2016 jury
straight 8 are delighted to announce an epically distinguished jury and prizes for our 2016 competition
thanks to all our jury members. we hope straight8ers out there are as excited as we are
asif kapadia - director, amy, senna, the warrior
Director / Writer / Producer Asif Kapadia first gained recognition for his student film THE SHEEP THIEF (Royal College of Art) which won an award at the Cannes Film Festival. Kapadia's debut feature THE WARRIOR (Film4), won BAFTA awards for Outstanding British Film & Best Debut Feature, as well as being nominated for Best Film Not in the English Language. Kapadia’s feature SENNA (Universal Pictures / Working Title), the thrilling story of the Brazilian Formula One legend Ayrton Senna, was a break out hit at the UK box office, the film won BAFTAs for Best Documentary and Best Editing, was nominated for Outstanding British Film and won the World Cinema Audience Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. AMY world premiered in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and tells the story of Amy Winehouse in her own words. The film has has been an international box office hit and is the highest grossing UK documentary of all time. AMY won the BAFTA for Best Documentary, a Grammy for Best Music Film and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
ed lachman - director of photography, carol, erin brockovich, the virgin suicides, far from heaven
Edward Lachman began his career as an operator for cinematographers such as Robby Müller, Sven Nykvist and Vittorio Storaro. He has collaborated with filmmakers such as The Maysles brothers, Robert Altman, Wim Wenders, Todd Haynes, Ulrich Seidl, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, Shirley Clarke, and Paul Schrader. Selected credits as cinematographer include "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Tokyo-Ga," "Mississipi Masala," "Light Sleeper" (Independent Spirit Award) "La Soufriére," "The Limey," "The Virigin Suicides," "Erin Brokovich," "Far From Heaven" (Academy Award nomination, Independent Spirit Award, New York/Boston/Chicago/LA Film Critics Awards, National Board of Review Award), Ulrich Seidl's "Paradies" trilogy, "I'm Not There" (Silver Frog, Camerimage), "Mildred Pierce," "Wiener-Dog," and "Carol" (Academy Award nomination, Independent Spirit Award Nomination, London Film Critics Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Golden Frog, Camerimage). In 2015 Lachman became the first American to win the presitigious Marburger prize for cinematography.
pegah farahmand - commissioning editor, channel 4 / random acts
Pegah is the Editor for Channel 4’s Random Acts, a position created for her at the start of 2015. She joined C4 from Vice Media where she spent 10 years at the heart of the company’s rapid expansion, producing and directing documentaries with talent such as Spike Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, and Sally Potter, as well overseeing the content from Vice’s many brand partnerships including Google, Ford and Nike. She was the global supervising producer for Vice’s multimedia arts and technology platform The Creators Project, and latterly the company’s Senior Creative Producer.
Pegah’s appointment at Random Acts followed a £3m investment from the Arts Council and initiative to supercharge the strand. In her time there, Pegah has worked towards developing young talent through the Random Acts Network, as well as sourcing films from across her network and applying her taste towards commissioning new works.
the random acts website will be re-launching this April but in the mean time their films can be followed here
hamish moseley - head of distribution, altitude film distribution
Following a youth spent tinkering with super8 cameras and projectors, Hamish entered the film industry as a cinema projectionist nearly 20 years ago before moving into film programming multiplex cinemas and then crossing over into distribution with Momentum Pictures in 2003.
Whilst at Momentum he worked on over 175 film campaigns and was instrumental in formulating the successful release strategies for a wide variety of hits including: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, THE WOMAN IN BLACK, INSIDIOUS, SHAME, THE RAID and THE KING'S SPEECH; the most successful independent British film of all time.
In 2013, Hamish was recruited to set up the distribution arm of Altitude Film Entertainment. In just over two years Altitude have become established as one of the most exciting independent film companies in the UK, releasing the likes of 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, FRUITVALE STATION, MARSHLAND, LOVE IS STRANGE and AMY; the most successful British documentary of all time.
jason solomons - film critic and reviewer, bbc, the observer, the mail on sunday
chair of the jury
Jason Solomons is one of the UK's best-known film critics. On television, he is the host of the globally-syndicated interview show Movie Talk and a regular reviewer and expert on BBC News. On radio, he is BBC Radio London's long-standing film critic and a reviewer on Radio 2's Arts Show and Radio 4's Front Row, for whom he has covered the last five Cannes Film Festivals. Jason's book Woody Allen: Film by Film came out to acclaim in 2015. After a long career reviewing for newspapers including The Observer and The Mail on Sunday, his reviews and podcasts can now be found on: