The Jury 2012

Jury Chair

Alison Owen

Academy Award-nominated in 1998 for Elizabeth, this year’s Jury Chair, Alison Owen, went on to win the BAFTA for Best British Film and has established a reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting producer talents. Under her Ruby Films banner Alison is currently shooting Saving Mr Banks. Her recent credits include Jane Eyre plus two films which both made the Official Selection for Cannes 2010: Chatroom and Tamara Drewe. Prior to this Alison produced Sylvia, Proof, The Other Boleyn Girl and Brick Lane. Alison also acted as an executive producer on Shaun of the Dead and The Men Who Stare at Goats. In 2008 she began Ruby Television through which she executive produced the award-winning Small Island for BBC1 and HBO’s Temple Grandin. Other producer credits include: Hear My Song, Roseanna’s Grave, The Young Americans and Moonlight and Valentino.

Nick Angel

Nick Angel was director of A&R for Island Records from 1990-99 where he signed PJ Harvey, Elbow, Pulp, Vic Reeves, Talvin Singh, The Orb, Jah Wobble, Apache Indian and Lewis Taylor. He also organised music for films including Young Americans, In the Name of the Father, Face and Notting Hill. From 1999, he became head of music for Working Title, supervising everything from Billy Elliot, Atonement, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Outside projects included The Take, Attack the Block and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!. Current projects include Rush, Cuban Fury, The World’s End and I Give It a Year. Nick has a publishing company, Salvation Music, and is a founder of Raindog Films, the new production company set up by Colin Firth.

Christine Bottomley

Christine Bottomley trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. In 2011 she was nominated for Best British Supporting Actress, London Critics' Circle Film Awards for The Arbor, which was also nominated at BAFTA and BIFA that year. Other film credits include All in Good Time, Strawberry Fields, Hush, The Waiting Room, Venus, Vera Drake and Little White Lies, for which she was nominated for Best Short Film Actress at the British Independent Film Festival, 2011. Theatre work includes: Uncle Vanya (Young Vic), Ladybird, Alaska (both Royal Court), Flush (Soho Theatre) and Dennis Kelly’s Osama: The Hero (Hampstead). Television work includes: Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning The Street, The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Early Doors, Instinct, Silent Witness, Frankie and Lost Christmas, which has been nominated this year for a Children’s BAFTA for best Drama.

John Boyega

Screen international Star of Tomorrow John Boyega is one of the UK’s brightest new talents. John has recently finished filming the highly anticipated Half of a Yellow Sun, as well as action sci-fi horror Creeping Zero. He made his film debut in 2011 as Moses in the hugely successful Attack the Block, which earned him a Best Newcomer nomination at the 2011 BIFAs, as well as at the Critics’ Circle Film Awards, Evening Standard Film Awards and Empire Awards, and won the award for Outstanding Actor at the 2012 Black Reel Awards. Previous work includes Junkhearts, and TV’s My Murder, Spike Lee’s Da Brick, a lead guest role in ITV’s hit series Law and Order: UK and one of the lead roles in Becoming Human. In theatre, John has played a variety of notable roles including Six Parties at the National Theatre and Tricycle Theatre’s productions of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Seize the Day and Paulette Randall’s Category B

Iain Canning

Iain Canning founded See-Saw Films with Australian producer Emile Sherman in 2008. In 2011, Iain and Emile won an Academy Award for The King’s Speech, which also won several BIFAs. Their most recent film was Steve McQueen’s Shame. See-Saw's first foray into television is Jane Campion's six-part series Top of the Lake. See-Saw’s latest film project, Tracks, directed by John Curran and starring Mia Wasikowska, is currently shooting. Prior to founding See-Saw, Canning exec-produced the award-winning films Hunger and Control. Hunger, Steve McQueen's debut feature, won the Camera d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and the BAFTA Carl Foreman Award. Control also earned a Special Mention Camera d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and won a BAFTA Carl Foreman Award in 2008.

Maria Djurkovic

Maria Djurkovic’s feature film credits as production designer include Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, for which she won a BIFA and was BAFTA-nominated. She has been nominated for Excellence in Production Design by the Art Directors Guild for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Hours and Billy Elliot. Other films include Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, Brian Gilbert’s Wilde, Phyllida Lloyd’s Mamma Mia!; Christine Jeffs’ Sylvia; Kay Mellor’s Fanny and Elvis; Peter Howitt’s Sliding Doors; RKO 281, for which she was Emmy-nominated; Richard Loncraine’s The Special Relationship; Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream and Scoop; and most recently Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman. After training in theatre design, she embarked on a 15-year career as set designer at major UK theatres (including the Oxford Playhouse and the Royal Opera House). She has worked on numerous commercials and music videos. In 2002, Maria was honoured with the Women in Film and Television Technical Achievement Award.

Michelle Eastwood

Michelle Eastwood is a BAFTA-nominated producer who has produced numerous award-winning films including the feature In Our Name (Artificial Eye, 2010). Michelle is currently taking part in the prestigious training scheme for producers and executives, Inside Pictures, and has previously been selected as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow.

Paul Franklin

Paul Franklin is an Oscar- and BAFTA-winning visual effects designer and filmmaker. As a founding member of London-based Double Negative – Europe's largest film visual effects studio – he has played a key role in defining the modern VFX industry, most notably through his long-time collaboration with director Christopher Nolan. His credits include The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Harry Potter parts five and six.

Tristan Goligher

Tristan Goligher is an executive producer on the iFeatures2 low-budget development and production initiative, funded by Creative England, the BFI Film Fund and the BBC. Since graduating in law and politics, he has worked in a range of roles, from runner, through AD, script editor and producer. He worked in development on the Digital Shorts, Digital Nation and Cinema Extreme short film schemes. As a producer, Tristan has been fortunate enough to work with some of Europe’s most established filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras as well as emerging talent. Most recently, Tristan produced Andrew Haigh’s Weekend, which world premiered at SXSW 2011, winning the Emerging Visions Audience Award. Since then, Weekend has played numerous festivals including Rotterdam and London Film Festival, winning a number of jury and audience awards, as well as two BIFAs, including Best Achievement in Production.

Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston first appeared on TV in 2001’s Nicholas Nickleby. After studying at RADA, he was almost immediately cast in first-time filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated. Since then, Tom has taken on several theatre roles, being nominated for the 2006 Ian Charleson Award and receiving the Best Newcomer Olivier in 2008 for Cymbeline as well as being nominated for his work in Othello the same year. His work on TV includes Miss Austen Regrets, Wallander, Return to Cranford and most recently Prince Hal in Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 and the title role in Henry V. 2011 saw Tom appear in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Steven Speilberg’s War Horse and Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea. Tom is perhaps best-known for his role as the villain Loki in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, a role he reprised in The Avengers. This year Tom was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award and an Evening Standard Best Actor award for his role in Archipelago, and won Best Male Newcomer for his role in Thor at the Empire Awards. Upcoming projects include Only Lovers Left Alive, Thor: The Dark World and a cameo role in the as-yet unnamed “London Project” by Joanna Hogg.

Adrian Hodges

Adrian Hodges is a writer of film and television. His most recent film work was the screenplay for My Week with Marilyn, which earned Academy Award and Bafta nominations for Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh, as well as numerous other awards and nominations. His other films include The Bridge, Tom & Viv (co-screenwriter) and Metroland. His television work includes the BAFTA Best Drama Serial-winning Charles II, as well as the BAFTA-nominated and Banff Grand Prize winner Amongst Women. Among his numerous other credits are adaptations of David Copperfield and Lorna Doone, and he wrote and created the successful ITV drama Primeval. He also wrote and created the new version of Survivors for BBC1. He is currently working on a new version of The Musketeers for the BBC, which will be screened next year.

Jina Jay

Jina Jay trained with Patsy Pollock and started casting with the patronage of John Boorman, Mike Figgis and Tim Bevan. She has worked on many critically acclaimed films including: War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin and Munich for Steven Spielberg; Anna Karenina, Hanna, Atonement and Pride and Prejudice for Joe Wright; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for Tomas Alfredson; In Bruges for Martin McDonagh; Agora and The Others for Alejandro Amenabar; Calvary and The Guard for John Michael McDonagh; The Reader and Billy Elliot for Stephen Daldry; The Eagle and Last King of Scotland for Kevin Macdonald; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Alfonso Cuaron; and Coriolanus for Ralph Fiennes. More recently, she has worked with Hossein Amini, Wes Anderson, Biyi Bandele, Susanne Bier, Anton Corbijn and Michael Winterbottom. Jina is a member of The American Academy, BAFTA, CDG and CSA.

Danny Leigh

Danny Leigh is a writer and broadcaster. He has written on film for The Guardian since 1997, and now co-hosts BBC1’s long-running Film programme. He is the author of two novels, The Greatest Gift and The Monsters of Gramercy Park, and is writing a third.

Lesley Sharp

Lesley Sharp is one of our most versatile British actresses, having performed in an extensive and eclectic range of productions across television, film and theatre. This spring audiences saw her in two highly anticipated dramas: Scott & Bailey, playing lead character DC Janet Scott; and as lead character Jan Starling in new family comedy The Starlings. Alongside her successful television career, Lesley has also made a name for herself in the world of film, and in 1997 starred in The Full Monty alongside Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy. Lesley’s performance as Jean in the multi-award-winning hit earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1998. Lesley is also widely recognised for her prestigious theatre work and has performed on stage in a number of critically acclaimed productions.

Jamie Thraves

Writer and director Jamie Thraves' debut feature, The Low Down (2000), was named by the Observer as among the "neglected masterpieces" of film history in its 50 Lost Movie Classics. In 2009, he finished production on BBC Films' adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's thriller, The Cry of the Owl, which starred Paddy Considine and Julia Stiles. In 2010, he won the Hitchcock D'Or Award at the Dinard British Film Festival for Treacle Jr. Jamie is also known for his award-winning video for the Radiohead single, Just, and has also worked with Travis, Coldplay, Razorlight, Blur and The Verve. In 2011, Jamie directed the brilliantly funny and touching Eggbox for Hat Trick.