Our Team

Our team is made up of in-house film industry experts, working together with selected freelance specialists, across genres and disciplines.

Who we are

Our Film team understands the industry because we maintain a range of roles in the current film sector alongside our work at the British Council. This allows each member to offer specialist knowledge in key disciplines and regions around the world. We also work with freelance specialist consultants on selected programmes and project areas.

Alongside our Director, Film and our Senior Relationship Manager, in January 2024, we recruited a range of new colleagues in order to expand and develop our programme: most of these look after our Film relationships and programmes, while two have begun a new strand of work around Creative Technology. Meet them all here!

Our Team

Briony Hanson

Director of Film. Talk to Briony about British Council film projects and partnerships, and our selector screenings and new talent programmes.

Eneni Bambara-Abban

Creative Technology Manager. Talk to Eneni about games and creative tech.

Fiona Fletcher

Film Relationship Manager. Talk to Fiona about connections in Wider Europe and South Asia, opportunities for UK filmmakers, and documentary film.

Jay Arnold

Senior Film Programme Manager. Talk to Jay about film exhibition, archive and our Film databases.

Lisa Brook

Creative Technology Relationship Manager. Talk to Lisa about Creative XR projects and international collaboration.

Lynn Nwokorie

Film Relationship Manager. Talk to Lynn about film projects in Europe and the Americas, and about festivals .

Mathilda Manley Lewis

Travel Grants Co-ordinator. Talk to Mathilda about British Council’s film travel grants.

Consultants

We're lucky to work with a number of senior consultants on several of our key projects. Currently this includes:

Catherine Bray

An experienced journalist, commissioner, producer, writer and director, Catherine delivers our Film Festival selector programme.

Find out more about Catherine at www.aboutcatherinebray.com

(Please note: from May 2024 Catherine is taking maternity leave - her Festivals role is being covered by Lynn Nwokorie)

Joanna Duncombe

A film and cultural relations consultant, passionate about amplifying underrepresented voices and connecting audiences to artists through innovative, international programmes, Jo is currently helping guide our New Talent Grants programme.

Find out more about Jo at www.joannaduncombe.com

Sarah Lutton

An experienced film programme consultant, Sarah works on exhibition projects, new talent and diversity initiatives, on projects promoting international co-production, and on the REF Higher Education assessments. Sarah is currently working with the Film team on research projects and in the wider Arts team on the International Collaboration Programme.

Find out more about Sarah Lutton.

Cassandra Neal

Alongside her role in the Learning and Events team at BAFTA, Cassandra also joins our team each year to work on specialist projects including the Five Films For Freedom programme and our GREAT 8 programme, championing new UK talent at Cannes.

Find out more about Cassandra Neal.

You may also be interested in:

Apply for a Lab / Co-Production Forum Travel Grant

Grants to help filmmakers attend international Labs to develop their projects and careers, and grants for producers to attend Co-Pro Forums

UK film catalogues

Download our selection of the best UK films available each year.

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