Judges of the 2018 Festival

Short Film Programmer, Edinburgh International Film Festival

 

Lydia Beilby is an artist, curator and educator and has held the position of Short Film Programmer for EIFF since 2010. Lydia is a founding member of artists’ collective Screen Bandita, whose expanded-cinema pieces and workshops have been commissioned and performed widely at Film Festivals, galleries and unusual spaces around the UK and Europe. Further to this, Lydia teaches courses on Cinema for the Open Studies Department at the University of Edinburgh.

Director, BBC Arabic Festival

 

Sheyma Buali joined BBC Arabic Festival in its first edition in 2014, and became Director in 2015. With a focus on media, film and visual arts from the Arab world, she is also active in publishing as Commissioning Editor for Ibraaz Channel as well as Culture Correspondent for Asharq AlAwsat. Previously she worked on the London Palestine Film Festival and the RAI International Ethnographic Film Festivals.

Film Programme Manager (Shorts and Global Exhibition), British Council

 

Jemma is Film Programme Manager at the British Council where she leads on their work with new talent and shorts. She is also programme adviser for BFI London Film Festival where she programmes features across the programme and is the founder of I am Dora, a publication and screening series exploring how women relate to one another through cinema. She earned her stripes in film as a festival producer and as Film Programmer at the Independent Cinema Office.

Head of Screen Arts, National Film and Television School

 

Sandra has worked in independent film since the late 1980s, with roles in funding, production, theatrical exhibition and festivals, including as Head of BFI Festivals/Artistic Director of the London Film Festival (2003-11). She also writes and broadcasts about film for a range of outlets, including BBC radio and Sight & Sound, and hosts industry debates, masterclasses and Q&As with contemporary British and international filmmakers. She is also a qualified integrative psychotherapist.

Head of Division of Film and Media, London South Bank University

 

Chris Elliott is Head of Division of Film and Media in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University (LSBU). He studied Ecology at Royal Holloway, University of London and has a Masters in Film and Television from the University of Westminster. He has extensive experience in film and video production in both the commercial and third sectors and now teaches on the BA Film Practice and MA programmes at LSBU. Chris is a Senior Fellow of The Higher Education Academy, with research interests focused on film music and audio and visual specularity in film, and the affective qualities of immersive sound. He also works with many schools and colleges, delivering sessions on employability and creative industries careers.

Head of Film, IWM

Matt Lee is the Head of Film at Imperial War Museums. After studying English and later Film History at university, the glamorous world of film archiving lured Matt away from the Czech Republic where he had been masquerading as an English teacher. He has been a film curator for 17 years at IWM and was also the IWM Short Film Festival Director from 2013 to 2017. When not delving into the murky waters of his Devonshire lineage, he takes an interest in the question of fakery and reconstruction in non-fiction film and is also drawn to avant-garde and experimental propaganda film.

Director of Production and Operations, October Films

 

Jane is integral to October Films’ creative, strategic and commercial planning. She is responsible for the day to day running of the company, and has managerial oversight of all productions through to delivery. Jane is passionate about finding and working with great people and is central to the strategy for building October into an indy capable of flourishing in a challenging and changing landscape while retaining its founding principles of quality delivery.

Executive Producer, Spring Films

 

Richard Melman is Managing Director of Spring Films. Their productions include multi-award-winners The Act of Killing, Into the Abyss and Night Will Fall. Richard is an Emmy winning Executive Producer who is currently producing Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev. Prior to joining Spring, he was Channel Director for the History Channel in the UK and EMEA and was responsible for commissioning hundreds of hours of programming, winning Digital Channel of the year.

Director, IWM Short Film Festival

 

Helen took over as the Director of IWM SFF in 2017. She is also an Assistant Curator in the Media Sales and Licensing team, providing access to the IWM Film collection. After studying History at University, Helen wanted to continue exploring 20th Century conflicts and help others to engage with the subject. Since joining the Film Archive in 2014, Helen has worked on many projects with academics, artists, cultural and heritage organisations, veterans and current servicemen and women helping them to explore the vast collection totalling over 23,000 hours’ worth of film.

Lecturer in Film Studies, Kings College London

 

Lawrence Napper is a senior lecturer in Film Studies at King's College London. He has published widely on British cinema, including British Cinema and Middlebrow Culture in the Interwar Years (University of Exeter Press, 2009), and The Great War in British Popular Cinema of the 1920s (Palgrave, 2015). Recently he has completed Silent Cinema: Before the Pictures Got Small for the Wallflower 'Short Cuts' series. His research interests include Silent British Cinema, Cinema & Empire and Cinema & War.

Company Director, Chocolate Films

 

Mark co-founded Chocolate Films in 2001 and has produced and directed many of its films. Mark is a Fellow of the RSA and a creative director of 1000 Londoners. Mark was recently invited to talk at TedX about capturing London on film through 1000 Londoners.

Festival Director, Encounters Short Film Festival

 

Rich Warren is the Festival Director for Encounters Film Festival, the UK's leading short film and animation festival based in Bristol, UK. The festival prioritises the showcasing, supporting and progression of new and emerging talent in film and animation. The 24th edition of the festival takes place between 25-30 September 2018. Rich began working for the festival in 2008 however during this time he has also had the opportunity to continue his support of new and emerging talent with roles such as Talent Scout for the National Film and Television School, UK and a sabbatical year in Sydney working with indigenous talent.

Freelance Writer, Silent London

 

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance journalist who writes regularly for Sight & Sound, The Guardian and Radio 4. She is the editor of the silent cinema website SilentLondon.co.uk and the author of a book on Pandora’s Box (1929), published in 2017.

Film Programme Coordinator, Sheffield Doc/Fest

 

Hannah has been with Sheffield Doc/Fest since 2015 and currently works as their Film Programme Coordinator. Hannah works across both the Film and Alternate Realities programmes. She is also a freelance film journalist.

The Academy member and teacher at the Royal Academy Music, PhilipSheppard.com

 

Philip Sheppard is an award-winning film, TV and video game composer, virtuoso cellist, producer, Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music and Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has composed more than 60 film, television, video game and theatrical scores including Sony PS4’s critically acclaimed video game DETROIT: Become Human, HBO’s The Final Year and the Star Wars Force Awakens behind the scenes Comic Con trailer which has over 11 million YouTube plays. Sheppard recorded arrangements of all the world's 205 national anthems for the 2012 Olympics, which will be used for the next 20 years of Olympic events.

Curator of Non-Fiction, BFI

 

Steve is a Curator of Non-Fiction at the BFI National Archive. Steve has a wealth of curatorial and conservation experience across many UK moving image archives including previous work on the BFI’s major HLF projects, the production of the British Transport Films DVD series, the restoration of the classic documentary Night Mail (1936) and the acclaimed GPO Film Unit restoration project.