Sam Pollard leads London Film Festival’s Best Film jury

Culture & Events Desk 2026-10-06 14:52 3 min read

An elderly Black man wearing a dark blue fedora, eyeglasses, and an orange sweater.

Sam Pollard will lead the jury choosing the Best Film Award winner at the 70th BFI London Film Festival, with actor and producer Amir El-Masry, filmmaker Sandhya Suri and producer and writer Helen Simmons heading its other competition panels.

The British Film Institute’s 2026 announcement confirms three jurors for each of four competitions: Official Competition, First Feature, Documentary and Short Film. Together, the panels bring experience in directing, acting, production, programming, distribution and film criticism to the awards process.

By UW99 Culture Desk, based on the British Film Institute’s announcement for the 2026 festival.

Sam Pollard’s Official Competition panel

Pollard chairs the Official Competition jury, which selects the Best Film Award. He is joined by Argentine filmmaker and writer Mariano Llinás, whose credits include The Life of Jorge Luis Borges and The Flower, and Julie La Bassiere, Chief Strategy Officer at DDA.

Pollard’s career spans more than four decades and includes Peabody and Emmy Awards, an Academy Award nomination and the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award. His documentaries explore race, history and social justice, giving the panel a chair with extensive experience in nonfiction storytelling.

Sam Pollard leads London Film Festival’s Best Film jury

His recent film Tutu won the Peace Film Prize at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival and received a Special Mention from the Berlinale Documentary Award jury. Other directing credits include I Was Born This Way, The League, South to Black Power, Citizen Ashe and MLK / FBI.

The appointment places a documentary filmmaker at the head of the festival’s Best Film panel, while a separate jury will decide the dedicated documentary award.

Amir El-Masry and the Sutherland Award

British Egyptian actor and producer Amir El-Masry heads the First Feature Competition jury, which selects the Sutherland Award winner. The category gives debut features their own award panel alongside the festival’s other competitions.

El-Masry won a Scottish BAFTA for his performance in Limbo. He was also named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2020 and a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2021. His recent screen work includes the Naseem Hamed biopic Giant and 100 Nights of Hero.

Joining him are Filipino independent film producer and former schoolteacher Alemberg Ang, whose credits include Moonglow, and international film sales, distribution and awards strategy executive Rosa Bosch.

Bosch is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her career includes work across AFI FEST, the BFI London Film Festival, HBO Films and independent cinema internationally.

Sandhya Suri’s documentary jury

British Indian writer and director Sandhya Suri leads the Documentary Competition jury, which chooses the Grierson Award winner. Her fellow jurors are Kate Fitzpatrick, Senior Programmer at Melbourne International Film Festival, and BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning producer Andee Ryder.

Suri made her documentary debut with I For India in 2005, which screened at Sundance. Her Hindi-language fiction debut, Santosh, premiered at Cannes in 2024, won the BIFA for Best Screenplay, received an Outstanding British Debut BAFTA nomination and was shortlisted for the Oscars.

Her career therefore spans both documentary and narrative filmmaking. The BFI also reports that she is working with BBC Film on a JG Ballard adaptation.

Helen Simmons and the short film panel

Producer, writer and Erebus Pictures co-founder Helen Simmons chairs the Short Film Competition jury. Her producing credits include the BAFTA-nominated Hoard, Berlinale Crystal Bear winner Last Swim and 100 Nights of Hero, the festival’s 2025 Closing Gala film.

Simmons also co-wrote and co-directed the Méliès Award-winning short Measure. She is joined by comedian and creator Leo Reich and script editor, story consultant and executive producer Jack Casey.

Reich’s forthcoming work includes the Channel 4 and A24 series It Gets Worse. Casey’s credits include Wren Boys and White Girl; he is also a story consultant on Black Church Bay, which screens at this year’s festival.

Source: British Film Institute News

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Jury appointments, award responsibilities and selected career details were checked against the supplied British Film Institute announcement.

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The supplied announcement names three jurors for each of the four competitions.
Sam Pollard chairs the Official Competition jury selecting the Best Film Award.
The First Feature and Documentary panels select the Sutherland Award and Grierson Award re...
Career credits and honours are drawn from the supplied source.

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