Project Breakout is very pleased to introduce the all-star panel of judges responsible for reviewing and ranking each of the Breakout Filmmaker finalists' submissions.

David Parfitt - Producer

Mr. Parfitt produced the multi-award winning Shakespeare in Love, (winner of seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and four BAFTA Awards including Best Film).  His most recent film, Chasing Liberty is a contemporary romantic comedy.  Prior to this he produced an adaptation of Dodie Smith's novel I Capture the Castle released in March 2003.  In 2001 he worked at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome as production consultant to Miramax on Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Other producing credits include The Wings of the Dove starring Helena Bonham Carter, and the hugely successful film, The Madness of King George.  Both films were nominated for four Academy Awards.

Before moving into film productionDavid enjoyed a career as an actor and co-founded the Renaissance Theatre Company with Kenneth Branagh.  Between 1987 and 1991, the company produced various celebrated Shakespeare productions including Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, As You like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear and Coriolanus.  Contemporary works included John Sessions' Traveling TalesPublic Enemy.

In 1988, David Parfitt, Kenneth Branagh and business partner Stephen Evans joined together to form Renaissance Films.  Parfitt was the associate producer on the Academy Award winning Henry V and producer of Peter's Friends.  Continuing Renaissance’s interest in the classics, he also produced the successful film version of Much Ado about Nothing and the Academy Award-nominated short Swan Song.  He was co-producer of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and producer of the highly acclaimed film of Twelfth Night directed by Trevor Nunn.

In 2000 David formed Trademark Films and Trademark Theatre Company with other members of his regular production team. David is Deputy Chairman and a Trustee of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and sits on the Board of Trustees at the ChickenShed Theatre.

Andy Cadiff - Director

Andy Cadiff is an accomplished and highly sought-after television and motion picture director. His credits include Home Improvement (ABC/Touchstone), Spin City (ABC/Dreamworks), King of Queens (CBS/Sony), George Lopez Show (ABC/Touchstone), Chasing Liberty (Paramount Pictures), Leave it to Beaver (Universal Pictures) and the upcoming A Bunch of Amateurs.

Karl Sydow - Producer

Current projects include the National Theatre production of Happy Days with Fiona Shaw directed by Debra Warner At BAM, Ring Round the Moon by Jean Anouilh and adapted by Christopher Fry directed by Sean Mathias at the Playhouse, Jenufa by Timberlake Wertenbaker directed by Irina Brown at the Arcola Theatre.

Karl has produced/co-produced: Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre; Sinatra at the London Palladium the spectacular multimedia production directed by David Leveaux with choreography by Stephen Mear; And Then There Were None with Tara Fitzgerald at the Gielgud; the London & Sydney production of Dance of Death with Sir Ian McKellen, Frances de la Tour and Owen Teale; Bea Arthur at the Savoy; Auntie and Me, with Alan Davies and Margaret Tyzack at the Wyndham’s; Michael Moore, Live! at the Roundhouse; the West End premiere of Noel Coward’s Semi Monde; Kevin Elyot’s Mouth to Mouth at the Albery Theatre with Lyndsay Duncan and Michael Maloney; David Mamet’s Speed the Plow with Mark Strong, Patrick Marber and Kimberly Williams; Drummers by Simon Bennet and Some Explicit Polaroids by Mark Ravenhill (winner of the Evening Standard Award as Most Promising Newcomer) both directed by Max Stafford-Clark for Out of Joint; Macbeth with Rufus Sewell at the Queens Theatre; A Swell Party a celebration of Cole Porter at the Vaudeville Theatre; Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good (nominated for six Tony Awards and received the Olivier Award for Best Play and the New York Critics’ Award for Best Foreign Play); Hysteria (Best Comedy, Olivier Awards), and an adaptation of Sue Townsend’s novel The Queen and I which was Out of Joint’s inaugural production. 

Karl continues to serve on the board of Out of Joint, the UK leading producer of new writing for the theatre.

Karl also served as a director of Renaissance Film Company.  He continues to act as an independent film producer; projects under development with David Parfitt, his colleague from Renaissance include A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian Hislop & Nick Newman and the film of Cape High by award winning writer/director Sean Mathias.