Director
Alberto Barbera (Italy): born in Biella in 1950. After graduating in Modern Literature with a thesis on the History and Criticism of Film, he began his collaboration with the AIACE (the Italian association of Friends of Art-House Films) of Turin, for which he served as president from 1977 to 1989. From 1980 to 1983 he was the film critic for the daily newspaper “La Gazzetta del Popolo” and since 1982 has been a member of the Order of Journalists, on the list of publicists. He has collaborated with many magazines, and has curated or participated in many radio and television shows for RAI. In 1982 he began his collaboration with the Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani (now the Torino Film Festival), first as a press agent, then as the Secretary General and member of the Selection Committee, from 1984 to 1988. From 1989 to 1998, he served as Director. From December 1998 to April 2002 he was the Director of the Venice International Film Festival. From 2002 to 2006, he was the co-director of “RING! Festival of Film Critics” in Alexandria. Since June 2004 he has been the Director of the National Museum of Cinema in Turin. Since 2008, he has been President of the Advisory Board of TorinoFilmLab. Since 2012 he is again the Director of the Venice International Film Festival.
Head of Programme
Savina Neirotti (Italy): born in Genova, she graduated in Philosophy in Torino and went on to study Aesthetics at the University of Pennsylvania. After returning to Italy, she became Head of the Press and Communication Office of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, where she was also in charge of the Educational Department. In the same years, she became one of the owners of Scuola Holden in Torino – a school for storytellers – ideated by novelist Alessandro Baricco. She has been Director of Scuola Holden’s Master in Narration Techniques, supervising all the school activities, focusing on the international contacts. In the same years she has written articles and interviews on narration and classical music, book reviews and film reviews for Italian and international newspapers. She has ideated and directed Script&Pitch Workshops since 2005, and TorinoFilmLab since 2008. TorinoFilmlab is an international Lab that includes 5 training courses, a co-production event and a funding system. It develops around 40 projects a year. She is now Head of Programme of the newly launched Biennale College – Cinema.
Head of Studies
Jane Williams (UK): Jane Williams set up Dubai International Film Festival’s Industry Office in 2006 which became the Dubai Film Market in 2009. She has played a leading role in the development of a number of initiatives to support filmmakers in the Arab region including: the establishment of the Dubai Film Connection the only co-production platform in the Middle East; Interchange a training and development programme bringing Arab and European filmmakers together to work on 10 projects for the international market organised in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab, EAVE and the Media Mundus. Jane comes from a background of training and development and in the UK worked for a number of organisations and companies including the BFI and NFTS. In 1998 she moved to Amsterdam to become Head of Training at the Maurits Binger Film Institute in Holland. Since 2002 she has been working as a freelance consultant for a number of funding organizations and international festivals. She has worked for the Cinemart and Hubert Bals Fund at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Balkan Fund, Thessaloniki International Film Festival Greece, the Industry Office at the BAFICI in Buenos Aries and Taormina Film Festival Sicilie, Italy. She is an expert for the European Commission and currently consults for the Royal Film Commission in Jordan.
Michel Reilhac (France): executive director of ARTE France Cinema for more than 10 years, until November 2012. Director of several organizations, tv producer, producer-curator-author of participative events, he’s also a filmmaker. Among his films: the documentary film All alike?, To Be a Man for Canal +, Kenya Islands for Arte, The Good Old Naughty Days. Since 2000, he has started his own production company, Melange: his first film production, a first short by Licia Eminenti, Intimisto, has been selected for the official competition as the opening film at Venice Biennale in 2001. Among his film productions: Cry Woman by Liu Bing Jian, L’Intrus by Claire Denis and 7 days, 7 nights by Joel Cano.
Digital Communication Consultant
Orietta Lunghi (Italy): Orietta Lunghi is an architect with a major in Interface Design, and she has been a Fellow in the field at Politecnico di Milano for several years; she started her career in the web field in 1996 in one of the most important italian online companies. Over the yers she has been Web Designer, Design Director, Chief Design Officer, and then Creative Director. She heads a 40 people team, planning and developing over 100 communication and online marketing projects for prestigious italian and international brands such as Bulgari, Aran Endemol, Mtv, Krizia, Banca Intesa, Nestlè, Alessi, Flou, Bmw… From 2006 until today she has been a Digital Communication Consultant in different areas. She lives and works in Milan.
Community Manager
Gabriele Capolino (Italy): he graduates at the University of Padova in Performing Arts and Entertainment Multimedia Production in 2012 with a thesis about the contemporary American indie cinema. From 2006 he has been web editor and film critic for Cineblog.it, one of the most famous italian movie webzines, for which he is also press correspondent at international festivals such as Venice and Cannes. Today he is the Community Manager of Biennale College – Cinema.
Pitching Trainer
Stefano Tealdi (Italy): born in South Africa in 1955, he graduated in Architecture and was head of audiovisual production at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy. He established Stefilm with others in 1985 where, to date, he develops, produces and at times directs, documentary features and series. Stefilm’s internationally acclaimed films include Leonardo, the man behind the shroud? (Silver Screen Award 2002), Porto Marghera – Venice (59th Venice Film Festival), Rice Girls (60th Venice Film Festival, MOMA fortnight 2003), Citizen Berlusconi (nominated Grimme Award – Germany 2004), Monstar United (IDFA 2009), Vinylmania (Official film Record Store Day 2012) and Char, No man’s land (Berlinale Forum 2013). EAVE graduate in 1992, he is the director of the annual Italian workshop Documentary in Europe and chaired the European Documentary Network EDN. He teaches at universities and master classes and tutors for EDN – European Documentary Network, Esodoc, Med Film Factory, Scuola Holden, Films de 3 Continents, Zelig Film School.
Group Leaders
Gino Ventriglia (Italy): story editor and script consultant both for cinema and television; he’s a tutor for TorinoFilmLab as well for other international development programs. He won a Fulbright Fellowship, and got a Master of Fine Arts in Directing and Scriptwriting at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He teaches drama writing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the Italian National School of Cinema. He has written screenplays for cinema and television, like the script for Arrivederci amore, ciao by Michaele Soavi. He lives in Rome.
Amy Dotson (USA): Deputy Director of IFP (Independent Feature Project), the oldest not-for-profit membership and advocacy organization of independent filmmakers in the U.S., founded in New York in 1979. Amy is also an independent film producer: she produced Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, a documentary film by documentario di Bradley Beesley, who premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival 2009; her last film production, I Used to Be Darker by the internationally renowned director Matt Porterfield, will premiere at Sundance 2013.
Scott Macaulay (USA): he’s a New York-based producer and the Editor-in-Chief of Filmmaker magazine, the leading American magazine devoted to independent film. As a producer, along with his partner Robin O’Hara and his production company Forensic Films, Macaulay has produced or executive-produced many award-winning features. Among his film productions: Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy by Harmony Korine, Long Way Home by Peter Sollett, and Saving Face by Alice Wu. As a company, Forensic Films has been involved as a co-producer in several European productions, including Olivier Assayas’ Demonlover and Clean. As the founding editor of Filmmaker magazine, Macaulay directs the editorial content of each issue as well special issues and sections such as the annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film”. He is also currently co-editor of FilmInFocus, Focus Feature’s site for movie lovers.
Producer Consultants
Mike S. Ryan (USA): producer of several award-winning features. He’s an Independent Spirit “Producer of the Year Award” Nominee, one of Variety’s 2007 “10 Producers to Watch” and an IFP advisory board member. Among his film productions: Junebug by Phil Morrison (nominated at the Academy Awards for Amy Adams), Old Joy and Meek’s Cutoff (official competition at Venice 2010) by Kelly Reichardt, Palindromes (official competition at Venice 2004) and Life During Wartime (best screenplay at Venice 2009) by Todd Solondz, Choke by Clark Gregg, and The Turin Horse by Béla Tarr. He was also a location manager for films like Ride with the Devil by Ang Lee, Storytelling by Todd Solondz, and Far from Heaven by Todd Haynes.
Tristan Goligher (UK): Executive Producer on the iFeatures 2 low budget development and production initiative, funded by Creative England, the BFI Film Fund, and the BBC. He worked in development on the Digital Shorts, Digital Nation, and Cinema Extremeshort film schemes. As a producer, Tristan recently produced Andrew Haigh’s Weekend, which world premiered at SXSW 2011 winning the Emerging Visions Audience Award. Since then, Weekend has played numerous festivals, winning a number of jury and audience awards. Weekend also won two BIFAS, including Best Achievement in Production.
Script Consultants
Nicola Lusuardi (Italy): since 1990 he has been working as a playwright in collaboration with several production companies and as a screenwriter with TV networks. He write essays (La rivoluzione seriale), and teaches dramaturgy at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, national school of cinema and RAI-Script school for screenwriters. He is a member of the “Associazione 100Autori” board, the most important Italian guild. Amongs his tv scripts: Il giovane Casanova by Giacomo Battiato, Renzo e Lucia by Francesca Archibugi, and The Black Arrow by Fabrizio Costa.
Marietta Von Hauswolf von Baumgarten (Sweden): script consultant and screenplayer connected to Binger Filmlab, TorinoFilmLab and various independent film companies such as SvenskFilmindustri and Buena Vista, as well as international institutes such as the Swedish Film Instititute. Head of MotherofSons (MOS), development/film production company based in Stockholm. She is a member of the Swedish Drama Union since 1997 and citizen of the NSK State since 1999. Marietta is also working as screenwriter for short and feature films within this company: his last work is Call Girl, who premiered in Toronto 2012 and was selected in the official competition of the Turin Film Festival 2012.
Anita Voorham (The Netherlands): has worked as a writer, script-editor and a producer on several comedy and drama series for independent production companies between 1995 and 2005. She currently works as a script-editor for the Dutch public broadcasting company NTR, as a script advisor/tutor for TorinoFilmlab and the Binger Filmlab and as a script advisor for several independent producers. Among his works as a script editor: Little Sister Katia by Mijke de Jong, and Life In One Day by Mark de Cloe. As a scriptwriter, Anita worked for the popular, award-winning drama series Gooische Vrouwen, which has sold to many countries including the UK, France and Germany.
Franz Rodenkirchen (Germany): he is working internationally as script consultant and tutor. As script advisor he regularly works for the Binger Filmlab, Amsterdam, where he also teaches his ‘A la carte’- workshop “Script Editing – Six days of practice”. He is also a tutor at TorinoFilmLab and other several organizations. He co-wrote four feature films with director Jörg Buttgereit, such cult horror movies Nekromantik and its sequel, and helped in bringing them to the screen.
Antoine Le Bos (France): French screenwriter and script consultant with more than 25 feature film scripts delivered under contract as a writer or co-writer and the experience of over a hundred feature projects followed as a consultant. Following a first life as a sailor and an interrupted Phd in philosophy at the Sorbonne, he graduated from the CEEA in Paris (the French conservatory for film writing) in 1996. He co-created the 3D animation series Ratz, which aired in more than 20 countries. In 2002 created the Ciné-Ecritures workshops in Paris. He collaborated as a script consultant for several organizations and universities of cinema. Since 2007, he has been a tutor for the Script & Pitch Workshops and TorinoFilmLab as well as for Interchange since 2009.
Experts and Guest Lecturers
Hans Bruch Jr. (Belgium): graduated in the cinematography department in 2007. Bruch Jr. worked as a cinematographer on Little Baby Jesus of Flandr and Bluebird (Gust Van den Berghe), both of which were selected for the Quinzaine de Réalisateurs in Cannes. The cinematography for La Cinquième Saison (Peter Brosens – Jessica Woodworth) got him a spot on stage at the Venice film festival.
Katie Mustard (USA): an honors graduate of USC film school, has worked as a Producer and Line Producer for the past twelve years and has overseen the production of 29 feature films. Her first short film, Swallow, premiered at Sundance in 2003 and was distributed by HBO. In 2005, she produced the very successful short In the Morning, which premiered at Sundance and went on to win festivals across the world. Katie’s most recent short film, Eve, premiered at the 2008 Venice Film Festival and was directed by Natalie Portman, starring Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara, and Olivia Thirlby. As a feature producer, Katie has overseen production of numerous films, including The Missing Person (Michael Shannon & Amy Ryan), Made in China (winner Best Festure at SXSW Film Festival 2009), The Greatest (Pierce Brosnan & Susan Sarandon), and The Son of No One (Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, & Channing Tatum). In 2010, her film Night Catches Us, premiered at Sundance (starring Kerry Washington and Anthony Mackie), which she co-produced and went onto be nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. In January of 2011, Katie had her eighth film premiere at the Sundance Film Festival with Restless City which appeared in theaters in April 2012. Most recently, Katie premiered The Devil Inside which top’d the box office scales as the largest grossing genre film of its time. This year, she produced A Case of You starring Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Sam Rockwell, Brendan Fraser & Vince Vaughn and Growing Up and Other Lies with Josh Lawson, Adam Brody, and Amber Tamblyn.
Amir Naderi (Iran): he is one of the most influential figures of Iranian cinema. He developed his early knowledge of cinema by watching films at the theater where he worked as a boy, reading film criticism, and establishing friendships with leading film critics. He began his career with still photography for several important Iranian feature films. In the Seventies, Naderi turned to directing, making some of the most important films in New Iranian Cinema. In 1971, he made his directorial debut with Khoda Hafez Rafiq (Goodbye Friend), but it was Tangsir (1973) that brought him great popularity in Iran. Naderi then came into the international spotlight with films that are now known as cinema classics, Entezar (Waiting, 1974), winner of the Jury award at Cannes, Davandeh (The Runner, 1985), presented in Venice, and Ab, Bad, Khak (Water, Wind, Dust, 1989), presented at Locarno. The Runner is considered by many critics to be one of the most influential films of the past quarter century. After expatriating to New York in the early Eightes, Naderi continued to produce new works and was given many important positions. He was named a Rockefeller Film and Video Fellow in 1997, and has taught at Columbia University, the University of Las Vegas, and at the New York School of Visual Arts. His film Manhattan by Numbers (1993) was presented at the Venice International Film Festival, Sound Barrier (2005) had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and his last feature film Vegas: Based on a True Story (2008) was in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the CinemAvvenire and SIGNIS awards. His latest work, Cut, was the Orizzonti Opening Film at Venice in 2011 and won Best Director at the 21st Japanese Professional Movie Awards, making him the first foreign director to receive this prize. Naderi’s work has been the subject of retrospectives at museums and film festivals around the world including Lincoln Center, MoMA’s New Directors/New Films series, Pusan, Karlovy Vary, Venice, Cannes, Tribeca, Sundance and Torino. He has served as jury at various festivals including most recently as Jury President at the Competition section of Tokyo FILMeX in 2011 and Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent Award Competition in 2012. He is also tutor of the Academic Team of the Biennale College – Cinema 2013.
Mary Stephen (Hong Kong): born in Hong Kong of Chinese origins, graduate of Concordia University (Montreal), based in Paris since the 1980s. Collaborated for 25 years as fim editor and co-music-composer with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer, from being editing assistant to his then-Editor Cécile Décugis (who edited Breathless by J.L. Godard) to Rohmer’s last film The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2008). In the past decade has working with young filmmakers and producers in France, China, Turkey, and Canada, editing, advising and associate-producing independent fiction and documentary films in these countries, including Majority by Seren Yüce (Lion of the Future, Venice Film Festival 2010) with his 2nd film Silence (shooting June 2013), Last Train Home by Lixin Fan (Joris Ivans Award, IDFA 2009), Umbrella and 1428 (Orizzonti Doc Award, Venice Film Festival 2009) by Du Haibin with new film Patriotism ‘90 (releasing in September 2013), Blind Mountain by Li Yang, Wild Grass of Qingdao by Lina Yang, Judge by Liu Jie, My Marlon and Brando by Hüseyin Karabey. Continues to make own films, such as Vision from the edge : Breyten Breytenbach painting the lines as well as teaching/coaching in workshops/symposiums in Asia, Europe and Australia.
Olivia Stewart (UK): her career in film started in 1985 at the British Film Institute where she worked on Terence Davies’ award winning Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988 International Critics Award, Cannes, the Golden Leopard, Locarno, the Critics’ Prize, Toronto), and Andrew Grieve’s adaptation of Bruce Chatwin’s On the Black Hill. She then went on to work as Associate Producer on Charles Sturridge’s Where Angels Fear to Tread, Mike Figgis’ The Browning Version and a number of Film Four releases including Ladder of Swords, 1871 and Paper Mask. In 1992 she set up Three Rivers Ltd and produced Terence Davies’ next three films, The Long Day Closes, The Neon Bible, starring Gena Rowlands, and The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Aykroyd, Laura Linney and Antony La Paglia. The House of Mirth was sold internationally to more than 27 countries including to Film Four in the UK, Sony Picture Classics in the US, Diaphana in France and Bim in Italy. She also co-produced Mark Herman’s Brassed Off, starring Pete Postlethwaite and Ewan McGregor, and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christian Bale, Toni Colette and Ewan McGregor. All the films with which she has been involved have obtained international distribution and four have been shown in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Since 2008 she has been working with writer/directors as an advisor and mentor for the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam, Aurora Workshop in Sydney, the NFDC in Mumbai and the Glasgow Playwright’s Studio script workshops – including Scott Graham’s Shell, which in 2012 won Best Film at the Torino Film Festival, the Fipresci prize and the Scuola Holden prize, and Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, which received in 2012 a Special Mention at Cinemart 2012, was chosen for the Berlinale Talent Campus and was selected for Framework by the TorinoFimLab, and which is now in post-production and stars Irrfan Khan. She has also been a member of the TorinoFilmLab’s Framework Selection Committee and a member of the International Jury for the Locarno Film Festival and the Fajr Film Festival. She is a member of the AMPAS, BAFTA and EFA.
Joana Vicente (USA): producing partner with Jason Kliot, together they have worked on over 40 feature films by such acclaimed directors as Jim Jarmusch, Brian De Palma, Steven Soderbergh, Miguel Arteta, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Alex Gibney, and Todd Solondz. Together with Marc Cuban and Todd Wagner, Vicente & Kliot launched the pioneering digital production companies Blow Up Pictures and HDNetFilms, which ushered in a new era of digital filmmaking that radically transformed the landscape of American independent film production and distribution.
Mathilde Henrot (France): born in 1975, with a diploma from HEC business school, INALCO (B.A. in Chinese), Paris X (B.A in Philosophy) and Paris II (LLM in Literary and Artistic Copyright Law), Mathilde Henrot worked 8 years for MK2 where she was Director of Sales, also handling acquisitions for international sales. In 2010, together with Alessandro Raja, she founded Festival Scope, the benchmark online service for film professionals allowing them to watch on demand films from more than 80 of the most prestigious international film festivals. She founded also Maharaja Films, production company which line up includes: The Strife of Love in a Dream directed by Camille Henrot, Directors’ Fortnight 2011, Smugglers’ Songs directed by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, Jean Vigo Prize 2011, Locarno Official Competition 2011 and as French co-producer Alps directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Venice Official Competition 2011 -Best Screenplay. Since 2012 she also programs for the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Terry Stevens (UK): he joined Dogwoof, a film distributor that works on the release process across various platforms, in 2008 after a background in press and publishing. Terry studied film at BA and MA and has worked in press, marketing, and online roles at Dogwoof. He is now responsible for the co-ordination and development across platforms of the ever growing Dogwoof online presence as well as overseeing the home entertainment side of the business.
Jon Reiss (USA): named one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch” by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss is one of the most well-known consultants of indipendent cinema. His experience releasing his documentary feature Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. He recently co-wrote Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul. He has worked with and consulted for IFP, the Sundance Institute, Screen Australia, Film Independent and numerous film schools and festivals to devise ways to educate and help independent filmmakers in the new economic landscape. Reiss also contributes to Filmmaker Magazine, Huffington Post, Indiewire, Screen Daily, Moviemaker Magazine and other publications. He directed Bomb It 2 in 2010.
Pierre Cattan (France): film producer, he’s also journalist and owner of Small Bang, a native transmedia studio in Paris whose purpose is producing and developing movies, digital works, and events organizations.
Nekisa Cooper (USA): film producer, she is a 2008 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow. She produced several shorts and documentaries, and Dee Rees’ Pariah in 2011, awarded with the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards 2012. Nekisa is currently in post-production on the feature documentary La muñeca fea, a Creative Promise Award winner from the 2009 Tribeca All Access Program and 2010 Elizabeth Peña Fellowship Award Winner through Film Independent.
Tomas Leyers (Belgium): in 1993 a video production house that specializes in video productions for events and corporate films. He worked for many of the Belgian event offices and institutes. But film always was and is his first love: hence Minds Meet, his production company, was born. Among his film productions: Kill Me Please by Olias Barco, Tango Libre (Orizzonti Special Jury Award at Venice 2012) by Frédéric Fonteyne, and Welcome Home (official selection Venice Days at Venice 2012) by Tom Heene.