Panel Discussion

Asif Kapadia 

Asif Kapadia is a world-renowned Director with a multitude of accolades, including an Academy Award, BAFTA, and Grammy. His films and documentaries include Senna (2010), chronicling the life of Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna, Amy (2015), a profile of singer Amy Winehouse, and the 2024 lift-the-lid investigative doc/fiction feature 2073.

Nate Agbetu 

Nate is a Cultural Curator, Educator and Filmmaker who highlights emergent thinking through research, art and speculative design. Their practice exists in the liminal space between culture and social innovation, manifesting in the form of everything from community gardens to films, lectures and arts programming – imagining new futures through creativity and knowledge exchange.

Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian 

Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian Ph.D (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and cultural activist with over a decade of experience working to document and build platforms that support plurality, the creation of organised communities and impossible productions, public events, expeditions and projects with socio-political impacts. Their work has premiered at institutions such as MoMA, the V&A, the MET, National Museum of China, and Gaité Lyrique and she has collaborated with NASA and underground communities worldwide. She is the founder of the University of the Underground, NASA’s International Space Orchestra, SETI Institute’s Experiences department, and Tour de Moon—an LGBTQA+ nationwide festival. Nelly has directed five acclaimed feature films (SXSW, BAFTA-nominated, LFF) and was named a Berlinale Talent in 2025. Recent work includes Art of London’s takeover of Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, culminating in Piccadilly Un:Plugged, a world-first event broadcasting human heartbeats and unreleased tracks from Massive Attack and Pussy Riot to the moon and a world first- a 25 min artist moving images screening on Piccadilly Lights. Her artwork has flown aboard the International Space Station, where she continues to develop decolonial cultural initiatives focusing on the demilitarisation of outer-space. They work from an artist collective- the Village Underground- based in a train carriage on top of a nightclub in London. She has two doppelgangers who work with her to appear at multiple places at the same time, a Barbie doll and a Lego made of herself. In 2023, Nelly led a lunar analogue mission in Spain exploring intergenerational trauma and space futures, resulting in the first academic paper merging neuropsychology, film, and critical theory in space research.

Rebecca Lewin 

Rebecca Lewin is a writer and curator whose work focuses on the intersection of research, ecology and creative practice. She is currently Head of Curatorial Programme at Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition. Previously, she was Senior Curator at the Design Museum and Curator of Exhibitions and Design at Serpentine Galleries. Rebecca has produced independent exhibitions and contributed to courses at the Royal College of Art and Design Academy Eindhoven. Lewin is co-curator of the Design Museum’s 2025 exhibition More than Human.

Robin McNicholas 

Co-founder and Director of the award-winning creative artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), Robin has directed XR, immersive experiences, virtual production, large-scale installations and live performances. MLF tell stories that untangle, entangle and flavour our reality, blurring the lines between art, immersive experiences, XR and film. Most recently, he directed Sweet Dreams, an immersive adventure blending animation, cinema and interaction, created with writer Simon Wroe & the BFI, and premiered at Factory International’s Aviva Studios. The team also focusses on work that explores pioneering understandings of Human connection to the natural world as seen in shows YOU:MATTER and Of The Oak.

Cary Rajinder Sawhney 

Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE is best-known as the UK’s leading curator of South Asian cinema. Formerly of the British Film Institute, as Head of Diversity he curated Europe’s largest ever South Asian film project, ImagineAsia, covering 70 venues. Sawhney was programme adviser to the London Film Festival for many years and is currently CEO and Programming Director of the London Indian Film Festival, the largest South Asian film festival in the northern hemisphere, which premieres cutting-edge films, games and XR work.