Judges

The Pitch is judged each year by a panel of prestigious film industry figures. The jury of judges is made up of experts from disciplines across the field – producing, directing and acting. 

Adjoa Andoh

Adjoa Andoh

Currently best known to audiences as Lady Danbury in the Netflix smash Bridgerton, Adjoa Andoh has a 40-year career on stage and screen. Other recent shows include The Red King, Silent Witness and The Witcher, while she has previously appeared in Dr Who, Casualty and Law & Order UK. She has had lead roles at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court. In 2019 she conceived, co-directed and played Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in the UK's first all women-of-colour production. She’s also an award-winning BBC radio actor and audiobook narrator of over 150 audiobooks. She was appointed as the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre (University of Oxford) for 2022–2023, and was a judge for the Booker Prize in 2023. She is also a patron of the Fairtrade Foundation and Tree Aid.

Alice Cabañas

Alice Cabañas

Alice Cabañas is head of BFI NETWORK, the British Film Institute’s UK-wide talent development programme, which provides short film and early feature development funding for filmmakers throughout the UK, as well as professional development and networking support for producers, writers and directors. Cabañas oversees all BFI NETWORK funding, its professional development programmes such as BFI Flare x BAFTA and NETWORK@LFF, alongside industry partnerships such as Doc Society, BAFTA and the British Council. She was previously a Talent Executive for BFI Network in the South West, as well as Film Programme Manager for the British Council and Head of Communications and Development for the Encounters Short Film Festival.

Gbemisola Ikumelo

Gbemisola Ikumelo

A BAFTA-winning writer, actor and director, returning for her third year as a judge for The Pitch. Ikumelo co-wrote and starred in Famalam, for which she won the Royal Television Society award for Female Comedy Performance, and has appeared in more than 30 radio plays including Radio 4’s adaptation of the classic novel Half Of A Yellow Sun. In 2020 she won a BAFTA for her comedy short Brain In Gear. She starred in BIFA-winning film The Last Tree, as well as Amazon’s TV adaptation of Penny Marshall’s film A League Of Their Own, for which she was a staff writer. She was most recently seen in BBC cop comedy Black Ops, ‘a pitch-perfect, star-packed joy’ (The Guardian), which she also co-created.

Elizabeth Oldfield

Elizabeth Oldfield

The author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times and the host of The Sacred podcast, Elizabeth Oldfield has spent her career trying to lever open space for deeper conversations – about what it means to be a human being, where we can find wisdom and how we build a society where we hate each other a little less. She has worked at the BBC, led a Westminster think tank, and now lives with her family in a Christian intentional community in South London.

What Judges Say

 

Dr Jon Wardle, director of The National Film and Television School, said it was 'a great experience and a great privilege' to be part of the 2019–20 jury.

The quality of projects we were asked to review was incredibly high, so it was great fun chatting to the filmmakers about their intentions and why the work mattered to them. Roll on 2021.
Dr Jon Wardle


Fellow judge Justine Hart echoed how positive and enjoyable The Pitch proved for judges and entrants.

It’s surely the most supportive, generous scheme out there for filmmakers. The participants who reached the final judging weekend were staggeringly impressive and all ten had so clearly taken advantage of the training days, feedback and support already offered to them by the programme that, whether they won or not, their careers and confidence would have had an almighty boost. I love the Pitch for its passion for genuine storytellers, its determination to back bold and interesting voices and the sheer breadth of ideas and stories it inspires from the filmmaking community. Everyone should apply!
Justine Hart

Other previous judges include Oscar-winning Aardman icon Nick Park and one of Britain’s leading actors, David Oyelowo, alongside BAFTA winner Gbemisola Ikumelo, HIS HOUSE producer Martin Gentles, Film4 Development Executive Amy O'Hara and Script Factory co-founder Charlotte Bogard Macleod. The Panel has also included Francis Annan, David Gyasi, Paula Gooder, Stuart Hazeldine, Martin Kiszko, Rob McLellan, Linda Marric, Jolyon Mitchell, Toby Jones, Ray Panthaki, Debs Paterson, Nev Pierce, Alison Sterling, David Suchet and Toyah Willcox.

Prior to the Final itself there are two stages of selection. The pitches showcased on this site ‘In Consideration’ are chosen by the Pitch team, handpicked film professionals and theologians.

The Finalists are chosen from this group by the Finals jury. 

What are the judges looking for?

The Pitch want to see rich adaptations, with compelling stories, told by unique candidates. To help you understand what we want here are three elements the Judges will consider:  

STORY

Here are the questions the judges will be asking of the story element of your pitch: 

Is the story clear? 
Will it make a convincing and satisfying short narrative? Will this work as a short (as opposed to a feature)? 
What is the genre? 
Who is the audience?  
Is there a central character with a satisfying journey? 

NB. This doesn’t mean the film can’t be art house or poetic – it just needs to be clear on its intent. Ambiguity, if that is the aim, is fine, confusion is not. 

ADAPTATION

This is specifically to assess the extent to which the entry engages with the biblical text and its context. Any profound engagement with a source text should help fire the imagination. 

Helpful research might include questions such as: Who wrote it?  Why? When? Where? To whom? The filmmaker may also be exploring historic understandings of the passage. So: how well do they handle the source material? Is it a reasonable transposition of the story, or an appropriate allegory or/and a sincere engagement with the meaning or theme of the source material? Does it capture the spirit of the source story/verse/theme? If an adaptation completely reverses the meaning of the original story, it is not an effective adaptation (ie, you can’t make Romeo & Juliet and – spoiler alert – have Romeo & Juliet live). We’re looking for you to genuinely engage with the text. 

CANDIDATE

Have you expressed your personality and voice in the text and video pitch? Have you expressed your filmmaking experience? You may be a less experienced candidate, but have a unique voice. However your voice and experience will both be taken into consideration. We work to champion fresh, distinct voices and not exclude people who haven’t previously made films.

Coaches

The Pitch coaches, who help with story development and/or personal presentation, are:

Anna Cox

Anna Cox is Creative Director at Minerva Media, a production company specialising in documentaries about religion, history and the arts. She worked at the BBC for more than 20 years as a documentary director and producer and her award-winning films have ranged from a fly-on-the-wall documentary for BBC2 about an experiment into prayer; to a BBC1 film uncovering the brutal treatment of Yazidi women in Iraq enslaved by ISIS; to numerous drama documentaries for both UK and US channels. Her work has taken her from the deserts of Egypt to the suburbs of New Zealand, via the 'Hollywood' sets in remote parts of Morocco. She is currently developing ideas for various US and UK channels.