2015 Jury

BRIDGET ARSENAULT

Nova Scotia native Bridget Arsenault holds a Master’s Degree from Oxford University and a BA honours in English and Women Studies from Mount Allison University. A longtime journalist, she is the Associate Editor, Print and Digital at Vanity Fair UK and the London Correspondent for vanityfair.com. Bridget has also worked freelance for a variety of international publications, including British Vogue, Travel and Leisure and Departures. At the end of 2013 Bridget co-founded The Bright Young Things Film Club, an events company that fosters young filmmaking talent. She has received numerous awards and accolades for both her writing and volunteer work, and she is currently working on a novel.

CHARLES DANCE

In some thirty five years as an actor Charles Dance has amassed an impressive body of work in all media from title roles with The Royal Shakespeare Company and major work in London’s commercial theatre including Shadowlands for which he received the London Critic’s Circle Award for Best Actor, through award-winning television series, such as The Jewel in the Crown (BAFTA nomination for best actor) and Bleak House, for which he received an International Emmy nomination and won the Press Guild Award for Best Actor, and Game of Thrones. Major films include – PlentyWhite MischiefGood Morning BabylonThe Golden Child, Robert Altman’s Gosford ParkKabloonakThe ShooterYour Highness and The Awakening. His debut as a film director and writer was Ladies in Lavender with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith for which both ‘Great Dames’ were nominated for European Film Academy Awards. Charles has just returned from Australia where he filmed Childhood’s End, directed by Nick Hurran. He is also currently shooting Thea Sharrock’s Me Before You.

ANDREW DEMPSEY

Andrew Dempsey is an independent curator and exhibition organiser. He has curated exhibitions for the Miró Foundation in Barcelona, IVAM in Valencia, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao and La Caixa in Madrid as well as exhibitions of Chillida for the Hayward Gallery in London and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. He was formerly responsible for the exhibition programme at the Hayward Gallery where he initiated and organised the Homage to Barcelona exhibition in 1986. Film has been a lifelong enthusiasm.

NICKOLAS GRACE

Nickolas Grace was born in West Kirby and trained at Central School of Speech and Drama, where he still teaches. From 1972 to 1978 he played with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also played Mozart in Amadeus at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Richard II at the Young Vic, Cole Porter in A Swell Party at the Vaudeville, Pangloss in Candide at the Old Vic, which gave him an Olivier nomination, and Trinity in Chariots of Fire at the Gielgud Theatre. Film and Television roles include Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited, for which he received a BAFTA nomination; Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin of Sherwood, which gave him an Ace Award nomination; the title role in Juan Antonio Bardem’s Lorca, muerte de un poeta, Merchant Ivory’s Heat and Dust, Ken Russell’s Salomé’s Last DanceShooting FishTom and VivHouse of Cards and Evita. He is a Fellow of Royal Central School, and a Companion of LIPA.

FRANK MANNION

Frank runs the award-winning production and distribution company, Swipe Films. He has produced the independent hits, Grand Theft Parsons, starring Johnny Knoxville and Christina Applegate, Jackboots On Whitehall, with Ewan McGregor and Rosamund Pike and Plastic, with Will Poulter and Alfie Allen. Swipe has had success releasing such Spanish films as El Otro Lado de la CamaCarmen (both co-starring Paz Vega) and Icíar Bollaín’s Te Doy Mis Ojos in the UK. He is Senior Lecturer in Film Distribution & Marketing at Birmingham City University and a contributor to the Huffington Post, The Sunday Times and the Entertainment Law Review.