In addition to our jam-packed programme of inspiring films, we're delighted to welcome so many talented and diverse special guests to LandxSea this year. Acclaimed filmmakers, creative artists, activists, and change-makers from Scotland and beyond! 

Our guests will be participating in Q&As after the screenings of their films, giving introductions, or leading workshops, masterclasses or conversations - your chance to ask them questions, learn more about the context and background to their work, deep dive into the issues that matter, and share your thoughts and ideas!

Below, you'll find a list of our expected guests who will be attending.

Please continue to check back for updates, as more attendees are still in the process of confirming. As always with live events, guest attendance is never 100% guaranteed.

Friday 12 September

Hannah Papacek Harper - Filmmaker, Lost For Words

Hannah is a writer and director with a background in Aesthetics and Cinema Practice from La Sorbonne Panthéon, France, and Universidad de Lima, Peru. Formerly a Steadicam operator, she now creates films exploring ecology, science, displacement, and transgenerational memory. Rooted in experimental video, her shorts Just Listen to the Storm and Vegetative screened internationally from 2021–2023. She is passionate about sensory, empathetic storytelling and making complex ideas accessible. Lost for Words is her feature documentary debut.

Gabriela Sawaya - Producer, Lost for Words

Gabriela holds a degree in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and a Master’s in Environmental Studies and Anthropology from EHESS, France. Her research has focused on environmental justice, health, and migration, with a deep interest in people’s lived experiences. This led her from anthropology to filmmaking. Since 2022, she has worked as a documentary production manager at Retroviseur Productions, contributing to several films including Lost for Words and An Instance of Non-Existence.

Amanda Thomson - Artist and Author, Belonging: Natural Histories of Place, Identity and Home

Amanda is a Scottish artist and writer whose interdisciplinary practice spans creative non-fiction, printmaking, photography, and video. Her work explores place, belonging, and how we come to know the world through art and language. She holds a PhD in interdisciplinary arts from the University of the Highlands and Islands, with research focused on Scottish forests and how we come to know place through art-making and ethnographic practice. Her books include A Scots Dictionary of Nature (2018) and Belonging: natural histories of place, identity and home (2022), which was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. She contributes to The Guardian's Country Diary and was Artist-in-Residence with Cairngorms Connect (2022-2024), a landscape restoration project exploring ecological belonging.

Hannah, Gabriela, and Amanda will join us for a Q&A following the Scottish Premiere of Lost for Words, our festival opener on Friday 12th September at 7:30pm.

This show will be introduced by Rachel Caplan and Anthony Baxter - Co-Founders of LandxSea Film Fest.

Damon Gameau - Filmmaker, Future Council

Damon is an award-winning Australian filmmaker, author and speaker. He directed That Sugar Film and 2040—both among Australia’s top 10 highest-grossing documentaries—and authored accompanying bestsellers. Damon co-founded Regen Studios with Anna Kaplan, using storytelling to drive global action on climate and ecological regeneration. His impact campaigns have raised millions for sustainable solutions. Recent projects include Regenerating Australia and Future Council. His TEDx Sydney talk has been viewed over 1.2 million times.

Clemence "CC" Currie - Activist, Future Council

Clemence "CC" Currie, the youngest member of the Future Council, lives by the beach in Edinburgh and has a lifelong passion for animals and nature. After witnessing the impact of plastic waste on sea life at age three, she launched CC’s Plastic Pick Up Crew, asking children, wherever they lived, to take notice of plastic rubbish and pick it up. She’s always been curious about how businesses work and has never been afraid to ask "why?". A vocal leader at school, she inspires peers and communities to take action for the planet.

Damon and CC will join us for a Q&A following our Free for Schools screening of Future Council, Friday 12 September, 10.00am.

Kelly Ann Dempsey - Restoration Ecologist, Environment and Climate Change Team Leader at Angus Council

Kelly Ann has worked in Angus on climate and environmental issues for around 20 years. She leads the Environment and Climate Change Team at Angus Council and has a particular focus on climate change adaptation and landuse. This includes exploring opportunities to restore habitats at a range of scales across Angus.

Kelly Ann will take part in a Q&A following our schools screening of Lowland Kids on 12th September, 10am.

Saturday 13 September

Eirene Houston - Havana-Glasgow Film Festival Co-Founder

Eirene is a Glaswegian filmmaker and screenwriter who trained at the National Film and Television School after a career in teaching. She has written for major UK series including This Life (Writers' Guild Award), Monarch of the Glen, and EastEnders. Her debut feature Day of the Flowers (2013), shot in Cuba and starring Carlos Acosta, competed for the Michael Powell award at Edinburgh Film Festival. Her latest documentary Life is Dance (2025), also set in Cuba, premiered at Havana Film Festival New York and won the Programmer's Choice Award at WacoIndie Film Festival Texas. Houston is also the founding director of Havana-Glasgow Film Festival, celebrating her passion for both cities and cinema.

Daniesky Acosta - Filmmaker, The Magic of Mending

Dani is a Cuban filmmaker and founder of DaniFilms. Born in rural eastern Cuba, he worked on his family’s organic farm and studied digital design in Havana before earning a first-class degree in Media and Design from London Metropolitan University. A former developer, designer, and editor, his recent documentaries on Cuba’s response to COVID-19 and climate change premiered at COP26. His film Cuban Bees—The Organic Revolution screened at LandxSea 2024 and he is serving as a festival juror for this year's LandxSea North Light Award.

Julia Harriman - Filmmaker & Creative Producer, The Magic of Mending

Julia is a freelance Project Manager and Creative Producer with over 20 years’ experience in the creative industries and nonprofit sector. She has led festivals, events, and global education projects across the UK and Latin America. Julia is also the Co-Founder and former Director of La Choza Chula, a social enterprise based on the coast of Guatemala.

Eirene, Dani, and Julia are expected to join us following the screening of the Cuban Shorts: From Havana with Hope on Saturday 13th at 10.30am.

David Macpherson - Creator/Screenwriter, The Rig 

David is a Scottish screenwriter whose hit debut series The Rig, inspired by his father’s life as an offshore worker, premiered on Prime Video in 2023 and topped charts globally. Series 2, set in the Arctic and tackling deep sea mining, launched in 2025. Formerly in politics, policing, and environmental policy, David brings varied life experience to his writing. Named a Screen International Rising Star in 2022, he has multiple new projects in development.

Gemma Bradshaw - Impact Director, TV Foundation

Gemma is Impact Director at the TV Foundation, the charitable arm of the Edinburgh TV Festival. Prior to that, Gemma was the director of One World Media and focused on growing their support for new talent covering global stories. She is passionate about making the creative industries more accessible and the power of stories to open minds and create space for conversation and change, with a particular focus on the climate crisis. Gemma started her career in public policy before a move to the US led to her working in the documentary industry as Director of Programs for the Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA), and prior to that as COO of San Francisco Green Film Festival.

Join us for In Conversation: David Macpherson - stories from The Rig, Saturday 13th at 12.30pm.

Ben will join us for a Q&A following our screening of The Pickers on Saturday 13th September, 2.00pm.

Mariana Duarte - Filmmaker, Headland

Mariana is a Brazilian filmmaker based in Scotland whose work spans creative non-fiction and international co-productions. A Berlinale Talents alumna, her films have screened at festivals including Aspen Shortfest, Edinburgh, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Tiradentes. Her latest short, Headland (2024), commissioned by the Scottish Documentary Institute's Bridging the Gap programme, won Best Mini-Doc at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. She previously directed Newcomers (2013) and worked as an editor at TV Globo. Currently completing a PhD in Film Practice at Edinburgh College of Art, her research explores borders, migration, and ecology in contemporary documentary cinema. Her recent publication, A Camera in the Water: Reframing the Migrant Image in Documentary Film, appeared in Screen journal.

Mariana will join us for a Q&A following the screening of her film Headland alongside The Pickers, on Saturday 13th September, 2.00pm. 

Sonja Henrici - Producer, Tracing Light

Sonja is a writer/producer with over two decades in film and TV. As founder of Sonja Henrici Creates, she collaborates with global storytellers to develop transformative documentaries. Formerly Co-Director/Executive Producer at Scottish Documentary Institute (2013-2020), she built its international profile, led its transition to charitable status, and launched the 50:50+ Women Direct Campaign. Her producer credits include acclaimed films Merkel (Telluride/Netflix), The Oil Machine (IDFA/CPH Dox), Tracing Light (DokLeipzig Opening Film), and award-winning features Future My Love, I Am Breathing, Donkeyote, Becoming Animal, and Time Trial. She is a member of AMPAS and BAFTA.

Leslie Hills - Executive Producer, Skyline Productions, Tracing Light

Leslie is an award-winning film producer whose career spans drama, current affairs, arts and politics. She now focuses on internationally financed documentaries produced with German partners and filmed across five continents. A former journalist and script consultant, she has led seminars and training programmes worldwide, from Toronto to St. Petersburg. Leslie's writing includes theatre and contemporary classical music reviews, programme notes for the Edinburgh International Film Festival, press dispatches and diaries from 1990s Berlin, and published fiction and essays. Her debut book, 10 Scotland Street, an opinionated history of one Edinburgh house over two centuries, was published in 2023.

Sonja and Leslie will take part in a Q&A following Scottish Premiere of Tracing Light on Saturday 13th September, 4.40pm.

Sandra Winther - Filmmaker, Lowland Kids

Sandra is a Danish film director based in New York whose work captures vibrant youth culture and climate-driven stories with striking intimacy and lyricism. Her acclaimed documentaries include Lowland Kids (which first premieres as a short film at SXSW in 2019) and A New Wave (New York Times Op-Doc, 2024). She received the 'Filmmaker of the Future' Award at the Rhode Island Film Festival (2019) and the Nowness Award for Breakthrough Artist for Cultural Excellence in Film and Video (2020), recognising her bold cultural voice and cinematic vision.

Sandra will be joining us for a Q&A (via zoom) following our Scottish Premiere of Lowland Kids on 13th September, 7.30pm. 

Virginia Heath - Filmmaker, In the Flame We Reveal Ourselves

Virginia is a BAFTA-nominated writer/director known for award-winning documentaries and dramas. Her feature From Scotland With Love (2014) screened with live performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, Barbican, and Celtic Connections. She won the Berlinale Short Film Prize for Relativity (2002) and and received a European Film Academy nomination. Virginia has directed arts documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC and won a National Film Board of Canada/Sheffield Doc/Fest award. Recent works include Cigar Box Blues (BBC1/BBC4, 2021) and Three Chords and the Truth, which screened at Woodstock and Nashville. Her drama Lift Share won Best Short at Copenhagen Film Festival in 2019.

Grant Keir - Producer, Faction North Ltd, In the Flame We Reveal Ourselves

Grant is a producer and founder of Faction North, with over 25 international feature films, documentaries, and hybrid projects to his name. His co-productions include Off the Rails, The Artist and the Wall of Death, and the BAFTA Scotland-nominated From Scotland With Love. A respected mentor and tutor, he has worked with Dok Incubator and Finland’s ground-breaking AVEK mentoring programme, 'Kehittamo', supporting the next generation of filmmakers through development and industry launch.

Rick Anthony (aka Rick Redbeard) - Musician, Afterlands

Rick Redbeard is the solo moniker of Scottish musician Rick Anthony, best known as the lead singer of Glasgow’s much-missed The Phantom Band. In 2024, he released We Are the Animals in the Night with new project Afterlands, a collaboration with Davey McAulay and Jill Lorean, on Lost Map Records. A distinctive voice in Scotland’s alt-folk scene, Rick is currently completing his first solo release since 2016’s Awake Unto, combining poetic songwriting with an atmospheric, genre-defying sound.. 

Virginia, Grant and Rick will be joining us for the World Premiere of In the Flame we Reveal Ourselves on Saturday 13th September, which screens alongside Lowland Kids.

The screening will open with a live musical performance from Rick Anthony, and followed by a Q&A with Virginia Heath and Grant Keir.

Sunday 14 September

Peter van Rodijnen - Underwater Cameraman, North Sea, Nature Untamed

Peter is a self-taught underwater cinematographer whose passion began while diving on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. A graduate of the Technical University of Amsterdam, he has spent the past decade capturing the unseen beauty of marine life. His work has featured in acclaimed series and films such as Holland–Nature in the Delta, Wild Amsterdam, and Silence of the Tides. For North Sea, Nature Untamed, he undertook the challenge of filming never-before-seen underwater footage.

Peter will join us for a Q&A following the Scottish Premiere of North Sea, Nature Untamed on Sunday 14th, 11.45am

Eve Mosher - Artist, Sea Change Embedded Artist in Montrose

Eve is an artist and facilitator working at the intersection of climate change and imagination. Formerly based in New York, she now lives in rural Scotland, developing creative tools to help communities envision and shape more hopeful futures. Since 2007, she has used storytelling, participatory art, and systems thinking to support collective climate action. When not dreaming up outlandish ideas for her village, she’s attempting to keep both the sea and the chickens out of her garden.

Eve will lead our workshop Sea Change: Climate, Community & Creativity on Sunday 14 September, 2pm

Itandehui Jansen - Director, Itu Ninu

Itandehui is a filmmaker born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and trained at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. Her award-winning documentaries and short films have screened at IDFA, Slamdance, London Short Film Festival, ZINEBI, and the Morelia International Film Festival. Her short The Last Council earned multiple international accolades and a Diosa de Plata Mexican Film Critics Award nomination. A Berlinale Talents and Torino Film Lab alumna, she is currently Associate Professor of Film at Screen Academy Scotland in Edinburgh.

Armando Bautista García - Actor/Producer, Itu Ninu

Armando is a writer and producer with an M.A. in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he studied with a scholarship from the Ford Foundation. He crafts plays, short stories, and screenplays in Spanish and Indigenous languages, supported by CONACULTA, Mexico’s National Council for Culture and the Arts, and programmes like Berlinale Talents Script Station, Cine Qua Non Lab, and the ImagineNative Fellowship. His credits include Tiempo de lluvia (2018) and Itu Ninu (2023), which won multiple awards including Best Emerging Feature at Oaxaca FilmFest. Itu Ninu is set for 2025 release in Mexico with Benuca Films.

Itandehui and Armando will join us for a Q&A following our screening of Itu Ninu, Sunday 14th September at 2.40pm.

Mark Jenkins - Filmmaker, The World We Make Is Shaped by the Stories We Tell

Mark is a BAFTA Scotland-winning editor and filmmaker working across arts and commercial sectors. He has received two personal BAFTA Scotland awards, with his edited films earning four more, 39 festival prizes, and an Oscar shortlist for Best Animated Short (2023). Based in Orkney since 2007, his work has screened internationally. In 2018, he co-founded Kolekto with artist Rebecca Marr, producing cultural heritage projects in film, audio, and photography while continuing to teach film editing at postgraduate level.

The World We Make Is Shaped by the Stories We Tell screens alongside Itu Ninu, Sunday 14th September at 2.40pm.

Morag Mckinnon - Director, When Fish Begin to Crawl

Morag is a BAFTA-winning Scottish writer and director whose global perspective stems from her early life in Southeast Asia. Her feature Donkeys (2010) won a Scottish BAFTA, and she co-directed the acclaimed documentary I Am Breathing (2012), earning a BAFTA Scotland Best Director award. Her debut Home (1998) won 16 international prizes. She has also directed for television, including, three episodes of the BAFTA award-winning series Buried, a visceral depiction of life in prison. Morag teaches filmmaking at Edinburgh College of Art and on the Erasmus-funded Kinoeyes programme at Edinburgh Napier University.

Jim Sutherland - Composer/Director, When Fish Begin to Crawl

Jim is an award-winning composer, producer, and artistic director known for inventive, cross-genre work. His film credits include Outlaw King (Netflix) and Brave (Disney). He co-writes with hip-hop artist Darren Loki McGarvey and has collaborated with artists from Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to Jack Bruce, Mumford and Sons, The Shotts and Dykehead Pipe band, The Chieftains, and Billy Bragg. Commissioned works include celebrating Marseilles as European Capital of Culture 2013 and Derry as UK city of Culture 2013. His 36-piece orchestra La Banda Europa unites musicians from across the continent, playing instruments indigenous to their homelands. A “conjurer of the ear” (John Berger), Jim was named Producer of the Year at the 2019 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.

Morag and Jim will join us for a Q&A following our screening of When Fish Begin to Crawl on Sunday 14th September, 5.15pm.

La Fille Renne - Filmmaker, Chasing Whales

La Fille Renne is a non-binary filmmaker, photographer, and tattoo artist from Lyon. Trained in ecology and zooarchaeology, their work explores queerness and sexuality, as well as human–animal relationships in polar and northern coastal cultures threatened by climate change. Their short films, made solo and with collaborators Laure Giappiconi and Elisa Monteil, have screened at Sundance, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and London Short Film Festival. They co-founded Polysème Magazine and published Review argentique, combining analogue photography techniques with political storytelling around landscapes, identity, and non-normative bodies.

La Fille Renne will join us for our screening of their short film Chasing Whales, which is showing alongside When Fish Begin to Crawl on Sunday 14th September, 5.15pm.

Richard Ladkani - Director, Yanuni

Richard is an award-winning director and cinematographer with over fifty documentaries to his credit, spanning urgent environmental, social, and political themes. His acclaimed films include Sea of Shadows (National Geographic/Disney+) and The Ivory Game (Netflix), both executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Sea of Shadows won the Sundance Audience Award, while The Ivory Game was shortlisted for the Academy Awards in 2017.

Other notable works include Jane’s Journey, an acclaimed portrait of Dr. Jane Goodall that was theatrically released in over 40 countries and shortlisted for the Academy Awards, and The Devil’s Miner, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2023, he served as Series Director on Arctic Ascent, a climate-focused expedition series for National Geographic/Disney+. In 2015, Richard and his wife Anita founded Malaika Pictures, a production company dedicated to cinematic, impact-driven storytelling.

Anita Ladkani - Producer, Yanuni

Anita is a documentary producer and co-founder of Malaika Pictures, dedicated to impact-driven storytelling. Known for her sharp narrative instincts and deep passion for environmental and social issues, she has helped bring powerful global stories to screens worldwide. Her work has earned major recognition, including the Audience Award at Sundance. Drawing on her diverse life experiences, Anita blends craft with purpose, making her a vital voice in nonfiction cinema.

Richard and Anita Ladkani join us for a Q&A following our closing night screening, the Scottish Premiere of Yanuni, Sunday 14 September, 7.30pm.

MEET OUR NORTH LIGHT AWARD JURY

Our annual juried award shines a light on bold Scottish filmmaking that reimagines our relationship with the natural world. With a £500 cash prize, it honours originality, impact, and creative vision in environmental storytelling. Finalists screen throughout the weekend, with the winner announced at Closing Night.

Daniesky Acosta - DaniFilms

Dani is a Cuban filmmaker and founder of DaniFilms. Born in rural eastern Cuba, he worked on his family’s organic farm and studied digital design in Havana before earning a first-class degree in Media and Design from London Metropolitan University. A former developer, designer, and editor, his recent documentaries on Cuba’s response to COVID-19 and climate change premiered at COP26. His film Cuban Bees—The Organic Revolution screened at LandxSea 2024, with his latest film The Magic of Mending having its World Premiere at this year's festival.

Katherine Bruce - Executive Director, Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival, Canada

Katherine has an extensive background in producing film, theatre, and visual arts, and previously served as Development Director at UK-based Cape Farewell’s Carbon 14: Climate is Culture in partnership with ROM Contemporary Culture. Katherine holds an MA in Communication and Cultural Studies with a research focus on fresh water as both a commodity and a human right. She currently serves as Board Co-Chair of the international Green Film Network (GFN).

Karen Ridgewell - Climate Emergency & Sustainability Lead, Creative Scotland

Acting on the climate breakdown has been the motivation for Karen’s work for over 15 years. It began at university when working on volunteer projects in Brighton and has continued throughout her time within architectural practice, a national contractor, an active travel charity and Architecture & Design Scotland. Karen joined Creative Scotland as the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Lead in January 2023 and is focusing on the delivery of the ambition that was set out in their co-designed Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan.

The North Light Award 2025 will be presented at the start of the closing night screening, Sunday 14 September, 7.30pm.

More guests to be announced. Please sign-up for our newsletter and follow @LandxSeaFest on social channels for all the latest news and updates.