Finalists announced: Climate Spring's documentary pitch at Sheffield Doc Fest 2025

We are thrilled to announce the finalists for the Climate Spring Documentary Pitch at Sheffield Doc Fest 2025 - Amber Haque, Dan Ashby, Michelle Sanders, Ruth Campbell!

What is good climate content? Join us to find out. This entertaining session sees four creatives pitch their climate docs, with the winner receiving £10,000.

The next generation of climate stories will be about the solutions to climate change rather than its symptoms. But how do we pitch these shows to commissioners and funders? In a live pitch session at Sheffield Doc Fest on 19th June, the four finalists will show us how it’s done. In front of an audience they will pitch their climate documentary ideas, with the winner receiving £10,000 in development funding to help make their idea a reality.

Moderator: David Leach (Head of Unscripted, Climate Spring)

The judging panel:

Emma Loach - BBC Documentaires

Jono Stevens - Just So Branded Content Studio

Shanida Scotland - Doc Society

Harjeet Chhokar - Amazon MGM Studios / Prime Video

Meet the finalists:

Amber Haque

Amber Haque is a British broadcaster, presenter and documentary maker known for her compelling, immersive storytelling. Whether uncovering untold human stories or leading deep-dive investigations, she presents documentaries and podcasts for global heavyweights like BBC Three, BBC One, Channel 4, BBC Sounds, and CBS - always with empathy, warmth, and a fearless sense of adventure.

Dan Ashby

Dan Ashby is an environmental investigative journalist and film-maker. His multi-series "Buried" podcast for the BBC fuses narrative, true-crime and environmental story-telling. It has made the Apple Top 10, won multiple global awards and sparked two official investigations. Dan has directed two short films, one which premiered at Hot Docs. Before founding Smoke Trail Productions in Sheffield with his partner Lucy, Dan lived and worked as a TV reporter in East Africa and Russia, investigating the ivory trade, dynamite fishing gangs, climate corruption and more.

Michelle Sanders

Michelle Sanders is a documentary filmmaker focused on stories about climate and nature. She has worked across digital media, campaigns, and documentaries on topics including the loss of arctic sea ice, stopping oil and gas development in the UK, and the emerging debate over deep sea mining.

She has worked for clients including Fujifilm, 90 North Foundation, The Oscars, The Listening Planet, National Wildlife Federation, and Ffern. She was also a researcher on Netflix's hit documentary Tiger King. ‍

Ruth Campbell

Ruth is a director, producer and content creator with a background in science journalism and anthropology, passionate about the power of storytelling to drive change. She specialises in telling accessible, global stories at the intersection of climate, work and society, with credits for Netflix, Apple TV, Warner Bros Discovery, BBC, the UN and University of Bristol. Passionate about the power of storytelling to drive change. Ruth is Sreenskills HETV Leader of Tomorrow 2025.

Image (Left-Right): Amber Haque, Dan Ashby, Michelle Sanders, Ruth Campbell