The Judges
Below are the judges for this years awards ceremony. Some of them are faces you may recognise and all of them will be making an appearance at the awards.
Nicola Addyman
Nicola Addyman is in charge of the multi-award winning Weekly Programmes department at BBC Yorkshire. She is responsible for the flagship current affairs programme Inside Out as well as sports magazine programmes Late Kick Off and the Superleague Show. Recent shows she has exec produced include two history documentaries for BBC4 and Dambusters Declassified for BBC2. She won a national RTS current affairs award in 2008 for her documentary about the death of Michael Barnett in the floods in Hull.
Paul Bader
Paul is the Creative Director of Screenhouse Productions as well as a renowned Television Producer and Director. Based in Leeds. Screenhouse makes factual TV programmes for UK and international channels as well as acting as a science and media consultant. They provide communication and media courses for scientists and other experts, and training for media professionals.
Julie Beanland
Julie Beanland is a producer/director and series producer based in Leeds. She began working in television in 1999 beginning her career in news before moving in to documentaries.
Julie began her television career at Yorkshire Tyne-Tees Television based in York before moving to Leeds in 2000. She worked on a number of regional documentaries and documentary series before leaving in 2003 to become a freelance Producer/Director and Series Producer. Her credits include ANIMALS 24:7, FOOD FIGHTERS and the award-winning MY MUMS USED TO BE MEN.
Carolyn Brown
Carolyn was a Chief Picture Editor at BBCTV, editing Newsnight, Money Programme and all the National News Bulletins as well as overseeing the video editors at BBC Westminster when Parliament was first televised in the 1980’s. She has since worked on news, current affairs and features for ITV in Yorkshire and trained journalists, cameramen and sound crews to edit their own pieces for broadcast.
Avram Buchanan
Avram’s career has spanned more than 30 years and includes working for ad agencies, for broadcast television and ‘Keyframe’ – the animation production company he launched in 1992 and then merged with Mezzo Films in 2005. In 2009 Avram joined forces with Limehouse.tv as Creative Director. Creative achievements include: CH4 “Best use of graphics in children’s education programmes”, European award nominations for “Creative Production” for National Museums Liverpool. Winner of Museums & Heritage Best Touring Exhibition for the ‘Eye4Colour Exhibition’.
Susan Everett
Susan Everett is a writer and director, whose last short film (Mother, Mine) screened at over 80 film festivals and won 16 international awards. She has worked as a script editor, script consultant, screenwriting tutor, and was script development executive for Screen Yorkshire’s Digital Shorts schemes. She is currently writing a feature film script (Lost Girl) for photographer Rankin to direct.
Paul Greenan
Paul Greenan is an assistant editor in the BBC’s current affairs department in Leeds. He’s currently working on the next series of the BBC’s Inside Out programme but has also made documentaries for BBC TWO and BBC FOUR. Prior to the BBC, he worked in regional newspapers.
Lisa Holdsworth
Lisa has been a TV writer since 2001. Her credits include Fat Friends, Emmerdale, New Tricks, Waterloo Road (including a feature-length episode) and Robin Hood. She has been living and working in Yorkshire since graduating.
Kim Hopkins
Kim Hopkins is from Yorkshire, England. Born to an American father and an English mother, Kim has spent most of her life in the UK.
A graduate of the National Film School, Kim has been making award-winning documentaries for nearly 15 years. Kim has directing/shooting credits for – BBC, Channel 4, Discovery, National Geographic, Al Jazeera amongst others. Films range from social issues – violence against women around the world, modern slavery, healthcare in the developing world etc. Music Documentaries ‘Man In The Sand’ featuring Woody Guthrie, Natalie Merchant, Wilco, Billy Bragg, Corey Harris etc.
She has also made several films about Native Americans ‘Wanted’ etc.
Kim also teaches documentary film production, having been instrumental in setting up the documentary department at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television de San Antonio, Cuba.
Kim is currently in post-production of her latest feature documentary, ‘Folie á Deux – madness made of two’ a bitter, sweet exploration of the human cost of the banking crisis.
Kim works as a freelance documentary filmmaker and is based just outside of York.
David Linford-Smith
With a degree in Documentary Production, David is now the senior Craft Editor at BBC Yorkshire & Lincolnshire. Credits include current affairs programme Inside Out – BBC West Midlands, and the BBC documentaries A World Away and Life on The Docks. In 2010 David was named on a prestigious Amnesty International UK Media Award for his editing of a BBC Look North investigation.
Emma Massey
Emma Massey works for BBC Look North in Hull as a newsreader and Video Journalist. She’s a dynamic, innovative and engaging presenter and reporter with a wealth of experience having worked for most of the main terrestrial UK broadcasters within a variety of specialisations.
Diane Myers
Diane Myers is a producer/director specialising in access-driven documentaries. She is currently working as executive producer for The Big Sofa – a multi platform app which produces searchable conversations with members of the public about their lives and experiences. She worked as edit/location producer on two series of Too Fat for 15 – Fighting Back, for the Style Network in the U.S. which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. Previous credits include the RTS-Award winning Nobody’s Child for Channel 4’s Adoption on Trial campaign and Channel 4’s Partners in Crime, which involved access to every agency in the criminal justice system.
Tom Needham
Tom Needham is a BAFTA-nominated writer who has been merrily slaughtering people on television for years. He’s cut a swathe through Wycliffe, Dangerfield, Silent Witness, Dalziel & Pascoe and in his own 5-part series Cold Blood. He’s even killed people on Casualty and Howards’ Way though no one died in his award winning kids thriller, Retrace. He wrote more episodes of The Bill than anyone in the history of the program, and is currently writing for EastEnders. Tom teaches a scriptwriting module at Leeds University and has also supervised major feature-length projects by MA Screenwriting students at the Northern Film School at Leeds Metropolitan University. He lives on a small holding in North Yorkshire with his family.
Tim O'Connor
Tim O’Connor has worked as Line Producer and Production Manager on a broad spectrum of Factual and Entertainment programming for UK and US Broadcasters. He set up a News Feature Production Unit at the launch of Channel Five, and has managed International Production Teams in the US and Africa. Credits include ‘Kevin McCloud and The Big Town Plan’, ‘911: The Bronx’, and the BAFTA, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning ‘Cry Freetown’. He is currently Unit Manager at 12Yard Productions on the Reality Series ‘Coach Trip’ for Channel 4, looking after production of 95 episodes for 5 Series throughout Europe this year.
Richard O'Hare
Co-founder of the Video and Film Production company Orillo Productions. A graduate of Film and TV Production at York St John University and set up the company with three more of his graduate friends. After leaving University Richard was part of a team, along with one of his fellow Orillo partners to won an RTS region award for best fiction film. As well as Orillo Productions Richard also runs Orillo Cinema, an Outdoor and and Pop-up cinema around York
Ruth Pearson
Ruth started her broadcast career in children’s TV. Working in the programming department of a pan-European broadcaster she learnt the value of engaging, entertaining content, a guiding principle she carried with her when she started life as a producer. A highly motivated creative with over 10 years’ experience in broadcast & corporate production, Ruth has a proven track record of project managing. After returning to her Yorkshire roots in 2009 Ruth joined the production company Limehouse where she now heads up their busy production department
Paul Peppiate
Paul is the General Manager at Andrew Sumner Associates, the North of England’s largest Post Production facility, home to some of the UK’s best known TV brands including Dragon’s Den, Mastermind, Waterloo Road and The Royale Family. Paul is also the Creative Director of SumCreative, the award winning VFX and GFX arm of Sumners. In addition to his Sumners duties Paul is also an Honorary Visiting Teaching Fellow at the University of Bradford.
Keith Richardson
Keith trained as an actor/stage manager, worked in the theatre, became an agent and then joined television as an assistant stage manager. He began producing drama in 1978 and has been Controller of Drama at ITV Yorkshire since 1988, he was formerly the Executive Producer of Heartbeat and Emmerdale.
Kath Shackleton
Kath has a background in community arts and as a local government arts officer, and is developing the skills to become an animation producer. She’s given advice, funding and business support to artists and arts organisations over the past 14 years and managed and evaluated a diverse range of projects. In 2007, Kath set off to find out who was doing what in animation regionally. She came across a wonderful group of people who wanted to meet up and work collaboratively. The organisation Animated Yorkshire (also known as Ay Up!) was born. Kath is been really proud of their achievements including a really successful Animation Lab at the National Media Museum and “Sounds Like Bradford”, a sampler of animators’ skills.
Tim Smith
Kath has a background in community arts and as a local government arts officer. She’s given advice, funding and business support to artists and arts organisations over the past 14 years and managed and evaluated a diverse range of projects. After getting a research grant from Screen Yorkshire and the National Media Museum in 2007, Kath set off to find out who was doing what in animation regionally. She came across a wonderful group of people who wanted to meet up and work collaboratively. The organisation Animated Yorkshire (also known as Ay Up!) was born. Kath is really proud of their achievements including the successful Animation Lab at the National Media Museum and “Sounds Like Bradford”, a sampler of animators’ skills.
Tom Vincent
Tom has been with National Media Museum since 2006. He is the Film Programme Manager, and as well as programming the Museum’s cinemas year-round, he is also co-director of Bradford International Film Festival. Tom teaches film programming at Bradford University, and attends several film festivals in the UK and overseas. He lives between Huddersfield and Manchester, grows vegetables, and attends the odd gig.
Zain Whittingham
Zain s a character animator with 20 years’ experience of working across TV, film and computer games, working freelance in London animation studios and latterly working for 3 computer games companies in Leeds and Manchester. After years of working on other people’s stuff, he’s taking time to develop his own voice in animation. He’s passionate that making animation needn’t be expensive and can be made from anywhere in the world. He’s working on a range of projects on his own and in collaboration with others. He’s also started to gather together all that he has learnt ready to share with the world and is now delivering lectures about the principles and processes of animation to a variety of groups.
Karen Wilson
Karen works as a writer and producer at fleetfootfilms. She recently won a pitch with Met Film and has two feature scripts in development one for Met Film and another with her LA-based writing partner. She splits her time between the Australian and UK industries. Her short films have won awards in Europe and the US.
Mark Witty
Mark Witty is Editor of Features and Current Affairs for ITV Yorkshire’s news programme “Calendar.” A former print journalist Mark has worked at Yorkshire for 25 years where he has tried most roles except presenting, due to a face for radio. He has picked up a number of industry awards over the years thanks to the hard work of others, most recently as producer of the programme which won the “News Coverage” category in the 2011 Yorkshire RTS Awards.
In 2012 Mark won the Yorkshire RTS Centre award for Journalist of the Year and the 02 Media Awards ‘scoop of the year’ trophy ,both for his work on the case of Ben Needham who disappeared from Kos in 1991’.