Jury

Big Spender – Geraldine Geraghty

Geraldine is a UK producer based in London & Wales who has recently produced the feature film La Cha Cha directed by Kevin Allen.

She moved into casting and production on feature films, music videos and live music events at production companies including Partizan, Radical Media, Somethin Else, Remedy and finally Chrysalis TV where she directed music documentaries and music videos for artists including Motorhead, Elvis Costello, Run DMC and The Jim Jones Revue.

She was selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2010 and the 2010 London Film Festival’s feature film scheme – Think, Shoot, Distribute and her short films have been screened at Palm Springs, London and Cannes festivals.

She now divides her time producing/directing freelance work in London and developing film and TV projects with The Mobile Film Studio, run by Kevin Allen, on the Gower, including several feature films and a six part comedy series with BBC Wales.

Low Budget – Rachel Dax

Rachel is an active writer and filmmaker, having written, produced and directed 10 of her own short films and produced several shorts for others. Her films have been hugely successful on the LGBTQ+ and mainstream film festival circuits and she has attended festivals all over the world as a consequence. Her short Time & Again starring Dame Sian Phillips and Brigit Forsyth has screened at 58 festivals and won 15 awards. It was broadcast twice on BBC Wales in 2020 and on BBC Four in 2021 and 2022, and was on BBC iPlayer for a year. She is currently in pre-production for a film starring Welsh legend, of Hi-De-Hi fame, Ruth Madoc! Rachel also is the Founder, Chair and Lead Programmer for LezDiff – Cardiff International Lesbian Film & Arts Festival.

Documentary Short – Jay Bedwani

Jay is a self-shooting Welsh filmmaker working in the UK and California, specialising in character led documentaries. His short films have played in over 50 international film festivals, and his feature documentary DONNA premiered in the Castro Theatre, San Francisco at Frameline Film Festival 2022, before a UK and Ireland theatrical release. His short film MY MOTHER was awarded Best U.K. Short at Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ film festival, the Iris Prize. His 2018 film OVERSHARE premiered in the O2 Arena in London, before completing a sold out theatre run in the U.K. His last short, STRETCH, premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival and was awarded Best Short at the Wales International Documentary Festival. In 2020 he received the John Brabourne Award for Film. He is currently working on an AR documentary with Storyfutures Academy and BFI while also developing his second feature documentary FRIDAYS WITH BARRY.

Twisted Tales – Gaz Bailey

Gaz Bailey is the founder and director of Abertoir – Wales’ International Horror Festival. He has a Masters in Film Studies and has experience in both in the exhibition and television sector.  

His current involvement in exhibition is at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, where he developed Abertoir back in 2006.  He is a keen supporter of genre film and loves sharing with passion with like-minded audiences!

Animation – Lauren Orme

Lauren is an award-winning animation director based in Cardiff, and Creative Director of Picl Animation. Her animated short films have been screened at festivals around the world, and her 2019 Ffilm Cymru- and BFI Net.work-funded short Creepy Pasta Salad was shortlisted for a BAFTA and nominated for a BAFTA Cymru in 2020. 

Lauren is Festival Director of Cardiff Animation Festival (CAF), a celebration of animation for everyone which she founded in 2018. As well as the biennial festival, CAF runs year-round events, including Cardiff Animation Nights, regular screenings of award-winning independent animated films from around the world in Cardiff City Centre and online, which Lauren started in 2014.

Welsh Film Award – Radha Patel

Radha is the Made in Wales Officer at Film Hub Wales, developing strategies to support films with Welsh connections and the cinemas that show them. She is passionate about ensuring that audiences in Wales can access their histories, cultures and heritages through film and that cinema is accessible and representative from development to distribution and of course exhibition.

One Minute Wonder – Berwyn Rowlands

A film fan from an early age Berwyn was producing “movies” using his 8mm camera and projecting films for friends in his parent’s front room from the age of 9. Berwyn has produced films for cinema and TV content in Welsh and English which has been broadcast on BBC, ITV and S4C

In 2006 he established the Iris Prize – the world’s largest LGBT short film prize at £30,000. 9 short films have been produced to date with the Iris Prize including Burger and Followers which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2016 the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary and was recognized by Bafta as an “A” list festival. The Cardiff based event has featured in the top 50 film festivals in the world by Movie Maker Magazine for four years. The Iris Prize was recognized by The Queen at a reception for the British Film Industry in 2013.

He is regularly asked to talk about film and LGBT issues on TV and radio and has also served on film award juries and speaks on both programming and event production at conferences. He has contributed to the European Short Film Symposium, Cork, the International Film Festival Summit New York and participated on the following film juries: OUTFEST, LA; Mezipatra, Prague; Kashish, Mumbai; INSIDEOUT, Toronto and Gaze, Dublin.

British Student Award – Mike Parker

Mike Parker a multi-award winning producer who has been working in the industry for 35 years. He has produced the acclaimed documentaries Goddodin and Silent Village, the most popular programme ever on BBC Wales, the sitcom, Satellite City, the international hit, A Mind to Kill and the feature films Rancid Aluminium, I Know You Know and 7Lives. He also produced award winning radio programming and the Royal Court Theatre production of Gas Station Angel. Mike is currently course leader of the acclaimed award-winning Film Production course at the University of Gloucestershire and is on the executive board of Nahemi.