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. From 2004 until 2016 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 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.

Group Leader

MICHELE TURNURE SALLEO (USA)

As Principal/Producer at Feracious Entertainment, Michele Turnure-Salleo provides equity financing to independent films across a range of commercially oriented genres. Previously as founder and Director of Filmmaker360 at San Francisco Film Society’s (now SFFilm) Turnure-Salleo oversaw major grants, residencies, project and development programs. She supported films including Fruitvale (Station), Beasts of the Southern Wild, Short Term 12, Patty Cake$, Mediterranea, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Manos Sucias, Love Is Strange, Hellion, and Circumstance. Michele Turnure-Salleo holds a BFA in Film from the University of New South Wales and a MFA in Film from the University of British Columbia.

TITUS KREYENBERG (Germany)

Titus Kreyenberg worked as an executive producer for film and television for many years before he founded his own production company “unafilm” in 2004. The company’s films compete in A-festivals around the world, Berlinale, Cannes, Toronto, Locarno, IDFA, San Sebastian, DOKLeipzig, among them. In 2013 Heli won the award for Best Director in competition in Cannes. 2014 Bridges of Sarajevo was shown in the Sélection Officelle in Cannes.

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.

Script Consultant

EILON RATZKVOSKY (Israel)

Eilon Ratzkovsky produced feature films and TV series over the past 25 years, as CEO of July August Productions, an Israeli production company which he has created in 2003. Among the 22 films that he produced are “The Band’s Visit”, “Mountain”, “Zero Motivation” – all of which participated and won prizes in major film festivals. He produced numerous TV series in Israel, some have been remade into local versions around the world. In the past year, he has been tutoring for TorinoFilmLab as well as heading the TFL Extended. He also heads “Quiddity”, a content company that specializes in developing high quality TV dramas for European networks.

OSSI NISHRI (Israel)

Ossi has a B.A. in Psychology and M.A. in script writing from the Tel Aviv University. From 2009 till 2016 she was  head of content and development in July August Productions, one of the leading production companies in Israel.

During this time she has worked with acclaimed writers and directors both on feature films and on TV series.  In 2016 she has co-founded together with Eilon Ratzkovsky, QUIDDITY, a TV content development company for the European market.

FRANCOISE VON ROY (Germany)

Based in Berlin, Françoise von Roy works internationally as a script consultant. In addition to private consulting for companies and filmmakers, she regularly assesses for and advises industry initiatives, such as RE-ACT (a training initiative set up by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund and the Slovenian Film Centre); as well as BOOST NL (set up by Cinemart/HFM and the Hubert Bals Fund), as well as script consulting for projects selected by the German Ministry of Culture and Media (BKM). She guest lectures at the University of Malta and currently supports students at the ifs, International Film School in Cologne, during the development of their graduation films. Together with Franz Rodenkirchen she holds the bimonthly script development workshop Script Circle for writers and filmmakers and the intensive workshop Six Days of Practice for producers, development executives and others involved in script development. Françoise has worked in the film and television industry since the late 1990’s in various fields of production and development from location and production manager to creative producer and head of development. From 2008 to 2014 she was artistic director for Cinema Total, a yearly event held by during the Berlin International Film Festival, presenting films and filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe and promoting co-operation in the region.

Françoise holds a BA in Film and Philosophy and an MA in Media Production from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. Françoise also works with visual artists developing longer pieces and/or works for gallery and cinema.

Production Consultant

AMRA BAKSIC-CAMO (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Amra Baksic Camo graduated from comparative literature 1996. Since 1995 she has been involved in new media and video production in the SEE region. She is one of the founders of SCCA/pro.ba, independent film, video and tv production from Sarajevo. She has produced and coproduced produced numerous awarded short films and art videos, documentaries and TV program and feature films. An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker by Danis Tanovic won Jury Grand Prix and Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlinale 2013. For 11 years, she is head of the CineLink, regional co-production market and project development project of Sarajevo Film Festival. She is a member of ACE and EAVE networks and member EFA. Amra is working at the Academy of Preforming Arts in Sarajevo, Department Production as a lecturer.

AGUSTINA CHIARINO (Uruguay)

Agustina Chiarino was born in 1977 in Montevideo. She licensed in Communication Studies in the Universidad Católica of Uruguay and has a degree on Creative Documentary Filmmaking by the Universidad Autónoma of Barcelona. Since 1998 she has produced feature films, music videos, documentaries, corporate videos for book releases in museums, short films and commercials in Mexico, Barcelona and Uruguay. Her films had been shown and awarded in Festivals such as Cannes, BerlInale, Rotterdam, Sundance , Venice, Miami, Guadalajara among others. La discípula del velocímetro directed by Miguel Calderón was her first feature as producer. In 2004 she joined Control Z Films and became partner in 2007. She was production Manager in Manolo Nieto’s La Perrera as well as in other short films. She produced the feature films Gigante by Adrián Biniez, Hiroshima and 3, by Pablo Stoll, and Tanta Agua, by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge. In 2011 she set up the film production company Mutante Cine with Fernando Epstein, to keep on developing and distributing documentary and feature films, in addition to implementing training courses for members of the audiovisual industry (PUENTES-EAVE). They produced the films El Cinco by Adrián Biniez and the minority coproductions Historia del Miedo by Benajmin Nahistat and Mi amiga del Parque by Ana Katz. They have 2 films in postproduction stage at the moment: Las olas by Adrian Biniez and Un viaje de locos a documentary feature film by Alicia Cano and Leticia Cuba. She chaired Channel 10′s National Production Department’s committee for receiving and developing new projects for 10 years. She teached, tutored projects and gave lectures in many labs, schools and cinema events. She has been a member of the jury at international film funds and Festivals such as San Sebastian, Locarno, Bafici and Miami among others.

SAMM HAILLAY (UK)

He founded independent production company Third with Duane Hopkins in 2001. Third was granted a BFI Vision Award in 2013. He produced Hopkins’ multi-award winning short films and feature debut Better Things, which premiered to critical acclaim at International Critics Week, Cannes in 2008. Samm also produced Hopkins’ multi-channel film installations series Sunday. Hopkins’ latest feature Bypass premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2014. As well as producing all of Hopkins’ film and galley work Samm produces also a number of other talented directors work through Third including the BAFTA winning Esther May Campbell, renowned critic and writer Mark Cousins, Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore debut Blood Cells,that also premiered in Venice 2014. In 2013 Samm’s work on Peter Snowden’s The Uprising, a self-funded documentary culminated in it winning best international film at Jihlava Documentary Festival. On top of a muscular development slate of feature films Samm’s short film productions have won over 45 awards inc. Berlin, Venice, Edinburgh, and Chicago. In 2010 he co-produced Gillian Wearing’s feature debut Self Made. Samm sat on the jury in Berlin 2010 to award the Golden Bear for best short film. He is a group leader for EAVE and The Biennale College Cinema, a board member of Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival and a patron of the Underwire Film Festival. Samm is also an Associate Senior Lecturer in Film Production at Teesside University, designing and writing modules for L4, L5 & L6. He is a module leader for L4 and supervises group work in L5 & L6. Samm is an external examiner at the University of Cumbria and delivers the training for Creative England’s ishorts scheme.

Visual Advisor

ALEC VON BARGEN (USA)

Born in New York City, Alec Von Bargen studied Dramatic Arts, Art History and Photography. He worked as an actor in productions screened at the Cannes, Berlin and Sundance film festivals, helmed by the likes of Robert de Niro, Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Walkow and Gabriel Beristain, among others. He has produced, directed and written for the stage, film and television. He wrote the award-winning stage productions Closet Land (winner of Mexico’s FONCA grant) and Tarantata (Onassis Playwriting Competition Finalist, Greece). He is also a well-established visual artist, most recently exhibiting at the 54th and 56th Venice Biennales, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the OCAT Museum, Shanghai and Les Rencontres D’Arles Festival, France. He was selected by François-Henri Pinault and George Clooney as guest artist at the Swatch Hotel, Shanghai. His work has won numerous awards including the IPA’s in LA and the PX3’s in Paris. He was a finalist at the 2013 Dubai Emerging Artist Award and Aesthetica Magazine, UK, selected him as one of 2013 and 2014’s top 100 contemporary artists.

Visualiser

PAUL TYLER (UK)

Paul Tyler founded Handling Ideas, from a twenty-year career spanning television and cross-media production at the BBC, theatre management, format development and undergraduate teaching. Paul makes production companies more effective at responding to the ever-growing need for deeper user engagement and consistent user experience across multiple devices. He applies a toolkit for mapping, visualization and prototyping. Paul works with businesses developing film, television, cross/trans-media, games, products, services and campaigns across communication, marketing, commerce and design. Starting at the bottom of the production ladder, Paul worked his way up through BBC apprenticeship to Producer and multi-camera studio Director. A flirtation with online in late nineties took him to cross-media production. With one of BBC’s first innovative cross-media productions under his belt, he found himself supporting others within the industry across Europe, as they wrestled with how to interact with their audiences.

Pitch 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

Creative Producers

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, premiered at Sundance 2013

MARTA DONZELLI (Italy)

Born in Turin in 1975, she lives and works in Rome. After a graduate degree, she finished her PhD in Philosophy in 2004, with a thesis on Edmund Husserl. In 2004 with Gregorio Paonessa, she established Vivo film, an independent production company for art-house films. Among their titles: Il mio Paese (by Daniele Vicari), Imatra (by Corso Salani), Le quattro volte (by Michelangelo Salani), Via Castellana Bandiera (by Emma Dante), Vergine Giurata and Figlia Mia (by Laura Bispuri), Nico 1988 (by Susanna Nicchiarelli)

She is currently Head of the Editorial Secretariat and Member of the Editorial Board at Donzelli Publishing House. She is member of the Direction board of the Associazione Corso Salani, created in 2010, after the premature passing of the Italian filmmaker, to promote his work and independent filmmakers from all over the world.

In 2011 she was Italy’s “Producer on the Move” at Cannes Film Festival; together with Gregorio Paonessa for Le Quattro volte she was awarded the “Ciak d’Oro” as Best Producer and was nominated as Best Producer for the David di Donatello Awards.

PABLO IRAOLA (Portugal)

In search of good stories around the world, Lisbon based Ukbar Filmes produces documentaries and fiction with a tendency for the epic. Social, women´s and historic subjects are transversal over the last productions, most of them international financed. Florbela, the second feature-film by Vicente Alves do Ó, about the Portuguese poetess Florbela Espanca, was top 5 in the Portuguese BOXOFICE, while the political drama, Virgin Margarida, by the Mozambican director Licinio Azevedo premiered in TIFF and 25 other festivals. Pablo Iraola and Pandora Cunha Telles run Ukbar in a mix of Pixar meets Bergman.

Experts

MARY STEPHEN (France/Canada/Hong Kong)

Born in Hong Kong, graduate of Concordia University in Montreal , Mary Stephen has been living in Paris since the 1980s. She collaborated with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer for more than 25 years as his film editor and co-composer, starting as assistant to Rohmer’s then-chief-editor Cécile Décugis (who edited for Truffaut, Rohmer, Godard including the legendary « Breathless »). Mary then became Rohmer’s chief-editor from 1991 « Winter’s Tale » to his last feature « The Romance of Astrea and Celadon » (2007). In the past decade Mary has been working with fiction and documentary filmmakers and producers from Europe, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Turkey, Australia and Canada, editing, associate-producing and consulting. A partial list of her work includes « The Apology » by Tiffany Hsiung produced by the National Film Board of Canada, «Flowing Stories» by Jessey Tsang Tsui Shan, «Dot 2 Dot» by Amos Why, « Majority » by Seren Yüce (Lion of the Future, Venice 2010); «Umbrella», «1428» (Orizzonti Doc Award, Venice Film Festival 2009) and « A Young Patriot » by Du Haibin; « Last Train Home » by Lixin Fan (Joris Ivans Award, IDFA 2009), « The Headmaster » (part of the omnibus film « 8 and ½ » produced by Johnnie To, for release in 2016) and the upcoming new feature « The Great Escape » by Ann Hui, « Shanghaï Strangers », web short by Joan Chen ; «Blind Mountain» by Li Yang (« Un Certain Regard », Cannes 2007) , « Do Not Forget Me Istanbul » omnibus film with 6 directors from the region including Hany Abou-Assad (Palestine), Aida Begic (Bosnia), Stefan Arsenijevic (Serbia), Stergios Niziris (Greece), Eric Nazarian ( Armenia), etc; « My Marlon and Brando » (Best New Narrative Filmmaker, Tribeca 2010) by Hüseyin Karabey. Mary has also coached animation and experimental projects and continues her own filmmaking (« Vision from the edge : Breyten Breytenbach painting the lines »). She participates in juries and workshops as well as collaborates with film schools on several continents.

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.