Guy Sheppard - Guy is a senior associate in the Film and TV group at Wiggin LLP. Guy acts for a number of international media businesses and he specialises in all aspects of film and television financing and production from rights creation and acquisition through to development, finance, production and distribution. Guy started his career as a banking lawyer in the City office of one of the world's largest law firms and so has a particular breadth of experience to offer his clients. In addition to this finance expertise, Guy has extensive experience of structuring films in order to take advantage of tax shelters and subsidies. He also advises clients ranging from the Hollywood Studios and major broadcasters to first-time independent producers on all aspects of production work, especially in concluding deals with writers and talent. Guy's recent work has included acting for Columbia Pictures as UK counsel on "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Holiday"; for The Weinstein Company on "Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"; for DNA Films on "The Last King of Scotland" and "Notes on a Scandal"; for Twentieth Century Fox on a number of financing deals including the films "Street Kings", "Deception" and "What Happens in Vegas"; for UKTV on the commissioning of Cactus TV to make a series of the "Richard & Judy" show; on the high-profile financial structurings of "Venus" and "The History Boys"; and for the UK independent producer of "Moon". Guy also sits as an advisor to the Board of the International Screenwriters' Festival and is a regular speaker at industry events.

Julian Friedmann - Julian is a Literary agent (Blake Friedmann) representing script and book writers; editor of ScriptWriter magazine and the new Twelve.Point.com scriptwriting website; author of How To Make Money Scriptwriting; also Exec Producing low budget feature on bullying.

Prof. Michael Fitzgerald - Michael Fitzgerald is Henry Marsh Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin. He has a long career in exploring the relationship between artists, writers and mental health. He trained at St. Patrick's Hospital Dublin, Chicago Medical School, and The Maudsley Hospital and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London. he has clinically diagnosed over 1700 individuals with autism and Asperger's syndrome and has served on the Government Task Force on Autism and the Family. He is currently writing a book about writers and creativity and has already had 16 books published.

Alex Worrall - Alex has been working in television since 1997 as a producer, director and development executive. He was the Head of Development for Granada in New York where his most notable success was devising and formating the hit MTV series Room Raiders. He then moved back to London to become the Head of Development for MTV UK and Europe. He is now a freelance development exec, comedy writer and director and is currently watching every episode of The Larry Sanders Show for the second time.

Joanna Leigh - Joanna is a graduate of the London College of Communication MA Screenwriting, and the current winner of the Red Planet Prize. Her winning script, Sam J, which is in development with Red Planet, is a biopic of 18th century lexicographer Samuel Johnson. Inspired by Joanna's own experience as a lexicographer, the film is also the culmination of her research into the ethics of biopics, as part of a PhD at the LCC. She also wrote and co-created the BAFTA nominated teen web series Planet Jemma for XPT and the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. She is a member of 3witches development group, formed with Hester Schofield and Louise Sanderson, fellow graduates of the MA.

Mark Shivas - Mark was the BBC's Head of Television Drama and then Head of BBC Films. He has worked with the most eminent directors - Antonia Bird, Stephen Frears, David Hare, Gillies Mackinnon, Anthony Minghella, Mike Newell, Nicholas Roeg, Jerzy Skolimowski and Michael Winterbottom.  As executive producer, Mark's film credits include; Truly Madly Deeply, I Capture The Castle, Hideous Kinky, Regeneration, Jude, and An Awfully Big Adventure. As a feature film producer he made Moonlighting, A Private Function and The Witches. For television, he has produced major dramas like The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Glittering Prizes, Casanova, Cambridge Spies, and Talking Heads.

Nigel Planer - As well as appearing in the recent productions of ‘Hogfather' and ‘The Colour of Magic', Nigel Planer has read fourteen unabridged AudioBooks from Terry Prattchett's Discworld, winning several Audio awards including the AudioFile ‘Earphones' award 2008. Nigel likes to think of himself as the voice of Discworld, or the voices. After training as an actor at Lamda, Nigel Planer became a co-founder of London's Comedy Store and Comic Strip clubs and went on to star in the TV classics 'The Young Ones' (1981) and ‘The Comic Strip Presents' (1983-1996). An unlikely West End musical star, Nigel opened in the original London Company of ‘Wicked' in the role of ‘The Wizard of Oz' in 2006. He has also starred in the original London productions of 'We Will Rock You' at the Dominion theatre (2002) and the original casts of ‘Evita' (1978) and ‘Chicago' (1997), as well as the smash hit political satire ‘Feelgood' (2001).  Nigel Planer has written several books, including two novels - 'The Right Man', and 'Faking It' (Arrow) - as well as the best-selling 'A Good Enough Dad' (1992), ‘Therapy and How to Avoid It' (1995) and the spoof theatrical biography 'I, An Actor', (Methuen, 1987 -2008; with Christopher Douglas).  After appearing at the Birmingham Writers' festival in 1996, he toured the country as a performance poet and published a short collection of poetry called ‘Unlike The Buddha' (Jackson's Arm) as well as regularly contributing to the Guardian poetry spot in the 1990s.

William Pennington - William is a Business Coach who has worked with many writers over the last 5 years. Clients have confirmed that significant results are achieved from his coaching, one writer and director said "I have already achieved several goals (since coaching): doubled my income, directed a top show, written and sold a play 3 years ahead of schedule!"  William's coaching utilises his 20 years of innovative business experience allied with the latest thinking on coaching and the psychology of performance and success. His first book ‘Release the star within you' published in 2006 was based on his coaching experiences in media and entertainment and was a best seller. He is also a saxophone player, photographer and yoga practitioner!

Phil Parker - Phil launched his new film company NyAC in 2006, and currently has five films in development. He is one of Europe’s most distinguished independent development consultants. His clients have included Aardman Animation (the Oscar winning -‘Wallace and Gromit - Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and multi-award winning ‘The Pearce Sisters)’: the Mob Film Company (’’Terry Prachett’s -The Hogfather’):; Alexandros Film (El Greco – Greece’s highest box office film in 2007).; the UK Film Council, Berlin-Brandenburg Medienboard and Nord Media. Phi is also a director of the International Screenwriters Festival. He founded and ran the most successful MA Screenwriting course in the UK from 1992–2004. Graduates from the course have been Oscar nominated; won a Palme D’Or, several BAFTA’s; a Silver Bear and numerous short film festival awards. In addition, over 170 (more than 70%) have now achieved screenwriting credits throughout Europe and the USA. Phil is the author of ‘The Art and Science of Screenwriting which has been translated in Spanish and German.

Enrico Tessarin - Italian born Enrico graduated from the London Film School in 1999 and has since gone on to chalk up credits initially as a Director of music videos and then from 2004, in collaboration with fellow Producer Fergus Wood, he set up the company ‘Fourth Passenger' (which soon established a partnership with youth charity Exposure) with a remit to produce cutting edge work including Drama and Feature projects and also to nurture new and emerging talent. Since then Enrico has continued to build the business and in conjunction with a variety of music, corporate and documentary video projects he has developed a number of new directors, editors and writers who are now making significant progress in the industry. Since 2007 Enrico's company has worked closely with BeActive and Campbell-Ryan Productions on the groundbreaking ‘Sofia's Diary' the first made-for-internet series to make the transition to television (in the UK!) on new digital Channel Fiver.

Melanie Martinez - Melanie began her career in 1996 at MSNBC but left TV news in 1998 to join Michael Moore on his Emmy-nominated series The Awful Truth (Channel 4/Bravo) and then Ruby Wax on Ruby (HBO/Lifetime) in 1999. Melanie graduated from the NFTS Screenwriting programme in 2003 and in 2004/5 was commissioned to write short film Small Things (starring Ralf Little) for BBC ONE. In 2006 she was selected for the Arista Scribes screenwriting programme (BBC Films/Capitol Films). The 2007 NFTS short film Friends Forever, which Melanie wrote with directing graduate Marçal Fores, won the British Council Prize for Best Short Film in October 2007 and was awarded Best Drama (postgraduate) at the RTS Student Television Awards in May 2008. Melanie has recently been developing original drama series at Granada and BBC. She is lead writer for interactive drama Sofia's Diary (Bebo/Fiver) and is co-writing Aisling (w/t), a cross-media teen series for RTE.

Suzy Greaves - Suzy is the UK's leading life coach - named as ‘one of the top ten gurus in the UK' by Daily Mail. Author of Making The Big Leap (voted one of the top ten life changing books by Independent on Sunday), Suzy is media columnist and celebrity coach and Managing Director of The Big Leap Coaching Company. Suzy is also co-founder of Storyville, an inspirational forum for writers in London - creating affordable, inspirational events with the best teachers and writers in the world.  The Big Leap Coaching Company coaches those who believe that 'there has to be more to life than this', those who refuse to lie down and accept their lot, who still believe that dreams can come true and are willing to do something about it.

Stephen Morrison - Stephen studied for a masters degree in feature length screenwriting at Royal Holloway University London, where he received a distinction.  Since then has written for six series of the Saturday afternoon show Out To Lunch (BBC Radio 2), and recently provided TV sketches for the second series Touch Me I'm Karen BBC 3. His other credits include The Consultants (BBC Radio 4), The Milk Run (BBC Radio 1).  This year Stephen co wrote - The Regional Accounts Director of Firetop Mountain'. A comedy ‘choose your own adventure novel' which will be published by Transworld this year.

Linda Paalanne - Finland born Linda Paalanne was a Development Producer at creative online agency Greenroom Digital for three years before joining Kudos Film and Television as their Digital Content Producer at the end of 2006, to help develop the company's digital strategy and expand drama output onto further platforms. To date she has been responsible for producing narrative multi-platform content for some of Kudos's flagship shows, including Spooks and Moving Wallpaper / Echo Beach. Spooks Interactive won BAFTA Awards for Interactivity at the 2008 British Academy Television Awards and Interactive Innovation in Content at the BAFTA Craft Awards, as well as being nominated for an International Interactive EMMY and a Broadcast Digital Award in 2008.

Rik Lander - Rik began as a video artist and promo maker in the 1980's. His interest in web drama is because the rule book has yet to be written. Whilst cinema and television formats are well established web drama has yet to become formalised. He is currently preparing to launch the web drama, Together Alone. He produced, directed and script edited Wannabes the BBCs first interactive teen soap and has directed an interactive drama for BBCJam and the RTS innovation award winning Cliffhanger Studios educational project. In 2007 he ran a course at Bristol University entitled, Make a Web Drama in 10 Weeks.

Neil Mossey - Neil is a writer on season two of the web series KateModern.  As a comedy producer at the BBC he developed drama and new formats, such as 'Stockport So Good They Named It Once', 'Head Over Heals' and he co-wrote 'Recommended Daily Allowance' with John Gordillo.  His freelance credits include 'My Parents are Aliens' (ITV1), 'Freefonix' (BBC One) and 'The Morning After Show' (Channel 4). 

Hazel Grian - Director of Licorice Film, Bristol based Hazel Grian has worked as a director, writer and performer in film, animation, radio and street theatre.  She was script editor on KateModern the BAFTA-nominated interactive drama hosted by Bebo.  She has just launched The Sky Remains, an Alternate Reality game that has its own social networking site and includes a worldwide GPS treasure hunt.

Arif Hussein - Arif began his career as an actor after graduating from Mountview Theatre School and founded the Alma Mater Theatre Company.  In 2001 he began a Masters in screenwriting at the Northern Film School and in the same year set up Kaos Films which launched the British Short Screenplay Competition.  Arif has produced five short films including the award-winning 'The Handyman'.

Tim Telling - is a comedy writer.  He has recently worked on the forthcoming Channel 4 sketch show Blowout, BBC3's Barely Legal and a web series for Fremantle.  As a stand up, he is former winner of Newbury Comedy Festival's new act prize, although he prefers to work sitting down.

Isabelle Raynauld - French Canadian writer, director and film professor at the University of Montreal, Quebec, Isabelle obtained a Ph.D in screenwriting from the University of Paris VII.  She directed three fiction films including the comedy A Girl for Anatole and four feature documentaries.  Her first feature script Emporte-moi won prizes in Chicago and Berlin.  Currently writing The Hum with writer producer David Pearson - a co-production between Canada (Cirrus) and the UK (Arturi Films).  She is also writing a book on screenwriting with a French publisher.

Nic Ransome - Nic has worked for Hammer since its reincarnation last year, in particular script editing and acting as production executive on innovative online horror serial Beyond the Rave.  He is currently developing digital content for Hammer.  Nic is also a sometime journalist, story consultant, lecturer and screenwriter.

Michael Gubbins - is editor of Screen International and screendaily.com and is also a speaker and media commentator on the film industry worldwide.  He has been a keynote speaker at dozens of major events including the Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam and Sarajevo Film Festivals.  Media work includes work for the Guardian and Time Out, the BBC, Sky, CNN and ABC News in the UK.

Stephen Woolley - In 1982 Stephen launched Palace Video in partnership with Nik Powell, releasing such titles as Eraserhead and Mephisto.  The company went on to acquire, market and distribute some 250 independent and European movies.  During this period Woolley produced films including Absolute Beginners, Shag, Scandal and The Pope Must Die.  Woolley's collaboration with director Neil Jordan produced Breakfast on Pluto, Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game and Mona Lisa.  His executive producer credits include Fever Pitch and Little Voice.  In 2005 he made his directorial debut with Stoned (a biopic about Brian Jones).  His recent projects as producer include And When Did You last See Your Father? and his forthcoming project How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is due for release in October this year!

Terry Pratchett is the celebrated author of, among other works, the phenomenally popular 'Discworld' fantasy novels which commenced in 1983 with 'Colour of Magic' and since then he has authored an average of two novels each year.  The best-selling author of the 1990s Terry has sold over 55 million books worldwide and has been honoured with dozens of awards including an OBE in 1998 in recognition of his services to literature.  A number of Terry's stories have been dramatised for the television including; Truckers (Thames TV), Johnny and The Bomb (BBC).  Most recently he has collaborated with SKY One and RHI Entertainment to bring 'Hogfather' and the 'Colour of Magic' to the TV schedules (both directed by Vadim Jean, also among our speakers this year) and more are expected to follow!  This year marks the 25th anniversary of Discworld and his latest in that franchise 'Nation' is due to be published in September. 

Mike Leigh - Writer-director Mike Leigh was born in 1943 in Salford, Manchester. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Camberwell and Central Art Schools in London, and at the London Film School.  His first feature film was 'Bleak Moments'; this was followed by the full-length television films, 'Hard Labour', 'Nuts in May', 'The Kiss of Death', 'Who's Who', 'Grown-Ups', 'Home Sweet Home', 'Meantime', and 'Four Days In July'.  Other feature films are 'High Hopes', 'Life Is Sweet', 'Naked' (Cannes: Best Director and Best Actor), 'Secrets and Lies' (Cannes: Palme d'Or and Best Actress; 4 Oscar nominations), 'Career Girls', 'Topsy-Turvy' (two Oscar Awards, 5 nominations), 'All Or Nothing', 'Vera Drake' (Venice: Golden Lion & Best Actress; 6 BIFA's, 3 BAFTA's including Best Director, 3 Oscar nominations) and most recently 'Happy-Go-Lucky' which was in competition at this years Berlin Film Festival where Sally Hawkins was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actress.  He has written and directed over twenty stage plays, including 'Abigail's Party', 'Ecstasy', 'Goose-Pimples', and 'Two Thousand Years'.

Christopher Hampton - Christopher's plays, musicals and translations have garnered three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and the New York Theatre Critics Circle Award, while prizes for his film and television work include an Oscar, two BAFTAs and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes.  Plays include 'The Talking Cure', 'White Chameleon', 'Tales From Hollywood', 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses', 'Treats', 'Savages', 'The Philanthropist' and 'Total Eclipse'. He wrote the book and lyrics (with Don Black) for the musicals 'Sunset Boulevard' and 'Dracula' and the libretto for the Philip Glass operas 'Waiting For The Barbarians' and 'Appomattox'. He has translated extensively from Chekhov, Ibsen, Moliere, Odon von Horvath and Yasmina Reza (including Art and Lifex3).  His screenplays include 'The Quiet American', 'Mary Reilly', 'Total Eclipse', 'Dangerous Liaisons', 'Carrington', 'The Secret Agent' and 'Imagining Argentina', the last three of which he also directed. His latest screenplay was for the film Atonement, which won both the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for best Picture.

Ronald Harwood - Ronald's many films include 'The Dresser' , 'Taking Sides', 'The Pianist', 'Being Julia', 'Oliver Twist', most recently 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' and 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.  Ronald's awards for 'The Pianist' include the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the National Society of Film Critics' Award for Best Screenplay and the Founders' Award from the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1974 and was Visitor in Theatre at Balliol College, Oxford in 1985. He was President of English PEN, 1989-1993, President of International PEN, 1993-97, and Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1996 he was appointed Chevalier de l'ordre National des Arts et des Lettres. In 1999, he was appointed a CBE. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Keele University in 2002. He is President of the Royal Literary Fund 2005-present. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Central School of Speech and Drama in 2006.

Barbara Machin - Barbara is the creator and part of the writing/producing team of BBC1's International EMMY award winning 'Waking The Dead', now in its eighth series.   Her guest Christmas episode for BBC1's 'Casualty's 21st birthday won the show a BAFTA for Best Continuing Drama.  She then became 'Casualty's Series Consultant to help them revitalize the show.  Her new crime thriller - a reinvention of the genre - 'Kiss Of Death' has recently transmitted on BBC1. In the Broadcast Hot One Hundred awards this year she emerged as an suspicious No.4 and she is currently writing a new three part relationship thriller for ITV, and developing more cutting edge crime for both channels.  Barbara will open the 2008 Screenwriters' Festival with a talk on writing innovative drama for TV.

Kay Mellor - Kay started her career by forming the Yorkshire Theatre Company with two friends from Bretton Hall. They began touring plays which Kay had written. Kay was then offered the part of Dr. Baker in ‘The Practice’, made by Granada TV. She followed this with a part as a policewoman in the Granada program ‘Albion Market’, and she ended up as their script editor until the show ended. Scriptwriter on ‘Brookside’ for C4 in 1989 before going on to create series’ such as ‘Families’, ‘Just Us’ and the hit drama ‘Band of Gold’. In 1995 Kay wrote the very popular series ‘Playing the Field’ and an adaptation of ‘Jane Eyre’ before creating and writing ‘Fat Friends’, ‘Between the Sheets’ and the recent ‘The Chase’. Kay has also written scripts for three feature films; ‘Girls’ Night’ with Brenda Blethyn and Julie Walters, ‘Fanny and Elvis’ with Ray Winstone and Kerry Fox, ‘A Good Thief’ for Granada. In 1998 Kay was awarded the Dennis Potter Award at the Baftas. Kay and her creative team at Rollem Productions are currently in development on a number of new television and theatre projects.

Tony Jordan - Tony was a street trader for many years, before writing his first script in 1990. His first job was on BBC 1's long running drama 'EastEnders'. He went on to write over 250 episodes - and become the Series Consultant - before going on to write for diverse other shows and eventually creating his own formats including highly successful BBC show 'Hustle' and co-creating 'Life On Mars'.

Tony recently founded Red Planet Pictures, a new television production company, whose first commission 'Holby Blue' is currently showing on BBC1. 'Moving Wallpaper' and 'Echo Beach', created by Tony and co-produced with Kudos Film and Television, was shown on ITV earlier in the year.  The Red Planet writing competition launched at last years festival, was a huge success and will be re-launched again at this years festival. 

Sophie Meyer - As Head of Development at Ealing Studios Sophie is responsible for overseeing the development slate for Ealing and for generating new material. She has an extensive track record in film development having previously worked for Mission Pictures, Intermedia and British Screen. Sophie joined Ealing in August 2004 and has worked on Oliver Parker's 'Fade to Black', Jonny Campbell's 'Alien Autopsy', Steve Surjik's 'I Want Candy', Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson's 'St. Trinians', and Stephan Elliot's 'Easy Virtue'. Sophie works closely with Barnaby Thompson developing material on the slate, meeting agents, writers, directors and producers to source projects. Previously, Sophie was Head of Development UK for Mission Pictures where she worked on the development of projects including Danny Boyle's 'Millions'.

Aonghas MacNeacail - Scottish Writer of the Year 1997, Skye-born Aonghas MacNeacail is a poet in Gaelic and English, songwriter in both folk and classical idioms, journalist, broadcaster, translator and occasional actor. He has written scripts for TV (including Gaelic Soap,"Machair") and radio, and wrote a short BBC commissioned Gaelic film, An Iobairt/The Sacrifice 1997, which received an honourable mention at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. First worked with Simon Miller on his short film Foghaidinn (Patience), as translator and Gaelic advisor, which led to being invited to join the scriptwriting team on 'Seachd'.

Simon Miller - Film writer and director, Simon, was previously a Wall Street investment banker and music industry executive before seeing the light.  In 2002 he retrained into the Film Industry at London Film School and the National Film & Television School. His first short film, Dead Man Falls, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2004 and his second, 'Foighidinn - The Crimson Snowdrop', premiered on the BBC in 2005 and went on to show at festivals around the world winning best short film at the Bermuda International Film Festival. 'Seachd - The Inaccessible Pinnacle' is Simon's first feature film.

Jenna Milly - Jenna was a journalist who hated telling the truth. After a decade of writing news for CNN, The Los Angeles Times and a variety of magazines, she decided r-e-e-l life was more interesting.  Since completing her MFA in screenwriting at University of California Los Angeles, she has taught dramatic writing at UCLA, IMAGE Film & Video in Atlanta and now at Emory.  She also runs a script consultant service and works as a script supervisor around the world on location from Los Angeles to Africa.

Richard Tierney - Richard is producer of more than 200 productions working in the UK and over 30 countries. He has recently undertaken a study of the creative process for CreativeTalks.com and is an associate of Industry@Saatchi; Saatchi & Saatchi's R&D lab for Creative Strategy in Business.  His book on Creativity is finally due next year. He loves the sound of deadlines as they woosh by.

Mark McKergow - Mark is the only person in the UK to have been trained by Constellation pioneers Prof. Matthias Varga von Kibed and Insa Sparrer; he has edited and published the only English book on their work: Miracle, Solution and System. A scientist by training and by nature, Mark's PhD research in self-organising systems provides a basis for his work, with influences ranging from systems thinking and brain research to language, narrative and philosophy.  His book 'The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change SIMPLE' was declared one of that year's top 30 business books in the USA, and is now in seven languages.

Deborah Tate - Deborah began her career as Marvel Comics' Office Junior at 16 After several years (Secretary, MD's PA, Syndication Manager), she trained as Editor/Designer and Letterer. She then created and scripted a comedy series for Tundra's Glory-Glory comic, about the strain Celtic's football fixture list places on a newly-wedded couple (art Steve Dillon). She assisted former 2000AD Ed. Richard Burton on Sonic the Comic, and as Editor, was responsible for having STC printed on recycled paper from 1997 onwards. She launched the official CiTV comic, commissioned by ITV Controller Nigel Pickard. Deborah has scripted, edited and consulted for diverse projects, ranging from BBC children's publications to Creamfields Music Festival, and has represented top artists Mick McMahon and Tan Eng Huat. Having just acted as Script Editor on a screenplay, she recently began scripting her own project. She was included in a Radio 4 Woman's Hour documentary about influential females in the UK comics industry.

Michael Wiese - Michael is an America filmmaker, author, and publisher who lives in Cornwall. His company Michael Wiese Productions (www.mwp.com) also has offices in LA and Seattle. He is best known in the writing community for publishing bestsellers The Writer's Journey (Chris Vogler), Save the Cat (Blake Snyder), Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds (Michael Hauge), The Best Screenplay Goes to... (Linda Seger) and over 100 books on all aspects of filmmaking.  He also produces and directs films, television and videos. His film 'The Sacred Sites of the Dalai Lamas' was just in the film market at Cannes. He will direct 'Bali Brothers', a supernatural drama of sibling rivalry about the wounds that are opened up when two brothers fall in love with a Balinese witch.

Riz Ahmed - Graduating from Oxford University, and then Central School of Speech and Drama, Riz's acting debut was in Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed 'Road to Guantanamo', a potrayal which lead to his detention by Special Branch officers. He then played one of the leading roles in Peter Kosminsky's multi award-winning 'Britz'.  Forthcoming screen appearances include roles in Sally Potter's next feature with Jude Law and Judy Dench, and the title role in 'Shifty' opposite Jason Flemyng and Daniel Mays.  His musical alter ego Riz MC (which has also ruffled feathers - with a temporary airplay ban on his debut single) has taken him on US tours, been championed on Radio1, and will open this year's Meltdown Festival with Massive Attack.

Vadim Jean - Vadim started work as a runner on Stormy Monday (Mike Figgis) after graduating from Warwick University with a degree in History.  His first feature was 'Leon the Pig Farmer', no budget but plenty of "chutzpah" which went on to win the Chaplin Award for best feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the International Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival.  Other films he directed 'Clockwork Mice', 'The Real Howard Spitz', 'One More Kiss' and 'Jiminy Glick in La-La Land' before going on to do BAFTA award winning 'The Hogfather' and most recently 'The Colour of Magic' both for SkyTV.

Tanya Seghatchian - Tanya was appointed Head of the UK Film Council's Development Fund in 2007 and has over 10 years of industry experience behind her. She was one of the producers of the first four instalments of the phenomenally popular 'Harry Potter' film franchise. With fellow filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski she established independent company Apocalypso Pictures which ultimately led to the award-winning 'My Summer of Love'. As a consultant to Heyday Films, working with fellow Harry Potter associates David Heyman (Producer) and Steve Kloves (Writer/Director) she is exec producing the screen adaptation of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' for Warner Bros.

Kate Leys - Kate is a feature film script editor who works on projects at all stages of development from first outline to pre-production. As well as working with screenwriters and producers she advises commercial and public film financiers including DNA, Celador, The Weinstein Co, Slingshot and Media Europe; teaches post-graduate script development and screenwriting; and evaluates screenwriting courses for Skillset. She was head of development at Film Four for 5 years where she was involved in films including 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', 'Orphans', 'East is East' and 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'.

Jane Tranter - Head of BBC Fiction. Jane became Controller of BBC Fiction in October 2006. She leads the group which covers Drama Commissioning, Comedy Commissioning, Programme Acquisitions and BBC Films, covering around £500 million of output over four television channels, as well as being responsible for the accompanying new media activity. Jane commissions all television drama across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four. This amounts to around 500 hours of drama and a £250 million budget. Recent commissions include: ‘Five Days’, ‘Life on Mars’, ‘Bleak House’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Spooks’, ‘To The Ends of the Earth’, ‘Rome’, ‘The Lost Prince’, ‘Torchwood’, ‘Hustle’, ‘Cranford’, ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Coming Down The Mountain’ and ‘Stuart: A Life Backwards’. The newly appointed BBC Films’ board reports in to her, and she works with them to invest the BBC Films’ annual budget of £10 million into new British feature films. Before taking up her current position Jane was Controller of Drama Commissioning, and before that, head of the BBC's in-house serials department. Her credits there include ‘Warriors’, ‘The Way We Live Now’, ‘Care’, ‘Wives and Daughters’, ‘Babyfather’ and ‘Crime and Punishment’. In 1997 Jane worked as an executive producer for BBC Films and single drama.

Laura Mackie - Director of Drama ITV. Laura was a Producer/Executive Producer at the BBC and then moved to become Deputy Controller of Drama at LWT overseeing ‘London’s Burning’, ‘Forgotten’ and ‘Othello’. She returned to the BBC as Head of Series and Serials and was responsible for a wide range of programmes including ‘Waking the Dead’, ‘Cutting It’, ‘Bleak House’, ‘Charles II’, ‘Blackpool’, ‘Canterbury Tales’, ‘Auf Wiedershen Pet’ and ‘North and South’. She joined ITV Commissioning in April 2006 and took over from Nick Elliott as Director of Drama in May 2007. Laura’s commissions include ‘Torn’, ‘The Whistleblowers’, ‘My Boy Jack’, ‘The Palace’ and ‘Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach’ plus the upcoming ‘He Kills Coppers’ and ‘The Fixer’.

Julian Fellowes - Writer/Director/Actor Julian Fellowes is another SWF’06 luminary. Well known for his Oscar winning script for ‘Gosford Park’, he then went on to write and direct his drama ‘Separate Lies’. He has also written the script for the recently shot ‘Young Victoria’ which will be released next year, starring Emily Blunt. He returns to talk about writing emotional and emotive characters.

Peter Kosminsky - Writer/Director Peter Kosminsky is well known for his controversial drama about Dr David Kelly for Channel 4 ‘The Government Inspector’ and the recent two-part ‘Britz’. As a director he made the BAFTA winning dramas ‘No Child of Mine’ and ‘Warriors’ as well as the new labour drama ‘The Project’. He also made two feature for the cinema; ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘White Oleander’. Peter was a winner of the Alan Clarke award for Outstanding Contribution to Television and a Fellow of the Royal Television Society.

Lucy Prebble - Writer Lucy Prebble’s adaptation of ‘A Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ starring Billie Piper, which was based on the blogs of real life call girl Belle De Jour, was the stand-out in ITV’s recent Big Thursday season. Prior to that she has won the prestigious George Devine Award for her outstanding debut play ‘The Sugar Syndrome’ and has adapted Jane Austen’s epistolary novella ‘Lady Susan’ for Celador Films and BBC4. Lucy is currently writing a play for the Headlong Theatre Company based on the Enron debacle.

David Lemon - David has written several episodes of the BBC1 daytime drama ‘Doctors' as well as live action and animation for children's television. He also worked in TV production directing ‘fly on the wall' documentaries in inner city hospitals and producing ‘making of' DVD documentaries on classic British films including ‘Brief Encounter', ‘The Red Shoes' and ‘The 39 Steps'.  A massive fan of cartoons, comics and pretty much anything Joss Whedon turns his hand to, David is currently working on new projects for both film and television, including a ‘high concept' sci-fi series and a fantasy film for family audiences. His big screen debut ‘Faintheart' is a Film4/Vertigo Films production in association with myspace and Slingshot Studios and is a comedy about a group of hapless battle re-enactors, starring Eddie Marsan, Jessica Hynes and Ewen Bremner, and will premier at the Cannes Film Festival.

Deborah Moggach - Deborah Moggach wrote the BAFTA-nominated screenplay for the recent Working Title movie of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, starring Keira Knightley. She also received the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted TV Serial for ‘Goggle-Eyes’. She has adapted several of her own novels for TV, including ‘Close Relations’, ‘Final Demand’, ‘To Have and To Hold’, ’Stolen’ and ‘Seesaw’, and other credits include the BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s ‘Love in a Cold Climate’. She has just adapted ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ for the BBC. Her novel ‘Tulip Fever’ was bought by Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks and her adaptation of her novel ‘These Foolish Things’, about outsourcing the elderly to India, is due to be filmed this year. 

Kate Harwood - Kate graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in Drama before becoming an Arts Council Trainee director and then Literary Manager of the Royal Court Theatre. She joined the BBC Drama Serials Department 1in 1990 where she worked on many productions first as a script editor, Bafta award winning ‘Holding On', then as producer ‘Close Relations', Bafta winning ‘Charles II - The Power and the Passion' and ‘David Copperfield'; and Executive Producer ‘Daniel Deronda', ‘Crime and Punishment'. She was appointed Executive Producer of the BBC soap opera ‘EastEnders' in March 2005 and took the show to a position where it won a Bafta and two National TV Awards. In October 2006, she was appointed Head of Series and Serials, BBC Drama Production. She still works as an Executive Producer most recently on the acclaimed ‘Cranford' and ‘Oliver Twist'.

David Bishop - Comic writer David Bishop is a former editor of iconic British comic 2000 AD. He has had nearly 20 novels published, written comic characters and graphic novels for publishers in Britain, the US, Scandinavia and Australia, and has scripted radio plays for the BBC. He was awarded a screenwriting MA with distinction from Screen Academy Scotland, and his short film script ‘Danny's Toys’ won a first prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards in Los Angeles, both in 2007 

Robbie Morrison - Born in Scotland in1968, Robbie Morrison grew up in Linwood, outside Glasgow. One of the most highly regarded writers in the comics industry, he has created many popular and successful characters. 'The Adventures of Nikolai Dante', serialised in 2000 AD since 1997, and released as seven Graphic Novels to date, is an Eagle Award winner for Best Series and Character.  'White Death', a Graphic Novel set in the Italian Alps during the First World War, where thousands of Austrian and Italian troops were killed by avalanches caused by cannon-fire, enjoyed success in Europe and the US.  Robbie has also scripted iconic characters such as 'Spider-man', 'Batman' and 'Judge Dredd'.  Outside of comics, a short screenplay, 'Monsters', co-written with film story-boarder Rob McCallum ('Hairspray', 'Land Of The Dead'), was a finalist for Tartan Shorts (BBC/Scottish Screen).  Robbie has recently written 'Intimate Apparel', a screenplay for a romantic comedy-thriller set in Glasgow, and is currently working with artist Jim Murray on a Graphic Novel, due for release by Random House/Jonathan Cape in 2009.

John Tomlinson - ‘Comics writer and editor John Tomlinson is known mainly for his work on the SF anthology title ‘2000 AD’. His career in comics began in the 1980s at the UK branch of Marvel, home of ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’, where he worked as editor, designer and writer of comic strips. In 1993 he moved to Fleetway Editions (now Egmont), where he edited ‘2000 AD’ for two years. With Steve White, Dan Abnett and artist Peter Snejbjerg he co-created and wrote ‘The Lords of Misrule’, a horror title published by Dark Horse comics in the USA and optioned in 1997 by Universal (where it has remained in development Hell ever since). He currently works for the part work publisher Eaglemoss, where he edits two magazines based around the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films, while continuing to write comics in his spare time.’ 

Richard Hand/Michael Wilson - Richard is Professor of Theatre and Media Drama and Michael Wilson is Professor of Drama and Head of Research at the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan. Together they have published 'Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror' and 'London's Grand-Guignol and the Theatre of Horror' as well as articles on the Grand-Guignol. Individually, Richard Hand is author of 'The Theatre of Joseph Conrad: Reconstructed Fictions', 'Terror on the Air: Horror Radio in America' and is co-editor (with Jay McRoy) of 'Monstrous Adaptations: Generic and Thematic Transmutations in Horror Film'. He has directed numerous stage plays, including horror plays, in the UK and USA; and as an actor he appeared as the "Father" in G. H. Evans's award-winning independent feature film 'Footsteps' (2006), a revenge thriller about snuff movies. Michael is the author of 'Performance and Practice: Oral Narratives Among Teenagers in Britain and Ireland' and 'Storytelling and Theatre: Contemporary Practitioner and their Art', as well as publishing numerous articles and translations relating to Bertolt Brecht and his contemporaries (with Oliver Double). A former professional storyteller and actor, he continues to act, including in Grand-Guignol horror plays and comedies.

Uzma Hasan - Uzma is the Development Producer at Slingshot where she works across project selection, development and packaging.  Before joining Slingshot, Uzma was producing music promos and commercials. Whilst in New York, she supported the Executive Producer and Special Events team at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival and worked with Focus Features on the post production of Mira Nair's film 'Vanity Fair'.   Before moving into film, Uzma was a public relations consultant to international corporations such as NEC and Verizon and helped to launch mCubed Magazine in the US, an arts and cultural magazine aimed at young Muslim professionals.

Danny Stack - In 2006, Danny was part of the writing team for the popular CiTV animation series, The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers!, which won a Children's Bafta for Best Animation. Danny also won the BBC Tony Doyle Bursary Award for New Writing in 2004, and his winning script was optioned by Parallel Films (producers of 'Intermission' and 'Breakfast on Pluto').  In addition to his writing career, Danny is an experienced and highly regarded story analyst/consultant for a number of the UK's top film companies, including Working Title, Pathé Pictures and the UK Film Council. Danny co-writes a number of projects with award-winning animator/director Sam Morrison which includes an adaptation of Andrew Davies's award-winning children's book 'Conrad's War', and a high-concept animation feature, 'Aliens FC'.  Danny returns to the Festival again this year with Tony Jordan to promote the second Red Planet writing competition the first was launched at last year and was very successful.