JUDGES

Our expert panel of high level judges is drawn from the professional world of moving images.

Anna Cox

Anna is a senior producer and head of development for BBC Television Religion and Ethics programmes. She has a long and distinguished career as producer and director in global film and documentary making, especially in areas relevant to the Insight Festival. In over fourteen years of film making, her productions have included the highly acclaimed and award winning documentary “The Miracles of Jesus “for BBC1/Discovery as well as ‘The Lost Gospels' and ‘Does Prayer Work?' for BBC2/Discovery Health.

Her current role includes liaison at highest level with controllers, commissioners and international co-producers, and she is working on a new landmark documentary series too to be announced.

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.

Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz is a writer and broadcaster. He is a writer for The Guardian but his journalism has also appeared in publications as diverse as the Daily Mail, The Independent, The Observer, Uncut, The Spectator, Prospect and The New Statesman. TV credits include 'The Great British Asian Invasion' and 'Death of a Porn Star' both for Channel 4. He is a familiar voice on BBC Radio with documentaries on Radio 4 as well as presenting 'Up All Night' on 5 Live and occasional presenting on Radio 2. He is also a regular on Radio 4's 'Saturday Review' and Newsnight Review.

Prior to his broadcasting career Sarfraz Manzoor was a deputy commissioning editor at Channel 4 which he joined after 5 years as producer and reporter on Channel 4 News. His latest acclaimed book 'Greetings from Bury Park ' was published by Bloomsbury in June 2007.

David N. Weiss

David (co-writer, “Shrek 2” ) with his partner, J. David Stem, wrote the screenplay for “The Rugrats Movie,” and co-wrote “Rugrats in Paris ,” two of the highest grossing traditional animated features of all time. The duo were co-writers on the Academy Award Ô nominated feature, “Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius” and received an Emmy Ô nomination as head writers of the “Rugrats” series. They also penned the acclaimed perennial “Rugrats Channukah Special.”

Mr. Weiss co-wrote Paramount Pictures' adventure film, “Clockstoppers,” Revolution Studios' family hit, “Are We There Yet,” starring Ice Cube, “Daddy Day Camp” (upcoming sequel to Revolution's hit “Daddy Day Care”) and are currently working on “Cryptozoology ” for New Line Entertainment.

A member of the Motion Picture Academy , Mr. Weiss currently serves as Vice President of the Writer's Guild of America, west and frequently teaches and lectures on writing and religion.