Profiles

Festival Co-Director

Anna is an ultra runner, writer and film producer working freelance across a variety of roles in the outdoor industry and has been part of the ShAFF team for six years. In 2020 Anna became Co-Director of ShAFF, alongside founder Matt Heason. Anna is producer at Sheffield-based Salt Street Productions, with whom she made a six-part viral mini-series for BBC Sport in 2019, produced the video content for The Outdoor City and Visit Britain’s international Adventure Breaks campaign in 2018, and spent most of 2017 producing a six-part urban sports series for Channel 4. Anna is also author for award winning outdoor publishers Vertebrate Publishing, and her first guide book, Day Walks East Anglia is out now. Sheffield born and bred, Anna is always inspired by Sheffield's outdoor folk and says "I've always been excited when ShAFF comes around, even more so now I'm part of the team that makes the festival happen. It's a place for our amazing outdoor community to come together to share inspiration and a few beers."

A filmmaker who loves to take on adventures usually under the guise of Maia Media. Enjoys swimming in wild places, camping out and riding bikes. Has recently become obsessed with doodling on her iPad.

Jimmy is a young photographer and film maker based in Buxton, Derbyshire. He has had a number of films play at ShAFF over the past few years. These films include Mohon which is Jimmy's 'Cyclomentuary' form a solo cycle trip across Mongolia. ShAFF had been pivotal in kickstarting Jimmy's film career.

Music Judge & ShAFF DJ

Bringing Sheffield producer and DJ Paul Hodgson (aka Grievous Angel) on board fulfils a long-time wish of Matt's to highlight the film soundtracks and all the musicians whose creative energy makes such a huge contribution to the success of a film. In addition to judging the soundtracks, Paul will be pulling together a #ShAFF2015 playlist of the best tunes that we'll be playing all weekend in the Showroom bar. Can't wait? Listen to his #ShAFF2015 Soundtracks playlist on YouTube. Follow Grievous Angel on Soundcloud and on Twitter @grievousangeluk.

Simon became a member of the judging team in 2020. He says, "The last time I reviewed films was in 1982/83 as the film critic of the LSE student newspaper, so everyone should realise that my only skill in this area is enthusiasm. My motivation then was to get to see cool films for free. So nothing changes!". His perfect way to enjoy the great outdoors is to do swim-run, that he describes as, "an assault on the senses and great fun being amphibian". Simon is the Chair of a charity called Rural Action Derbyshire (ruralactionderbyshire.org.uk) which works to address rural disadvantage so that communities are sustainable, vibrant and accessible to everyone regardless of age, background or income. During a long career in some large multi-national businesses, Simon was lucky to have a decade of that living and working in Prague, Berlin and Wroclaw.