Carmen Thompson

Carmen is Head of Distribution & Special Projects for multi-award winning film exhibition & distribution company We Are Parable, where she leads on nationwide and international projects including the recent releases of Banel & Adama (Ramata-Toulaye Sy, 2023) and Dreamers (Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, 2025) in the UK and Ireland, and nationwide BFI-funded film programme WE ARE HERE.  

Carmen is also a freelance film programmer and cultural producer with over a decade of experience across exhibition, audiences, festivals, training and development, funding and distribution. Her work centres on Black, African and diaspora storytelling, with a particular focus on documentary film. She is currently an International Features Programmer at Hot Docs and has previously programmed for Sheffield DocFest, Red Sea International Film Festival and Durban FilmMart.  

Carmen is deputy chair of the British International Film Awards (BIFA) and a BAFTA and European Film Academy voting member.