Industry Professionals
Martina Valentina Baumgartner
Producer and freelancer, Germany
martinavalentinabaumgartner@gmx.de
Born in Frankfurt Main, Germany, Martina Valentina Baumgartner discovered her love for film and stories at an early age in her father’s cinema Harmonie (always from the best seats on the balcony) She holds a degree in Architecture and then pursued her passion, working as an art director e.g. for such films as BARBARA, DAS KLEINE GESPENST and ME AND KAMINSKI. In recent years, she has been increasingly involved in film production as a freelancer for companies such as POLA PANDORA, MATCH FACTORY PRODUCTIONS and AMUSEMENT PARK FILM. In 2015, she launched the BAUMI AWARD, which she has been overseeing ever since. From 2018 to 2020 she worked as a project manager with the NIPKOW PROGRAMM, a highly regarded fellowship programme for international filmmakers. In 2021 she began working for the INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL BERLIN as a documentary coordinator for the EFM – European Film Market. Martina Valentina Baumgartner is always curious to filter reality through films.
Gledis Bica
Korca Short FF
Born in Tirana, Albania. Gledis Bica discovered his love for film as a teenager while still in high school in 2006, when he made the documentary “Drowned Dreams” which was selected in several festivals including DokuFest, Zagrebdox, Glasgow International Human Rights Film Festival etc. This was the starting point for him, following his studies at the Marubi Film Academy in Tirana, where he made two short films: The Last Cigarette (Neo Noir) & Bába (Drama). He graduated in 2011 for film directing. In 2009, he founded the “First Step Association” (NGO), and in October 2010 he consequently founded “First Step Film Festival”, an international short film festival, which today bears the name KO:SH Film Fest in which he continues being the festival director. He is the author of two screenplays entitled “Good Cop, Bad Cop” (short film) and “Between Earth and Sky” (feature film ), both projects selected at Sarajevo Script Station 2020&2021. Currently, he is fully focused and working on making the above two film projects.
Rok Biček
Producer, Cvinger Film
Rok Biček (1985) is a Slovenian director and producer. He came to international prominence with his directing debut Class Enemy, which picked up the FEDORA Award at the Venice Critics’ Week (2013), was LUX Prize finalist and Variety Critics’ Choice selection (2014). His 2017 documentary The Family, filmed over the span of ten years, won the Grand Prix at the Locarno Critics’ Week and was shown at IDFA. In 2021 Rok presented his short film Penalty Shot in Locarno Corti d ́Autore. Currently he is developing his third film as a director.
In 2011, Rok founded his Ljubljana-based independent production company Cvinger Film with a branch office in Vienna. He was selected among EFP Producers on the Move in 2019. Among Rok’s productions are Sara Kern ́s short Good Luck Orlo (Venice Orizzonti, 2016) and her debut feature Moja Vesna (Berlinale Generation, 2022). He co-produced Olmo Omerzu’s Karlovy Vary entries Winter Flies (2018, Best Director) and Bird Atlas (2021), and Darko Štante’s Toronto entry Consequences (2018).
Cvinger Film currently has projects by Biljana Tutorov, Marija Zidar, Maja Prelog, Polina Kelm, Eylem Kaftan, Olmo Omerzu, Lun Sevnik, Mihai Dragolea and Radu Mocanu in different stages of production.
Eroll Bilibani
Head of DokuLab, DokuFest; Producer
Eroll Bilibani is a film producer and photographer. At DokuFest’s education department DokuLab he develops educational programs in which cinema and storytelling are the means to a greater understanding of complex questions and for the social development of young artists. Through DokuFest’s documentary production center, Eroll has produced over 120 short films directed by first-time filmmakers in Kosovo, which are distributed to schools and local cinemas throughout Kosovo. He was one of the architects of the ‘Future is Here’ film education program, which was conceived in 2012 as an idea to respond to the needs of young people to make films, collaborate within the region and incorporate films into the classroom.
Christine Camdessus
Managing & Artistic director FIPADOC
After being a lawyer-in-firm and a film finance banker, Christine launched her production company in 2001: ALEGRIA PRODUCTIONS. Among more than 60 creative documentaries, distributed in most of the world: Pakistan Zindabad, The Lost war of the Vatican?, Five Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi (Sundance director’s price 2012, Oscar Nomination 2013, International Emmy Award 2013), Divided Korea, The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev , Erdogan, the making of a sultan, One day in Tehran and Forman versus Forman selected in Cannes Classics in May 2019. Christine is chairwoman of NIPKOW’s jury (Berlin). She has been vice-president of USPA (leading TV producers union in France) from 2014 to 2018. In June 2018, Christine has been nominated Managing & Artistic director of FIPADOC.
Rodolfo Castillo-Morales
Documentary Programming Director Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG)
Rodolfo Castillo-Morales is a Mexican filmmaker, programmer and curator, specialised in contemporary documentary cinema. As a filmmaker, he has participated in over 10 documentary and fiction short films as screenwriter, director, producer, director of cinematography and editor. He has worked in unitary, series and documentary films.
He was responsible for the programme coordination and curation of DocsMX, and was also the co-designer of Plataforma MX.
In 2018, he took over the General Coordination of DocuLab: Documentary laboratory in Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) and in 2019 he was named Documentary Programming Director at FICG and the FICG Cinematheque.
He is currently working in the post production of his third feature film and filming his fourth feature film as director.
Vitezslav Chovanec
Czech Film Center
Graduated from Film and Audio-Visual Culture Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. During his studies he worked for Czech Television as an assistant dramaturge. Since 2010, he worked for several film festivals including Cinema Mundi, Karlovy Vary IFF, Ji.hlava IDFF or Mezipatra IQFF. As a journalist, Vítězslav has contributed to various Czech outlets including 25fps, Film a doba, and he is still writing for magazine Cinepur. He is also a member of the programming team of One World Human Rights Film Festival in Prague. In September 2017, he joined the team of the Czech Film Center, a division of Czech Film Fund, where he is responsible for promotion of Czech documentary and short films abroad.
Lauren Clarke
Industry Programmer Hot Docs
Lauren Clarke is a film programmer, curator and researcher based in Glasgow. Currently she is the documentary Programming Associate at TIFF, Industry Programmer at Hot Docs, programmes the experimental strand at Aesthetica Short Film Festival and is a member of Invisible Women Collective.
Stephanie Fuchs
Autlook Filmsales
Stephanie Fuchs has been a part of the Autlook Filmsales team since 2014. Through her work as Autlook’s Festival Manager, Stephanie has overseen the festival runs of acclaimed films like Venice premiered THREE MINUTES – A LENGTHENING, OSCARS® nominees WRITING WITH FIRE and FOR SAMA. In 2023, Autlook launched four feature docs at Sundance, including SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD. In 2022 Stephanie has expanded her area of expertise as part of the sales team, licensing films to theatrical distributors, broadcasters and VOD platforms. She offers her expertise as a consultant, industry advisor and panelist, and has been part of several international festival juries.
Ion Gnatiuc
Producer HaiDOC Productions
ion@haidoc.productions
Founded in 2018, HaiDOC Productions is focusing on the development and production of independent documentary film projects from the Republic of Moldova, the „we haven’t seen many stories from” type of country for the moment. The company’s mission statement is both supporting independent artistic voices with clear and defined artistic visions and generating micro-processes of social change through documentary films. As a company founded and activating in a country with limited financial resources, but rich in talent eager to reach the screens of the world, one of the strategic aims is to develop and co-produce its films with international partners, which would add artistic value and new distribution territories for the local Moldavian stories with global relevance.
Marko Grba Singh
Artistic Director Beldocs
Marko Grba Singh was born in 1988 in Belgrade, Serbia. He is currently on PhD studies in Film Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His short documentaries “At Least We’ve Met” (2012) and “Pale” (2013 ) premiered at Visions du Réel. His first midlength film “Abdul & Hamza“ (2015) got a Special Mention at FIDMarseille. His short film “If I Had It My Way I Would Never Leave” was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the ACID Section in 2017. Since 2018 he serves as the Artistic Director of BELDOCS, Belgrade International Documentary Film Festival. His first feature film “Rampart” (2021) premiered at Locarno Film Festival.
Ingibjörg Halldórsdóttir
Director, IceDocs
Ingibjörg is the co-founder and director of Iceland Documentary Film Festival (IceDocs), She helmed the festival’s fourth edition this summer as well as being part of the festival’s programming committee. IceDocs is Iceland’s first and only film festival dedicated solely to international creative documentaries.The festival aims at bringing quality documentaries to the local market as well as being a creative hub for filmmakers in the near future. It is part of the newly founded Time for Docs festival network. Ingibjörg serves in a selection committee for the Icelandic film and TV academy’s Edda awards.
Natalia Libet
Producer, 2Brave Productions
natalibet@2braveproductions.com
Experienced in co-production, investment, and finance through her work with international companies, Natalia Libet is a film producer and co-owner of the women-led production company “2Brave Productions” based in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has produced and co-produced several successful feature debuts, including Kateryna Gornostai’s “Stop-Zemlia” (2021, Crystal Bear Berlinale Generation 14+), Mantas Kvedaravicius’s “Parthenon” (2019 Venice FF’s International Critics’ Week), Marta Smerechynska’s “Diary of a Bride of Christ” (2022 Sarajevo FF), and Dekel Berenson’s short film “Anna” (2019 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Competition). Natalia earned an MBA in the United States as the recipient of the 2000 Edmund Muskie/Freedom Support Act Graduate Fellowship Award. She is a member of the European and Ukrainian Film Academies and an alumna of EURODOC 2021. Currently, Natalia also serves as the program manager of Tatino Films’ First Cut+, a semiannual workshop focused on marketing and positioning of feature films.
Jelena Maksimovic
Editor
Jelena Maksimovic graduated in Film editing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.
She has been teaching at the Faculty for Media and Communication in Belgrade, Digital Arts Department, since 2015.
As an editor she worked on films such as The Load (2018), You Have the Night (2018), Celts (2021) and Landscapes of Resistance (2021) which screened in Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, Locarno, Rotterdam, Toronto and many others.
She has directed two shorts and two feature films: Taurunum Boy (2018) and Homelands (Domovine, 2020), which premiered at Cinéma du Réel and FID Marseille, respectively.\
In addition to film, she has achieved numerous collaborations in the field of video art, spatial installations and theater performances.
Suzanne Nodale
Sales specialist, Blooming Docs
suzanne.nodale@bloomingdocs.com
A documentary sales specialist with 8 years of experience in the field, Suzanne previously worked for companies Doc & Film International, Mediawan Rights and Cercamon. During these tenures, she worked on titles such as Fuocoammare by Gianfranco Rosi (Golden Bear 2016), Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries, Kubrick by Kubrick by Gregory Monro (Tribeca FF 2020, International Emmy Awards for Best Arts Programming 2021) and most recently Seven Winters In Tehran by Steffi Niederzoll (2023, Berlinale, CPH:DOX, Movies that Matter awards). In 2023, she created her own sales company Blooming Docs focused on feature length documentaries.
Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła
Head of Programme Department, Krakow Film Festival
Organizer of film events, a specialist in film promotion, a university lecturer. President of the Board at the Krakow Film Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose main objective is the wide promotion of the film art and supporting the filmmakers and producers from Poland. She is the Head of Programme Department at the Krakow Film Festival, one of the most important festivals for documentary and short films in Poland. Before joining the festival she worked in a film distribution company where she was responsible for film events and marketing. A Managing Director of the KFF Sales & Promotion agency which she established in 2005 to strengthen the international promotion of Polish documentary, animated and short films. She served as a juror at many festivals, coordinated many projects connected to the film, she is also a lecturer in the film department at Krakow University. She is a member of the Polish Film Academy.
Ben Pace
Doc&Factual, International Programming Manager, Mia Market
Ben Pace has worked for Mia Market since 2016. He has been coordinating the documentary division and has been appointed International Programming Manager in 2022.
Ben is well-experienced as a curator for a variety of film festivals including Capalbio International Short Film Festival, Milano Film Festival and the renowned SXSW where he assisted the VR/AR track production team.
Ben studied Journalism at the University of Palermo and he received a Masters degree in Film at the Edinburgh Napier University where he was awarded the university medal for his short film Mura, which has been screened in many film festivals around the world.
Anna Petrus
Artistic Director Docs Barcelona
apetrus@docsbarcelona.com
Filmmaker, film critic, cultural researcher, professor and currently Artistic Director of DocsBarcelona International Film Festival. She holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication by Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). She has directed multiple films, including video art, fiction, and documentary, which have touring festivals such as Cannes Film Festival, Festival des Films du Monde (Montréal), Sitges- Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya or FicXixón, among many others. She has worked as a film critic in several and relevant film magazines and newspapers in Spain (such as Dirigido por, Cahiers du Cinéma -Spain, and La Vanguardia). She is currently a contributor to the newspaper Ara, where she writes about cinema, audiovisual and feminism; and she is also part of the Board of Directors of Dones Visuals (Visual Women), the association of women filmmakers in Catalonia.
Oksana Sarkisova
Director Verzio Documentary Film Festival
Oksana Sarkisova is Researcher at Blinken OSA Archivum, Central European University and Director of Verzio Documentary Film Festival in Budapest. She teaches and writes on film, memory politics, and amateur photography. Her books include Screening Soviet Nationalities: Kulturfilms from the Far North to Central Asia (2017) and Snapshot Histories (with Olga Shevchenko, 2023). She directed CEU Summer Universities “Documentary Cinema in the Digital Century” (2013), “Screened Memories: Historical Narratives and Contemporary Visual Culture” (2016), and “Fields of Vision: Memory, Identity, and Images of the Past” (2019), participated as tutor in the workshops Cinema Without Borders, Caucadoc, Summer School on Cinema and Human Rights in Galway, and as jury member at various international film festivals.
Ileana Stanculescu
CinéDOC-Tbilisi
CinéDOC-Tbilisi focuses on creative documentary films. The festival seeks to be a sustainable platform for regional and international documentary filmmakers, showcasing a compelling selection of thought-provoking documentary films. The festival emphasizes original storytelling, the art of cinema and personal engagement with filmmakers.
Our mission is to present a festival which celebrates and explores contemporary Georgian, regional and international documentary films with a unique program of screenings and special events, which aim to increase audience knowledge and participation. We organize screenings and discussions in Tbilisi and Georgia’s regions, in partnerships with schools.
We also organize workshops for film professionals from the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Ukraine and Moldova. The Film mentoring Programme of our festival and its Film Support Programme are an important platform for training and funding for filmmakers from the target countries.
Irena Taskovski
CEO / Head of acquisitions
TASKOVSKI FILMS
Founded in 2003 Taskovski Films is a documentary company that integrates production, sales, professional film business training and film & art residencies. We believe film has transformative power to change the world for the better. Our passion is discovering and supporting new and well established talent to tell stories that can spark social change by surprising and engaging audiences across the globe. We welcome innovative, playful and risky forms of filmmaking and authorial stories in fields of arts and culture, history, society, politics and environment, while still maintaining high criteria when it comes to production value, content and form.
Dragan Von Petrovic
Editor
Dragan Von Petrovic is an editor and director of documentary and fiction films. He grew up in Leskovac, Yugoslavia. He studied philosophy at the University of Belgrade and finished the AFC Film Directing School before enrolling in the Film Editing Department at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His feature documentary Dragan Wende – West Berlin was screened at many festivals including Hot Docs Toronto, DOK Leipzig, Achtung Berlin and won Best Documentary or Audience Awards at the Max Ophüls Preis, Trieste Film Festival, FEST New Directors, as well as the nominations for the best German documentary of the year and Prix Europa. He worked as a freelance film editor on feature fiction, documentary and short films awarded at the festivals in Venice, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Sarajevo, Interfilm Berlin, and screened at Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, Sheffield, Tallinn, Clermond-Ferrand, while the short film Picnic won the European Film Award for the Best Short Film 2015. He also works as a guest lecturer, a panel moderator, as well as an editing consultant on documentaries and feature fiction films. He won the award of the Association of Film Editors of Serbia as the best editor in 2021. One of the founders and a member of DOKSERBIA documentary association.
Sina Weber
Head of DOK.forum at DOK.fest Munich
Sina studied Social and Cultural Anthropology, Art History and Art Education at LMU Munich. She completed her MA with a thesis in Visual Anthropology on atmospheres and aesthetic research, explored in her documentary film “Dentro de Babylon”. After several years of initiating and coordinating art and culture projects for the city laboratory and think tank “die urbanauten”, she joined DOK.fest München in 2017. Here, she is in charge of the festival’s market for co-creation and co-production of documentaries in development – as head of DOK.forum Marketplace from 2020. She also worked as an Impact Producer for Evolution Film in 2019 and supported a documentary production in Bethlehem, Palestine in 2020 as a CrossCulture fellow of the Institute of Foreign Affairs (ifa). Since January 2022, she is part of the ERC research project “Foraging at the Edge of Capitalism” rooted in Visual Anthropology and based at Rachel Carson Center in Munich.