Meet the programming team for the 65th BFI London Film Festival

Tricia Tuttle has been Director of BFI Festivals since 2019, prior to that she was Acting Artistic Director of the 62nd Edition of the BFI London Film Festival and worked for five years as Deputy Head of Festivals at BFI, including BFI Flare: LGBTIQ+ Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival. She was previously Film Programme Manager at BAFTA and Event Producer at The Script Factory, Tricia has also worked as a programmer, lecturer, writer and journalist.

Michael Blyth is the Senior Film Programmer for both the LFF and BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival. He also contributes to various print and online publications, specialising in queer cinema and the horror genre, and is author of the book Devil’s Advocates: In the Mouth of Madness.

Grace Barber Plenty is a film programmer for LFF. She programmes with a focus on highlighting and uplifting films directed by Black women across the diaspora. She has previously worked for film distributors including BFI Film Distribution, Studiocanal and Altitude, and as a freelance journalist contributing work to BBC Inside Cinema, Sight & Sound, Little White Lies and others.

Laure Bonville is the LFF’s lead documentary programmer. She previously worked in the Cinema department of the BFI Southbank and at the Hamburg short film festival and Clermont-Ferrand short film festival.

Hyun Jin Cho is a Film Programmer for the LFF, focusing on South East and East Asian cinema as well as Experimenta. She previously worked for the London Korean Film Festival and Artificial Eye and has curated projects at cultural institutions and film festivals such as Tate, ICA, REDCAT and Il Cinema Ritrovato. Jin is currently undertaking research on the intersection of colonial history and the culture of cinema.

Ulrich Schrauth is the LFF’s XR and immersive programmer. He is an international curator, creative director and artist working in the field of immersive media. He is the artistic director for VRHAM!. In addition to that, he oversees many international projects with virtual, augmented and mixed reality, and acts as a speaker, moderator and jury member in this field.

Rowan Woods programmes the LFF’s Series strand and the festival’s Works-In-Progress showcase. She also works at the British Council, where she advises international film festivals on new UK work. 

Geoff Andrew has been an LFF Programme Advisor and BFI Southbank Programmer since 1999. He has written extensively on film in numerous books, for Sight & Sound, Time Out and elsewhere; regularly teaches at the London Film School; and has served on juries in Cannes, Venice, Turin, Istanbul and many other festivals.

Robin Baker is the Head Curator for the BFI National Archive and a co-Advisor of the LFF’s Treasures from the Archive strand

Sophie Brown is a programme advisor for the Documentary strand at LFF. She was the Associate Programmer of Bertha DocHouse, views documentaries for Sheffield Doc/Fest and Sundance Film Festival, and writes for Sight & Sound.

Helen de Witt is a Programme Advisor for the Experimenta strand of the LFF. She is a curator and lecturer in Film Studies at Birkbeck and University of the Arts London. Helen was previously Head of Cinemas at the BFI.

Maria Delgado is a Programme Advisor on Spanish and Latin American cinema for the LFF. She is an academic, critic and curator, working for the BFI and ICA among others.

Peter Hames is Programme Advisor for Central and Eastern Europe and Russia for the LFF. His books include The Cinema of Central Europe, The Czechoslovak New Wave, and The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer. He is Visiting Professor at Staffordshire University and a member of the editorial board of Studies in Eastern European Cinema.

Justin Johnson is a Programme Advisor for the LFF’s Family strand and Animation. He is also Lead Programmer for BFI Southbank and has been on juries for BAFTA and many international festivals. Justin regularly talks about film in the media and has hosted events for BAFTA, TIFF and the Royal Television Society.

Sarah Lutton is Programme Advisor for the LFF’s Nordic selection, specialising in films, filmmakers and episodic/series work from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Sarah has been contributing to LFF in a variety of roles since 1998. Sarah is also a freelance film programmer, contributing seasons and events to a range of cinema, gallery and non-traditional venues. She also works with a number of other organisations including British Council Film Team, We Are UK Film and BAFTA. Sarah is also part of Research England’s Film and Screen Studies Assessment Panel for REF 2021 (Research Excellence Framework).

Kalpana Nair is a programme advisor for the LFF’s South Asian selection. She heads Programming at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. She has been working with MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image) since 2015. She also writes about film and popular culture in publications like The Times of India, Firstpost, Film Companion and National Geographic.

Lynn Nwokorie is programme advisor for the Documentary strand at LFF. She is an executive producer at Dorothy Pictures, documentary producer, consultant and curator for Sundance, Doc Society, Scottish Documentary Institute and The Gotham Film & Media Institute.

Julie Pearce is a co-Programmer of the Treasures from the Archive strand. She is currently Head of Distribution and Programme Operations at the BFI. Previously, Julie was Head of Programme Planning for BFI Southbank, Programmer at the BFI IMAX and a book and CD buyer for Virgin.

Sarah Perks is a Programme Advisor for LFF’s Experimenta strand. She is an interdisciplinary curator and Professor at MIMA School of Art & Design, Teesside University.

Paul Ridd is Programme Advisor for the Dare strand at LFF. He is Acquisitions Manager at Picturehouse Entertainment and an International Consultant for Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Jonathan Romney is a Programme Advisor for French cinema for the LFF. He writes for Sight & Sound, The Observer, Screen Daily, Film Comment and others, and teaches at the NFTS.

Elhum Shakerifar is an LFF Programme Advisor for Iran and the MENA region. She is a BAFTA-nominated producer, writer and curator working through London-based company Hakawati (‘storyteller’ in Arabic). Recent credits include A Syrian Love Story (2015, Sean McAllister), Of Love & Law (2017, Hikaru Toda) and Ayouni (2020, Yasmin Fedda). She was a 2016 Vision Awardee and recipient of the Women in Film and TV Factual Award 2017. www.hakawati.co.uk

Keith Shiri is an LFF Programme Advisor for African cinema. He is an international film curator and director of Books of Africa.

Leigh Singer is a Programme Advisor for the LFF’s Laugh strand. He is a freelance film journalist, programmer and video essayist for Sight & Sound, the BFI, Little White Lies, the BBC and other outlets, and teaches at the NFTS.

Damon Wise is a Programme Advisor for the LFF’s Thrill strand. A freelance film writer since 1987, his features, interviews and reviews have been published widely in various UK and US publications.

Adrian Wootton OBE is a Programme Advisor for the LFF’s Italian selection. He is the CEO of Film London and the British Film Commission and also programme advisor for the Venice Film Festival; Noir in Festival, Milan; and Curator of Cinema Made in Italy. He is also the founding Director of Shots in The Dark Nottingham’s Crime and Mystery Festival.

Nellie Alston is a Short Film Programmer for the LFF and co-runs T A P E collective — which recently programmed ‘But Where Are you Really From?’ at the BFI.  She also works as a distributor at NT Live and as a Special Events and Industry Programmer at London Short Film Festival.

Philip Ilson is the LFF’s Senior Short Film Advisor. He is also the Artistic Director of the London Short Film Festival, which he co-founded in 2004, and has previously worked as a programmer at the East End, Cork and Branchage Film Festivals as well as Curzon Soho Cinema.

Aduke King is a Short Film Programmer for the LFF. She has worked as a Short Film Programmer for several leading film festivals. She enjoys finding space in festivals for unseen work, using programming as a way to widen audiences, broadening perspectives and give filmmakers new opportunities. Having worked in different areas of the film industry, Aduke is excited by new voices and stories, seeing festivals as a way to further careers and establish relationships.

Elaine Wong is a LFF Short Film Programmer, and has worked on the festival since 2016. Her role as Content Partnerships Manager for Viveport, a global app store platform for VR apps and games, focuses on next-generation interactive entertainment and immersive worlds. She is a founding member of the London Video Club, and has a passion for content across numerous formats and technologies, past, present and future.

Amaya Bañuelos Marco is a Submissions viewer for the LFF.  She is also an educator and film curator, having curated film programmes for Italy’s Lago Film Festival and Edinburgh-based Cinetopia. She currently works for Film Access Scotland.

 Jason Barker is a Submissions Viewer for the LFF and is on the programming team for FilmBath Festival. Previously, he was a programmer for BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Jason is also a filmmaker and occasional actor.

David Edgar is a Submission Viewer for the LFF. He’s a PhD candidate in the Anthropology department at UCL, and works as a freelance book editor and personal trainer. He was the Film Officer at the Royal Anthropological Institute 2018-19 and Events Programmer (Learning and Interpretation) at BFI Southbank 2012-2018. 

Isabel Moir is a Submissions Viewer for the LFF. She is also a Film Programmer at ICO and previously worked at Overnight Film Festival and the Barbican Centre.