FIRST CUT LAB - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - HiFilm Productions and Micro FILM ( Romania )
- Romanian Producer, Founder of Hi Film Productions
Biography
Ada Solomon is a Romanian producer, founder of Hi Film Productions and Micro Film. She has produced over 60 titles such as: I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (Radu Jude, 2018, Grand Prix Crystal Globe in KV IFF), AFERIM! (Radu Jude, 2015, Silver Bear Berlin) and CHILD'S POSE (Calin Netzer, 2013, Golden Bear Berlin). She has worked with the most promising Romanian filmmakers as Cristian
Nemescu, Ivana Mladenovic, Alexandru Solomon or Răzvan Rădulescu and was executive producer for Maren Ade's TONI ERDMANN, among others. Ada co-produced with over 15 countries & was involved in European filmmakers debuts as Chiara Malta, Marta Bergman, Federico Bondi, Adriano Valerio & in accomplished directors film such as Tomasz Wasilewski, Slobodan Sijan or Dragomir Sholev.
Job Titles:
- Sales Agent
- Sales Agent - TOTEM Films ( France )
Biography
A graduate of Neoma Business School, Agathe has a 15-year track record in film sales, notably as Head of Sales at Les Films du Losange and Pyramide International. In 2018 she created Paris-based international sales company TOTEM Films together with Bérénice Vincent and Laure Parléani.
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - Koi Studio ( Poland )
Biography
Founder and co-owner of Koi Studio, where she was responsible for producing feature films and documentaries between 2013 and 2022. Since 2022 she has been associated with Aurum Film, as creative producer for feature film and series projects. She won the KIPA award for Best Debut Producer in 2014. Her most notable productions include
Little Crushes, by Aleksandra Gowin and Ireneusz Grzyb (premiered at the IFF in Rotterdam), the Polish-German co-production Whatever Happens Next, by Julian Pörksen (screened at the Berlinale), and the family series Tarapaty and Tarapaty 2, by Marta Karwowska. In 2022, she will have two premieres, a crime comedy
Dangerous Gentlemen, by Maciej Kawalski, and a Polish-German-Israeli co-production The Delegation, by Asaf Saban. Graduate of numerous international programs for producers, including EAVE, EAVE Puentes, and ACE Producers. She served on the Polish Producers Alliance (KIPA) board and is a member of the Producers Guild of Poland.
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - MD4 ( Poland )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Poland )
Agnieszka Smoczyńska is a graduate of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, Poland and has also participated in master classes at the Wajda Film School. She received a scholarship from The Minister of Culture and National Heritage for outstanding artistic achievement, the "My Talent for Poland" prize and the Golden Pen, awarded by the
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- Programmer - Berlinale Shorts - Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg ( Germany )
Biography
Alejo Franzetti was born in Buenos Aires. He is a member of the selection committee of Berlinale Shorts and of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. He graduated in Film-Direction at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires and was Meisterschüler by Thomas Arslan at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He has made films of different lengths and genres, such as "El contrabajo" (short), "La destrucción del orden vigente" (feature), "Panke" (medium
length). His work has been shown at venues such as Torino International Film Festival, Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Festival Márgenes, Entrevues Belfort, Bafici, Anthology Film Archives. He was co-founder and programmer of INVASION, the Argentine film festival in Berlin that helds since 2014. He has also engaged in formative projects such as Talents Buenos Aires, Fakultät Null / Interflugs, and in Cinema en curs.
Job Titles:
- Sales Agent ( Bosnia and Herzegovina / Canada )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Poland )
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- CEO of Festival Scope & Festival
- Programmer - Sarajevo Film Festival
Biography
Alessandro Raja (CEO of Festival Scope & Festival Programmer) is a Paris-based film professional and founder of Festival Scope, an online platform for film professionals launched in 2010. He worked in various segments of the film industry, ranging from international sales and acquisitions Celluloid Dreams (2005-
2009), The Coproduction Office ( 2004) and distribution-Artificial Eye (2000-2003). Since 2012 he also acts as a programmer for the Sarajevo Film Festival and, since 2013, for the 2morrow Independent Film Festival in Moscow.
Biography
Alexander Nanau is a German-Romanian filmmaker. His documentary film, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ION B was awarded an International Emmy Award in 2010. His feature documentary film TOTO AND HIS SISTERS was a European Academy Award nominee 2015. The film had a wide international distribution and played successfully in festivals worldwide.
Alexander served as Director of Photography for the French/German documentary NOTHINGWOOD (Sonia Kronlund) that was shot in Afghanistan and premiered in Cannes as part of La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in 2017. His latest feature length documentary COLLECTIVE premiered at the Venice IFF 2019- as part of the Official Selection - Out of Competition.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of Nice Guys Agency
Job Titles:
- Film Training Senior Manager & Qmra Industry Manager
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - LAMA FILMS
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Portugal )
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - Tangaj Production ( Romania )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Romania )
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- Romania / Programmer - Venice Days
Biography
Andrei Tănăsescu is a programmer and curator based in Bucharest (Bachelor of Arts, University of Toronto & MLitt in Cinema Studies, University of St. Andrews). Between 2010-2019, he was part of the programming team at TIFF Toronto and has collaborated with the Berlinale, Bucharest International Experimental FF and Bucharest's American Independent Film Festival and Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest.
He is a member of the selection committee of Venice Days / Giornate degli Autori and programmer for "Kino Pavasaris" Vilnius International Film Festival and Bildrausch - Filmfest Basel.
ANDRIUS BLAŽEIVIČIUS was born in Vilnius in 1985 to a Lithuanian-Polish family. After high school, he studied Cultural History and Anthropology at Vilnius University and, after a year, switched to the Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy where he earned his Master's degree in Film Directing in 2011. Andrius completed six short films during his studies, including TEN REASONS
(2011), winner of two Lithuanian Film Academy Awards. His debut feature film THE SAINT (2016) premiered at the Busan and Warsaw Film Festivals and received six Lithuanian Film Academy Awards. Andrius works as a freelance director and has also been a programmer for the Vilnius International Short Film Festival since 2010.
Job Titles:
- Script Consultant, Talent & Project Scout
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Poland )
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - Otter Films ( Poland )
Biography
Anne Delseth studied journalism in Fribourg, Switzerland, also earning a Master's degree in Cultural Management. She worked for the Fribourg International Film Festival and as a production assistant on films by Ursula Meier and Jean-Stéphane Bron. From 2008 to 2011, she was assistant to the artistic director of the Fribourg Festival; in 2011 she worked in international sales at Urban Distribution.
A member of the Directors' Fortnight selection committee since 2012, she join ed the selection committee of the Locarno Festival for the 2018 edition. She directs the HEAD (Geneva) and ECAL Master's in Film Studies in Lausanne, where she also runs an arthouse cinema. Anne Delseth is also a consultant for the Neuch tel Fantastic Fil m Festival and the Zürich Film Festival.
Job Titles:
- Sales Agent
- Director of Acquisitions - Cinemarket
Biography
Anne-Sophie Lehec has an in-depth knowledge of the film industry with experience gained from working in the United States, France, Hong Kong and Macao. She graduated from the Bordeaux School of Management and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics with a degree in Arts Management.
She has worked at American Cinematheque, Celluloid Dreams and Mubi. In Beijing she worked for Asian Shadows and the representative office of Uni France Films. She is also the former Audiovisual Attache at the French Consulate in Hong Kong and Macao.
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer ( Singapore )
- Writer - Director and Producer from Singapore
Anthony Chen is an award-winning film writer-director and producer from Singapore. Anthony started film school at the young age of 17 to pursue his passion for filmmaking. Trained at a film school in Singapore and then at the National Film and Television School, UK, his shorts have screened and been awarded at numerous prestigious festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Busan, London, Sydney, Melbourne, and Chicago.
He is best known for his debut feature Ilo Ilo which premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and was unanimously awarded the Camera d'Or, making history as the first Singapore feature to be awarded at Cannes. Ilo Ilo went on to gain widespread acclaim and recognition when it became an arthouse favorite, winning 40 awards internationally, including four Golden Horse Awards at the 50th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.
Anthony Chen's second feature film Wet Season premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 and was once again celebrated critically, garnering multiple awards. Both films were Singapore's official submissions to the Oscars.
Anthony's latest short was part of the anthology feature The Year of the Everlasting Storm for US distributor Neon, premiering in Official Selection at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in Special Screenings.
Job Titles:
- Producer & Industry Consultant
Job Titles:
- Programmer & Screenwriter
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Finland )
Job Titles:
- Head of Acquisitions and Consultant
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Philippines )
- Writer - Turned - Director
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- Head of Programming - Premiers Plans ( France )
Born in Paris, Arnaud Gourmelen started working for film festivals in programming departments (Brest, Biarritz, Pantin film festivals). In 2005, he became Head of programming of Angers Film festival -Premiers Plans- where he kept on discovering new filmmakers from all over Europe. Besides, he curated many retrospectives, for example dedicated to Aki Kaurismäki, Pier Paolo Pasolini
and Agnès Varda. From 2011 to 2018, he was part of the selection committee of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Apart from the Angers festival, he now also works also as an international consultant and program delegate for several international festivals (Karlovy Vary, Brussels and Zurich). He organizes the Angers Workshop every summer as well.
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- Programmer - Berlinale
Biography
Aurélie Godet was the Deputy Director of UniFrance's New York office from 2006 to 2010. After relocating to Europe, she worked as a consultant for production companies and wrote for several publications, including "Cahiers du Cinéma". In 2013, she joined the selection committee of the Locarno Festival, where she
remained a programmer for six years. She also contributed to the 3 Continents and La Roche-sur-Yon film festivals. In 2019, she co-founded "Parenting at Film Festivals", a collective of film professionals aiming for a better work-life balance. She is a member of the advisory committee at Arte France Cinéma.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Philippines )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Poland )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director ( Poland )
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - Madants ( Poland )
Job Titles:
- Programmer
- General Delegate - Venice Critics' Week
Biography
Film critic, freelance journalist and film programmer, Beatrice Fiorentino collaborates with several italian magazines and newspapers as 8 e ½, Artribune, CinecittàNews, Il manifesto and Il Piccolo. In 2014 she won the Akai Prize as Best film critic at the 71st Venice Film Festival and since 2015 she's been part of the "Film della Critica" panel of the National Union of Italian Film Critics.
She has taught film and audiovisual language at the University of Koper (Slovenia). She is a member of the Film della Critica commission appointed by SNCCI (Italian Film Critics Association), European Film Academy (EFA), and David di Donatello Awards Academy. Since 2016 she has been part of the selection committee for the Venice International Film Critics' Week and in 2020 she took the helm of the section being nominated General Delegate.
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Producer - Rohfilm Productions ( Germany )
Biography
Benny grew up in Munich where he did not finish his education as a sculptor and stonemason. Then he was working for the Bavarian State Opera and at a nice little cinema which showed only Italian and French Films that nobody wanted to see (apart from a bunch of people who today all work in the cinema industry). In 1997 Benny came to Berlin to work as post production supervisor and soon as an associate producer for documentary films and
debut films. In 2002 he left Berlin for Barcelona, but came back to found Rohfilm with his former colleague and friend Karsten Stöter in 2005. Until today Rohfilm produced and co-produced 30 films all over the world. In 2014 Benny was a member of the jury (shorts) at the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes Film Festival. Since 2016 Benny is the sole owner and producer at Rohfilm Productions based in Leipzig and Berlin.
Best Short Documentary 2012 in London, at the International student Film Festival London, 2012 and has been accepted for Cannes Film Festival 2012- Short Film Corner. Listen is her first feature.
Job Titles:
- Co - President & Creative Producer
Job Titles:
- Marketing Consultant
- Marketing Consultant ( France )
Biography
Boris Pugnet started to work in market studies for movie-theatres, and then as a manager of a art-house cinema and a multiplex, for Village Roadshow France. He then worked as a Head of booking for CTV International, an independent distribution company that released movies such as Memories of murder by Bong Joon-Ho. After that, he worked for SND, the distribution branch of M6 group, as Head of creative material, and worked on the release of blockbusters such as The Twilight Saga etc.
Then as Head of marketing for Le pacte, a French distribution company releasing independant movies, he worked on movies by Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Jim Jarmusch, Arnaud Desplechin, Christian Mungiu, Ken Loach, including the golden palm, "I Daniel Blake", dealing every year with up to 12 movies selected in Cannes Festivals.
He then work as an editor for the trailer-agency Turn-Right, before launching his own company Tiramisu. He works now as an editor for trailers and marketing consultant for producers and distributors through Europe, from development to release. He also sometimes do long-term missions for distributors such as Fox, Pathé, Warner etc. He also is a tutor for workshops such as Eave, First-cut + Trieste and Karlovy Vary, Ceea animation, and in cinema schools such as Femis, INA, University of Paris La Sorbonne.
Job Titles:
- Film Critic
- Film Critic & Programmer ( New Zealand / Germany )
- Freelance Film Critic, Journalist and Programmer
Biography
Carmen Gray is a freelance film critic, journalist and programmer who was born in New Zealand and now lives in Berlin. She has written for The New York Times, Criterion, The Guardian, The Observer, Sight & Sound, Screen International, The Calvert Journal, the Village Voice and ArtReview, among others. She is Chief Critic for Modern Times Review: The European Documentary Magazine, and was previously the Film Editor of Dazed &
Confused magazine in London. She is on the selection committee for the Generation section of the Berlinale, and the Winterthur International Short Film Festival in Switzerland, is a programme adviser for Open City Docs, and was previously part of the programming team at Berlin Critics' Week. She has curated special screenings for festivals in Russia and Portugal.
Job Titles:
- Industry Manager & Director
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Distribution Consultant
Job Titles:
- Independent Curator & Programmer
Dušan Zorić (1992) and Matija Gluščević (1995) studied film directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Their films have been screened at a great number of international festivals, winning several awards. Dušan's documentary Love (2016) had its world premiere at Visions du Réel. His short Foreign Body (2018) had its world premiere at Venice FF (Orizzonti). Matija's documentary Utopia (2016) was screened at Pula FF and Belgrade documentary and short FF. His last short fiction Loop (2017) had its world premiere at the 70th Locarno FF (Pardi di domani). Have You Seen This Woman? is their feature debut.
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Editorial Advisor
Job Titles:
- Via - Programmer and Trainer
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director & General Delegate
Job Titles:
- VP & Executive Producer of Documentaries
Job Titles:
- Founding Member of Beirut DC
Job Titles:
- Director of Festival & Film Programmer
Job Titles:
- Digital Marketing Specialist
Job Titles:
- Post - Production Producer
Job Titles:
- Head of International Sales
Job Titles:
- Editorial Advisor
- FCL Editorial Consultant
Job Titles:
- Program Manager
- Program Manager First Cut
Job Titles:
- Deltruc - Festival Director
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of Nice Guys Agency
Job Titles:
- Film Writer, Producer & Festival Programmer
Job Titles:
- Industry Manager & Producer
Job Titles:
- Director
- Producer
- Programmer
Job Titles:
- Programmer and Distributor
Job Titles:
- Editorial Advisor
- Teacher and Lab Producer
Job Titles:
- Head of Acquisitions & Sales
Job Titles:
- Romania / Programmer - Venice Days
Job Titles:
- Film Producer, Curator, & Arts Manager
Job Titles:
- Editorial Advisor
- FCL Editorial Consultant
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Producer