Berwyn Rowlands – 2021 Jury

We are excited to announce that the Iris Prize’s Berwyn Rowlands will be this years ‘Best UK Film’ judge.

In 2006 he established the Iris Prize – at £30,000 the world’s largest LGBT+ short film prize presented annually during Cardiff’s Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival. The organisation shares LGBT+ content all year round thanks to a relationship with Film 4 / All4 and Iris on the Move which tours the UK. 

The organisation has produced 11 short films with winners of the Iris Prize with a further two in pre-production. The Cardiff festival has featured in the top 50 film festivals in the world by Movie Maker Magazine for four years running. In 2020 the festival went online and secured a UK audience of 83,530 (10,000 in 2019).  

In 1997 aged 31 Berwyn was appointed the Chief Executive of Sgrîn Cymru Wales in which capacity he established Ffresh, the Student Moving Image Festival of Wales, the Wales Screen Commission, and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales (in partnership with the National Library of Wales). 

He is regularly asked to talk about film / media and gay rights on TV and radio.