Alberto Barbera (Italy) – Director

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 to 2016 he was the Director of the National Museum of Cinema in Turin. Since 2008, he has been President of the Advisory Board of TorinoFilmLab.

Savina Neirotti (Italy) – Head of programme

Born in Genova, she graduated in Philosophy and completed the first year of Master in 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 founded Scuola Holden in Torino together with Alessandro Baricco. She has been Director of Scuola Holden’s Master in Narration Techniques, and supervising all the school activities, focusing on the international contacts.
In the last ten 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, an international Lab that includes 5 training courses, a co-production event and a funding system, since 2008 where she currently acts as Executive Director.

Jane Williams (UK) – Head of studies

Jane Williams is currently Head of Studies for the Biennale College Cinema initiative launched in 2012 and the Biennale College Cinema – VR launched in 2017. Jane comes from a background of training and development. In the UK she worked for a number of organisations and companies including the British Film Institute and National Film and Television School. In 1998 she moved to Amsterdam to become Head of Training at the Maurits Binger Film Institute in Holland.

Since 2002 she has worked as a freelance consultant for international funding organizations and festivals including the Cinemart, Hubert Bals Fund, the IFFR Rotterdam, the Balkan Fund, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Industry Office at the BAFICI in Buenos Aries and the Royal Film Commission, Jordan. From 2006 to 2018, Jane worked for the Dubai International Film Festival where she was responsible for establishing the Dubai Film Market, the Dubai Film Connection – the first co-production platform in the Arab world, and Interchange – a project development programme in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab and EAVE.

Michel Reilhac (France) –Head of studies

Michel Reilhac is an independent interactive story architect. He is also a thought-leader for hybrid forms of storytelling, and immersive, participatory, and interactive experiences. He is currently Head of Studies for Biennale College Cinema, and Director of the Multi-Platform Master Studies at Media Business School in Spain, and is frequently invited to teach and speak at international events such as Cannes International Film Festival, SXSW Austin, Tribeca Film Festival, Sunny Side of the Doc, The Pixel Lab, Dixit, FEMIS, just to name a few.
From 2002-2012, Michel was Head of Film Acquisitions at Arte France and executive director of Arte France Cinema. From 2007 to 2011 he has was a producer for the Hollywood hit Son of Rambow, and Lars von Trier’s(the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark in 60 years) the Antichrist andMelancholia. In 2012, in recognition for his work at Arte, Michel was named Man of the Year in film by the French trade magazine Le Film Français.

Gino Ventriglia (Italy) – Story Developer for all projects

Screenwriter and script consultant for cinema and television. He’s a tutor and pitch trainer on international development programs, TorinoFilmLab and SeriesLab among the others. He teaches drama and serial drama writing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the Italian National School of Cinema.

Flaminio Zadra (Italy) – Group Leader – group A

After completing his studies in Contemporary History at the Rome University La Sapienza, Flaminio Zadra alternated a career as journalist with his passion for moviemaking. In 2001 he moved to Hamburg (Germany) to collaborate with Fatih Akin and his new-born company Corazon International and in 2004 he moved back to Rome, where together with Alberto Fanni and Paolo Colombo, he founded the film company Dorje Film. With Dorje Film, Flaminio has produced and coproduced numerous feature films and documentaries by international authors, including Fatih Akin, Julie Bertucelli, Sergei Bodrov, Idrissa Ouédraogo, Etgar Keret, Pablo Trapero, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Zhangke Jia, Hany Abu-Assad and Jafar Panahi. His films have received awards at major international festivals, including a Golden Palm for the Best Film Script at the Film Festival of Cannes in 2008 for the film The Edge of Heaven and a Special Prize of the Jury of the Film Festival of Venice in 2010 for the film Soul Kitchen. The most recent film of Fatih Akin In the Fade, produced as well by Flaminio, has been awarded with the Golden Palm for the Best Female Interpretation at the Film Festival of Cannes in 2017 and the Golden Globe in the following year. In 2018, Flaminio joined the company Moliwood Films, by Mrs. Pilar Saavedra Perrotta. Flaminio is currently co-producing the next feature film by the Golden Bear awarded director Ildiko Enyedi.

Violeta Bava (Argentina)– Group Leader – group B

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2002 she received a double degree in Theory, Aesthetics and History of Cinema & Drama at Buenos Aires University (UBA). She has worked at Buenos Aires International Film Festival (BAFICI) during twenty years: she was Film Programmer as well as Founder and Co-director of BAL, a leading co- production market for Latin American films. She was Professor of Cinema Aesthetics and Ethics at Centro de Investigación Cinematográfica (Buenos Aires) during more than ten years. Violeta comes from a background of training and development and she has worked as film consultant and production tutor for several funds, organizations and festivals world wide. She has worked at the programming team of Bratislava International Film Festival, has collaborated during three editions with Locarno International Film Festival at the Open Doors Programme and was part of the Advisory Board of Torino Film Lab during ten years. She has played a key role in the development of initiatives devoted to support filmmakers and producers in Latin American region such as: Puentes workshop in connection with EAVE, Produire au Sud Buenos Aires in collaboration with 3 Continents Film Festival (Nantes), 3 Puertos Cine (with AustralLab and Cinemart – IFF Rotterdam) and BAL goes to Cannes with Marché du Film – Cannes Film Festival. Since 2012, Violeta is the Latin American Consultant for Venice International Film Festival. She is also Industry and Programme Advisor for Doha Film Institute. Recently, she become part of the Programming team of International Film Festival & Awards Macau and Industry Advisor of Visions du Réel. Founder of Ruda Cine, among other films, she has produced Eduardo Williams debut feature The Human Surge (2016), winner of Pardo d’Oro for Best Film, and Abrir puertas y ventanas (2012), by Milagros Mumenthaler, winner of Pardo d’Oro for Best Film, Pardo d’Argento for Best Actress and FIPRESCI Award at Locarno Film Festival.

Eilon Ratzkovsky (Israel) – Script Consultant group A

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.

Ludwik Smolski ( UK ) – Script Consultant – group B

Ludo is a development consultant and story editor currently working on several fiction and hybrid documentary feature projects funded by the British Film Institute, Film Four, Creative Europe, Irish Film Board, NI Screen and Scottish Screen. He has worked with pioneering artist group Blast Theory, helping them realise Europe’s first ever live and interactive feature film BLOODYMINDED which broadcast live to cinemas across Europe and online on 14 October 2018 (A 14-18 NOW commission). He has worked on a range of independent films, from Jon S Baird’s FILTH to Bruce Goodison’s LEAVE TO REMAIN. He is currently working with Elizabeth Stopford, Bruce Goodison and Tom Beard on their next features.
Ludo is a co-Tutor of the UK’s National Film and Television’s (NFTS) Postgraduate Diploma in Script Development, the only long form training course on script development in the world, and is also a visiting tutor for NFTS Screenwriting MA. He previously worked for The Script Factory for over ten years, devising and delivering industry-respected training courses and workshops for screenwriters, developers and script readers both in the UK and internationally, as well as running their development and script feedback service. In 2017 he led a six-month script development workshop for the British Council in the Caribbean, in conjunction with Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and the Jamaican Film Commission, and acted as a script consultant for “The Writers Room”, a workshop and forum for British and Arab filmmakers at Dubai International Film Festival. The Jamaican workshop has now evolved into a low budget production scheme for which Ludo is the Project Consultant and is about to commence with its second cohort.

Eve Gabereau (Canada/UK) – Producer Consultant group A

Founder and CEO of Modern Films, a London-based, female-led, social issues-driven film production, distribution and event cinema company. They launched in 2017 with the release of Manifesto starring Cate Blanchett on the distribution side and as Executive Producer of I Am Not a Witch on the production side, that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, went on to win a BAFTA and be selected as the UK entry for the Academy Awards. Other films in their library include Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (winner Best Screenplay, Cannes), Iciar Bollain’s Yuli – The Carlos Acosta Story (winner Best Screenplay, San Sebastian) and Ali Abbasi’s Border (winner Un Certain Regard Grand Prix and Oscar nominated), as well as event cinema partnerships with Tate Modern, National Gallery, Royal Opera House, the British Library, HBO/SKY, Channel 4 and BBC.
Prior to Modern, Gabereau co-founded and ran Soda Pictures – an indie distribution company boasting a filmography of over 300 titles including such successes as Toni Erdmann, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson and Only Lovers Left Alive and the documentary Finding Vivian Maier – for 15 years, which she sold to an international media group who were backers on Blade Runner 2049.
She has also worked in journalism, film festivals and media tech. She has a BA in Political Science and Modern Languages from McGill University and an MA in Communications and East Asian Studies from Simon Fraser University, with further graduate work undertaken at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Originally from Canada, she holds a French passport and has lived in the United Kingdom since 1998.

Janine Marmot (UK) – Producer Consultant – group B

Her company “Hot Property” was set up in 1995. Two films produced by Janine have won a BAFTA, BODYSONG directed by Simon Pummell and KELLY + VICTOR, directed by Kieran Evans. Recent films as Producer include Simon Pummell’s IDENTICALS (released by Samuel Goldwyn/Sony), Grant Gee’s Venice premiere INNOCENCE OF MEMORIES with Orhan Pamuk and Michael Whyte’s LOOKING FOR LIGHT: JANE BOWN.
DEVELOPMENT Janine is currently developing a slate of feature films through Hot Property Films with partners including BFI, DOC SOCIETY, FILMFOUR, CREATIVE EUROPE and SCREEN IRELAND. Projects include THE GOLD MACHINE, the Peru set feature documentary by Grant Gee, an adaption of the William Gibson story FIGHT, INTERMISSION a fIction film about jazz pianist Bill Evans, WHITE, with producing partner Emily Morgan and directed by Emily Young and IS ANYBODY OUT THERE? By Ella Glendining.
She frequently co produces with partners around the world and is experienced at structuring complex co productions. Other Producer credits include Simon Pummell’s BAFTA and BIFA winning feature documentary BODYSONG, and SHOCK HEAD SOUL; Michael Whyte’s NO GREATER LOVE and RELICS AND ROSES, INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA by The Brothers Quay; I COULD READ THE SKY by Nichola Bruce; and the multi directed film MADE IN HEAVEN for the rock band QUEEN and the BFI. She has also produced documentaries and short drama working with directors including Tom Shankland, Jim Gillespie, Chantal Akerman and Christopher Petit. For the last decade she has been an active teacher and mentor within the industry: in 2006 she ran a Channel Four Directors’ Workshop with Palme d’Or winning director Abbas Kiarostami; she was Director of Film at Skillset from 2007 until March 2009 (developing Training Strategies for UK Film and responsible for an annual budget of £7million) and she is an occasional visiting tutor at film schools around the world.