’s style of filmmaking, once described as “less fly on the wall, more fly in the soup” makes the audience viscerally feel every emotion.
Andrew Oldbury
Producer & Development Exec
Andrew is a BIFA and RTS nominated Producer and Development Exec. Previously the Senior Development Executive at Red Production Company (It’s A Sin, Happy Valley). He has developed projects alongside some of the UK’s most beloved talent including Graham Norton, Ayub Khan Din (East is East), Dominic Treadwell-Collins (Holding, Rivals), and Louise Candlish.
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.
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.
Justin Doherty
Filmmaker / Club Organizer
Justin is a UK based film maker and creative artist. His first feature film, a 60s period drama called ‘Wilderness’ was picked-up and released in 2021, after playing 17 international film festivals (Cinequest, Oaxaca, Cambridge) and picking up 12 awards. He has been immersed in the film festival world since 1999, having co-founded the Filmstock International Film Festival, which ran for a decade, with off-shoots in Hungary and Glastonbury. He has worked as a documentary editor on projects for Al Jazeera, ITV and the BBC and over the years, his alter-ego has built a celebrated jazz club, various performance spaces and independent theatre productions. To keep his hand in the festival world, he’s been a regular festival juror including several times at the Indie Memphis, which he tentatively claims to be his spiritual home.
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 & Events producer
Isabelle is a programmer at the Oscar & Bafta qualifying Manchester Animation Festival. She previously worked at HOME, Manchester’s 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.
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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.
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.
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.
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
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
Filmmaker / Casting Director
Danilo Bastos Godoy is from São Paulo, Brazil, and has been making waves in the film industry since 2012 as a director, screenwriter, and casting director. Danilo's debut short film, Forgotten Memories from the End of the World, was awarded Best Artist’s Film at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, UK 2014. Now based in Lisbon, Portugal since 2017, his follow-up, Tidy Bed, a queer drama about suicide garnered international acclaim, screening at festivals such as Mix Mexico and receiving a nomination for Best National Short at Queer Porto in 2023.
Danilo's latest project, Homeseek, a poignant exploration of Brazilian immigrants in Lisbon, is currently in post-production and was showcased at the Marche du Film at Cannes this year. He is now embarking on his first feature-length film, Hover.
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