Big Syn International Film Festival announces 2026 Grand Jury of global luminaries
Category: Press release | Date: August 5, 2026 | By: Big Syn Institute, London. UK.
London, UK — Big Syn International Film Festival, the world’s biggest sustainability film festival, proudly announces its 2026 Grand Jury: a distinguished panel of changemakers, creatives, and thought leaders whose work spans continents and causes.
1. Maddie Moate, BAFTA award-winning presenter
Maddie Moate is a YouTube filmmaker and BAFTA award winning presenter, passionate about curiosity. Maddie is one of the few family-focused ‘Edu-tubers’ in the world and has been creating fun educational STEM videos for the past 15 years, amassing over 345k YouTube subscribers and 100 million views.
2. Chris Tashima, OSCAR award-winning director and actor
Chris won an Academy Award® for Visas and Virtue (1997), a dramatic short film he directed, co-wrote and also starred in, portraying Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. Chris belongs to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where he is currently serving as Governor for the Short Films Branch. He regularly judges Animated and Live Action Short Film entries for the Oscars®, and the Student Academy Awards®.
3. Elena Andreicheva, BAFTA and OSCAR award-winning filmmaker
Elena is an Oscar and BAFTA-winning documentary producer and filmmaker. She’s produced work on hard-hitting and hard-access topics: incarceration (12-Year-Old Lifer), the war on drugs (Drugs Inc.), human trafficking (Saving The Cybersex Girls) and the Oscar-winning Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl).
4. Will Attenborough, Actor and activist, Co-Founder, Green Rider
Will is an actor (The Outpost, Dunkirk, Our Girl) and activist, who co-founded the Green Rider campaign. Green Rider empowers actors and producers to collaborate in finding solutions to the climate crisis, moving the industry away from pollution and waste towards cleaner, fairer ways of working.
5. Prof. Ioannis Ioannou, Global Sustainability Guru, LBS
Professor Ioannou is a leading expert in sustainability leadership and corporate responsibility whose award-winning academic research provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities organizations face when developing sustainable business models. An Associate Professor at London Business School, his work focuses on strategic ESG integration and its implications for businesses and investors.
6. Kim Rowell, Managing Editor News Production | Trustee & Board, UN Women UK | Chair, Royal Television Society Tech | Ambassador, Women of Future | Chair, In Place of War
Kim is an award-winning storyteller. She has created policy-changing creative content for the BBC, ITN News Production, Channel 4, ITV and The Telegraph.
7. Gabrielle Ginér, Policy engagement, Oxford Net Zero, University of Oxford.
Gabrielle joined the Oxford Net Zero (ONZ) policy engagement team bringing with her 16 years of experience in sustainability. Prior to joining ONZ, Gabrielle has managed BT Group’s thought leadership, external engagement and advocacy programmes on environmental sustainability since 2009.
8. Prof. Paul McDonald, Professor of Media Industries, King’s College London
Paul is Professor of Media Industries at King’s College London. His most recent publications include editing The Routledge Companion to Media Industries (2022) and co-editing Locating Media Industries: Spaces, Places, Platforms (2026, Routledge), Media Industries and Cities: Perspectives, Geopolitics and Transformations (2026, Routledge), Global Film Policies (2026, Routledge) and Digital Media Distribution: Portals, Platforms, Pipelines (2021, New York University Press).
This year’s jury reflects the festival’s mission to spotlight stories that inspire action and challenge the status quo. The 2026 Big Syn International Film Festival will run from 16–25 October in London and online, culminating in a red carpet gala and awards ceremony in November 2026. Winning films will be showcased on Europe’s biggest screen—London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights.
About the Festival:
The Big Syn International Film Festival is the world’s biggest sustainability film festival and a United Nations SDGs initiative. Organised by the Big Syn Institute, part of the Centre for Big Synergy (a CSO of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs), the festival celebrates purpose-driven films that inspire action on the 17 UN Global Goals. Since its inception, it has reached over 50 million viewers across 120+ countries, spotlighting stories that drive change in climate action, equity, education, and more.
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