Awards Panel
Cynthia Rothrock
Cynthia Rothrock was the World Champion in martial arts Forms and Weapons (1981-1985). With over 100 competitions, she holds the undefeated worldwide record in martial arts Forms competition. In weapons competition, Cynthia is the first and only woman to win number one in North America against the men—at that time, women had to compete with the men. She holds five Black Belts with a rank of 8th dan Grandmaster. Upon completing her goal of being undefeated in competition, she began her martial arts acting career starring in movies produced and filmed in Hong Kong. Her first movie, Yes, Madam alongside Michelle Yeoh, broke box office records making her a massive star in Hong Kong. After three years of living in Hong Kong, finishing seven films, she returned to the United States to continue her acting career. Today she has starred in over 60 movies and is currently working on upcoming projects. Cynthia has been a role model for women in martial arts and film. In 1983, she became the first woman to grace the cover of Karate Illustrated. Cynthia is a proud inductee into the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame, along with Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. In 2016 she was the first martial artist (male or female) to be inducted into the prestigious International Sports Hall of Fame by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dr. Robert Goldman.
Mike Fury
Mike Fury is a journalist and author who wrote the acclaimed “Life of Action” book series which interviews top names from the action and martial arts movie world, including Zoë Bell, Scott Adkins, Donnie Yen, Cynthia Rothrock, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa and more. Mike’s writing has been featured in magazines such as Martial Arts Illustrated, Combat, MMA Uncaged and he has hosted panels for the BFI Film Academy, MCM Comic Con and others.
Christopher Chow
Christopher CF Chow BFE is an award-winning British film editor with over 14 years experience editing independent features, documentaries and shorts. His latest film THE COMPLEX, directed by Paul Raschid (WHITE CHAMBER) and written by Lynn Renee Maxcy (HANDMAID’S TALE), is the world’s first live-action Sci-Fi interactive film with 2.5 hours of total runtime and 9 possible endings, and it is the best selling interactive film released on gaming platforms. In 2017, Christopher won Best Feature Editing at FilmQuest Film Festival for the psychological horror CHARISMATA.
Christopher is a governor of the BRITISH FILM EDITORS; he founded BEAM NETWORK and co-founded BEATS, both organisations aim to connect and support for people of East and South East Asian heritage working in the entertainment industry and to advocate for better representation in front and behind the scenes.
Joaquín Ortega
Joaquín Ortega is one of the most prestigious Spanish stuntman and works both domestically, and internationally. He is also an actor, film director, and the founder/director of NIAFFS (NOIDENTITY - International Action Film Festival - Spain). He holds a degree in Dramatic Arts from the School of Dramatic Art of Seville (ESAD) and also studied a masters at Cinecittà (Rome) where he trained as a stuntman and stunt coordinator. He is one of only 3 Spanish members of the Taurus World Stunt Academy, and he also runs his own Stuntmen academy, called NOIDENTITY, and his production company- NOIDENTITY Films. Joaquin has been in over 50 films, TV series, and commercials combined, and has written, directed, and produced four feature films with his production company, the most recent being 'El Mate De Morphy'.
Sindy Campbell
Sindy Campbell is responsible for developing & supporting the Film & TV industry in the West Midlands. She’s head of the regional film office and works to maximise inward investment, raise the profile and promote the region as a destination for film & TV. Having worked with thousands of productions including Steven Spielberg ‘Ready Player One’, Kingsman The Golden Circle, Line of Duty, BBC Doctors – to name a few. She’s also a producer and sits on the boards of Royal Television Society Midlands, Fierce and Project Aspie.
Richard Duffy
Richard is a core part of the team behind Terracotta Distribution and Terracotta Far East Film Festival, an independent label and film festival specialising in East Asian cinema from a wide range of countries and genres, spanning contemporary drama and cult horror films to retro martial arts classics. He is also an independent film maker and has produced and directed several short documentaries and promos, most notably a 30 minute documentary on the Salvadoran civil war entitled 'The Past is Not History'.
Jon Perry
Jon Perry has been in the cinema industry for over 30 years, running both multiplex and independent cinemas across the UK and Ireland. He is currently the Head of Operations for Picturehouse cinemas, and is responsible for the strategic operations across 26 sites in UK. He also runs a successful outdoor cinema screening programme with various showings across 12 locations over the summer. A very passionate fan of Asian cinema but with a love of martial arts movies since a young age, Jon knew he would always end up working in exhibition - the very first screening he put on was a Betamax video showing at his parents’ house of ‘Streetfighter’, starring Sonny Chiba. He has also practised Muai Thai for 20 years, and has previously practised Tae Kwon Do and Aikido.
Brad Day
Award winning Editor & Director Brad has been in the Film/TV Industry for over 30 Years. He has been running New Day Pictures, a London based Equipment Hire and Productions Company since 2000. Brad is a big fan of the Martial Arts film genre since the 70’s, when he discovered some classics imported from China on patchy VHS tapes.
Timon Singh
Timon Singh is the director of the Bristol-based Forbidden Worlds Film Festival which is dedicated to screening repertory fantasy, action, science-fiction and horror films from around the world and celebrating the people that made them.
He also runs the Bristol Bad Film Club, a monthly genre film night in the city, co-wrote and produced the action film documentary In Search of the Last Action Heroes and is the author of the books Born To Be Bad: Talking to the greatest villains in action cinema and Born To Be Bad: Part II.
Aman K. Sahota
With over 16 years experience in the camera department, firstly as a lens and camera technician. She has worked on films such as the last two Bond films, Wonder Woman, and more recently Mission Impossible as a technician.
Aman’s love for cinema led to being a cinematographer. She is passionate about telling stories from a personal perspective and incorporating many cultural inspirations. Featured in the British Cinematography Magazine “Meet the New Wave” rising star DOP, quoting her love for old martial arts films as the main reason she got into film.
Kyle Barrowman
Kyle Barrowman is a media and cinema studies lecturer in Chicago. He received his PhD from Cardiff University. He has published widely in and between film studies and philosophy, including a number of journal articles and book chapters on international action and martial arts cinema. He is also the editor of the forthcoming collection Fighting Stars: Stardom and Reception in Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema.
Chee Keong Cheung
Chee Keong Cheung is an award-winning writer, director and producer who currently is Head of Distribution at Sovereign (working with acclaimed and world renowned auteur directors) and CEO of Action Xtreme. Chee has a focus on grassroots talent growth, development & training, and a remit to develop franchisable film, TV and online action content under his Action Xtreme banner. His previous credits include Underground and zombie action horror Redcon-1, which picked up several international awards and was released globally and played on Netflix as well as Every Last One of Them, starring Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss and Taryn Manning for 101 Films. His latest feature The Experiment starring Rhona Mitra and Famke Janssen, filmed over at Rebellion Studios is currently in post-production.