Cary Sawhney
Diversity Consultant (Strategic Audience Outreach, Marketing & Staffing)
Freelance (ImagineAsia Ltd)
Key Expertise: Audience Development
Other expertise: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Marketing and PR
Cary Rajinder Sawhney has a strong track record and UK wide experience of successfully pioneering and developing new diverse audiences and innovative programmes. From a senior management role, as Head of Diversity at BFI, where he strategically directed and delivered one of the BFI's largest ever festival's ImagineAsia (with 67 participating venues UK-wide), to Bradford's legendary Bite The Mango - Black and Asian film festival, which he initiated, to conceiving and leading the diverse mental health film festival - Brixton Reel (African-Caribbean, Latin American, Black & Asian LGBTQ+, Somali/Ethiopian, Portuguese communities). Perhaps most famously he conceived and leads the UK and Europe's largest South Asian Film Festival - Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival/Birmingham Indian Film Festival with 16 cinema venues in London, Birmingham and Manchester. His successful formula of marrying innovative high quality programming with community targeted marketing and culturally sensitive outreach has led to successful engagement and audience development with some of the UK's hardest to reach communities. This experience and knowledge, as well as rich contacts, makes him a unique and highly valuable consultant for any agency looking to strategically and on-the-ground engage more effectively with local grassroots communities. This has helped venues tap into new financial markets.
Cary is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts & Manufacturing, BAFTA member and was recently awarded LGBT Champion of the Year by the British Asian Media Awards, for his outstanding work in mainstreaming Asian LGBTQ+ cinema. It is probably the world's first such award in South Asia.
Cary has also won awards in the USA for his short films (Palm Springs Film Festival and NY Indian Film Festival) and has been Official Programme Adviser to the BFI London Film Festival for the last 24 years.
Other expertise: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Marketing and PR
Cary Rajinder Sawhney has a strong track record and UK wide experience of successfully pioneering and developing new diverse audiences and innovative programmes. From a senior management role, as Head of Diversity at BFI, where he strategically directed and delivered one of the BFI's largest ever festival's ImagineAsia (with 67 participating venues UK-wide), to Bradford's legendary Bite The Mango - Black and Asian film festival, which he initiated, to conceiving and leading the diverse mental health film festival - Brixton Reel (African-Caribbean, Latin American, Black & Asian LGBTQ+, Somali/Ethiopian, Portuguese communities). Perhaps most famously he conceived and leads the UK and Europe's largest South Asian Film Festival - Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival/Birmingham Indian Film Festival with 16 cinema venues in London, Birmingham and Manchester. His successful formula of marrying innovative high quality programming with community targeted marketing and culturally sensitive outreach has led to successful engagement and audience development with some of the UK's hardest to reach communities. This experience and knowledge, as well as rich contacts, makes him a unique and highly valuable consultant for any agency looking to strategically and on-the-ground engage more effectively with local grassroots communities. This has helped venues tap into new financial markets.
Cary is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts & Manufacturing, BAFTA member and was recently awarded LGBT Champion of the Year by the British Asian Media Awards, for his outstanding work in mainstreaming Asian LGBTQ+ cinema. It is probably the world's first such award in South Asia.
Cary has also won awards in the USA for his short films (Palm Springs Film Festival and NY Indian Film Festival) and has been Official Programme Adviser to the BFI London Film Festival for the last 24 years.