BAFTA-winning jurors join panel for this year’s Birmingham Film Festival

Senior producer, writer and director, Anthony Waldron, executive producer, Loretta Preece, and Birmingham born animator Joanna Quinn, will join the panel of industry experts who have the difficult task of selecting winners in more than 30 award categories.

Anthony has created hundreds of hours’ worth of shows for networks and streamers in both the UK and the USA, including BBC, Channel 4, CBBC, Watch, Discovery, Sky, National Geographic and more.

Loretta has more than 20 years of experience as a series producer, writer and development executive on shows including Casualty, Sister Boniface, Doctors, Belonging and The Coroner.

As well as winning a BAFTA for her work on Casualty, she has also won Royal Television Society, International Rose d’Or and Broadcast awards.

And Joanna Quinn, winner of the Best Animation for her film Affairs of the Art at last year’s festival, is returning to join the grand jury for this year.

They join Kia Pegg, star of The Dumping Ground, Tracey Beaker Returns, Doctors and host of CBBC’s Saturday Mash Up, who also returns as juror after winning a Birmingham Film Festival award for Best Young Actress back in 2017.

More grand jury members will be revealed in the coming weeks, including well-known names from both in-front of and behind the camera.

President of Birmingham Film Festival, Kevin McDonagh, said: “It’s a real thrill for us to have talent of such a high calibre selecting the winners for us, and it adds a great deal to the prestige of winning an award. It means the filmmakers and actors going home with trophies can feel really proud for being recognised by such respected industry professionals. Although anyone who makes a film should feel proud as it’s such a challenging task.”

Birmingham Film Festival is the UK’s largest independent film festival and brings thousands of filmmakers and cinema buffs to the region in a 10-day celebration of moviemaking.

Now in its eighth year, the 2023 event will take place from November 17-26 at Millennium Point. Festival-goers will be treated to free showings of around 200 shortlisted films, on the biggest screen outside London. This will be alongside seminars, workshops and Q&A sessions by some of the top people in the business.

Last year’s event received over 1,000 entries from up and coming and professional directors from across the world, with even more expected this year.

The best will be put forward to compete for more than 30 awards in the glittering Film Festival gala dinner, with jurors choosing the winners of gongs including best film, best feature, best short, best documentary, best international film and local film. There are also awards for actors, filmmakers and students.

The final submission deadline is August 31, giving directors a few more weeks to complete their shorts, features, documentaries, animations, screenplays, online content, music videos, fan films and more.

Birmingham Film Festival CEO, Dean Williams, said: “The continued high number of entries and their ongoing success shows just how much talent is out there and what amazing films are being made every day. We’re very proud to have helped share these films with the world and played a small role in their ultimate success. We are lucky every year that filmmakers send their work to us. It’s an honour to have them at our festival.”

To submit an entry, visit birminghamfilmfestival.co.uk.