Graziella Bildesheim - Producer and expert. Tutor of the programme

Over 30 years of widespread experience in the European audiovisual sector. She has initiated and directed numerous international vocational training initiatives among which the well-known pan-European MAIA Workshops aimed at supporting emerging producers wishing to enter the international market. She has also devised a series of unique workshops focusing on different aspects of the industry that she presently holds in partnership with Anica Academy in Italy. Bildesheim also lectures at a number of film schools and labs in Italy and abroad. She is currently working as a free-lance consultant with both directors and producers in the creative and financial development of their audiovisual projects. She is a senior expert working for MEDIA, Eurimages and several regional Funds in Italy. She has served as a juror on numerous international competitions and festivals and has contributed to the creation of several training and industry activities in cooperation with private and public institutions. Member of the David di Donatello Italian Film Academy and of the European Film Academy, having also served on its Board from 2018 to 2023.

Linda Beath - Producer and finance expert. Advisor of the programme

Linda Beath set up Ideal Filmworks in Canada 25 years ago to raise development and production financing for international co-productions of high quality feature films and television programmes. It was incorporated in Italy in 2000 adding Business and Strategic Planning to its core business of entertainment industry financing. Linda Beath annually works with producers to find funding for four or five projects which range from features to documentaries, animated features and primetime television drama. She trains producers and other practitioners in Europe and occasionally internationally in project financing and strategic business planning for their companies. She consults to public funders on policy issues, especially with respect to the industry\'s need for new business models involving digital media.

ZEYNEP ATAKAN - Producer at Zeynofilm, Turkey

Zeynep Atakan graduated from the Department of Film and TV at the Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts. Atakan worked in the TV advertisement industry from 1986 to 1999, and established Zeynofilm in 2007 to focus on producing film projects. Producing Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films since 2006, Atakan won the European Film Academy’s Prix Euromages Best European Co-Producer Award 2010. Zeynep Atakan was the Chairwoman of SE-YAP, the Turkish Movie Producers Professional Association between 2011 and May 2017. She is currently a Board Member in SE-YAP. Atakan in Vice President of EWA Network. A Member of the European Film Academy and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, Atakan has been directing the Antalya Film Forum, organized as part of the International Antalya Film Festival, since 2014. In 2014, Atakan was awarded the Uçan Süpürge Bilge Olgaç Achievement Award, and her latest production Winter Sleep won the Palme d’Or at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, the festival’s most prestigious award.

REA APOSTOLIDES - Producer  at Anemon. GREECE

Rea produces documentaries for Anemon, an Athens-based production company.  Recent work includes When Tomatoes Met Wagner (2019, Berlinale, Greek entry for the 2020 Academy Awards), Citizen Europe (2019, Arte, Screen Ireland, CNC, Bulgarian Film Center, RTE, ERT, RTP), Berlinale Teddy Award winner Obscuro Barroco (2018), and Dolphin Man (2018, ARTE, CNC, WOWOW, Greek Film Centre, Knowledge, TVO, ERT, CYBC, SVT, Yes DBS, TSR).

Rea also runs CineDoc and CineDoc Kids, that screen award winning documentaries and children’s films across Greece.

MARTICHKA BOZHILOVA - Producer / Director at AGITPROP Production Company, Balkan Documentary Center, Bulgaria

Producer of AGITPROP, Bulgaria since 1999. She co-produced with Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, USA, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Romania. Her documentaries have been selected and awarded at Cannes, Berlin, IDFA, Toronto, Sundance, Tribeca, Pusan and many others, and broadcast all over the world. Producer of the first original Bulgarian content for HBO and National Geographic Channel. Founder and director of the Balkan Documentary Center for supporting documentary filmmakers from the Balkans. Within the Center she organizes with the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA the annual education three-module programme BDC Discoveries, as well the Documentary Rough Cut Boutique in partnership with Sarajevo Film Festival. Member of the EDN Executive Committee and Chairperson of DokuFest, Prizren. Jury member at IDFA, DokLeipzig, Docudays - Kiev, CineDOC - Tbilisi. Commissioner at the Re-Act Co-Development and Malik Funds. Lecturer at various workshops in the field of documentary cinema. Martichka received the International Trailblazer Award at MIPDOC in Cannes for creativity, innovation, originality and breakthrough in the field of documentary cinema.

LAURA BRIAND - Producer at Les Films d’Ici, France

Laura Briand had been working for 13 years at Les Films d’Ici and is producing on her own for 4 years. She’s producing both fiction film for cinema and documentary for major broadcasters.

BETTINA BROKEMPER - Producer at Heimat Film, GERMANY

Bettina Brokemper is founder and managing director of Heimatfilm and has produced and coproduced more than 50 feature films. Her producer credits include The Syrian Bride by Eran Riklis, the 2010 Berlinale winner Bal – Honey by Semih Kaplanoglu, and Hannah Arendt, by Margarethe von Trotta, which won the German Film Award in Silver for Best Picture. In 2017 she received the German Film Award in Bronze for Best Picture for WILD, directed be Nicolette Krebitz.

Since 2001, she is also Managing Director of Zentropa Köln and has co-produced several Lars von Trier films like Dogville, Manderlay, Antichrist, Nymphomaniac, Melancholia and most recently The House that Jack Built.

Bettina Brokemper is a member of the European Film Academy and German Film Academy and in 2008 was awarded with the ‘Prix Eurimages’ for Outstanding European Co-production. In 2014 she received the „Cultural Manager of the Year 2013“ Prize of the Kölner Kulturrat. Until 2016 she was member of the management board of „Les Rendez-vous franco-allemands du cinéma“.

CARLOTTA  CALORI - Producer at Indigo Film, Italy

One of the Founding members of Indigo film a Rome based production company involved in the production of theatrical films, documentaries and series. Main Filmography includes Paolo’ Sorrentino’s films (inclusing the Great Beauty winner of the best foreign language Oscar), Il Ragazzo Invisibile by Gabriele Salvatores, Sicilian Ghost Story by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia (Cannes 2017 – Semaine de la Critique) and Fortunata by Sergio Castellitto (Cannes 2017 – Un certain regard).

ENRICA CAPRA - Producer at Graffiti Doc, Italy and Tag Film, France

Founder and CEO of Graffiti Doc (est. 2004), and more recently co-founder of Tag Film, set up in Paris in 2019. Among her last productions, ‘One More Jump’ (Festa del Cinema of Rome 2019, Visions du Réel 2020); ‘Country for Old Men’ (Special Jury Award at Trieste International Film Festival 2018, David di Donatello 2018); ‘Thy Father’s Chair’ (IDFA 2015 main competition); ‘Another Me’ (International Competition Audience Award at Festival dei Popoli 2015).

She served as vice-president of Doc/It in 2011-2013, and is a member of the European Film Academy.

MARTA DONZELLI - Producer at Vivo Film. Italy

Marta Donzelli was born in Turin on September 15th 1975. She now lives and works in Rome. After a graduate degree at La Sapienza University in Rome, she finished her PhD in Philosophy in 2004, with a thesis on Edmund Husserl. The same year, with Gregorio Paonessa, she established Vivo film, an independent production company for art-house films with a catalogue of more than 40 titles, selected and awarded by the most prestigious festivals worldwide.

Among Vivo film productions: Michelangelo Frammartino’s Le Quattro Volte, 2010 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight - Europa Cinemas Label Award; Emma Dante’s Via Castellana Bandiera, 2013 Venice Film Festival Competition; Laura Bispuri’s Vergine Giurata and Figlia Mia, both premiered in competition at the Berlinale; Andrea De Sica’s I Figli della Notte, Silver Ribbon Award for Best New Director; Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, Best film of Orizzonti at the 2017 Venice Film Festival; Federico Bondi’s Dafne, FIPRESCI award at Berlinale Panorama 2019; Flesh Out by Michela Occhipinti, which also premiered at the 2019 Berlinale Panorama;

NATALIA DROZD - Producer at CTB Film, RUSSIA

Natalia Drozd  was born in 1977 in Leningrad, USSR. 2000 she graduated from Law faculty of St Petersburg State University. Natalia has been working as a production lawyer for 10 years at CTB Film Company, which is one of Russia's most prolific and successful producers of theatrical motion pictures.

Since 2009 Natalia Drozd started her career as a producer within CTB. Natalia graduated from EAVE workshop 2011.  2012  - 2015 Natalia was a Russian organiser of B’EST producers’ workshop. Since 2017 Natalia is also active as independent producer.  In 2020 she founded her own production company Forest Film.

FRANCESCA FEDER - Producer at Æternam Films, France / Italy

Francesca FEDER first worked as an international sales agent, before creating  and running the Sofica Lumière (tax shelter) in 1992. She then became managing director of A.A.A., a French distribution company. In 1993 she was CEO of Pitard Sullivan & Fitzgerald for Europe, before starting her carrier as independent producter in 1997, in association with Raphael Nadjari (« The Shade » in 1999, « I’m Josh Polonski’s brother » in 2000). Francesca founded ÆTERNAM FILMS (member of ACE) in 2002. Since then she produced or coproduced more than 10 internationally acclaimed  feature films or documentaries, such as « Flower Island » by Il Gon Song (Corea, International Competion Mostra del Cinema Venezia 2002), « Extrano » by Santiago Loza (Argentina, Tiger Award - Rotterdam 2003), « He Feming » by Wang Bing (China, Official Selection Cannes FF 2007), « Io sono Li » by Andrea Segre (Italy, Winner of the Lux Prize 2012, Migliore Attrice Donatello 2013), « Viva la Sposa » bu Ascanio Celestini (Venice days 2015) and more recently « Il Sogno di Francesco » by Arnaud Louvet and Renaud Fély.

MARTINA HAUBRICH - Producer at CALA Filmproduktion, Germany

CALA Filmproduktion Berlin was established in 2016 and produces fiction and documentary films for cinema and series for the international Market. Producer Martina Haubrich is supported by her experienced partners from different fields of the industry such as distributors, writers and directors and a producer from Austria.

From 2004 until 2016 Martina was running the Berlin office of LOOKS, one of Germany’s leading production houses for documentaries. She produced more than 20 documentary films and -series which were shown on major public channels such as ARD, ZDF, ARTE, PBS, NETFLIX and were sold internationally with great success. Feature film productions such as MICHAEL PETRUCCIANI by Michael Radford, MICHAEL KOHLHAAS by Arnaud des Pallières and FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER by Rüdiger Suchsland premiered at Cannes and Venice Filmfestivals. The most recent production MADEMOISELLE PARADIS by Barbara Albert will premiere in Toronto and San Sebastian in 2017.

ELIZABETH KARLSEN - Producer at Number 9 Films, UK

Elizabeth Karlsen is an internationally award-winning producer, who co-founded the leading independent UK based Number 9 Films in 2002 with Stephen Woolley. Together they have produced some of the most celebrated independent films in the US and Europe including: CAROL (nominated for 6 Academy Awards, 6 Golden Globe Awards and 9 BAFTA Awards) LITTLE VOICE (winner if a Golden Globe Award, nominated for 1 Academy Award, 6 Golden Globe Awards and 6 BAFTA Awards) THE CRYING GAME (winner of an Academy Awars, a BAFTA Award an nominated for 6 Academy Awards), YOUTH (nominated for 1 Academy Award and winner of 3 European Film Awards) MADE IN DAGENHAM (nominated for 3 BAFTA Awards) and MRS HARRIS (nominated for 12 Emmy Awards, 3 Golden Globe Awards and a PGA Award). She has had multiple films selected for the competition in Cannes and premieres in international film festivals including TIFF, LFF and Sundance. Other works includes; THEIR FINEST, directed by Lone Scherfig; THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM written by Jane Goldman and directed by Juan Carlos Medina; GREAT EXPECTATIONS, written by David Nicholls and directed by Mike Newell; THE NEON BIBLE directed by Terence Davies and BYZANTIUM directed by Neil Jordan.

In addition to film work, MAE IN DAGENHAM: THE MUSICAL opened in London’s West End in 2014 starring Gemma Arterton.

NAOMI LEVARI - Producer at Electric Sheep GmbH / Black Sheep Film Productions, Germany and Israel

Naomi graduated summa cum laude from the Sam Spiegel Film School, her diploma film DRAFT gained huge int'l success. Her passion for storytelling and the urge to explore new terrains routed Naomi to become an entrepreneur-producer and lead her to co-found Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd in 2010. Winning numerous awards and handling ambitious co-productions granted Naomi int'l recognition as a boundary breaking producer by CNC, by HFM and by the Israel Film Fund. In 2017 Black Sheep was invited by Berlinale to take part in its "Company Matching" initiative. In 2018 Naomi co-founded Electric Sheep GmbH. The company's first feature film premiered at Venice 2018. In addition, Naomi is a appreciated script consultant, reader and guest lecturer at international educational platforms and film schools.

JELENA MITROVIC - Producer at Film House Baš Čelik , Serbia

Jelena Mitrovic, Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia),1977. With her company Film House Baš Čelik she produced and co-produced more than 20 films, including “The Trap” directed by Srdan Golubovic (2007. Berlinale Forum, film won 22 international awards and was short listed for the Best Foreign Film Oscar,) “Clip” directed by Maja Milos (Tiger Award at 2012 Rotterdam IFF), short animated film “Rabbitland” directed by Nikola Majdak and Ana Nedeljkovic ( Crystal Bear at 2013 Berlinale, section Generation 14+), “Circles” directed by Srdan Golubovic ( Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2013, Prize of Ecumenical Jury at Berlinale Forum ) and latest production feature film “Father” directed by Srdan Golubovic (Prize of Ecumenical Jury, Audience Award at Berlinale Panorama 2020.)

Films she produced were screened at more than 800 festivals worldwide and won more than 180 international film awards.

MARIANNE SLOT - Producer at Slot Machine , France

SLOT MACHINE is a production company that was founded in 1993 by Marianne Slot and has always been passionately committed to producing works by international filmmakers. Working with major artists such as Lars von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, Bent Hamer, Malgoska Szumowska, Paz Encina, Lisandro Alonso, Emma Dante, Marian Crisan, Juliette Garcias, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Sergei Loznitsa, Naomi Kawase and Benedikt Erlingsson, Marianne Slot has always sought to foster unique cultural perspectives through the diversity of the films she has produced.

President of CNC’s Cinema du Monde 2013-2015

Scandinavian Delegate of San Sebastian International Film Festival 1999-2019

ADA SOLOMON - Producer at Hi Film Productions, Romania

In 2004, Ada Solomon opens together with Avi Karpick the film production company Hi Film.

Since then, she produced & coproduced over 50 films, won over 180 awards around the world in major festivals like Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo. Co-produced with over 15 countries around Europe & sold her films in over 50 territories around the world & continued to serve with passion as executive producer for TV series & foreign productions working with directors as Dominik Graf or Hermine Huntgeburth.

Latest achievements as producer include Special Mention Sebastiano in San Sebastian, Special Mention in CPH:PIX, Best Debut in FIFF Namur, Best Director in Auteur Film Festival Belgrade, Special Jury Prize CinEast for Soldiers. Story from Ferentari, FEDEORA award in Karlovy Vary for Marița, Silver Leopard in Locarno & Silver Astor in Mar del Plata for Scarred Hearts, Golden Bear for Child’s Pose by Calin Netzer, Silver Bear for Best Director for Aferim! by Radu Jude & the contribution as executive producer to the Oscar nominated & multi European Academy Awards winner Toni Erdmann.

PAULA VACCARO - Producer at Pinball London, UK

A full time film producer, Paula has worked in radio, TV, printed media, digital platforms and films for over two decades. Previous to her career in filmmaking, she was a full time journalist for a decade in Latin America and Spain. 

She founded Pinball London in 2009 as a production company committed to international long feature films with an auteur zeal. Since 2003 she has worked in productions combining the US, Latin America and Europe with world known filmmakers such as Sally Potter, Emir Kusturica, Guillermo Arriaga, Oliver Stone, Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Bahman Ghobadi, Warwick Thornton, Hideo Nakata, Hector Babenco, Alex de la Iglesia, Edoardo de Angelis, and Aaron Brookner among others. 

Within Pinball London, she leads Pinball Audiences, a team providing impact producing services, training, and film distribution consultancy in the US, Europe and Latin America. Under the banner Pinball Arts, the company also creates ancillary content that links films to a wider world at the intersection of art, engineering and technology. 

Paula has trained emerging producers for over a decade and has helped facilitate workshops for GoodPitch2, FIDBA and Lumiton in Argentina, DocMontevideo in Uruguay, and Doc Sao Paulo in Brazil. Since 2015 she has provided training for Regional Producers in South America in partnership with British Council and the regional film agencies on Impact Producing for docs and fiction films. She is a professor at Kingston University in London. 

OLENA YERSHOVA - Producer at Tato Film, Turkey

Olena Yershova’s graduation short film Demoniada competed at Locarno IFF. She has worked as the executive director of the Molodist Kyiv IFF. Graduate of European Producers workshop EAVE 2010 and PUNTES 2008. In 2011 she created company TatoFilm which operates in Ukraine and in Turkey. As producer she produced 10 feature films which participated at the main festival like Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and gathered more than 140 awards. Most of them were international co-productions.

Two feature films are in production: Little Georgia and Anatolian Leopard. Olena Yershova was a member of the jury of Karlovy Vary IFF, Warsaw IFF, European Film Festival in Lecce, Odessa IFF, Ankara IFF, Haifa IFF.

Yershova is a head of Antalya Film Forum from 2019.

CRISTINA ZUMARRAGA - Producer at Tandem Films, Spain

With a long trajectory expanding over 25 years and more than 30 films, as Production Manager, Line Producer, Executive Producer and Producer, some of her selected filmography includes work alongside world renowned directors such as Julio Medem (Room in Rome), Icier Bollain (In A Foreign Land, Olive Tree, Even the Rain), Patricia Ferreira (Thi Mai), Oliver Stone (Persona Non Grata; Looking for Fidel), Steven Soderbergh (Che: The Argentine Part 1 and Guerrilla Part 2); Hugh Hudson (Altamira) and Wim Wenders (Submergence) to name a few.

She has received two Goya Awards for Best Production for Even the Rain starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Luis Tosar (Iciar Bollain, 2011) and Alatriste starring Viggo Mortensen and Ariadna Gil (Agustin Diaz Llanes, 2007). She has also been nominated in other three occasions.