The London International Fantastic Film Festival (LIFFF) proudly announces its jury members for its inaugural edition, taking place from 26th November to 1st December 2024 at BLOC Cinema and Genesis Cinema in London.

Features Competition Jury

LIFFF’s Features Competition Jury brings together a diverse panel of film experts and industry professionals:

• Anton Bitel: Anton Bitel is a freelance film critic specialising in genre cinema. He programmes for the London Korean Film Festival. His own website is ProjectedFigures.com.

• Joshua Trigg: Joshua Trigg is a British film director and screenwriter best known for his debut feature, ‘Satu – Year of the Rabbit’ (2024). The film has earned critical acclaim, receiving a nomination for the prestigious BIFA Raindance Maverick Award, a spot on the BIFA/Raindance Directorial/Aesthetica Debut longlist, and winning the Golden Shika Award (Grand Prix) at Naomi Kawase’s Nara International Film Festival. In addition to his narrative work, Trigg has an impressive commercial portfolio, having collaborated with notable personalities such as Paul Smith, Chiara Ferragni, Dannii Minogue, and Pierce Brosnan. His creative vision extends into photography, where he has directed projects for prominent clients like The Rolling Stones, Stella McCartney, and Singapore Airlines, among others.

• Amber T: Amber T is News Editor and staff writer for FANGORIA, as well as writing for physical media releases from Arrow Video, Second Sight Films, 88 Films, Error 4444 and Terror Vision. She specialises in Japanese horror cinema and regularly works with Leeds International Film Festival, hosting their Night of the Dead all night horror marathon.

• Simon Ramshaw: Simon Ramshaw is a Newcastle-based film critic with a specialism in genre cinema, having written for Asian Movie Pulse and The Geek Show for the past two years. This is his fourth time on a jury panel, after stints in the 28 Times Cinema Jury in Venice in 2015, the Brussels International Film Festival Youth Jury in 2019, and the Five Flavours People’s Jury in Warsaw in 2022.

• Olivia Popp: Olivia Popp is a film writer, critic, programmer, and longtime genre cinema fan based in Berlin. Her writing can primarily be found in the European trade publication Cineuropa alongside bylines in MUBI Notebook, Screen Slate, Crooked Marquee, Zippy Frames, and others. She also supports the editorial team of International Film Festival Rotterdam and is a programmer for One World Slovakia Documentary Film Festival.

Features Competition Highlights

Our Features Competition explores transformations, journeys and identities. Amartya Bhattacharyya’s concept album musical Son of Adam is a civilisation-spanning odyssey across lands in search of love. Charming supernatural crime caper from India Dead Dead Full Dead provides a nice change of pace, and also a goat. Offbeat genre superstar Kenichi Ugana delivers a gut-busting dry comedy of cross-cultural punk in The Gesuidouz, fresh from this year’s TIFF. Trans and cis writer-director duo Kit & Arran deconstruct masculinity in play with King Baby, a dark comedy of hierarchies and insecurities reminiscent of the films of Peter Strickland. The underseen horror provocation of the year, Succubus is an intoxicatingly (t)horny blend of PVT Chat and Get Out that demands to be seen with a crowd. And Gakuryu Ishii, legendary director of Burst City, August in the Water, and The Box Man, delivers Self-Revolutionary Cinematic Struggle, a mind-melting metatextual epic exclusive to the big screen, here in its International Premiere. 

Shorts Competition Jury

The Shorts Jury includes prominent creatives from wide-ranging backgrounds:

• Emily Jisoo Bowles: Emily Jisoo Bowles is a British-Korean writer, translator, and film programmer based in London. They work with Queer East Festival to curate short film programs, and currently run a community cinema club called Jjambbong film, which is centred around participatory spectatorship and fansubbing lesser-seen Asian films. They also write about cinema and were a Young Critics Workshop participant at the 2024 International Film Fest Gent.

• Jane Lo: Jane Lo is a sound designer for Film and TV based in London. After graduating from University of Westminster with first class honours in Film, she pursued freelance work in post-production sound, from working on short films and commercials, to recording voiceovers and mixing documentaries. She is currently a sound effects editor working across high end TV dramas for broadcasters and streamers such as Sky, Apple, and Netflix. Her TV credits include Black Mirror (2023) and One Day (2024), and her feature film credits include DASHCAM (2021) and The Sound of 007 (2022). In 2024, she was nominated for an MPSE award for her work on Black Mirror’s Beyond The Sea.

• Mykolas Vosylius: Mykolas Vosylius is a Lithuanian emerging producer, whose previously produced short film “Naiku” won a Grand Prix award in the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. He is currently working in Film and TV productions in Scotland.

Shorts Competition Highlights

Our Shorts Programme pushes the boundaries of storytelling and imagination. Divided into four categories: “Wo(a)nders”, “Love”, “Kaleidoscope”, and “Animation”, LIFFF delivers a vibrant array of shorts celebrating diverse voices and genres. Among the highlights is the UK-made Chimera, by Neil West, guiding viewers through a mesmerising exploration of memory and self-discovery. Stepping into the spotlight is A Green Affair, directed by Rebecca Thomson, offering a fresh take on romance with a love story beyond imagination. Meanwhile, Dragon Fruit, directed by J. Brown, invites audiences on a journey through harsh realities and fractured humanity. From heartwarming tales of love and resilience to surreal visual feasts, these shorts promise a fantastic viewing experience that will leave audiences spellbound.