Emilia Clarke, Natalie Dormer to Judge London Film Festival Competitors

By Leo Barraclough

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Game of Thrones” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story” star Emilia Clarke will be on the jury of the Official Competition of the 62nd BFI London Film Festival, which runs Oct. 10-21. Another “Thrones” star, Natalie Dormer, is on the fest’s First Feature Competition jury, which hands out the Sutherland Award.

Joining Clarke on the Official Competition judging panel are “Mamma Mia” star Dominic Cooper and actress Andrea Riseborough, whose credits include “Birdman” and “Black Mirror.” Also on the jury are Daily Mail journalist Baz Bamigboye; Cairo Cannon, the producer of Carol Morley’s “Out of Blue,” screening as a Special Presentation in the festival; and Gonzalo Maza, the producer and screenwriter of Oscar-winner “A Fantastic Woman.” Director Lenny Abrahamson, Oscar nominated for “Room,” is the jury president, as previously announced.

Dormer, whose recent credits include “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” is joined on the First Feature Competition jury by jury president Francis Lee, director-writer of the BAFTA-nominated “God’s Own Country”; production designer Maria Djurkovic, who was Oscar-nominated for “The Imitation Game”; Will Poulter, whose recent credits include “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” and “The Little Stranger”; Rotterdam Film Festival programmer Inge De Leeuw; and rapper, comedian, actor, screenwriter and radio presenter Ben Bailey Smith, a.k.a. Doc Brow.

The jury for the Documentary Competition section, which presents the Grierson Award, is headed by documentary producer Simon Chinn, who won Oscars for “Man on Wire” and “Searching for Sugarman.” Joining Chinn are documentary director Lucy Cohen, BAFTA nominee and winner of last year’s Grierson Award for “Kingdom of Us”; the director and critic Charlie Lyne, whose film “Lasting Marks” is a Short Film Award nominee at this year’s festival; BAFTA-nominated director, producer and cinematographer Daisy Asquith (“Queerama,” “After the Dance”); and radio and television presenter Anita Rani.

The president of the Short Film Competition is director Rungano Nyoni, whose film “I Am Not a Witch” was in the First Feature competition in the festival last year, won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British writer, director or producer, and is the U.K.’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2019 Academy Awards.

Nyoni’s fellow Short Film section jurors are director Ayo Akingbade (“Tower XYZ,” “A Is for Artist”); Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, a.k.a. the filmmaking duo Desperate Optimists (“Helen,” “Who Killed Brown Owl”); musician and composer Oliver Sim from the Mercury Prize-winning British indie pop band The XX; and BAFTA Rising Star Award nominated actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who starred in Sutherland Award winner “The Witch” as well as “The Miniaturist” and “Split.”

The winners will be revealed in front of a public audience on Oct. 20.