OUR MISSION

What is it about stories? The need for them is powerful, even primal. We seek them out, again and again. They touch us, disturb us, move us, sometimes soothe us, but whatever - they make us feel. 

With HBFF we aim to do just that. We have over 500 years of non-conformist history in the valley so it seems fitting that we champion the stories of those who exist in the margins, sit outside the mainstream or just plain don’t fit in. With the advent of the all too timely #metoo movement, it will not surprise many of you to know that statistics for women in film remain shockingly low. According to the BFI, in Britain in 2024 only only 12% of all films produced were directed by a woman. The figures for LGBTQ, working-class and BME filmmakers and filmmakers with disabilities also remain very low. 

HBFF is proud to be an F-Rated film festival. The F Rating is given to any film written by a woman, directed by a woman or featuring women in significant on-screen roles. Any film that meets all three criteria is awarded a Triple F Rating.

We are committed to BFI diversity standards and to delivering a programme of excellence, featuring international and homegrown films and unique events with industry professionals, as well as supporting and fostering local talent. And while we can't be the biggest, most glitzy festival out there, we can bring filmmakers and film lovers together in the wonderful community spirit that Hebden Bridge is famous for. 

OUR BOARD

LOUISE WADLEY
​Festival Director

Louise is the Festival Director, and set up Hebden Bridge Film Festival in 2019. Louise was a long time board member of the MardiGras Film Festival, and has served as a jurist for a number of film festivals, including Women in Film and Television (Australia). Louise graduated from the National Film and Television School in the UK and was a semi-finalist in The Academy Nicholl’s Scriptwriting competition and shortlisted for the Sundance Script Lab. Her debut feature All About E was released in 2016. Frustrated by the lack of roles for women she formed Girls’ Own Pictures with her partner Jay Rutovitz to develop and produce original stories with distinctive and exciting female lead characters. 

JAY RUTOVITZ 
General Manager

Jay is the Festival General Manager and set up Hebden Bridge Film Festival in 2019. She is a director of Girls’ Own Pictures. Jay has worked as a producer, a gaffer, and a 2nd assistant director, alongside her career in renewable energy, and has experience of managing large budgets in the energy sector.  She produced All About E (2015), a low budget narrative feature set in Sydney and the outback. Jay oversaw one of Australia’s most successful crowd funding projects for feature films, raising over $93,000 for All About E in a 2013 Pozible campaign, and raised $220,000 in private investment. ​

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AGUSTINA FIGUERAS 
Festival Producer

Agustina is an Italian-Argentinian writer and producer with over fifteen years’ experience collaborating with notable directors on both sides of the Atlantic as well as contributing to several acclaimed productions, including as Associate Producer on LISTEN (directed by Ana Rocha and winner of two Lions at the 2020 Venice Film Festival) and Assistant Producer on DICIANNOVE (directed by Giovanni Tortorici) . Agustina co-owns  Bardo North an independent film production company that looks to make small films about big ideas & also works as Project Manager at the International Programme Circle, a one-of-a-kind training initiative & network for women and gender-expansive filmmakers. 

JUDITH GLYNN 
​Advertising & Sponsorship

Judith is the Festival sponsorship manager. She originally trained as a doctor and then a research scientist working on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, mainly in Africa. She moved from London to Hebden Bridge in 2020, and now retired, can concentrate on art (as a sculptor) and becoming involved in the local community. Theatre and cinema have been life-long interests. 

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WILL HOOLE
​Volunteer Coordinator

Will is Volunteer Coordinator for the festival. In a previous life, he was an editor in London where he was an active member of the independent Castle Cinema in Hackney. Now a Hebden Bridge local, he works as a Publications Coordinator for a national charity and is a proud member of the Picture House.

LIN GAO
​Secretary

Lin is the Secretary of the festival and has worked as a screenwriter since 2010. Her credits in China include the TV documentary Love Across China (2010), the sci-fi comedy feature The Undead Detective (2018), the 28-episode TV series Meeting You (2020), and the sitcom After Hours (2024). During her MFA in Screenwriting in the United States, she wrote the award-winning short film Mr. Bunny. Now based in the UK, Lin is the founder of Caravan, a film exhibition organisation dedicated to showcasing world cinema, with a particular focus on East and Southeast Asian films for audiences in Calderdale.

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OLIVIA JENKINS
Communication Coordinator

Olivia is the Communication Coordinator for the festival. She is a marketer, a perpetual hobbyist, and of course a film lover. Since moving to Calderdale in 2024, she has quickly fallen in love with the warmth and creativity of the community. Passionate about cinema’s power to connect us with different perspectives, she’s excited to help bring new stories to audiences at the next festival.

PENNY MOE
Social Media Coordinator

Penny Moe is Social Media Coordinator for the festival. She is a multidisciplinary, first-generation artist with a background in activism and lived experience of displacement. An intersectional feminist and queer woman of Burmese ethnicity, she is originally from Burma and now based in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. Her work often explores trauma, grief, and (survival) guilt, with a focus on stillness and sensory experience as ways of connecting with daily life. Penny creates across mediums including watercolour and ink, film, photography, and food—drawing inspiration from the culture she was born and raised in, as well as the one she now calls home.