Our INVITED JURY TO JUDGE OUR 11TH ANNUAL BIFA QUALIFYING FILM FESTIVAL.

Taking to the stage, we have…

Donna Sandahl Sørensen

Creative Director (Copy)
WBD Creative EMEA

Donna Sørensen is a Creative Director at Warner Bros. Discovery, where she has led the EMEA Copywriting Team for the global streaming service, HBO Max, for the past 4 years. She’s worked on award-winning campaigns for series like House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, and on streaming campaigns for films, including Barbie, Dune and Superman. She’s also been part of TNT Sports campaigns like the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Donna is a published poet, with her collection entitled Dream Country (New Island Press, 2013), and previous co-host of the Write for Your Life podcast.

MITCH JENKINS

Director and Writer

Mitch Jenkins is an award-winning British writer/director whose work spans short
films and features with a distinctive visual style.
He began directing with Act of Faith (2012), the first of five short films made with legendary writer Alan Moore, best known for Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Three of these were released as Show Pieces (2014) and immediately acquired by Shudder, bringing Jenkins’ work to a global audience.
The debut feature, The Show (2020), premiered at SXSW, produced by EMU Films with BFI support and starring Tom Burke. This was followed by A Million Days (2023), a science fiction thriller starring Hermione Corfield and released by Signature Entertainment. Jenkins’ third feature, Ambleside, is a period drama set in 1920s Mauritius and slated for a 2026 release. Starring Ellie Bamber, Mehdi Dehbi, Rupert Penry-Jones, and Rhona Mitra, it was filmed entirely on location as one of the island’s most ambitious international productions. The film dominated the 41st Boston Film Festival (2025), winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress,
Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Music.
Beyond his filmmaking, Jenkins serves as a mentor at the University of the Arts London (UAL), supporting emerging creative talent and fostering the next generation of storytellers.

mitchjenkins.com

INSTAGRAM: @mitchjjenkins

Keron day

Actor

My name is Keron Day and I’m a disabled actor. I was in the last series of Sex Education, led the BBC show Kirkmoore and the film We’re Too Good For This, which premiered at the London Film Festival. Alongside my acting work, I do a lot of campaigning to increase and improve disability representation. My slogan is: Diversity Without Disability, Is Not Diversity!

IMDB: Keron Day

INSTAGRAM: keron_day

NIALL STEWART

Producer

Niall Stewart is a BAFTA award-winning producer who has worked in the film and television production and policy landscape for nearly thirty years. During his time at the BBC, he won the Interactive BAFTA for Outstanding Factual Content for the BBC History website and was nominated for a British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) award for ‘London Journeys’, which was a ground-breaking mobile phone app.  He was also given the opportunity to devise and produce the BBC’s first-ever online dramas called ‘The Voices of the Unheard’.   Niall Stewart’s 35mm feature ‘The Secret’ won ‘Best Feature’ film festival prizes all over the world before receiving a US theatrical release.   He then co-wrote and produced the romantic thriller indie feature ‘Carmen’s Kiss’, which received a UK theatrical release.

During his career, he has also worked for BBC Films (Business Affairs), Independent Film Trust (Public Affairs and Commercial Strategy), Directors UK (Policy & Public Affairs), Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Policy & Public Affairs),  House of Lords (Policy Advisor to the Communications (Media) Committee),  European Parliament (International Trade Committee), Grosvenor Films (Production Director), Spotlight Pictures (London Acquisitions Representative) and Paramount Pictures’ MTV Films in LA (Development and Acquisition).  

sarah Smith

Associate Editor at Directors Notes

Sarah is a true multi-hyphenate within the film industry. Alongside her role as Associate Editor & Head of Outreach for Directors Notes, her extensive festival experience ranges from MC and juror duties to previously serving as Deputy Director of Brighton Rocks, where she helped steer its growth into a BIFA-qualifying event. Sarah also produces for Brighton film collective The Imaginary Project and contributes as a freelance writer for publications including 1.4 and Shots Magazine.

INSTAGRAM: @sezonlyknows

mark brennan

Director and Writer

Mark Brennan is a filmmaker based in the UK, working on short films since 2014. After successfully taking his first short film, Tea For Two, on to the film festival circuit, he later co-founded the Exit 6 Film Festival in 2015, which has since become a BIFA-qualifying festival and a mainstay on the Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals list on FilmFreeway. He is also a Festival Strategist & Liaison at the internationally renowned Festival Formula, an agency specialising in festival strategy for short films, for whom he has previously represented at festivals such as Clermont Ferrand, HollyShorts, Indy Shorts, Aesthetica, Bolton International Film Festival, and In The Palace Short Film Festival. Most recently, he has joined the team at Directors Notes, interviewing the filmmakers behind the BIFA-accredited platform’s ever-growing collection of outstanding short films.

INSTAGRAM: @mrmbrennan

ANGELA PETERS – festival director AND PROGRAMMER

Founder of the UK Actors Tweetups, B.A.B.E. Acting Network, World Acting Summit (two-week online series) and a Backstage Expert since 2018, Angela loves getting involved in every part of the industry.

Angela is an international actress who has been on TV (Emmerdale, Queensland’s Best Living, The Awkward Man) in many cinema and festival screened feature films and shorts and films on Netflix, Sky, and Amazon Prime. And when she isn’t hosting the UK Actors Tweetup, she’s usually in her studio voicing a voiceover or audiobook in her native Aussie accent.

TWITTER: @angiepang

INSTAGRAM: @angiepet

Laïla ALJ

Actor/Theatre producer

Laila is an actor and theatre producer. Born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco, she studied theatre at Northwestern University. She also has an MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Laila lives in London and works across theatre, screen & audio. She is a founding member of MENA Arts UK, a UK based arts organisation championing the work of MENA+ (Middle East, North Africa and surrounding areas) creatives in the UK. She is also the producer at Theatro Technis, an independent theatre in Camden.

Laila is currently developing a solo play Chambers of the Heart with playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak and director Sepy Baghaei.

INSTAGRAM: @lalailaalj

JULIA LIMA

Composer

Julia started her career as a jazz musician Her studies included long form jazz composition and an advanced rhythm’s study programme based on southern Indian rhythmic approaches. Since moving to London, she has worked as a main composer on both short films and limited series for UK and European productions.  Her focus on narrative driven scores and versatility have led her to work across genres, combining her storytelling abilities with the world building necessary for each individual film.

Writing mostly from script, Julia’s scores help shape characters and narratives. Either through the manipulation of the perception of time or the subtle shift in motifs, her work helps guiding the audience’s experience, becoming part of the creative process, not just completing it. Intertwined with the story, her music betrays empathy towards the characters and their surrounding, writing from within them, in and around their nature, moving through their perspectives, expressing an unobserved face that is not seen and can only be felt.

INSTAGRAM: julialima.composer

MEL RADLOFF

Actor

Mel has been working alongside the Tweetup team for over five years now at their monthly events and as a host and presenter annually at TweetFest. Mel is a multilingual actor, presenter and keen cinephile. We are delighted to have Mel on the panel this year for TweetFest and hosting a number of our events, and helping us with judging the incredible shorts.

INSTAGRAM: @mel.radloff

HAMZA MOHSIN

Writer/Director

TWITTER: lebadass

gemma gordon

Actress/Presenter

Gemma Gordon is a British Actress and Presenter known for ‘Dark Ditties Presents’ on Amazon Prime alongside Ian Gelder (Game of Thrones) and Bruce Jones (Coronation St). She has a key role in ‘Swipe Fever’ feature film, coming soon produced by Mark Forstater (Monty Python) and is endorsed by ITV Producer, Simon Withington as a Presenter of Wedfun News.

She was a 2019 Miss Universe Great Britain Finalist and promotes female empowerment through charities such as Centrepoint. She will present the Mental Health and Well-being Awards in 2022. Gemma trained at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.

IMDB: Gemma Gordon

INSTAGRAM: Gemma Gordon