The People Behind ShAFF

    There is an amazing team of people that help make ShAFF happen every year. From volunteers, to judges find out more below about this talented team. If you'd like to get involved in ShAFF (by which we mean doing lots of hard work in return for a free T-shirt), please get in touch, ideally sending a photo of yourself in a silly hat.

    ShAFF ambassadors are climbers, bikers, runners and other active folk who live in or near sheffield and who are famous within their circles. Check out the list of ambassadors who have endorsed ShAFF and what it's all about. there are links to their blogs and websites plus a bit of info about each of them. Being an ambassador means tickets to the festival too, so you might well bump into them in the bar.

    Hannah Maia

    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 Hyland

    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.





    Paul Hodgson

    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 Taylor

    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.