Our Judges

Iain Smith

Iain is an independant film and television producer, in 1987 he formed Applecross Productions.

His film credits include: The Killing Fields, Local Hero, The Mission, Killing Dad, City of Joy, Mary Reilly, The Fifth Element, Seven Years in Tibet, Entrapment, Spy Game, Cold Mountain, Alexander, The A Team, Mad Max-Fury Road and TV series: Live Another Day, The Sandman and The Continental.
In 2005 he was awarded a BAFTA for Outstanding Achievement in Film and was made an OBE by the Queen in the 2008 New Year's Honours List for services to film.

David Parfitt

David  is an independent film, television and theatre producer for over 30 years.
He worked as an actor before co-founding the Renaissance Theatre Company with Kenneth Branagh. Between 1987 and 1991. He founded Trademark Films in 1999.
His film credits include Henry V, Peter's Friends, Much Ado about Nothing, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Madness of King George, Shakespeare In Love , Gangs of New York, I Capture the Castle, A Bunch of Amateurs, My Week with Marilyn and Red Joan.

His most recent production is the film adaptation of Florian Zeller’s play The Father, which won many awards including two Baftas and two Oscars.

Andy Symanowski

Andy is a stop-motion animator for Aardman Animations.
He was a key animator for the feature films Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.
He was also an animator for several TV shows such as Rex the Runt,[1] Creature Comforts, Angry Kid and Shaun The Sheep.
He served as a supervising animator on the Wallace & Gromit mini series, Cracking Contraptions.
He was also an assistant animator for the Pib and Pog shorts, the Angry Kid special and Flushed Away.

Rebecca Tranter

Rebecca originally from San Antonio, Texas, now resides in London, England. She is a Producer, Writer, Director and a Creative and Development specialist to the film industry. As well as being an award-winning producer, writer and director Rebecca is a teacher of Drama and Theatre Studies.
Currently Rebecca and her company are in active production of several feature films.

Francisco Bassignana

Neil Taylor
Neil is a guitarist, singer and songwriter with over 30 years of experience. He has been a member of several bands including; Tears for Fears and the Robbie Williams' band.
In 2011, he released his first (of many) solo albums; No Self Control and began touring the world with his Neil Taylor band.
Neil has also played guitar for many artists including Tina Turner, Howard Jones, Chris de Burgh, Natalie Imbruglia and James Morrison.