Jury 08

Jury 07

Below are the members of the International Jury for the Iris Prize 2007.

Angela Gidden MBE, Designer Attic2

Angela Gidden

Angela Gidden is one Wales most progressive designers and one of the leading furniture designers in the U.K . Her experience spans over 21 years in furniture, product, interior and exhibition design working with clients in the U.K and beyond. Clients include lifestyle retail brands The Conran Shop (Worldwide), Heal’s and Liberty. In addition her design studio attic 2 has been commissioned to work on many conceptual projects for clients such as the BBC, the National Assembly of Wales, Wales Venice Biennale and many more. Her commitment to creativity and business in Wales is unquestionable and her recent MBE is certainly testimony to that.

Lisa Gornick, Writer and Director of Tick Tock Lullaby

Lisa Gornick

Lisa Gornick began her career as an actor and went onto study film. She made her directing debut with the short film My Primary Lover Never Hollywood Kissed Me. She then took some early steps into video installations with The 12 Steps of Starting up a Religion and A Graphic Love Story. Her first feature Do I Love You? is a philosophical romantic comedy about breaking up, which premiered at The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2003. It went on an extensive world tour and won three awards as well as securing distribution deals in the UK, France, Canada and the USA. She has just finished her second feature, Tick Tock Lullaby, a wry comedy about whether to have a baby or not.

Brent Gorski, Writer and Star of Holding Trevor

Brent Gorski

Brent Gorski wrote and co-produced the feature film Holding Trevor, in which he also stars as the title character. He majored in theatre at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio, which he followed with a two year stint at the University of Cincinnati’s Arts Conservatory, CCM. After performing in theatre productions around the globe, including Germany and Japan, Brent moved to LA where he began the transition from stage to screen by starring in a number of independent short films before following in Matt Damon’s footsteps by writing himself a lead part in Holding Trevor.

Andrew Pierce, Assistant Editor, The Daily Telegraph

Andrew Pierce

Feared and revered in equal measure, Andrew Pierce is a tenacious political hack with a talent for breaking stories about the great and good. Pierce, 46, was brought up on a Swindon council estate, attended his local comp, never went to university and cut his teeth on local papers. As assistant editor of The Telegraph he is the most senior out gay journalist in British newspapers. He is also a seasoned broadcaster, has appeared in Question Time, and regularly makes the top 100 in the influential gays list.

Christopher Racster, Producer

Christopher Racster

Christopher Racster founded Archer Productions in 1994, an event and brand marketing company serving clients such as MTV, DreamWorks, Fox and Project Angel Food. He subsequently became Executive Director of marketing, advertising and PR for AsSeenIn.com. In 2000, Christopher joined BWR Public Relations as SVP charged with the creation of an event marketing division for global corporations such as BMW, Nike and Qantas. In 2002 he moved into filmmaking, producing award winning, globally distributed short films (including an official Sundance selection) and three features for the LGBT audience. As head of production for MG, Christopher's most recent film is Save Me.

Ceri Sherlock, Commissioning Executive, Arts BBC Wales

Ceri Sherlock

Ceri Sherlock began his diverse career in the arts in the early Eighties, directing and working on operatic productions in venues in Ireland, France, and Germany, amongst many others. He returned to Wales to join Theatr Cymru as Associate Director and the Welsh National Opera as a staff producer, before an award-winning spell as Artistic Director of the Actors Touring Company in London. In 1993 he moved into film, writing and directing Dafydd which he followed with the award winning feature films Branwen and Cameleon. He recently moved from S4C to become the BBC’s first Commissioning Executive, Arts.

Sara Sugarman, Director and Iris Prize Patron

Sara Sugarman

Born in Rhyl, Wales, Sara Sugarman began her career as an actress appearing in television programmes such as Grange Hill and Juliet Bravo as well as the film Sid and Nancy. She made a name for herself behind the camera with a number of award-winning short films and made her feature debut with Mad Cows in 1999. Two years later she wrote and directed Very Annie Mary, which displayed the dark sensibility and unique Welsh humour of her earlier work. The film’s success brought Sugarman to the attention of Walt Disney who hired her to direct Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Although she now lives in L.A, Sugarman remains one of Wales’ most unique talents.

Paul Smith, Head of Press and PR, Tartan Video

Paul Smith

Paul started out at the Edinburgh Film Festival before moving into film journalism. After a four-year stint as External Affairs Officer for Welsh International Film Festival, he worked on freelance projects for organisations such as the British Film Council. He joined the theatrical division of Tartan Films and is currently Head of PR for their home entertainment division, Tartan Video, where he has promoted queer films such as Mysterious Skin, Party Monster, Safe, and Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park. He remains a part-time reviewer as well as a programmer for London's German Film Festival and board member of Ffresh - the Student Moving Image Festival for Wales.

Jaymes Thompson, Writer and Director of The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror

Jaymes Thompson

Jaymes graduated from U.C.L.A. with a B.A. in English Literature and studied in The Moving Image Arts program at The College of Santa Fe, and received his M.A. in Film, Television and New Media at San Diego State University. The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror is Jaymes’ first feature film. His prior short films include Color Me Scarlett and Cake, which was profiled on Fox News in San Diego, and Fruitcake, which won several awards on the festival circuit.  Jaymes started his own production company, MoDean Pictures, in 2002 and is currently working on developing his next feature.

Jury Chair:

Frances Hendron, Cultural Consultant

Frances Hendron

Frances Hendron worked for the Celtic Media Festival (previously the Celtic Film and Television Festival) from 1994 to 2007, initially as Director of the Celtic Film and Television Association and then Chief Executive of the Festival organisation. In addition to her focus on the annual Torc Awards presented by CMF she has been a juror for other festivals including Canada's Atlantic Film Festival, HotDocs, the International Documentary Festival, the International Film Festival of Wales, and BAFTA Scotland. Frances will be speaking about the value of festival awards at the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages annual conference in Vigo di Fassa, Italy in September.