Speakers

Ama Ampadu

Ama Ampadu is senior production and development executive at the BFI Filmmaking Fund. She worked as an independent producer across UK and international projects for over 12 years and produced Yared Zeleke’s Lamb (2015), the first Ethiopian film selected for the official Cannes line-up in Un Certain Regard. Ama was associate producer of Mati Diop's Dahomey, winner of the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin Film Festival. She also produced two films from Ayo Akingbade (2022 Screen Star of Tomorrow)—The Fist and Faluyi—as well as Lions, a short film by Beru Tessema supported by BFI NETWORK and nominated for the BIFA Best British Short. 

Charles Burnett

The work of Honorary Oscar recipient and legendary filmmaker Charles Burnett has consistently garnered critical acclaim. His debut film, Killer of Sheep, was declared a "national treasure" by the Library of Congress and inducted into the National Film Registry. Burnett, a Mississippi native and UCLA graduate, has received numerous prestigious awards, including a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and three Independent Spirit® Awards for his film To Sleep with Anger. Throughout his career, Burnett has tackled themes of race, history, and social justice in both film and television, earning accolades such as the Horton Foote Award for Screenwriting, and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Louvre Museum. In 2020, Burnett directed a documentary that aired on PBS, Power to Heal: Medicare & The Civil Rights Revolution, about the segregation of hospitals in the South. Burnett is a member of the DGA, WGA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 

Tamara Dewit

Tamara Dawit, an Ethiopian-Canadian filmmaker and alumna of Berlinale Talents and EAVE, has produced notable films such as Girls of Latitude (2008), Grandma Knows Best (2014), Finding Sally (2020), Alazar (2024) and Made in Ethiopia (2024) through her company, Gobez Media. Currently, she's actively involved in producing a diverse range of dramatic and documentary projects. In 2021, Tamara was a TIFF Producer Fellow and won the Doc Institute Vanguard Award and the Gordon Parks Award for Black Excellence in Filmmaking. She's also a Chalmers Arts Fellow (2023) and a MacDowell Fellow (2024).

Shaka King

Shaka King is a filmmaker with a body of work that spans the film and television arenas. King is the director, co-writer, and producer behind the Oscar-nominated feature Judas and the Black Messiah, starring Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya. The film, which marks his studio feature directorial debut, centers on Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal. The feature was nominated for six Academy Awards, including specific nods for King for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Presently, King has several television projects in development at FX and Netflix while prepping his next feature. He resides in his birthplace of Brooklyn.