Season Awards #16
The Jury Team
Jane
Gull
Jane Gull’s debut feature My Feral Heart premiered at Cinequest (USA), winning the Audience Award, before screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it went on to win the Lift-Off Award for Best Feature Film (2017). Broadcast on the BBC, the film earned a BIFA nomination, won a National Film and Television Award, became Ourscreen’s most successful cinema-on-demand release, and was later introduced by Mark Kermode on BFI Player.
Her second feature, Love Without Walls, won Best UK Film at both the Manchester Film Festival and the London Independent Film Festival, followed by a strong theatrical and streaming release. Her award-winning short Sunny Boyscreened internationally and aired on Channel 4, Arte TV, and Apple TV.
Originally trained as an actor and professional dancer and choreographer, Jane brings a fierce, actor-first sensibility to her work. A BAFTA voting member and alumna of the Berlin Talent Campus, Edinburgh Talent Lab, and BFI Think-Shoot-Distribute, she is also a Cultural Ambassador for Essex and Patron of the Essex International Film Festival. She will shoot her third feature later this year.
Tim
Kent
Tim Kent is an accomplished British Director, Producer, and the founder of Actors Studio, a world-renowned screen acting training institution based at the iconic Pinewood Studios.
With a career spanning over 30 years, Kent has established himself as a central figure in the UK film industry, bridging the gap between professional production and actor development.
Kent’s work often focuses on character-driven narratives and high-stakes drama. Some of his most recognised credits include: Sparrow’s Call an independent feature film that won The London Independent Film Festival and premiered in Athens Greece. The Awakening
starring Peter Stormare, Alice Eve, Kevin Spacey and Steven Berkoff and most recently Breathe Deep a shark movie that was shot in Malta and Pinewood Studios, starring Michiel
Huisman and Ingrid Torelli.
Under Kent’s direction, the Actors Studio has become one of the premier destinations for screen acting in Europe. Located within Pinewood Studios—the home of James Bond and Star Wars—the studio offers: Recent attendees and coaches have included world
renowned acting coach Mel Churcher and actors Cameron Monaghan and Barry Keoghan.
Priscilla Chiemerie
Anachu
Priscilla Anachu is a Production Coordinator and Nollywood Costume Designer working across film, television, and documentary production in the UK and internationally. Her work spans productions released in Nigerian cinemas and distributed across global platforms including Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube.
She holds an MA in Production Management for Film, TV and Digital Media from the University of Salford, graduating with a Distinction and receiving a prize for Sustainable Production Management.
Priscilla’s work in costume design has received international recognition, including an Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nomination for Costume Design for the feature film The Masked King in 2025. Alongside her production work, she has also served as a film reviewer and jury member with Lift-Off Global Network since 2024, contributing to the discovery and celebration of emerging global filmmaking talent.
She is passionate about meaningful storytelling, collaborative filmmaking, and sustainable practices within the screen industries.
Emily
Carlton
Emily Carlton is a screenwriter working across film and TV. She has had four short film scripts produced, including The Witch’s Daughter, funded by the BFI. Her short films have played at over 35 international film festivals to date and won multiple awards including ‘Best Screenplay’ at the LiftOff Season Awards.
She’s developed TV projects with Good Chaos, Two Brothers and Pulse Films. Her debut feature, a magical realist thriller ‘The Eye’ was released by Kaleidoscope in the UK and US last year.
Outside of her writing Emily is a co-founder of ‘Breaking Through The Lens’, helping connect female and non-binary directors to film finance at large film markets. When she’s finally exhausted her passion for film, she hopes to pursue her lifelong dream, to be a Cher impersonator in Vegas.
Terry
Bamber
Terry Bamber trained as an Actor at LAMDA but after ending up on the cutting room floor no fewer than 18 times out of 21 performances he became an Assistant Director.
Terry Bamber had the great pleasure to work on 101 and 102 Dalmatians with the legendary Micky Moore. Terry’s career has taken him around the world, working with fantastic crews.
He has worked in Bollywood with actors Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan and Salman Khan. Terry’s father, Dickie Bamber, worked on the very first Carry On film and Terry worked on the very last, Carry On Columbus.
Richard
Elson
An experienced director of stage and screen, having directed actors such as Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan, he is launching weekend acting retreats (www.elsonmedia.com/react) starting in March.
He has directed features, TV drama, documentary, commercials and theatre. His previous work as an editor (‘Poirot’, ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl’) has given him a strong sense of pace and story. He has also worked in VFX (‘Fountain of Youth’, ‘Gangs of London’) and is a passionate supporter of Lift-Off, having previously had films shown at the festival and presented awards.
Leah
Liu
Born in Beijing and based in New York, Leah (Yujia) Liu is a writer/director and an MFA Film Program candidate at Columbia University. Her work centers on intimacy, identity, and female autonomy approached through a cross-cultural lens. She is currently developing her first feature-length screenplay centered on loss and grief.
Oscar
Garth
Oscar Garth is a bold and playful Director of Photography who thrives on bringing surreal and unconventional stories to life. His dynamic visual style has shaped numerous short films and culminated in his debut feature. Currently collaborating on an exciting series with comedy writer, director, and performer James Button, Oscar’s passion for storytelling extends beyond the camera. His transition into directing has already gained recognition, with his award-winning short Benji captivating audiences during its festival run.
Raf
Lindia
Raf Lindia is an Italian-American novelist and screenwriter. His acclaimed novels, including Shakespeare: Conspiracy of Silence, A One Way Ticket, Girl in a Glass Box, and The Sicilian Detective, have been translated into multiple languages. His screenplay for Girl in a Glass Box (co-written with Emmy Award winner Blanche Baker and brothers Eric and Jason Miller) has also won multiple awards for Best Screenplay, including from Lift-Off Global Network, Festigious Film Festival, New York International Film Awards, International Independent Film Awards, and Los Angeles Film Festival.
Hanna
Elisa
Hanna Elisa is an award-winning faroeese actress, singer, producer and all-round creative. As a physiotherapist and singer, she works with choirs for people with COPD and sings at private gatherings such as birthdays, weddings and funerals. She attended the Lift off awards in 2025 where her first production, the music video “Farvæl” was among the three nominated music videos. Since 2012 she has been active in the acting world with multiple projects under her belt. She has a deep love for story telling and the value independent film making brings to the world and she is honored to be a part of the jury for this Lift Off season awards.
Quentin
Trélet
Quentin Trélet is a French filmmaker based in Paris. He has received numerous awards, including the prize for Best Feature Live Action Narrative at Lift-Off Season Award 2025.
While studying at the Paris LV School of Architecture, he made several short films dramatising architecture. For his final project, he presented Pale Blue Dot (2020), a fiction film shot in the Sahara Desert, which led to the construction of their very first set.
At the age of 26, he founded the company Openframe and directed the 71-minute feature film New Squam City (2024): a murder mystery shot on a shoestring budget of $20,000, with only two people on set, filmed between the skyscrapers of Paris La Défense, the Sahara Desert and sets built in the French countryside.
Jessica
Londono
Her feature proof of concept E-MUM won Best WA Short Film at CinefestOZ and screened at Flickerfest, marking the beginning of its successful festival journey and advancing into feature development alongside her debut feature The Weight of Silence, supported by Screenwest. Her award-winning documentary Horsepower, a compelling exploration of men’s mental health, received top recognition at the 2024 Lift-Off Festival and was shortlisted for the Season Awards – Best Short Documentary at Pinewood Studios. The Journey Within, filmed in the Colombian jungle, is a personal exploration of healing with ayahuasca, about to begin its festival run, while she is commencing production on Violeta en Australia, a magical-realism short following a young child navigating migration, language barriers, and her mother’s postpartum depression.
Meghan
O'Shaugh-
nessy
Meghan O’Shaughnessy is an Irish director living in London. Best known for her debut short film ‘How to Skin a Cheetah’, Meghan has received several accolades for her work including a Young Director Award nomination at Cannes Lions. Her creative voice leans towards genre-driven storytelling, and she finds the absurdist an insightful way to explore the human condition in her filmmaking.
Natalie
Daniels
Natalie Daniels is the co-founder of Silver Screen, an organisation dedicated to celebrating the magic of celluloid through curated film screenings, an Analog Short Film Fund, and a unique jewellery line crafted from silver reclaimed during film processing. With over a decade of experience in the indie film industry, including eight years as General Manager of Lift-Off Global Network, Natalie is passionate about championing creative storytelling and preserving analog film.
Rebekah
Louisa Smith
Dr. Rebekah Louisa Smith, The Film Festival Doctor, is a change agent. Her focus on film festivals and mental health is the first of its kind within the film industry. She creates new ways to approach festival strategies and redefine how to look after one’s mental health within the intense & rewarding world of the film festival circuit.
Rebekah and team are committed to nurturing filmmakers in order to help them secure film festival screenings, win awards, and cultivate a positive recognition within the film industry. Currently, her company has won more than 2,500 awards for their clients and four Oscar success stories. She has secured hundreds of festival screenings around the world for her clients and has supported over 850 international filmmakers, enlightening and inspiring their journey towards achieving their goals and following their filmmaking dreams.
Frederick
Brandes
Frederick Brandes is a Producer and Co-Founder at Crystal Clear Pictures. He has a background in theatre, virtual production, and entrepreneurship, being involved in tech and media startups around the world.
An honoured guest at Kharkhorum International Film Festival 2025, he was recently a speaker at the Korean Creative Contents Agency’s Content Export Marketing Professional Training programme.
The Last Lady, a UK-Indian co-production he worked on with Indian director Záfar Mehdi recently got released to the festival circuit; as his first feature film, UK-Mongolian co-production Ononoke is set to enter pre-production later this year.
Tamara von
Werthern
Tamara von Werthern is the winner of Best Screenplay 2019 for I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire at Lift-Off Season Awards.
Her stage work has been performed across the UK, in Spain and Germany and includes Sugar (The Royal Court Theatre) The White Bike (The Space), Baby Dolls (Greenwich Theatre & Theatre 503), Puddles (Shoreditch Town Hall & English Theatre Berlin) and One of Them, inspired by the Gisèle Pelicot case (Arcola Theatre, 2026). She translated Hex (NT) for Schauspiel Hannover and is the founder of award-winning podcast Fizzy Sherbet. Her cosy crime novels Only The Lonely, Silent Night and Riders on the Storm feature her real-life father and his dog as an accidental detective and are currently being adapted for film. She is working on a non-fiction book about her participation in Taunus Bikepacking in 2025, a 1000km self-supported bike ride in the hills around her hometown. She’s open to collaboration on film and TV projects.
Dawn
Wall
Dawn Wall is an English actor, director, and writer whose work moves confidently across international cinema, languages, and performance traditions.
With a career spanning Danish and global films, Dawn’s projects have received multiple awards and strong festival recognition. Recently named one to watch, she continues to build a distinctive presence within contemporary screen storytelling. Her first music video, Farvel,
was nominated and shown at Lift-Off last year and her latest short film, No Place for a Kid, earned many awards and a nomination at BAFTA-qualifying festival, BUFF.
As a performer, Dawn is defined by precision, range, and a deep understanding of tone—shifting effortlessly between comedy and drama with sharp timing, grounded naturalism, and a nuanced command of accents and dialects. She is currently starring in the up-coming WW2 Feature Film, Tråde.
Beyond acting, Dawn’s practice reflects a broader artistic and critical engagement with filmmaking. As a writer and director, she develops bold, character-driven stories shaped by collaboration and cinematic craft. She is currently in post-production on a feature film she wrote and directed, starring Diêm Camille, while developing further screenplays, television
projects, and stand-up comedy work.
Working internationally, Dawn brings a cross-cultural perspective and a discerning creative voice to film, driven by curiosity, rigor, and a commitment to storytelling that takes risks.
Alberto
Accettulli
Alberto Accettulli is an Italian award-winning commercial director who has been shooting global advertising campaigns for over 15 years, mostly involving fast vehicles, loud engines, and things that cost more than they should. An automotive director at heart, he works with major creative agencies and global brands, shooting across the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
He jumps from one project to the next, often changing continents from one week to another, preferring airport lounges and departure boards over routine.
Known for action-driven, slightly irreverent storytelling with a strong cinematic edge, his short film “Under the Influence[r]” received strong international attention. He is currently banging his head on his first feature film, which might keep him in one place for longer than usual, and learning to live with that. A savvy investor in AI stocks as well, just in case the technology ever steals the job, it might as well pay him off indirectly. Think about it!
Andrea
Pellerani
Andrea Pellerani is a Swiss documentary filmmaker based in Lugano, working between auteur-driven creative documentaries and commissioned projects for broadcasters and private clients. A graduate in film studies with many years of on-set and directing experience, he is particularly interested in intimate stories set against social and environmental transformation. His work has screened at international festivals such as Visions du Réel, and since 2021 he has been running his own production company, 1984 Films, developing projects that blend strong visual storytelling with a careful, character-focused approach.
Claire
Richardson
After working in production across TV, film and commercials, Claire is now a producer at a London based agency called Coolr. After working together for six years at Lift-Off, she also co-founded Silver Screen with Natalie Daniels, a company that champions filmmakers to shoot on celluloid through a production fund and bi-annual screenings.
James
Newman
James is a London-based writer and director from Reading. His micro-short The Chop qualified for a BAFTA, while his directorial debut Viskar I Vinden earned him a British Short Film Award. He placed second at Slamdance’s Screenplay Competition and recently wrapped Kitty with Lizzie Hart, produced by Real Issue Films.
Sarah
Dawes
Sarah is a filmmaker, actor and founder of Trail 3 Films. From interactive series, compelling shorts to contained, high concept features – she has a slate of projects in active development and production. Her recent short film script ‘Text Me When You’re Home’ won both the IMDB Script to Screen & Audience Favourite Award at Bath Film Festival and is going into production early 2026. She is passionate about building collaborative and inclusive environments and finding innovative ways to connect to audiences.