Born in Houston, Texas, Richard Linklater suspended his education at Sam Houston State University in 1982 to work on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He subsequently relocated to the state's capital of Austin, where he founded a film society and began work on his debut film, “It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books” (1988). 

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Three years later, Linklater released “Slacker” (1990), an insightful, virtually plotless look at 1990s youth culture that became a favorite on the festival circuit prior to earning vast acclaim at Sundance in 1991. Upon its commercial release, the movie, made for less than $23,000, became the subject of considerable mainstream media attention, with the term "slacker" becoming a much-overused catch-all tag employed to affix a name and identity to America's disaffected youth culture.

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Linklater’s other films include “Dazed and Confused” (1993), “Before Sunrise” (1995), “Waking Life” (2001), “School of Rock” (2003), “Before Sunset” (2004), “A Scanner Darkly” (2006) and “Before Midnight” (2013). He gained critical acclaim for his film “Boyhood” (2014), which took 12 years to film and won him a BAFTA for Best Director and Best Picture, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Movie Award. He also earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay.

Iwan Rheon is a Welsh actor and musician. Iwan has been our judge at Films for the Forest for three years in a row. He is best known for his roles as Simon Bellamy in “Misfits” , Ramsay Bolton in “Game of Thrones” , and Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars in the film “The Dirt”.

He has also acted in several films including “Libertador” (2013), “Hurricane” (2018), “Berlin, I love You” (2019), and series such as “American Gods” (2017), “Riviera“ (2017), and “Inhumans” (2017). Iwan has previously released various EPs. The first one, called “Tongue Tied”, was launched in 2010.

In early 2015, he also wrote and recorded a full-length album, called “Dinard”, while filming seasons four and five of GOT. Since 2019 he has been an Ambassador for @wwf_uk , and in 2021 he joined @wwfcymru and @size_of_wales , in an effort to have Wales become the first 'deforestation-free nation'.

James holds an MSc in Environmental Sustainability and lives in Scotland. His directing and producing credits include the WWF-commissioned short Tam Mỹ Tây, a Runner-Up in the Documentary Shorts Category at Films for the Forest, alongside his sideways study on sustainable forestry in Uganda, selected for the National Geographic Short Film Showcase.

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As founder of Melt Films LTD, his debut feature on the unending and urgent legacy of nuclear weapons testing, Nucleus, is due to be released in 2027. James was NHS Filmmaker in Residence at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in 2024-25, drawing inspiration from the psychiatric hospital’s botanical gardens, where patients and staff created cameraless films with plant cuttings and 8mm film.

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Between judging at FFF, and lecturing at Edinburgh College, James has enjoyed a variety of supporting roles on high-end TV dramas including The Crown, Outlaw King (Netflix) and The Buccaneers (Apple TV).