The 2018 Official Jury
Writer, Director, Producer & Actor
Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap is a multi-talented film director, writer, producer and actor who has been the recipient of several accolades including a National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards.
In 2013 the French Government awarded him the 'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) for his numerous contributions to film. In the same year, he also earned a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language nomination.
Anurag directed and produced the Indian TV series, 'Sacred Games', based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 thriller novel of the same name.
Sacred Games is also the first Netflix Original TV Series from India.
Apart from his extensive contribution to filmmaking, Anurag also serves as a member of the board for Mumbai-based Aangan, which helps protect vulnerable children around India.
We are delighted to welcome him to our festival.
Writer, Producer & Director
Marc Zicree -
"Mr Sci-Fi"
Marc and his wife Elaine, have sold over 100 teleplays, screenplays and pilots to every major studio and network, including landmark stories for such shows as STAR TREK– THE NEXT GENERATION, DEEP SPACE NINE, THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE, BABYLON 5, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Their work has been nominated for the American Book Award, Humanitas Prize, Diane Thomas Award, and Hugo and Nebula Awards, and they’ve won the TV Guide Award, prestigious Hamptons Prize and 2011 Rondo and Saturn Awards.
Fans of their work include Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Ray Bradbury, Damon Lindelof, Frank Darabont, Joss Whedon and millions of fans around the world.
Marc is regarded as one of the top media experts in the US and his most recent book, co-written with director Guillermo del Toro, is GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.
Actress
Kimberley Nixon
British award-winning actress, Kimberley Nixon. Kimberley won the 2017 BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress for her role in 'Ordinary Lies' (2015) and is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Before her graduation in 2007, she signed to Universal Studios after appearing in a college production of The Comedy of Errors and is a former member of the National Youth Theatre of Wales.
In September 2008, Kimberley made her stage debut as Griet in a tour and London run of an adaptation of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. She then went on to appear in many productions including playing Sophy Hutton in the BBC One period drama 'Cranford', opposite Dame Judi Dench. Other productions she has appeared in include 'Wild Child', 'Angus', 'Thongs and Perfect Snogging'. 'Easy Virtue', 'Black Death', 'Fresh Meat', 'Resistance' - in which she starred alongside Michael Sheen, 'Hunky Dory' with Minnie Driver, 'the Gammons', 'Offender', 'Kidnap and Ransom', 'Greenshaw's Folly' (Agatha Christie's Marple), 'Critical', 'Kingdom of Rain', 'Dog Thrower' and in the 2014 BBC One Wales television remake of Dylan Thomas' radio drama 'Under Milk Wood' as Myfanwy Price.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming Kimberley to our festival.
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Professor of International Documentary Film
Florence Ayisi
Florence Ayisi Florence is Professor of International Documentary Film. She teaches film history, theory, creative documentary film practice, transnational cinemas, and cultural representations.
She is also an award winning documentary filmmaker, presenting rare insights and affirmative aspects of African people and their culture from a Woman-centred and Pan-African perspective. She has made films in Cameroon and Tanzania, including films such as Sisters in Law (co-directed with Kim Longinotto, 2005), Zanzibar Soccer Queens (2007), Zanzibar Soccer Dreams (co-directed with Catalin Brylla, 2016). Her films have won numerous prestigious film awards including PRIX ART ET ESSAI at Cannes film festival; Grierson Award for Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue; Audience Award at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA); and Peabody Award in USA. Sisters in Law was long-listed for Oscar Nominations in 2006.
Florence’s films have been screened on major television channels and film festivals world-wide including Channel 4 Television, More4 TV, Canal+, TV5 Monde Afrique, RFO (France), PBS (USA) and Swedish Television (SVT), Qatar TV, Cannes film festival, Toronto Int’L film festival, Hawaii Int’l film festival, London Film festival, African Diaspora film festival, Canadian Sport film festival, Zanzibar Int’l film festival, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora festival, Goteborg Int’l film festival, Kenya Int’l film festival, FESPACO, and The Sunny Side of Doc.
Actress
Maria Pride
Maria is a Welsh television actress who plays the recurring character of Debbie Jones in the Welsh Language soap opera 'Pobol y Cwm'. Maria has previously won the BAFTA Cymru Best Actress Award for her role as Pauline in the multi award-winning drama 'Care'. She has also appeared in Welsh TV comedy dramas, such as 'High Hopes' for BBC Wales and many mainstream British TV series such as 'Casualty' and 'Afterlife'.
We look forward to greeting Maria to the Gala Award Evening on the 21st October, 2018, where she will also be presenting an award to a category winner.
Script Consultant & Video Conceptualist
Keith Williams
Keith Williams a writer from Neath in South Wales, has worked in London and Los Angeles on over fifty music videos, visualising songs for artists such as Olivia Newton-John, Elton John, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bonnie Tyler and directors including Taylor Hackford, Tobe Hooper, Russell Mulcahy and Ivan Reitman.
Now based back home in Wales, Keith continues writing original screenplays for shorts and feature films, working as script consultant on other producers’ projects and directing music videos for local rock bands. He also presents his stage show 'When Music Videos Ruled the World' at various venues around the World, most recently at the Voulmentin Lit Fest in Northern France. He has also just completed his memoirs, 'The Boy Who Went to Hollywood', detailing the five years spent working there as the world’s first ever video conceptualist in the early days of that industry.
Stay tuned for more news about Keith's involvement in our festival in the coming weeks.
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