Sheffield Doc/Fest rounds out creative team for 2020

Sheffield Doc/Fest has rounded out its programming team with the appointment of Vancouver International Film Festival programmer Adam Cook and a promotion for Alternate Realities veteran Joe Cutts. 

The festival, which hired former DocLisboa director Cíntia Gil to head up the UK-based factual event over the summer, has hired Cook as senior programmer for the festival.

Cook most recently served as founding curator of Future//Present, a programme on Canadian independent cinema at the Vancouver International Film Festival. He was also a programming associate for the Toronto International Film Festival and programming consultant for Hot Docs.

Elsewhere, Sheffield Doc/Fest has also promoted Cutts to curator and head of Alternate Realities. Cutts first joined the festival in 2011, working on the VR and AR-focused programme.

Meanwhile, former Locarno and DocLisboa programmer Agnès Wildenstein has joined Doc/Fest as an associate programmer.

Elsewhere, Melanie Iredale continues to serve as deputy director of the festival, while Patrick Hurley is director of marketplace and talent.

Also in place for the 2020 edition is a selection committee of programmers who will collaborate on the programme, including Christopher Small, Onyeka Igwe, Qila Gill, Rabz Lansiquot, Melanie Iredale, Patrick Hurley and Mita Suri.

Meanwhile, programme consultants from Brazil, the Middle East, Russia, Southeast Asia and Japan have also boarded Sheffield to bring “a range of regional expertise” to the festival. The roster includes Danielle Arbid, Juliano Gomes, Boris Nelepo, Kong Rithdee and Yu Shimizu.

The festival’s focus on increasing its global nature follows the exit of director of programming Luke Moody, who stepped down this summer while calling on the organisation to become more international in scope.

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.”