List of judges

  • Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist and pioneering figure in communicating science to the public and especially school children.
  • Rosie Alison spent ten years directing television documentaries before becoming a film producer at Heyday Films. Her debut novel The Very Thought of You was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.
  • David Allen is one of the leading independent documentary producer/directors working in his field. One of his first films, Flying Devils, won an Emmy for cinematography. In 2005 he won two more Emmys,including best director, for Bug World, a quirky series charting the influence of insects in our human lives.
  • Richard Alwyn is a filmmaker and writer with a distinguished track record in documentary and fact-based drama. His films have been nominated for BAFTA and RTS awards and have been shown by broadcasters and in festivals all around the world. His 2005 film, The Beslan Siege, won the Prix Italia.
  • Stephen Armstrong is a freelance journalist who writes for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the New Statesman, GQ and Esquire as well as presenting the occasional documentary on Radio 4. His first book was The White Island, a history of Ibiza.
  • Terry Back is Partner, head of Media and Entertainment Group for Grant Thornton and is responsible for the development of the firm's Media and Entertainment Group, with a particular operational focus on television and film.
  • Joan Bakewell is a journalist and television presenter who first became well known as one of the presenters of BBC Two’s Late Night Line-Up. In 2001 she wrote and presented Taboo a four-part series that explored the concepts of decency and censorship.
  • John Battsek produced the Oscar-winning One Day in September and has since accrued a slate of over 20 documentaries including Once in a Lifetime, Black Sun, In the Shadow of the Moon, My Kid Could Paint That and Sergio. Sundance 2010 saw the premiere of two new films: The Tillman Story and Restrepo, which opened the festival and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize.
  • Emily Bell is Professor of Professional Practice and Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. She was director of digital content for Guardian News and Media from 2006 to 2010. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited from 2001 to 2006.
  • Madonna Benjamin is a freelance executive producer. Her most recent work has been at Minnow Films where her credits include Four Sons Versus Four Daughters for Channel 4's Cutting Edge strand, The Trouble With Girls for BBC Two, Can't Bully Me (BBC Three) and four First Cut films for Channel 4. Before Executive Producing, Madonna spent 10 years directing her own films.
  • Richard Bradley is Managing Director of Lion Television. Under his creative leadership, Lion has assembled one of the most widely respected historical and specialist factual programme producing units in the industry with a reputation in the UK, US and Asia for innovative and accessible television.
  • Jo Brand is the celebrated stand-up comedian and writer. A former psychiatric nurse, she now frequently appears on our television screens on shows as diverse as Have I Got News for You, Countdown and Question Time. She co-wrote and starred in the comedy Getting On for BBC Four which has been commissioned for a second series.
  • Simon Campbell-Jones has made technology, science and history programmes, mostly for the BBC but also for Channel 4 and WGBH Boston. He edited Horizon and QED and was the first producer on Nova. He wrote the non-fiction Code of Practice for the industry and currently chairs the Directors Guild Trust.
  • Jessamy Calkin has been features editor at the Telegraph Magazine for 12 years. She also edits their annual travel issue, and writes features. Before that she was senior editor and writer at GQ magazine.
  • Henry Chancellor is a director, producer, series producer and author. He won a Grierson Award in 2008 for 1983: The Brink of Apocalypse.
  • Mandy Chang is an experienced freelance director/producer who has won many awards for her work. Her films include Hello Culture, Visions of Space, The State of Texas, Sons of Cuba, Howard Goodall’s Great Dates and The Mona Lisa Curse, which recently won a Rose D’Or, Grand Jury Prize for the Best Documentary at Banff, a Grierson and an Emmy.
  • David Clews is and observational filmmaker whose films include the critically acclaimed Surviving Gazza about Paul Gascoigne’s family’s struggle with his alcoholism and the Grierson-nominated Boys from the Brown Stuff, following the men who work in London’s sewers. Last year David made the BAFTA nominated series The Family.
  • Peter Dale is the founder of Rare Day, a media production company. Until August 2008 he was the Head of More4 and Head of Documentaries at Channel 4. His commissions there included Tina Goes Shopping, Wife Swap, The Government Inspector and Jamie's School Dinners.
  • David Dehaney recently joined Nutopia as its Creative Director. Arriving from Love Productions, he produced/directed some of Love's most successful programmes for Channel 4 and the BBC. In his new role, David will be overseeing the creation of a new factual department aiming to bring cutting edge programmes across all genres of factual to broadcasters both in the UK and the US.
  • Taylor Downing is Managing Director and Head of History at Flashback Television. He co-founded Flashback in 1982 and has made well over 200 documentaries on a wide range of subjects over the last twenty years ranging from landmark history series to social affairs drama-docs. He is author of several books and regularly writes and lectures on television and history.
  • George Duffield has been producing feature films for eight years. Feature credits include Dot the I and Milk. In addition he has executive produced Tonight at Noon, Black Box, and Live Free or Die. He has recently started producing documentaries including Olly and Suzi for BBC Storyville and Rupert Murray's The End of The Line.
  • Ellen Fleming was a partner at London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, specialising in corporate and commercial work for the media sector. Her clients included major broadcasters, independent production companies and other television and publishing industry bodies. She now chairs The Bell Educational Trust, which provides English language training worldwide, and i-ProBono, an online network linking lawyers with the voluntary sector.
  • Simon Ford is a freelance executive producer working across a diverse range of documentary projects. Previously he was at the BBC. At the documentaries department there he was responsible for a raft of award-winning programmes including The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities, and The Secret Policeman. Recent credits for Channel 4 include The Hospital and Jamie Oliver's American Road Trip.
  • Jo Fox is an academic historian specialising in the history of film and propaganda in twentieth-century Europe. She is a senior lecturer at Durham University and is currently writing a biography of John
Grierson, and his influence on early film, propaganda, international
film education, and the emergence of reality television.
  • Steve Foxon is a moving image preservation consultant specialising in British non-fiction film. Originally with the British Film Institute he played a major role in the digital restoration of John Grierson's 1936 GPO classic Night Mail and subsequently went on to work on the entire GPO Film Unit back catalogue.
  • Ros Franey is a freelance executive producer, specialising in documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC. She’s increasingly been involved with observational single films and documentary series that have challenging legal and compliance issues.
  • Jill Franklin is Managing Director of Franklin Rae, one of the leading PR agencies working in the media industry. Before setting up Franklin Rae in 2003 she worked for BBC Radio and Television.
  • Bobby Friction is a DJ, television and radio presenter. He joined Radio 1 in 2002 co-hosting the Sony Gold award-winning show, Bobby Friction & Nihal. Bobby won his second Gold Sony award in 2005 for his BBC documentary Vote Friction, and then in 2006 he started his nightly Friction show on the Asian Network. The show, seen by many worldwide as ‘the definitive’ Asian music show, won Bobby his third Sony Gold in 2007 and in 2009 it won him Best Radio Show at the UK Asian Music Awards.
  • Marilyn Gaunt is a social documentary filmmaker who has made over fifty films, among them the Grierson award-winning Kelly and Her Sisters and the Grierson-nominated Class of ’62: from 16 to 60. Marilyn is also an executive producer, mentor and lecturer.
  • Daisy Gili is the joint Principal of the London Film Academy. She has directed a number of documentaries and short films. Her 2009 film, The Summer House, stars Robert Pattinson.
  • Pamela Gordon has been a documentary producer and director for the past 20 years. She series produced and co-directed the award-winning Staying Lost, and its famous follow-up Wasted. Her work includes Moscow Siege, made for Discovery, as well as numerous social history series. She has recently begun working with Jamie Oliver, making three of his recent films. Pamela is currently working on a two-part series for BBC Two.
  • Ian Hargreaves has had a long career in journalism at the BBC and then as editor of the Independent and the New Statesmen. He was Director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff and has most recently been Director of Strategic Communications at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2009 he was seconded part-time to conduct a review of Creative Industries in Wales for the Welsh Assembly Government.
  • Emma Hindley is a freelance executive producer whose credits include: Dreams on Ice for Channel 4; Living With Cancer for BBC One - which won an RTS award for Best Documentary Series - and Great Britons: Nelson. As a series producer for the BBC she has been responsible for a number of archive-based social history series including The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon, The Lost World Of Friese-Greene and The Secret Life Of The Motorway.
  • Christopher Hird is the founder of Dartmouth Films, which focuses on films which make a difference; pioneers new ways of funding and distributing films; and encourages new and emerging talent. His recent screen credits include Cameron's Money Men for Channel 4; Lionel Mills' Inside the Saudi Kingdom for BBC Two; and Rupert Murray's theatric documentary The End of the Line, which has been distributed worldwide.
  • Jason Isaacs is the acclaimed actor of screen and stage who is probably best known for his role as the villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. Jason’s other credits include The Patriot, Black Hawk Down and The End of the Affair.
  • Peter Jenkinson established and led Creative Partnerships, the £40 million programme, which links the creative and cultural sectors with schools in 16 of the most disadvantaged communities across England. He is passionate about increasing cultural and creative participation within communities. He was a member of the selection panel for Channel 4’s The Big Art Project.
  • Louise Jury is Chief Arts Correspondent for the London Evening Standard. Prior to joining the paper she was the arts correspondent for the Independent.
  • Anna Keay is the Properties Presentation Director for English Heritage and is responsible for all aspects of the presentation and interpretation of its 420 historic buildings. She is an author and appears regularly on television, most recently in the History Channel’s 50 Things You Need to Know About British History.
  • Lucy Kellaway is the management columnist for the Financial Times. For the last ten years her weekly Monday column has poked fun at management fads and jargon and celebrated the ups and downs of office life.
  • Patrick Kielty is a comedian, television and radio presenter. He co-hosted BBC One’s Fame Academy, followed by Celebrity Fame Academy in 2003 in aid of Comic Relief and later fronted the popular ITV1 series Celebrity Love Island in 2005 and 2006.
  • Roger Laughton was, as Head of Network Features at the BBC, responsible for a range of award-winning programmes including Live Aid. He was the first CEO of Meridian and later he led United Broadcasting and Entertainment. Roger has been Deputy Chairman of the BFI and a Grierson Trustee.
  • Mark Lawson is a journalist and presenter. He writes about television for the Guardian and is a presenter of Radio 4’s daily arts programme, Front Row. Since 2006, he has hosted the in-depth one-to-one interviews for BBC Four: Mark Lawson Talks to...
  • Paul Lay is the editor of History Today. He has a first class degree in history from Birkbeck, University of London where he was awarded the Dakin Prize. Previously he worked for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.
  • Kim Longinotto is well known for her films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Her 2005 film Sisters in Law, set in Cameroon, premiered and won two prizes at Cannes as well as a Grierson award. He latest film Pink Saris was shown at this year’s London Film Festival.
  • Philippa Lowthorpe has directed many memorable dramas and documentaries. Her documentaries include Remember the Family, and the cult favorite, Three Salons at the Seaside. Her dramas include the acclaimed Beau Brummell and The Other Boleyn Girl. Most recently she directed Five Daughters about the Ipswich murders, which is nominated this year for a Grierson.
  • Kevin Macdonald is the Oscar-winning director of One Day in September. His other documentaries include Being Mick and Touching the Void. Kevin has also directed the acclaimed Last King of Scotland and State of Play starring Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren.
  • Ursula Macfarlane has produced and directed many memorable documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 including Breaking up with the Joneses which received four BAFTA nominations including Best Single Documentary.
  • Jane Manning is Head of Production at October Films where she is an integral part of the company's creative, strategic and commercial planning. She has overseen 200+ hours of content worldwide.
  • Sarfraz Manzoor is a journalist, author and broadcaster who regularly writes for the Guardian and The Observer. He is currently reporting for BBC Two’s The Culture Show. He was previously a deputy commissioning editor for Channel 4.
  • Grant Mckee is a freelance executive producer in documentaries and drama-documentaries for Channel 4 and BBC. He was formerly Head of Documentaries and Current Affairs and Director of Programmes at Yorkshire Television.
  • Paula Milne is a BAFTA winning film and television screenwriter whose works include The Politician’s Wife, Second Sight, The Virgin Queen, Small Island and Endgame, which is shortlisted in this year’s Grierson Awards. Her most recent work White Heat is a six part series which will be shown on BBC Two.
  • Sacha Mirzoeff is an independent director/producer who won a Grierson Award in 2009 for Best Science Documentary for his film Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life.
  • Kylie Morris is the presenter of More4 News. Prior to this she was Channel 4 News' Asia correspondent and covered the 2006 war in Lebanon, the plight of Afghan women and the Thai coup.
  • Harriet Nimmo is Chief Executive of ARKive, a Wildscreen initiative whose mission is to promote the public understanding and appreciation of the world's biodiversity, and the need for its conservation, through the power of wildlife imagery.
  • Asha Oberoi is Managing Director of ITN Source, the leading provider of motion picture archive material, featuring film and stock footage from the 1890s to the present day.
  • Andrew O’Connell is Head of Factual at Channel Five. Previously, he was commissioning editor for Factual Programming at Sky 1, 2 and 3.
  • Emma Perry, former TV Editor of Time Out magazine, is now a freelance writer and editor. She has written for the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the Independent.
  • Jon Plowman is best known as the producer of Absolutely Fabulous, French And Saunders and The Vicar Of Dibley, as well as a large number of other comedy hits. He was for many years Head of Comedy at the BBC. His exec producer credits are too numerous to mention but include The Office, Little Britain, Goodness Gracious Me, The League of Gentlemen and The Thick Of It.
  • James Purnell served in the last government as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. He is currently the Head of the Open Left project at the think tank Demos.
  • Aysha Rafaele joined the Channel 4 documentary commissioning team in May 2008. She commissions documentaries, including single films for Cutting Edge, and is now the Editor of the new talent strand First Cut. Aysha started her career in television as a BBC trainee and went on to become a BAFTA nominated and RTS award-winning documentary maker. Her last directing job was as lead director on Channel 4's flagship drama series Skins.
  • Ian Sample has been a science correspondent for the Guardian since 2003. Before that, he was a journalist at New Scientist and worked at the Institute of Physics as a journal editor.
  • Rick Senat was a Senior Vice-President for Warner Bros. He is Chairman of Film Education and a visiting Professor at Lincoln University. He has served as Vice Chair of the BFI.
  • Sanjay Singhal is Managing Director of Dragonfly. In the three years he has been there he has overseen some of the company's biggest series including The Family and Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, as well as a number of high-profile single documentaries and events: Jamie Oliver: Eat to Save Your Life, Human Power Station, The Event: How Racist Are You? and Gok Wan: Too Fat Too Young.
  • Peter Symes has had a long career as a director, producer and executive producer. He was Head of the Discovery Campus Masterschool in Munich between 2005 and 2009 and there helped individual filmmakers develop specific documentary ideas and raise co-production funding.
  • Philip Taylor is Professor of International Communications at the Institute of Communication Studies, University of Leeds. He specialised in strategic communications, government-media relations, public and cultural diplomacy, propaganda, psychological operations/warfare, information operations/warfare, military-media relations, international film, radio and television (international communications) - all in an historical or contemporaneous context.
  • Roger Thompson has produced radio programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4 and the BBCOU. He has produced, directed and series produced films for BBCOU and BBC Arts; Executive produced Bookmark and Omnibus strands and many independent productions. He was commissioning executive for Arts and for BBC Storyville.
  • Murray Weston is senior advisor to the British Universities Film & Video Council which delivers services to facilitate scholarly access to moving image and sound content online. He is also Co-Director of the Bournemouth Skillset Media Academy.
  • Peter Wilson has been Chief Executive of Norwich's Theatre Royal since 1992. Before that he was Associate Director of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith and an independent theatre producer in the West End and throughout the world, with over a hundred first-class productions to his credit.
  • Robert Winston is a fertility expert and is well known for presenting many television series including Superhuman, Child of Our Time and The Human Body. He is Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College London and was made a life peer in 1995.
  • Elizabeth Wood is the creator and Director of DocHouse which promotes documentary in the UK by running regular screenings and events. She has produced and directed numerous documentaries and is an external examiner for a number of UK film schools and departments.
  • Justin Woolford runs the Campaigns team at The Co-operative in Manchester where his remit includes campaigns on climate change and young people. Prior to joining The Co-operative in 2009, Justin campaigned with WWF for over ten years on tourism, toxic chemicals and marine conservation. Before that he worked in television as a documentary camera assistant.
  • Justine Wright is a film editor who has worked on a number of award-winning documentaries including Deep Water, Touching the Void and One Day in September.