Liz Harkman

Liz Harkman is a driven & enthusiastic cultural leader and consultant with a wealth of experience in running small charities and project consultancy within the screen and festival sector. She has a love of culture and the arts and a long term passion for film & festivals.

Liz has extensive knowledge and understanding of managing not for profit organisations and has developed business and strategic skills working for creative companies including in her current role as Managing Director for Live Cinema, the country’s only organisation focused on bringing artists, exhibitors, distributors and producers closer together to create amazing experiential cinema events. Liz is leading on strategic growth and international development into new exciting immersive cinema markets.

She regularly provides professional mentoring with a focus on income generation, fundraising, crisis management, strategic development, governance, leadership, recruitment, financial management and most other aspects of running a small creative organisation, facilitates development meetings and hosts peer to peer support groups.

Liz has developed the ability to work on multiple projects at the same time with excellent attention to detail, efficiency and time management skills. She works well both as part of a team and autonomously and has experience of working locally, nationally and internationally.

Experience and Skills

  • Cultural Leadership
  • Strategic Development
  • Business Development
  • Financial Management
  • Development & Fundraising (grants, trusts & foundations, sponsorship)
  • Impact, Reporting & Evaluation
  • Event Production/Management
  • Project Management
  • Festival Producing/Directing
  • Research
  • Marketing & Audience Development
  • Volunteer Strategy & Management
  • Fund application assessments (both UK and International)
  • Festival Submission Strategies
  • Bookkeeping
  • Short Film Programming

Testimonials

A huge thank you to the incredible Liz Harkman for 6 years of solid dedication to the Bristol Festivals Network. Everyone across the network will miss your enthusiastic energy and are forever grateful for supporting us all as individuals. You have always been there for everyone and have made a huge contribution supporting organisations during a global pandemic. You will be greatly missed. Good luck with everything that lies ahead.

Kirsty Henderson, Bristol Festivals, Board Member 2022

Thank you, you were so supportive this year, and through the whole project, and I’ve loved that you make me raise my game, by asking the difficult questions. You have really made sure that we’re evaluating this programme properly.

Annabel Grundy, Major Programmes Project Manager, Film Hub Midlands 2021

“I had the chance to work with Liz for two years in the short film selection committee of the Locarno festival. In addition to her programming skills and her sensitive and precise look at the films that made up the selection, I noticed that Liz also had many skills and qualities concerning her knowledge of the economic constraints and the programming stakes of a festival. I was also able to discover British short films thanks to Liz’s research with emerging filmmakers.”

Charlotte Corchete, Head of Selection Committee, Locarno Film Festival 2020