Sheffield Doc/Fest 2020's artistic team features names from around the world

Cíntia Gil was previously revealed as the leader of the 2020 festival, moving from Portugual's DocLisboa, and event organisers today said that women comprise 60 per cent of the festival's programming team.

-> How Sheffield International Documentary Festival became a blockbuster event - in numbers"The aim of the group of film programmers, artists, curators and film critics is to bring to Doc/Fest a renewed artistic vision founded on a strong engagement with cinema, art, and the political potential of such a festival in our times," they said.

The next festival takes place between June 4 and 9 2020.

Ms Gil said: "Sheffield is a city of resistance and solidarity, and Sheffield Doc/Fest is a festival that builds itself as a strong platform for those values, exploring cinematic arts as a collective question.

"Away from the traditional centres of power and reinventing power relations through filmic encounters, this festival will be an internationalist, plural, rigorous and bold experience, bringing the diversity of the world together as an invitation for openness and collaboration.

"Through different film strands, art exhibitions, talks and debates, and a strong marketplace, Sheffield Doc/Fest is a place of support for free arts, free thinking and a critical reflection of our world and our lives."

Leading film programming for Doc/Fest is senior programmer Adam Cook, who has most recently served as founding curator of Future//Present, a programme on Canadian independent cinema at the Vancouver International Film Festival, programming associate for Toronto International Film Festival and programming consultant for Hot Docs.

His writing on film has appeared in numerous publications including Cinema Scope, MUBI, The New York Times, Sight & Sound and Little White Lies.

Curator and head of alternate realities Joe Cutts joined Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2011.

He has been described as "integral to shaping the identity and ethos of Alternate Realities programme, stripping away the trend of modern technologies and aligning them with timeless art forms".

Cutts is also a video installation artist and curator based at S1 Artspace in Sheffield.

Bringing years of experience as programmer for Locarno FF and DocLisboa, and following a long tenure at La Cinémathèque française, French-born, Lisbon-based Agnès Wildenstein joins Doc/Fest as associate programmer.

Also collaborating on the programme is a selection committee consisting of Christopher Small, Onyeka Igwe, Qila Gill, Rabz Lansiquot, Melanie Iredale, Patrick Hurley and Mita Suri.

Mr Small is a writer, filmmaker, and programmer, originally from the United Kingdom and currently based in Prague.

He is the project manager of the Locarno Critics Academy, a workshop in film criticism that runs during Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Mr Small will also curate Doc/Fest's 2020 retrospective to be announced at a later date,

Londoner Ms Igwe is an artist filmmaker, programmer and researcher working between cinema and installation, using dance, voice, archive and text.

Her work explores the body and geographical place as sites of cultural and political meaning. She was awarded the New Cinema Award at Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2019 and is a finalist for the 2020 Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for Experimental Film.

Ms Gill is an artist, curator and programmer who prior to Sheffield Doc/Fest, has worked for various film festivals including BFI London Film Festival, Cork International Film Festival and Encounters Film Festival. She is a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts.

Ms Lansiquot is a filmmaker, writer, curator, and DJ.

She works alongside Imani Robinson as the artistic and curatorial collective Languid Hands.

She was a leading member of sorryyoufeeluncomfortable (SYFU) collective from its inception in 2014, through which she has produced public programmes in the UK and Europe including curated screenings, collective readings, performances, workshops and discussions, and co-curated exhibitions.

Ms Lansiquot is currently curator in residence at LUX Moving Image, developing a public and educational programme around black liberation cinema.

Former interim director Ms Iredale has been made deputy director.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, her background is as a film curator and festival producer, at first specialising in bringing Nordic cinema to the North of England.

As director of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2009-2014, she commissioned new moving image works and installations for heritage sites which have gone on to tour to festivals and galleries internationally.

Mr Hurley has been the director of marketplace and at talent at Sheffield Doc/Fest since 2017, connecting creative teams with industry decision-makers to get new documentaries made and seen.

Formerly distribution manager for five years at Dogwoof, he has worked closely with filmmakers, producers and partners on a diverse slate of over 100 feature documentary releases.

Before working in film, Mr Hurley was a researcher and senior tutor at the University of Sydney, specialising in geopolitics, international security and political analysis.

With a background in community cinema exhibition, Ms Suri worked her way up in Doc/Fest from being volunteer, then supported the Doc/Circuit tour as a distribution trainee before being appointed as film programme coordinator.

Programme consultants have also been hired from Brazil, the Middle East, Russia, Southeast Asia and Japan.

Danielle Arbid, Juliano Gomes, Boris Nelepo, Kong Rithdee and Yu Shimizu join as programme consultants from around the world.

Born in Beirut, Lebanese Ms Arbid studied journalism and literature in Paris before directing films.

The appointed artistic team of Doc/Fest reflects the "trans-disciplinary and intercultural approach" of the festival, say organisers.

The programme consists of events across six areas: films, live events, alternate realities, talks, marketplace and social.

In 2019 Doc/Fest welcomed industry delegates from 59 countries and included 200 works from over 50 countries.

The 2020 festival, which will announce its first batch of programming picks on May 26 2020, abd will showcase work selected from international submissions.