Film Funds
Slovenian Film Centre
Nataša Bučar, Managing Director
Nataša Bučar is a Managing Director of Slovenian Film Center.
She has extensive experience in film industry. For several years she has been managing LIFFe, the largest International Film Festival in Slovenia which was also supported by MEDIA. At the same time she was running distribution activities inside Cankarjev dom, the oldest independent arthouse distribution house in Slovenia. She gained management experiences as the Director of the Festival of Slovenian Films, as Assistant Director of the Slovenian Film Fund and as the General Director of the Media Directorate at the slovenian Ministry of Culture. In 2016 she was advising as cinema Marketing Expert in the arthouse cinema Kinodvor in Ljubljana and at the end of that same year she was appointed as the Managing Director of Slovenian Film Center.
Since 2018 she is a board member of EFADs, European Film Agency Directors Asociation.
Lidija Zajec, Head of Film Production Department
Lidija Zajec has been working for the Slovenian film Centre for the past 11 years, first in the promotion department, and since 2011 in the production department. She is currently the Head of Film Production Department and she is in charge of all production public calls (except minority co-productions). Lidija also follows selected project and supervises their spending of subsidies. Before that she was working for some film festivals.
North Macedonia Film Agency
Veronika Buchkovska,
Younger Associate for Film Industry and Contact Person for International Cooperation
Studied at the Faculty of Philology in Skopje – English major. She is part of the Film Industry Department at the North Macedonia Film Agency since 2011. Has been in charge of promotion of national film production both nationally and internationally and monitoring film festival realization. Has experience of organizing events of various formats, ranging from one-day training sessions to international conferences and festivals.
Croatian Audiovisual Centre
Christopher Peter Marcich, Chief Executive
Chris was appointed CEO of the Croatian Audiovisual Center (HAVC) on 1 May 2019.
He has been President of the Board of AGICOA, the association of audiovisual producers and their collective rights management groups since 2013.
Upon deciding to divide his time between Brussels and Croatia for personal reasons, Chris was appointed President for International at the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in January 2015 to assist with a transition within the MPA. He was responsible for coordination of the MPA’s international offices (EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Brazil & Mexico).
Chris joined the MPA in 1995. From 1995 through 2014 he served as President in charge of MPA’s regional office for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The office’s principal areas of activity include work on legislative and regulatory issues related to the media sector at the European and national levels.
Prior to joining the MPA Chris spent sixteen years working in the U.S. Government on international trade issues as a negotiator and shaping U.S. trade policy. When he left the Government in 1995, he was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe, responsible for trade relations with the region. Prior to that, Chris was appointed to the newly created position of Assistant US Trade Representative for Trade and Environment, pioneering efforts to integrate health and environmental principles with those of international commerce.
Chris holds Croatian and U.S. citizenships, holds a Master’s degree from Georgetown University, and speaks English, Croatian and French and has working knowledge of Italian and Spanish.
Greek Film Centre
Athena Kalkopoulou, Director of Hellas Film
Athena Kalkopoulou is the Director of Hellas Film, the promotion and distribution branch at the Greek Film Centre. She is a creative producer with twenty years of experience in film funding, producing and outreach in the US and Europe. Her latest documentary A Growing Thing (US-German co-production, director Sarah Gross) broadcast on Deutche Welle and PBS World Channel in 2020. She has collaborated with the Sundance Institute, SXSW, Catapult Film Fund and the San Francisco International Film Festival. Previously, she oversaw the San Francisco Film Society’s documentary, fiscal sponsorship and project development program. She holds an MA in Film & TV Production from the University of Bristol and a BA in Media with Cultural Studies from the University of Sussex.
Yorgos Angelopoulos, Head of Production & Development
Yorgos Angelopoulos studied Filmmaking in Thessaloniki Fine Arts University (AUTH), majoring in Directing. He then was awarded a fellowship for a Master’s Degree in Screenwriting, in the University of The Arts in London. His first short film, Goldfish, has won 14 awards and was part of an International Campaign for Human Rights & Equality, ran by British Council. He co-wrote Patision Avenue, which competed in Venice Film Festival and won 3 awards in Clermont- Ferrand Int’l Film Festival. He worked for a few years in film education. In 2017 he started working for the funding and production office of the Greek Film Centre. In 2020 he became the Director of Production & Development branch at the Greek Film Centre.
Albanian Center of Cinematography
Eduart Makri, Director
Graduates as an ACTOR in 1981 at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania. Right after he starts a fast and successful carrier in the Albanian Movie Industry. He learns his film-making craft with the best well known Albanian movie directors (educated in Moscow, Bucharest, Prague, Budapest): Kristaq Dhamo, Viktor Gjika, Hysen Hakani, Piro Milkani, Kujtim Çashku, and especially with Dhimiter Anagnosti. In the meanwhile he plays a few leading characters, becoming a celebrity when he was only 25 years old.
On April 17, 2019, he was appointed President of the National Center of Cinematography.
Kosovo Cinematography Center
Arben Zharku, Director
Arben Zharku is an actor and EAVE graduate producer from Kosovo; He is director of the Kosovo Cinematography Center, the main public film fund in Kosovo. Before the engagement with the film fund he directed SKENA UP Festival for 11 years, he also was manager at on of the most active cultural organization in Prishtina, Qendra Multimedia. As a Director of the film fund he is involved in enabling various film productions and building an infrastructure within Kosovo for expanding film production. This is to sustain the growth of what is being called the “Kosovo New Wave”. He is member of the European Film Academy and member of the Board of Directors of the European Film Promotion.
Lum Citaku, Head of Communications and Portfolio
Lum has over 15 years of experience as a filmmaker and visual artist, working with film, new media, and anthropologically informed media creation as a film director, researcher, and producer in Prishtina.
He holds a Masters in Visual and Media Anthropology (Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology) from Freie University in Berlin. Prior to that he has received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Arts and Sciences from Rochester Institute of Technology. In January 2019 he joined the Kosovo Cinematography Center serving as head of communications and portfolio.
Lum is currently expanding on his ‘Anthropology of Interface – Dialectics and Aesthetics of Creating with the Digital’ – a multi-sited ethnographic research and interactive film project which investigates the lives of digital creators through a shared exploration of layers of belief systems and beliefs, to then analyzing with them their current relationships with their formed philosophies, daily engagements and their creations.
His latest films include: “Women of Liberty” (2020), “GOF – Filmworld” (2019), “Voices From Within” (2018), “The numerous thoughts and things” – Interactive film (2017), “Machinima Film” (2016) etc.
Film Center Serbia
Miroljub Vuckovic, International Relation and Promotion Consultant
Born November 23, 1952. Film Center Serbia International Relation and Promotion Consultant, since July 2020. Columnist in Belgarde daly Blic – Location Scouting, 2015-2019. Script Reader for international Film Funds Project Grants since 2014. Head of International relations and promotion in Film Center Serbia, 2013-2020. Member of European Film Academy, since 2009. Representative of Serbia in Eurimages – European Cinema Support Fund, 2008-2012. Acting director of Film Center Serbia, 2007-2013. Founder and Director of east west Crossings Film Promotion Fund, established 2006. Adviser for film program at the European Forum Alpbach, Austria, 2006 – 2014. Chairman of South-East European Cinema Network, 2001 – 2005. Program Director of Belgrade International Film Festival, 1997 – 2010. General Manager of Institut za film (Yugoslav/Serbian Film Institute) 1995 – 200.
Film Centre of Montenegro
Sehad Čekić, Director