MEET THE JURY

 

An independent panel of industry experts are currently deliberating on the winners of the Casting Awards 2017.

 

Gabe Blair works in the Commercials Department at United Agents.

He works with a large and eclectic mix of acting talent in the fields of visual commercials, music videos, online promotional campaigns and corporate films.

Matt Buels is the Hungry Man London founder and Exec producer.  Matt has worked for over 25 years in the advertising and production world and has worked on international global campaigns for many Fortune 500 corporations

Steve Davies is Chief Executive of the APA. Alongside this he oversees all APA events and serves as an ambassador for the industry. Steve is also a member of the board of the Advertising Association, Executive Vice President of the CFPE and one of the founders of the World Producers Summit in Cannes.

Paul Gay began his career as an Art Director at DDB London, where he spent a decade working on award-winning campaigns. During his time at DDB that Paul began to develop his own distinct style of film-making. After leaving DDB to direct full time, Paul was quickly recognised as a premiere directing talent both in the UK and the States, and it wasn’t long before he was taking home Gold Lions and top honours from the BTAA, D&AD and AICP. In addition to commercial and TV work Paul enjoys working on short films

Ella Sanderson is a senior producer at Partizan where she has worked for over 15 years, working with some of the industries most notable directors including Stephen Frears, Nima Nourizadeh, Sandra Goldbacher and Tom Hooper. Ella is Skilled in shooting high production value commercials through to low budget content and has worked on many award winning Commercials, Short films and Music Videos.  

Jason Solomons is one of the UK’s most respected film critics on radio, newspapers and TV. Jason founded the Guardian Film Weekly Podcast and the legendary Trailer Trash film column in the Observer, where he wrote for 15 years. He also has a weekly radio show on BBC Radio London with Robert Elms, is a regular on BBC Radio 4’s PM and Front Row as well as co-hosting the BAFTA red carpet and Oscar shows for BBC News. He also presents the entertainment highlights show on board Virgin Atlantic. A former Chair of the London Film Critics’ Circle, Jason blogs, podcasts and reviews on his influential website jasonsolomons.com

Charley Stadler is a director and songwriter. He’s won over 200 International awards for his commercial work and has shot for some of the largest global brands like Microsoft and many more. In 2016, Filestage ranked him as one of top 50 commercial directors of all time. In 2004, Charley directed and co-wrote the feature film Dead Fish starring Gary Oldman, Robert Carlyle and Terence Stamp.

Mark Waites is co-founder of Mother – Campaign magazine’s ‘Agency of the Decade’. Over the last 20 years, Mark has helped to grow the agency into one of the world’s most respected independent creative companies. In 2008, the British Television Advertising Awards gave him their ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Industry’ distinction. In 2009 Mark and his creative partner Robert Saville were Campaign magazine’s ‘Creative Directors of the Decade’. For 2008 & 2009 he was Honorary Chairman of the Advertising Club of New York ANDY Awards.

 

The CDA would like to extend our thanks to the jury members for helping to raise awareness of the Art of Casting.