Daniel Battsek, Chair

Eve Gabereau

Eve Gabereau is an award-winning film distributor and producer. She is the Director of Distribution for Vue Lumière, the new distribution arm of leading European cinema chain Vue. Prior to this, she founded and ran Modern Films, a company that represents the rights to over 100 films, including narrative features, documentaries, essay films, TV series, event screenings, campaign consultancies and shorts programmes. Eve also co-founded and ran the leading indie distribution company Soda Pictures for 15 years - representing over 350 acclaimed films and a strategic leader in their M&A with media group Thunderbird Entertainment. Eve has a background in journalism, cultural affairs and the tech sector, having by-lines in The Guardian, The Independent, Time Out and Sight & Sound; she has worked for various government agencies in Canada, US, Japan, China, France & Italy and headed up the channel division of a Silicon Valley start-up supported in part by Bill Gates. Eve has a BA in Political Science from McGill University, an MA in Communications and East Asian Studies, is an Inside Pictures alumni, a member of the British Screen Forum, Film Distributors Association and Europa Distribution and on the Board of ACE Producers. Eve is featured in the 2021 book The British Film Industry in 25 Careers: The Mavericks, Visionaries & Outsiders Who Shaped British Cinema (Bloomsbury Press).

John Graydon

John Graydon has been a leading industry advisor at Saffery Champness since 2012, providing specialist advice on film and television financing opportunities in the UK and Internationally. Boasting a tremendous portfolio of clients including Universal Studios, Disney, Lucas Film, 20th Century Fox, and Working Title, John has advised on titles such as Star Wars, Downton Abbey, Mr Selfridge, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The King’s Speech. In 2006 John was awarded the UK Production Guild External Merit Award for outstanding contribution to the British film industry, through his efforts in advising the UK government on the creation of the Film Tax Relief and introduction of the TV Tax Relief. John is also Deputy Chair of BFC Advisory Group and will become Chair of the Film London Finance and Audit Committee.

Saurabh Kakkar

Saurabh Kakkar is a senior broadcast television executive, having been an Executive Producer at Big Talk since September 2014. In that time and his previous roles as Head of Development at BBC Comedy Productions and Creative Director of Comedy at ITV Studios, Saurabh has developed and produced an extensive and impressive portfolio including Defending The Guilty, Timewasters and The Goes Wrong Show. Saurabh has been on the board of Creative Access for six years, and Chair for the past two, overseeing the placement of over 1600 BAME candidates in the creative industries and working with hundreds of media partners.

Li MA

Li MA is a Principal at Tencent, a media and technology conglomerate, and helps cover international partnerships in the video game industry. Li also advises Ukie (the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment), the London Games Festival, BAFTA, and the National Video Games Museum.

He supports and produces indie films, especially those with a BAME angle. His is Co-Producer of Automat, released on Sky. He is also the Executive Producer of The Rubber Keyed Wonder – 40 Years Of The ZX Spectrum.

He has an extensive network in China and Asia and was an advisor to the TV series My Future, produced by China’s second-largest television channel, Hunan Broadcasting.

Bennett McGhee

BAFTA-nominated producer Bennett McGhee is Co-CEO and Co-founder of film and TV production company HOME TEAM, which launched in September 2020 with BAFTA-winning film & TV producer Dominic Buchanan (End of the F*%king World, Gimme The Loot).

Bennett produced MOGUL MOWGLI, co-written and directed by Bassam Tariq and starring Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Riz Ahmed, with whom Tariq co-wrote the script. Bennett produced alongside Thomas Benski (Pulse Films), Riz Ahmed (Left Hand Films) and Michael Peay (Reframe). MOGUL launched internationally at the Berlin Film Festival 2020 winning the international Critics Award (FIPRESCI). The film was released in the UK by BFI Distribution in October 2020 and in the US by Strand Releasing, 2021. MOGUL picked up 7 BIFA nominations, winning Best Debut Screenplay and Best Music and was BAFTA-nominated for Outstanding British Film.

He is also an Executive Producer on writer/director Dionne Edwards (We Love Moses) directorial debut PRETTY RED DRESS, produced by Georgia Goggin / Teng Films. BBC, Film BFI, Sundance Institute and Great Point Media financed. The film had its world premiere at LFF 2020 to critical acclaim and resulted in the film being picked up for UK distribution by BFI Distribution.

Other credits include director Ed Lilly’s debut film, rap-battle drama VS., which launched at LLF 2018 and Altitude released theatrically in the UK. Netflix subsequently picked up all English-speaking rights; Ron Scalpello’s feature documentary BOBBY, about the sporting and cultural icon, Bobby
Moore. Entertainment One released the film theatrically in the UK.

Prior to Home Team, Bennett set-up Silvertown Films in 2015, and was a British Film Institute 2016 Vision Award awardee.

Prior to Silvertown, Bennett was an executive at Wildgaze Films where he worked on a number of film and TV projects including the multi Oscar- (including Best Picture) and BAFTA-nominated, AN EDUCATION starring Carey Mulligan in her breakout role; A LONG WAY DOWN based on Nick Hornby’s international best-seller starring Pierce Brosnan and Toni Collette; Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut QUARTET, from a script by Oscar-winner Ronald Harwood and Starring Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly and Tom Courtenay; and as Associate Producer, on multi Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning BROOKLYN starring Saoirse Ronan.

Oliver Meek

Oliver Meek is the Commercial Director of the London Coliseum, overseeing all aspects of commercial revenue at the West End’s largest theatre. He was previously the long-serving Executive Director of the Rio Cinema in Dalston, where he led a major turnaround of the organisation, securing vital fundraising, delivering capital improvements, and significantly increasing revenue. Under his leadership, the Rio won two Screen Awards, including Best UK Cinema.

Oliver also ran the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley and was the chief consultant and co-creator of Act One in Acton. He has worked as a cinema consultant for Reel, Parkway, the Castle and the Kiln, advising on business development and operational strategy.

A regular speaker on cinema fundraising and commercial strategy, Oliver has appeared on panels at CineEurope and presented for Europa Cinemas (Sofia Film Festival), CICAE (Venice Film Festival), and Crowdfund London at City Hall.

Hamish Moseley

Hamish is a highly accomplished film industry leader with over 25 years of experience, spanning 400+ feature releases across theatrical and home entertainment. Known for his strategic insight, commercial acumen, and innovative distribution campaigns, he has driven impactful releases across multiple regions.

Most recently, as Director of Distribution at Netflix, Hamish managed acclaimed titles like All Quiet on the Western Front, The Society of the Snow, and The Glass Onion, overseeing awards positioning, trade relations, and strategic collaborations with international distribution partners.

Prior to Netflix, he launched the distribution arm of Altitude Media Group, quickly building it into one of Europe’s top independent distributors with films like Moonlight and Amy. At Momentum Pictures, he led theatrical distribution, spearheading the success of releases including The Woman in Black, Insidious, PS I Love You and The King’s Speech.

Hamish began his career in cinema exhibition as a projectionist then film programmer.

Nicola Pearcey

Nicola Pearcey is CEO and founder of Picnik Entertainment, a UK based venture, incubating and consulting for media companies small and large, to help them optimise commercial growth. Picnik Entertainment offers strategic advice in addition to acting as executive producer/producer across companies and individual IP and kickstarting in 2024, now selectively distributes films in the UK. Nicola is passionate about supporting companies to help them build their leadership, growth and ROI.

Nicola began her career at Johnson and Johnson, famed for its “people first’ credo. She started her media career working in marketing on the James Bond franchise at MGM, then later spent years at Disney and Lionsgate (President, Film & TV, UK & Europe). Nicola is a voting BAFTA and AMPAS member.

Dan Penfold

Dan Penfold has spent the last 15 years providing legal and strategic advice to companies in the media, technology and entertainment sectors. Having worked at Warner Bros. for the last decade in a number of roles, he currently leads the WB Games legal function for the EMEA territories. Dan has extensive experience in advising on all aspects of content production, distribution and marketing, from regulatory/policy considerations to complex software and IP licensing. Previously, Dan trained at Olswang (now CMS Law) and undertook secondments to Film4, Microsoft and Skype.

Lila Rawlings

Lila Rawlings is Head of Creative: Film and Television for Award-winning director Alfonson Cuarón’s London-based company Esperanto Filmoj. Previously, she was an Executive Producer at at Left Bank Pictures. Her work there included Sitting in Limbo, concerning the Windrush Scandal, Electric Dreams: a 10 part anthology series and Oasis a pilot. She has also worked as a freelance Script Consultant, advising and consulting for a number of financiers including British Film Institute, Scottish Screen, iFeatures and Film London as well as a variety of established producers and production companies. Previously Development Executive at Film4, Head of Development for Drama and Film at Century Films, and Head of Development at Dakota Films, Lila has worked on titles such as Steve McQueen’s Shame, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, Dan Kokotajlo’s Apostasy, and Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant as well as producing for companies such as Amazon and Channel 4.

Priya Sahathevan

Priya Sahathevan is a senior media and legal executive, passionate about ensuring the creative industries can continue to connect to audiences and thrive in the future, amidst the shifting sands of technology, market and regulatory change.

Following a visiting fellowship with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, she is currently researching commercial models that would enable a broad spectrum of content-owners and tech developers to participate in the AI era, whilst continuing to innovate and receive compensation for their work.

Prior to this, Priya spent a decade at Sky in a variety of senior legal and strategy roles, including as the senior legal lead acting for Sky during Comcast’s $39 billion takeover of the company, and also as part of the senior legal and commercial team reshaping Sky’s foundational Hollywood content relationships for the streaming era. Most recently, she was Director of Strategy for Sky News, overseeing a range of innovative projects, including the launch of the UK’s first female-led political podcast: Electoral Dysfunction.

Priya also has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and reaching under-served audiences. She developed innovative people development programmes at Sky and established Sky’s first mentoring scheme for aspiring solicitors from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Vicky Stanbury

Vicky Stanbury was appointed Executive Director, Commercial & Operations of the Imperial War Museums (IWM London, IWM North, IWM Duxford, Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast) in August 2022. At IWM she is responsible, across all 5 branches, for visitor experience, operations, the built estate, volunteer engagement, security, marketing and commercial activity. As part of the commercial activity, Vicky’s teams manage location filming at IWM’s iconic sites, consultancy by IWM history experts to the entertainment sector and the commercialisation of IWM’s vast sound, film and image archive. Most recently, Lightbox’s What They Found, a Sam Mendes documentary based on footage from the British Army’s Film and Photographic Unit, was produced in association with IWM.

Vicky’s career, from being a film & TV lawyer to a senior leader in the cultural sector, has been based on supporting the creative industries and generating vital revenue for public broadcasters and cultural institutions. Prior to IWM, she was Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Director of The Landmark Trust, responsible for all operations in the UK and overseas. Before that, she was Commercial Director of the Bodleian Libraries where she led the organisation’s publishing, retail, product development, catering, tours, events, image and licensing businesses.

Vicky is a qualified lawyer, in both England & Wales and NSW, Australia, specialising in entertainment and copyright law, and is an alumni of Santander’s global top 50 female leaders’ programme at LSE. Her film legal credits include The Constant Gardener and Vera Drake.

Natalie Usher

Natalie Usher is a Film and TV consultant based between Edinburgh and London with more than twenty-five years’ experience working with commercial and public sector media clients. Natalie was the UK Film Council’s in‑house legal advisor to the New Cinema Fund, the production fund dedicated to innovative approaches to filmmaking and the development of new talent. She moved to be a partner in the Film & TV Group at Lee & Thompson, one of the UK’s leading Media and Entertainment law firms, where she specialised in financing, production and distribution. As Director of Screen at Creative Scotland for four years from 2014, Natalie was responsible for leading public support for Scotland’s Film and TV industry. More recently she was Chief Executive of Film Access Scotland, a film access and education charity and sector development organisation.

Natalie is a Trustee and Vice-Chair of Scottish Documentary Institute, which develops and supports documentary filmmakers, she sits on the Advisory Board of Raising Films, which supports, promote and campaigns for parents and carers in the UK screen sector and is an Industry Specialist on the Liverpool City Region Production Fund Investment Panel.

Nicole Yip

Nicole Yip is a curator and writer with over 15 years’ experience working at the intersection of the visual arts and artists’ moving image sectors. She is currently Director of Spike Island, an international contemporary art centre based in an 80,000 square foot building in Bristol. She was previously Chief Curator of Exhibitions & Live Programmes at Nottingham Contemporary from 2019 to 2024. From 2016­ to 2019 she was Director of LUX Scotland, a national agency for the support and promotion of artists’ moving image practices in Scotland, and previously worked at LUX, London; Firstsite, Colchester; and ICA, London. She has been a contributor to frieze magazine, and served as a jury member for numerous international film festivals and arts awards, including chair of the annual Margaret Tait Award (2016–19).