Samuel Abrahams

 Writer/Director, British – Hold On Me

After graduating in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, Samuel started out in TV with a win and a nomination at the Royal Television Society Awards for the documentary series Risky Business and Customs UK respectively. He then moved across to drama where he directed and co-wrote the Channel 4 comedy Hung Out, developed from his original short Documates. His short film Connect won a Jury Award at Brief Encounters and was subsequently nominated for a BAFTA as Best Short Film in 2011.

Samuel's latest short film Hold On Me premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and won Best Short Film at the London Independent Film Festival. In between drama productions Samuel directs commercials for award winning production company Smuggler.

Anna Blandford

Writer/Director, British – Goblin Market

Anna’s creative partnership with co-writer/director Anna Valdez Hanks has culminated in three shorts that have won awards and screened at festivals worldwide. Looking For Marilyn - a darkly comic film about celebrity culture - was broadcast on Channel 4 and selected for the Straight8 Showcase at Cannes and the DepicT! Showcase at Encounters. The experimental To The Sea has recently been selected by the Aesthetica Film Festival and has screened in Brooklyn, Palm Springs and Rio de Janeiro. Supersonic, set in the world of greyhound racing, won the Telegraph-Ford Film Challenge Critics Award and screened at Picture House cinemas nationwide.

She has just completed her solo-directed short film, Goblin Market. It was funded by sponsorship from the Telegraph Newspaper and is the first ever live-action adaptation of the canonical poem by Christina Rossetti. Anna is currently developing her first feature.

Joseph Caruana

Animator, Maltese – The New and the Other

Joseph is an animator and graphic designer. He graduated with a BTEC-MCAST Higher National Diploma in Graphic Design and a First Class Degree BA (hons) in Animation from the University of the Creative Arts in Farnham, UK. His veins stream with passion towards visual representation in printing, identity and digital media.

His work is creatively developed using the skills, taste and style acquired from both sectors – joined together to carry out tasks with the right balance of graphical forms in static and dynamic visualizations.

ISABELLA EKLÖF

 Writer/Director, Swedish – Notes from Underground

Eklöf is originally from Sweden, where she achieved her first degree in directing at the University of Gothenburg. With extensive experience in production management and casting for documentaries and music videos, Eklöf also produced and directed music videos and corporate films as well as working as production assistant on Swedish hit film Let The Right One In by Tomas Alfredsson. Eklöf has been hugely productive over her student years and several of her short films have gone on to tour the festival circuit.

A recent recipient of Bisballeprisen, a prestigious Danish art prize, Eklöf is developing her first feature Hvidovre with support from New Danish Screen at the Danish Film Institute. Her selected filmography as a director includes Aurora (2005), Charlie Charlie (2007), Willkommen in Barbaristan (2009) and Notes From Underground (2011), her graduation film as part of the Directing Department of the National Film School of Denmark.

Dan Geesin

 Writer/Director, British – Elephant Feet

Nathan Hughes

Writer/Director, British – The Claw

Nathan has broad, multi-platform experience as a creative producer of audio-visual performance, generative software and spectacular son et lumiere events. This informs compelling documentaries and distinctive, original drama. The Claw, which crowd-funded it's budget, was inspired by the discovery that an infamous killer's ashes were scattered off Barry Island. Nathan works closely with The Claw's Producer/DP Jacob Parish (Small Storytellers). They are shooting documentaries about the innovative Bristol-based Dance-room Spectroscopy project, and a poignant profile of a man coping with brain damage following a freak motorcycle accident.

Nathan consolidated his screen-writing and narrative skills on Newport Film School's MA program. His dissertation on landscape allegory in cinema informed 'Worms', a  psychosexual drama which articulated Dylan Thomas' statement that 'the blood in his lungs was the same as the blood going up and down in a tree'. Nathan is currently writing a feature length script from this material.

HELGI JÓHANNSSON & HALLDÓR RAGNAR HALLDÓRSSON

Writer/Directors, Icelandic – When Rabbits Fly

Helgi and Halldór are childhood friends born in Iceland, who grew up together making silly short films and experimental videos before the time of YouTube.

Helgi Jóhannsson finished a bachelor‘s degree in Industrial Engineering, while working on various jobs in the film industry. His work as a director includes award-winning music videos, commercials and short films. In 2011 he won an award for the Best Icelandic Music Video, where the head of the jury was acclaimed director Romain Gavras.

Since 2009 Halldór Ragnar Halldórsson  has been working full time as a cinematographer and editor in Copenhagen. He is co-founder of a production company focusing on music videos and film production. While Halldór moved to Denmark, Helgi stayed in Iceland.

Always wanting to work together but never finding the right time, they finally teamed up again in 2011, when they co-wrote and directed the short film When Rabbits Fly. The film was a success, applauded for it’s distinctive black humour and style.

Jessica Knights

Andrew McVicar

Writer/Director, British - Compulsion

Having spent his early life in the Middle East, Andrew returned to the UK to study Literature & Film. He made a documentary at a workshop led by Abbas Kiarostami, followed by the short drama Breathe For Me, which premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival and played many other European festivals. His next project, Lamb, premiered at Encounters in 2008 and played Oberhausen, Krakow, Brest and Hamburg amongst other international festivals, gaining the Jury Special Mention at Nice Film Festival 2009 and inclusion in Oberhausen’s Best of the Festival DVD.

His latest short film Compulsion premiered at London Film Festival 2011 and won Best Film at London Short Film Festival 2012. Andrew also works as development producer of feature film and gallery installations at Third with Samm Haillay and Duane Hopkins. He’s currently writing his debut feature and developing another short film.

Rosanna Wan

Animator, British – Skip Town

Rosanna Wan is an animator, storyteller and designer. She studied Visual Communication at the UCA in Canterbury and graduated from Kingston University with a BA (Hons) in Illustration and Animation in 2012. Her love of narratives originated in a generous diet of short stories, Yuri Norstein films and nineties prime time television.

Committed to creating immersive worlds and convincing characters, she has directed five animations to date, alongside commercial work including promotional material for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Random House. She currently lives and works in London.