Festival Jury
Carmen Thompson
Carmen is a film programmer, curator and creative producer based in Edinburgh. She is the Programming & Audience Manager (UK/International) for award-winning film organisation We Are Parable, and Programming Consultant for Red Sea International Film Festival and Sheffield DocFest. She has a particular interest in cinema from the African continent and the Black diaspora, and is a member of our International Film Award jury
Cici Peng
Cici Peng is a freelance film programmer and film journalist with bylines for Little White Lies, i-D, Dazed and gal-dem. She is a BFI Film Academy Young Programmer, working across multiple aspects of programming – from pre-selection to producing events, conducting interviews and researching up-and-coming filmmakers. Cici is interested in Global Cinema and new voices emerging from East and South East Asia. She is judging our UK Film category.
Claire Belhassine
Claire is a London based British-Tunisian filmmaker, who has worked for MTV, CH4 and Lime Pictures. Her debut feature, a creative documentary/music biopic The Man Behind the Microphone premiered at IDFA and remained in Tunisian theatres for 12 weeks. Claire is currently focused on a documentary/fiction hybrid, the politics of AI and the female gaze. She is a judge in the Documentary category.
Hanna Flint
Hanna is a film and TV critic, journalist and broadcaster, of mixed British and North African heritage. She writes for many publications including Variety, Mashable, BBC Culture, Empire and The Guardian. She has appeared as a critic and commentator on Sky News, Sky Cinema, Channel 5 News and BBC Radio 4 among others, and is a regular film premiere and red carpet host. Her first book, Strong Female Character (2022) is part memoir, part cultural commentary, about what movies teach us. She is judging GGMFF films in the Fiction category.
Jessica Bishopp
Jessica is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has screened internationally at film festivals including Sheffield DocFest, DOK Leipzig, Aspen Shortsfest and AFI DOCS. Her artist film Lifespan was broadcast on Channel 4, and her documentary films have featured on The Atlantic, NOWNESS and The Guardian Documentaries, receiving several Vimeo Staff Pick awards. Her short documentary Skyward premiered at the BFI London Film Festival 2022. Jessica is a lecturer in documentary film at UCL and a judge in GGMFF's Documentary category.
Kat Reynolds
Kat is the Head of Drama Development at Various Artists Limited. She’s worked extensively in scripted development and production - with BBC Studios, ITV Studios, 42 M&P, 87 Films, Bally Bee, and Warner Bros on popular long running drama (Waterloo Rd, Holby City) and original TV series (Trials of Jimmy Rose, Traitors). Passionate about finding distinctive ideas and voices, Kat is a judge in GGMFF's Fiction category.
Katie Metcalfe
Katie was a short film programmer for Sundance Film Festival from 2010-2022 and has over 15 years experience curating and programming short and feature films, tracking talent and developing and supporting new directorial voices. Katie has also been Commissioning Director at global video platform NOWNESS since 2016 where she has commissioned editorial films and branded content across fashion, art and culture. She is judging our Fiction Award.
Liz Barron
Liz Barron has worked in the film industry for over 30 years. She co-founded Trademark Films with David Parfitt in 1999 and has worked with him on all Trademark’s film productions, such as Shakespeare in Love, My Week With Marilyn and most recently The Father. They also produce theatre and documentary film projects. Liz enjoys seeking out and encouraging new talent. She is on our UK Award jury.
Mita Suri
With a background in community cinema exhibition, Mita is the Film Programme Producer at Sheffield DocFest, the UK's leading international documentary film festival. She produces the annual Youth Jury programme, and is responsible for liaison with filmmakers, national film institutes and distributors, managing the submissions process, and coordinating DocFest's year-round activity. She is on our Documentary Award jury.
Nina Nannar
Nina is the Arts Editor of ITV News which she joined in 2002 from the BBC. Her job involves specialist arts and media coverage for ITV, including covering the Oscars every year and interviewing the biggest names in film, music and TV. She is an Ambassador for the Prince's Trust, chairing events for the charity, and for the British Asian Trust. Nina is a judge of the BAFTA Film and TV Awards, the RTS news awards, and has judged the Grierson Documentary awards. She is a judge in GGMFF's Fiction category.
Sharon Lacoste McDonagh
Sharon is a Film and Media Arts Educator. With a rich background in filmmaking, she is a workshop creator and leader, a visionary curriculum designer, and the founder of Film Matters Education. Her mission revolves around nurturing individual voices and harnessing the power of film as a conduit for meaningful expression and communication. She is a judge of our International Award.
Sharon Walia
Sharon Walia is a documentary filmmaker and former journalist, based in Nottingham. She wrote, directed and edited The Movement feature documentary about everyday heroes saving refugees on land, at sea and from air. Sharon is due to release her second film The Keepers of the Pigs this year, and is passionate about social justice topics. She received a Royal Television Society nomination in the Diversity category for her refugee reports. She has been a BFI Future Film Festival keynote speaker, and delivered numerous BFI masterclasses. Sharon is judging our UK Film Award.
Crickett Rumley
Crickett Rumley received her MFA in Film at Columbia University and is the founder and senior director of the Film Festival Department at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. With diversity, equity, and inclusion at the centre of her work, she develops educational programs and festival strategy for a diverse student body. She has guided filmmakers to official selections at esteemed festivals ranging from Sundance to Bronzelens and to nomination and shortlisting for the BAFTA Student Film Awards, the Student Academy Awards, and the College Television Awards. She is judging films in the International category.
Elle Haywood
Elle is a London-based festival and events curator, writer and voice artist. She is the Programming Panel Lead of the Cambridge Film Festival and works in the BFI Film Academy team. She has an MA in Programming and Curation from the National Film and Television School. She has previously worked with Sundance London, BIFA, Genesis Cinema, London Korean Film Festival and Picturehouse Cinemas, and is a guest lecturer at multiple universities. She is also a writer, podcaster and video-essayist covering European and UK film festivals. She is on our UK Film Award jury.
Eva Weber
A London-based German filmmaker, working in both documentary and fiction, Eva Weber has found acclaim with films like the feature-documentary Merkel, The Solitary Life of Cranes and Black Out. Her multi-award-winning films have screened at 100+ festivals, including Sundance, Telluride, SXSW, Hot Docs, BFI London, True/False, Sheffield and IDFA. She is the recipient of a Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award; and is a Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Directors Lab, and Composers & Sound Design Lab Fellow. She is judging in our International category.