Introducing our 2026 Grand Jury. These judges will play the vital role of watching our award-nominated films later in the year and voting for the winner from each category, as well as also providing valuable feedback to the filmmakers where available.
6th - 15th November 2026
Christopher Andrews
Christopher Andrews is a writer-director and a Screen International Star of Tomorrow (2018). His debut feature Bring Them Down, starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, premiered as a Special Presentation at TIFF 2024. It went on to win Best Picture at Fantastic Fest and the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards, and MUBI released it in cinemas. His second feature, Cavendish, is in the works.
Ryan Andrews
Ryan Andrews is a writer-director and producer whose latest feature, One Night, stars Hope Ikpoku Jnr and Ellie Mejia. One Night marks Ryan’s return to feature filmmaking following his debut, Elfie Hopkins.
Ryan’s work spans film, television, music video and commercial filmmaking. His credits include the BBC comedy BeastHunters, starring James Corden, and the multi-award-winning experimental sci-fi Hiraeth, which screened at a number of BAFTA and Academy Award-qualifying festivals. His films have aired on Netflix, Amazon and the BBC. Ryan has received support from the UK Film Council and the Film Agency for Wales, and has created work exhibited at Tate Modern.
Andrews has directed music videos for Charli XCX, A$AP Ferg and Odd Future, as well as tour visuals for Little Mix. His commercial and editorial clients include Red Bull, Urban Outfitters, i-D and Hunger.
Greg Sorvig
Greg Sorvig is Artistic Director of Heartland Film in Indianapolis and a Senior Associate Programmer at Tribeca. He leads programming for the Heartland Film Festival and for Indy Shorts, which qualifies films for the Oscars, BAFTAs and Goyas. In 2026 Indy Shorts programmed nine short films that went on to Oscar nominations, including the winner The Singers. Greg received the Spirit of Windrider Award at Sundance in 2024, and he has served as a juror and grant reviewer for The Gotham, Film Independent, the IDA and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Diana Hare
Diana Hare spent more than 30 years at the BBC, making award-winning documentaries and commissioning factual programmes across arts, music and history. She is now an executive leadership coach who uses storytelling to help leaders through change. Her musical taste runs from punk to Poulenc: she sings with the Norwich Philharmonic Choir, leads her own jazz band, and saw Iggy Pop at West Runton Pavilion in 1979 for her first gig. Diana was born and raised in Norfolk and is passionate about nurturing creativity in young people.
Tom Wood
Tom is a Norwich-based film producer and co-founder of Nodge Films. His debut feature, Chicken Town, released in 2025, is an ensemble comedy rooted in Norfolk’s working-class communities. As producer, Tom guided the film from development through its UK theatrical release and international distribution. Nodge Films is committed to making feature films in and about contemporary Norfolk, and their second feature is planned for release in late 2027.
Alongside his production work, Tom is a partner at Akcela Ventures, a Norwich-based start-up incubator supporting early-stage businesses across the region’s creative industries, including games, film and design. The role has given him a close view of the wider Norfolk creative economy. He’s been active as a community organiser and advocate for Norfolk’s creative sector since the early 2000s.
Tom is a governor at Norwich University of the Arts, contributing to the strategic oversight of one of the region’s leading creative education institutions.
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan Jones is an Emmy-winning cinematographer and director with more than 20 years’ experience across natural history, commercials and feature work. His credits include Planet Earth II, One Strange Rock and Netflix’s Tiny Creatures. He is known for developing new camera techniques for microscopic and thermal imaging. Jonathan runs the award-winning, Norfolk-based Ember Films alongside producer Emma Jones.
Richard Prendergast
Richard Prendergast is a Norwich-based writer-director and co-founder of Aporia Pictures, and Creative Director of SubMotion Productions. He wrote and directed the short films Maximus and Sylvia – both accumulating multiple awards internationally, with Sylvia being acquired by Disney+. He is currently developing, and has secured investment, for his debut feature film 2030, a near-future psychological thriller, alongside a slate of feature projects rooted in East Anglia.
Paul Hillier
Paul Hillier is Director of Media, Film & TV at the specialist insurance broker Tysers. He has spent 19 years in insurance, almost all of them working within film and television. He has insured some of the best-loved British independent films of recent years, including Aftersun, Saint Maud, God’s Own Country, Lady Macbeth, Boiling Point, Blue Jean, Beast and Pin Cushion. Paul is also most known for his unwavering support of filmmakers at every stage, from shorts through to feature development, and is respected for connecting people across the industry.
Matthew & Tori Butler-Hart
Matthew and Tori Butler-Hart are the husband-and-wife team behind Fizz and Ginger Films. Between them they have made ten feature films released internationally, including The Isle, which won Best Horror at the London Independent Film Festival, Infinitum: Subject Unknown and Dagr. Their book, Full to the Brim with Fizz, Ginger and Fierce Determination: A Modern Guide to Independent Filmmaking, includes interviews with Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry and Margaret Matheson. Since moving to Norfolk in 2024, they have founded Creative Screen Retreats at Starston Hall, offering residential and evening courses in screen acting, writing and filmmaking for emerging talent.
Richard Johns
Richard Johns is a British producer and founder of Argo Films. He previously co-founded Pilgrim Films with Bharat Nalluri and later Corona Pictures. His credits include Shadow of the Vampire, The Calcium Kid, The Liability and The Shepherd, and he gave early screen roles to Eddie Redmayne and Tom Sturridge in Like Minds. He is a past chair of the New Producers Alliance, a former BAFTA North board member and a BAFTA voting member.
Charlie Gauvain
Charlie Gauvain is a producer and founder of Eye Film, the Norwich-based production company behind feature dramas, documentaries and TV series. His work includes The Castle: Rebuilding History, narrated by Stephen Fry, and he has filmed everywhere from Afghanistan to Los Angeles. Charlie chairs the Craft and Technical Working Group for ScreenSkills’ Unscripted TV Skills Fund and campaigns for screen talent in underserved regions. Charlie is an unstoppable driving force behind the growth of the screen industry in the East of England.
Harriet Rees
Harriet Rees is a film producer with more than 20 years’ experience. Her producing company Kaleidoscope Films has been going for over two decades, where Harriet produced Chalet Girl, starring Felicity Jones, Bill Nighy and Ed Westwick. The film was a worldwide hit and remains a TV favourite. She is currently producing The Bright Side Running Club, an adaptation of Josie Lloyd’s bestselling novel about female friendship, to be directed by Sheree Folkson. Her development slate also includes Girlfriends, written by Kefi Chadwick and directed by Damon Thomas, and #DateOurMum, written by Sarah Rickman. Harriet is also a course leader at the London Film School.
Helen Serafinowicz
Helen Serafinowicz is a BAFTA award-winning screenwriter who co-created and wrote the hit BBC comedy series MOTHERLAND, and its equally successful spin-off, AMANDALAND. She also created and wrote the CBBC series, NOVA JONES.
Zainab Balami
Zainab Balami is an animation producer and scriptwriter, and founder of Zazou Production Works, a UK studio developing original children’s animation. She is creative producer of the studio’s flagship series The Adventures of Zaza, made with David Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon and Richard Johns’ Argo Films. Zainab is Industry Liaison for the Children’s Media Foundation and a script consultant with Gobelins Paris on a UNESCO initiative supporting culturally grounded storytelling.
Calif Chong
Calif Chong is a Hong Kong-born, London-based writer-director who began her career as a writer for Hong Kong broadcaster TVB. After award-winning shorts including Underneath, her debut feature High Wire, starring Isabella Wei, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2025. The film is a coming-of-age story about a Hong Kong-British girl who runs away to join a circus in rural England.
Katie Shepherd
Katie Shepherd is an assistant director (AD) working across film and high-end TV, based between Norfolk and London. She was selected for ScreenSkills’ HETV Trainee Finder scheme as an AD trainee, and has worked on set as a floor runner and production assistant on feature film and high-end TV productions. Katie holds an MA in Film and Television Production from the University of Hertfordshire, where she produced and directed her short film Shared. She also works as a video editor and social media content creator.