NFF2024 Jury

Kata Gugić

Kata Gugić is a Croatian director and animator. She graduated in Fashion Design from the Faculty of Textile Technology, and Animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Her graduation film, Cockpera, was screened and awarded at numerous international festivals.

Kata has a diverse background in the arts, with experience in animation and film distribution, as well as in set and costume design for both film and theatre. She is also involved in the film community as a programmer and jury member at film events and festivals. As the president of the Croatian chapter of ASIFA, she organizes various events and projects aimed at developing and promoting the local animation scene. She is currently working on her short film Nightbloom.

Fabian Erlinghäuser

Fabian has 20+ years industry experience at Cartoon Saloon where he has worked extensively in Directing and Animation.

He was Animation Director on the feature films Song Of The Sea and The Breadwinner, and Animation Supervisor on The Secret Of Kells.

He also co-directed the Annie-Award winning short film There’s a monster in my kitchen alongside Tomm Moore, and recently served as Assistant Director on Nora Twomey’s feature film My Father’s Dragon.

Fabian has served as a jury member for the Annie Awards, the Student Annies, Fantoche Switzerland, Manchester Animation Festival, ISDC Taiwan, El Meu Primer Barcelona, and the BAFFTAs. He is also a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the European Film Academy.

Carly Brown

Carly Brown, BFE, is an Editor with over 12 years experience in television and film. Her editing credits include BAFTA nominated comedy Extraordinary (Disney+) and dramas including Doctor Who (BBC/Disney+), A Thousand Blows (Disney+), Industry (HBO/BBC) and Champion (BBC/Netflix). She was Assistant Editor on The Crown and BAFTA & Oscar award winning feature film Belfast.

In 2018 she featured in Broadcast Magazine’s ‘Hot Shots’, and was selected to join Edinburgh TV Festival’s ‘Ones to Watch’ talent scheme. She is a member of BAFTA Connect and British Film Editors.

Julian Foddy

After 15 years in the music industry as a renowned international DJ and record producer, Julian joined the world of visual effects in 2004, starting as a junior 3D artist at Double Negative in London.

A swift rise through the ranks saw him attain the role of CG Supervisor inside 2 years, overseeing the CG content on projects such as Green Zone, Paul, The Dark Knight Rises and Fast and Furious 6, then stepping up to the role of VFX supervisor.

In 2015 it was time for a new challenge and Julian joined the London arm of ILM. In a successful 9 years he has supervised numerous projects notably including Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian: Series 2, Spiderman: Far from Home, and more recently Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. On many of these shows Julian also served in an on-set supervisory role, often overseeing 2nd unit or in some cases directing splinter or aerial units.

In 2022 Julian took up the next challenge – a production VFX supervisor role, overseeing a Star Wars TV project – The Acolyte,  set for release on Disney+ mid 2024.

Sasha Rainbow

Sasha Rainbow is a New Zealand born, Los Angeles based award-winning BAFTA nominated director. Sasha has been a BFI Network X BAFTA Crew alumni since 2018 and attended the prestigious Yaddo artists residency in 2019. In 2021 Sasha was selected as one of eight women for the Women In Film mentorship scheme in Los Angeles. Her first documentary Kofi and Lartey, about two boys living in the world’s biggest electronic waste dump in Ghana, won numerous awards. Her second documentary Kamali, about a seven-year-old Indian girl skateboarder, won several Academy-qualifying festivals, was long-listed for an Academy Award, nominated for a BAFTA, and released through RYOT Films. It also won Best Documentary at Norwich Film Festival.

Sasha is developing several feature-length scripted films, including BETA, a female lead sci-fi set in the Bay Area.

Her feature debut, Grafted, is due for festival release in August 2024.

Sam Moore

Sam Moore is a UK based BAFTA nominated animation director. She loves the joyfulness and eclectic nature of animation. No one ever finds animation intimidating, and yet it can convey complex ideas to a wide audience in an engaging way.

Sam has made work on diverse subjects, from competitive sweet-pea growing, to cutting edge microbiology, archaeology, neuroscience, and her own experience of having twins. Her latest film Visible Mending (2023) was commissioned by the BFI Short Form Fund, and made through MediaActive Projects. It was shot at Second Home Studios in Birmingham and is proudly UK-midlands based and all-female in key roles.

She is Head of the Animation Programme at the Royal College of Art, UK, and visiting Professor in animation at University College Volda, Norway.

Hanna Flint

Hanna Flint is a London-based critic, author, and broadcaster who has been covering film and culture for over a decade. Her reviews, interviews, and features have appeared in GQ, the Guardian, Elle, Town & Country, Mashable, Radio Times, MTV, Time Out, The New Arab, Empire, BBC Culture, and elsewhere.

She is a frequent guest on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and The Arts Hour; co-hosts the weekly film review podcast Fade to Black, is the co-founder of the First Film Club event series and podcast, Cinema For Gaza and both a member of London’s Critics’ Circle and the BIFA Nominations Committee. Her debut book Stong Female Character: What Movies Teach Us is out now.

Nadira Murray

Scotland-based producer Nadira Murray won the BFI and Chanel Filmmaker Award in 2023 for her creative audacity, the 2023 BAFTA Scotland Best Feature Film Award, and the 2022 BIFA Breakthrough Producer Award for her debut
feature film Winners. The film also won the BIFA Raindance Discovery Award, the Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Best UK Feature at Raindance. It was the UK’s official selection for the International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards.

Nadira established her production company with the mission to develop both scripted and unscripted narratives that elevate ethnically diverse voices and bring cultures together through artistic expression, focusing primarily on the vision of first-generation immigrants and asylum seekers/refugees living in UK.

Andrew Chesworth

Andrew Chesworth is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker living in Burbank, CA.

He co-wrote and co-directed the animated short film One Small Step at Taiko Studios. Prior to that, he was an animator at Disney on such films as Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and more. Andrew is also an experienced character designer and director of animated commercials.

His last short film, The Brave Locomotive, has won multiple international awards, including Best Animated Film at NFF2023.

Sam Heasman

Sam Heasman is an award winningcinematographer. He studied at Farnham University for Creative Arts and has worked as a spark and gaffer within the film industry on projects such as Channel 4’s Misfits, Catastrophe, and the Netflix series The Crown, as well as feature films such as The Double, Paddington, plus many more.

As a cinematographer, Sam has worked his way up on short films, music promos, and shot commercials for large brands such as Nationwide, Flash, and Capital Radio. He later worked as second unit DOP on TV dramas such as ITV’s Next of Kin and Vera. It wasn’t long before Sam got the chance to take on his very own episode as main unit DOP on Doctor Who, as well as episodes of Sandman and Supacell for Netflix.

Charlotte Hamblin

Charlotte Hamblin is a screenwriter, director, and actor. Her writing is female led, dark, and always laced with acerbic wit. Currently in development in the TV space is dark comedy drama The Commandments with Olivia Colman; comedy drama series The Close with Keeley Hawes, and an original comedy series Death Do Us Part with Mark Gordon Pictures. Charlotte’s TV writing credits include an episode of Hanna for Amazon. In the film space, Charlotte is developing a Christmas rom-com, 12 Dates, with Christine Langan.

As a director Charlotte’s debut short film Everybody Dies Sometimes… won Best British Short at the British Short Film Awards, was nominated for Best UK Short at Raindance and had it’s International Premiere at Tribeca 2023. It also screened at over fifteen festivals, including Norwich Film Festival. Most recently, Charlotte directed the latest series of The Booker Prizes Short Films starring a showstopper cast including Dua Lipa, Tobias Menzies and Eleanor Tomlinson.