Tanya Seghatchian, who produced Jane Campion’s 2021 awards darling The Power of the Dog, has been named head of the official competition jury for the 2022 BFI London Film Festival, which kicks of on Wednesday, Oct. 5 with the world premiere of Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical.
Seghatchian, who earned a BAFTA last year when The Power of the Dog claimed the best film honor, will lead the jury that also includes Game of Thrones and Star Wars star Gwendoline Christie, One Night in Miami writer and Soul co-director Kemp Powers, Chaitanya Tamhane, the Indian director behind Court and The Disciple, and journalist Charles Gant.
The lineup of films in LFF’s main competition includes Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985, Clement Virgo’s Brother, Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, The Damned Don’t Cry from Fyzal Boulifa, Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men, Hlynur Pámason’s Godland, Soudade Kaadan’s Nezouh and Saint Omer from Alice Diop.“I’m looking forward to getting to work with my fellow jurors,” said Seghatchian, who also produced 2018’s Oscar-nominated Cold War.
“It’s both a privilege and a luxury to be able to spend time viewing such an eclectic and visionary group of films. This is a particularly uncertain time for independent cinema, so it’s more important than ever to have a U.K. festival like the LFF there to celebrate the very best work from filmmakers around the world.”
Elsewhere, Nana Mensah, whose directorial debut Queen of Glory (an LFF 2021 title) won the best new narrative director prize at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, heads up the London fest’s first feature competition (Sutherland Award) jury, Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini will lead the jury selecting the winner of the Grierson Award for best documentary after winning the award in 2018 for his film What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire, the Immersive Art and XR Competition will be led by photographer Misan Harriman, and producer and director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (Blue Story) will lead the jury selecting the best short film.
The London Film Festival 2022 awards will be held virtually on Oct. 16 at 4 p.m. London time on BFI YouTube and social media. (THR)