Judges

AAQIL AHMED
Since agreeing to become one of our judges, it has been announced that Aaqil Ahmed is to be Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC. He was previously Commissioning Editor, Religion and Multicultural for the UK’s Channel 4. His commissions for the channel include the Emmy short listed two part series  ‘The Cult of the Suicide Bomber’, the acclaimed two hour documentary ‘The Qur’an’ and the genre breaking series ‘Priest Idol’ and ‘Make me a Muslim’.  Aaqil worked previously at the BBC in current affairs and was the Deputy Editor of Documentaries with Religion and Ethics, working across projects such as ‘Everyman’ and ‘Islam UK’, a season of programmes on Islam.

In 2005 Aaqil was awarded The Ibn Batuta Excellence in Media award by The Muslim News and in 2007 he was presented with an achievement award in arts and media by the Asian Power Hundred. He is a trustee of the Runnymede Trust, chairman of Mosaic Media (Prince Charles charity), a champion of Merlin (Ethnic minority mentoring scheme) and sits on a number of arts education committees.

DR RAJINDER DUDRAH BA (HONS), PHD, PGCHE
 Rajinder is Head of Drama and Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies at the  University of Manchester . His teaching includes screen theory and aesthetics, screen methods, screen texts and audiences to both  undergraduates and postgraduates. He has special interests in Bollywood cinema, Black British representation, popular music, diasporic and transnational media, television studies, as well as cultural theory and qualitative research methods as applied to popular culture.

Rajinder's academic research has included the popular cultural texts of British Bhangra music, Bollywood films, and the non-terrestrial Zee  TV channel and he is interested in how they are used by British Asian audiences in processes of social identity formation. Rajinder is author of the book Bollywood: Sociology Goes to the Movies (SAGE Publications, 2006). He has been a script reader and adviser for Maverick Television (Birmingham ) on their Crossovers project which mentored six British  feature film scriptwriters with their work. Rajinder is also a regular film and media critic for the BBC.

TINA GHARAVI
Tina is an Iranian/American filmmaker and screenwriter. She is known for making innovative films about outsiders, outcasts and marginalised people in extraordinary situations. Best known for her work on diversity, her subjects include migration, terrorism-related discrimination, Muslim-identity, and issues related to representation.

Her award-winning films have been shown in film festivals internationally, broadcast on television worldwide on the BBC, Channel 4 (UK), ITV, Showtime, Educational Broadcasting System South Korea, and in the contemporary art world, including multiple screenings at the ICA in London, the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (UK) and the Sundance Film Festival.

She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship at Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY and in 2003, a UK Arts Council Decibel Spotlight Award. Her works are housed in the permanent collections of MIT, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, British Film Institute, Harvard University Library, Manchester Art Gallery, and the Donnell Library NY amongst many others.  She is completing her feature screenplay, Ali in Wonderland, about Iranians living in Tyneside (naturally, a black comedy).

LIZ RYMER
Liz is a freelance screenwriter and producer and has developed a number of initiatives geared towards engaging disenfranchised young people with film. In 2004 she was presented with an award for Outstanding Contribution to Independent Filmmaking by the Notting Hill Film Festival. Having developed Leeds' own art-house cinema she became Principal Film Officer for Humberside County Council. Under her direction for five years the Leeds International Film Festival became the third largest such event in the UK after Edinburgh and London.

Liz was appointed CEO of Yorkshire Screen Commission where she initiated participation in the establishment of the Studio of the North and was instrumental in the establishment of Screen Yorkshire; the UK Film Council's regional funding body. She  was also Chair of the UK Network of Screen Commissions. She teaches Film at Leeds Trinity & All Saints and has written and is co-producing a feature film which is currently in development with Scottish funding partners; she is also producing a second feature, Lipgloss, penned by Sheffield writer, Lee Ford, and a short film written by comedian Robin Ince and starring Brian Blessed.

TOMMY NAGRA

Tommy Nagra is an Executive Producer in the BBC's Religion & Ethics Department.  His successful BBC career began with the Multicultural Programmes Department. In 2002 he worked as a Channel Development Executive for BBC Two before joining BBC Birmingham to be head of the BBC's Asian Programmes Unit (APU).

He has also executive produced documentaries including Dispatches for Channel 4, Director's Debut for BBC One, Ghetto Britain for More 4 and the Oscar-nominated feature length documentary, Jesus Camp, broadcast on Channel 4 in 2008. In 2005 he joined Maverick Television as a Senior Executive Producer and has also worked across a range of independent production companies and has recently returned from a two-month stint in New York for a Channel 4 series on Islam in America post 9/11 in the run-up to the US Presidential Elections. He developed Channel 4's Seven Wonders Of The Muslim World series as part of their 2008 Islam season. In 2001 he was awarded Carlton's Multicultural Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting televised on ITV.

Our judging panel is still in formation, please visit this page again to see developments.

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About Insight

The Insight Film Festival was begun in Manchester, U.K. in 2007 by a group of professionals in the film and media industry who wanted to make a serious contribution to community cohesion through film and moving image. Read more

Judges

Meet Aaqil, Rajinder, Tina and Liz in our Judges section.