Leading our workshop team across the weekend will be Caris Rianne and Pearl Andrews-Horrigan.

Caris founded Rianne Pictures in 2013 and is the festival director behind the BFI backed and BIFA accrediated Women X Film Festival. She has written and directed over 10 short films, along with her award winning feature Demi. She’s a development producer and has mentored over 30 filmmakers since 2021 through RP: Evolve and Creative UK, along with developing all of their scripts plus countless others. She’s a film programmer and judge for Keswick Film Festival and does programming and operations for Sunderland Shorts Film Festival when she’s not directing the BIFA accredited Women X Film Festival for which she was nominated for the Makers and Shakers award for ‘Shaker of the year’. Her original podcast Not Having It All was featured on BBC Sounds and named Film Podcast of the month by Film Stories. She is a frequent speaker at events including BFI Southbank and universities across the UK. She is currently producing 4 shorts in 2025.

Pearl is currently a Storyliner on the BAFTA-award winning medical drama Casualty. Before this, she assisted the Commissioning Team at UKTV. At Rianne Pictures she is our Senior Development Executive, Pearl created and managed the company’s first ever script reading window, which provided 80 writers with free feedback on their short film scripts. She also oversees the annual Women X Film Festival Script Competition. Pearl’s longer works for theatre (plays, verse plays and musicals) have been supported by The Customs House, South Shields, TYPify Youth Arts Festival and The Brewhouse, Taunton, while her short plays have been performed at venues including The Arcola, The Pleasance and Hope Mills.