Carmen Thompson

Carmen Thompson is a film programmer, distributor and cultural producer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She works freelance and consultants across programming, audiences, festivals, training and development, funding and distribution, both in the UK and internationally.

Carmen currently works as Head 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 release of Cannes Competition title BANEL & ADAMA (Ramata-Toulaye Sy, 2023) in the UK and Ireland. She is a Programme Consultant for Sheffield DocFest and between 2021-2025 was Programmer of Sub-Saharan African Film at Red Sea Film Festival.

She was previously a producer at international sales & distribution company Aya Films, working on the UK releases of films such as the award-winning THE GRAVEDIGGER’S WIFE (Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, 2021), RAFIKI (Wanuri Kahiu, 2018), SPRINTER (Storm Saulter, 2018) and THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT’S A RESURRECTION (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, 2019). Aya Films also work across media education and in 2021 Carmen worked on the development of curatorial learning app Curate-It.

In her 10 years in film exhibition and distribution, Carmen has worked with a range of organisations including Durban FilmMart, European Film Market, AfroBerlin, Africa in Motion Film Festival (Co-director, 2020), Realness Institute, Wellcome, Scottish Documentary Institute, The Africa Channel, New Black Film Collective, Cinema Rediscovered and London Film School, and has recently served on film juries for the European Film Awards, BlackStar Film Festival, Cork International Film Festival and Leeds International Film Festival.

Carmen was voted a Screen International Future Leader, announced at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. She is a BAFTA and European Film Academy voting member.