Announcing Our 2025 Film & TV Funding Award Judges
We are excited to unveil the panel of judges for the 2025 Film & TV Funding Award! In celebration of The Whicker’s 10th Anniversary, we have invited back some familiar faces from past panels, so for those who have followed us from the beginning, some of these judges will be familiar.
We are delighted to welcome back resident judges, Whickers Consultant Editor, Jane Mote and Sheffield DocFest’s Raul Niño Zambrano. Alongside them and returning for his second year in a row, we welcome David Green, Alan Whicker’s longest serving director on Whicker’s World with whom Alan had many wild adventures. Also for her second year in a row, we welcome back Fozia Khan, former BBC and Channel 4 executive, now Head of Unscripted at Amazon Studios UK. They are joined by Oli Harbottle, Chief Content Officer at the distribution company Dogwoof, and Sam Soko, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, both of whom joined our judging panel in 2023.
Each member of our panel has been carefully selected for their expertise in the documentary maker’s journey: from navigating funding and the commissioning process to directing and overseeing production, to the crucial aspects of sales and distribution.
Learn more about our panel below:
David Green is a British film and television director, now living and working in Hollywood. He has made over 100 feature films, TV dramas and documentaries, including directing 29 one-hour Whicker’s World docs for ITV – the first in Alaska when he was 28. Together they pioneered a new and more immediate way of telling documentary stories. David went on to direct the award-winning TV-film 1914 All Out, and the feature film, Buster (4 awards), with Phil Collins and Julie Walters. Other movie-directing credits include Fire Birds starring Nicolas Cage & Tommy Lee Jones, Breathtaking and Car Trouble. David was interviewed on stage at the BFI as part of our centennial celebrations of Alan’s life and work. You can see it HERE
London born Fozia Khan is the Head of Unscripted at Amazon MGM Studios UK where she oversees a varied slate including All or Nothing, Clarkson’s Farm, 007’s Road to a Million and upcoming Last One Laughing:UK. Prior to joining Amazon, she was a Commissioning Editor for Documentaries at Channel 4 where she worked across 24 Hours in Police Custody and commissioned many fearless and ground-breaking documentaries such as Damilola: The Boy Next Door and Is Covid Racist? Prior to commissioning, Fozia was a documentary producer for 16 years. Her production credits include The Family S1, The Audience, Posh People: Inside Tatler and Extremely British Muslims.
Sam Soko, a Nairobi-based documentary filmmaker, is renowned for his bold and thought-provoking socio-political storytelling. His award-winning films have garnered recognition at prestigious film festivals like Sundance, Berlin, and TIFF, earning Emmy, Peabody, and PGA recognition. A passionate advocate for freedom of expression and increased access to impactful media, Soko co-founded LBx Africa to amplify African perspectives on a global scale.
Oli Harbottle has been at Dogwoof since 2006, and was part of the original team who made the decision to specialise in documentaries the following year. As Chief Content Officer, he is responsible for acquisitions across the company’s slate as well as the sourcing of projects for production. He also continues to oversee the company’s releasing slate, with a focus on talent relationships and strategic company partnerships. Notable production credits include Maiden, Playing With Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story, The Lost Leonardo, McEnroe, Copa ’71, Swan Song, and Every Little Thing.
Raul Niño Zambrano has been the Creative Director of Sheffield DocFest since 2023. Prior to this, he served as a Senior Programmer at IDFA, where his journey began in 2008. Over his thirteen-year tenure at IDFA, Raul conducted the pioneering study The Female Gaze (2014), exploring the role of women in documentary filmmaking, and launched the IDFA Queer Day in 2013. At Sheffield DocFest, Raul has led the introduction of TV documentary series premieres, the innovative Podcast Pitch, and most recently, the creation of the Queer Realities Director’s Lab, designed to inspire and push creative boundaries in queer non-fiction storytelling.
As an active member of the documentary film community, Raul has served as a juror for renowned international festivals, including Berlinale Teddy Award, Nordisk Panorama, the Morelia International Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the Taiwan International Documentary Festival. He has also shared his expertise as a tutor and industry mentor at prestigious events such as Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days, FESPACO, DMZ, and the Bogotá Audiovisual Market.
Jane Mote has been Consultant Editor at The Whickers since it was founded 10 years ago. As well as directing and producing documentaries, she mentors and trains documentary makers the world over. She is currently Executive Producer for Blue Sweater With a Yellow Hole (Ukraine) and Concrete Land (Jordan).
She trained as a journalist on newspapers then worked in broadcast media creating and leading BBC London on tv, on radio and online before holding senior roles at commercial broadcasters (Discovery, Turner, UKTV and Current TV in the UK) before focussing on documentary.
The 2025 Whickers Pitch will take place at Sheffield DocFest on Sunday 22nd June and our five finalists will be announced in mid-April.
FIND OUT MORE HERE