Sam Pollard Takes the Jury Gavel at London Film Festival, Leaving Docs and Features to Battle for the Same Popcorn
The first thing Sam Pollard noticed was the tea in the jury lounge was colder than a post‑mortem of a silent film. He stared at the trembling porcelain, wondered whether the kettle had been sabotaged by a disgruntled documentary filmmaker, and then remembered he’d been hired to keep the whole competition from melting into a mushy indie‑soup.
Pollard, whose résumé reads like a walking encyclopedia of documentary awards, now wears the official Competition jury badge like a badge of honour and a warning label. He will be flanked by Argentine filmmaker Mariano Llinás – whose films are so labyrinthine that even the festival’s Wi‑Fi gets lost – and Julie La Bassiere, the Chief Strategy Officer at DDA, who apparently brings a PowerPoint deck to every screening.
The trio will convene at DDA’s sleek conference rooms, a venue where the carpet is so white it reflects the nervous sweat of any director daring to submit a film. Rumour has it the chairs are ergonomically designed to keep jurors upright long enough to finish their verdicts without dozing off.
Meanwhile, the first‑feature competition has been handed over to British‑Egyptian star Amir El‑Masry, who now presides over the category with the gravitas of a royal guard and the occasional flick of a dramatic sigh. His counterpart for the documentary side is Sandhya Suri, a director whose own work has been described as "a meditation on the very act of watching" – a fitting description for someone now tasked with judging other people’s meditations.
The festival’s organisers have assured the public that the jury’s decision‑making process will be as transparent as a freshly cleaned cinema screen. In practice, this means that after a marathon of screenings, the jurors will retreat to a private room where they will argue over whether a film’s pacing feels more like a leisurely stroll through Hyde Park or a frantic sprint across the Tube.
Pollard, ever the diplomat, has promised to keep the debates civil. He’s even suggested a “no‑interruptions” rule, which will be broken faster than the British weather changes. Llinás is already drafting a manifesto titled "Why Every Film Should Have a Plot Twist About Plot Twists," while La Bassiere has prepared a flowchart titled "Decision Tree for Deciding If a Film Is Good Enough to Win."
The competition’s prize – a golden statuette shaped like a reel of film and a year’s supply of artisanal popcorn – has already caused a stir among the entrants. Some speculate the popcorn will be so gourmet that it could be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations with producers.
As the festival rolls on, the jury’s biggest challenge may not be choosing a winner, but surviving the endless rounds of polite applause, lukewarm tea, and the occasional sigh that sounds suspiciously like a plot twist in disguise.