Advisory Group

Rhiannon has spent 19 years creating new opportunities for young people through Arts and Film Festivals. In 2016 she was a founding member of Wicked Wales, an international youth film festival screening short films from Wales and from all over the World. In 2017 she has joined a team of volunteers from Rhyl Little Theatre and FHW Young Programmers to launch Wicked Cinema an affordable, community run mobile cinema.

Rhiannon has consistently looked at ways to broaden participation and access in the arts and the creative industries for young people in Wales. A former vice chair of Arts Council Wales, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Trustee of National Museums Wales and Chair of the Scala Cinema Trust, she always tries to involve young people in discussions and as a former Leader of Denbighshire County Council and Councillor for over 20 years, she consistently championed this work. She has recently joined the Hijinx Board.

As an Internationalist she believes in the importance of creating international opportunities for young people and is pleased to be a member of the British Council Advisory Board in Wales.

Sana Soni is an independent film sales and distribution executive based in Washington, DC, originally from Budapest and New Delhi.

She has an extensive background in film and TV sales from multiple studios and independents in both Los Angeles and London, including Discovery, Warner Bros, NBC Universal, Signature Entertainment, National Geographic, and Walden Media. A UCLA and New York Film Academy graduate, she brings real-world market expertise to features and series in development or those looking for distribution.

Sana has spoken at the DC International Film Festival, served as a jury member for the Brooklyn Film Festival, and also executive produced an entire short-form TV series from conception to delivery during the COVID-19 lockdown period.

Gary works in the film team at the British Council, the UK’s cultural relations organisation.

He is a founder and director at Animate Projects, where he has been commissioning and producing work with artists and animators for over 15 years. He was previously Head of Moving Image at Arts Council England, where his production executive role included working with artist filmmakers including Steve McQueen, Carol Morley, Andrew Kötting and Clio Barnard, running commissioning schemes with Channel 4 and the BBC and devising the Moving Image Initiative feature development partnership with UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund.

Gary was born and bred in Carmarthen.