ISABELLE FAUVEL

After gathering experience as a producer at Flach Film, Isabelle Fauvel founded Initiative Film in 1993, the first company entirely dedicated to the creative development process.

Since then, she has been working internationally, the privileged partner of writers, directors and producers for all matters regarding projects and talents development: talent scouting, book scouting, scriptwriting consultancies (on feature films and series), story editing, pitching training and insightful advising during the whole development process.

As such, Isabelle has collaborated with many international festivals (Torino Film Lab, ACE Producers, MFI… ) and is also a speaker for universities and film schools. Isabelle is also involved in building bridges with the publishing world at film adaptation events such as Shoot the Book! and the Polar en Séries Prize at the Quais du Polar festival in Lyon.

MARTINA PETROVIĆ

She has a major in International Relations and a minor in Psychology. Martina has gained most of her working experience at the Ministry of Culture, Department for International Cultural Cooperation, being responsible for various cultural exchange programmes between Croatia and other countries; among many activities, she was responsible for the organisation of Croatian film presentation during international film festivals in Berlin and Cannes. From 2008, she has been actively involved in establishing the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, where she has stayed, after being chosen by the European Commission as the Head of MEDIA Desk Croatia. Following immediate and successful results in terms of ensuring the financing by the MEDIA Programme, working thoroughly on the promotion of the Croatian film, resulted in receiving the first Albert Kapović Award by the Croatian Producers Association, given at the opening of Zagreb Film Festival in 2010. As the Head of MEDIA Desk Croatia (today’s Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office Croatia), she has been actively involved in organizing innovative and active presentations/workshops – important tools for education and networking – between Croatian but also European film professionals.

FLAVIO ARMONE 

Lights On – international distribution agency

He studied film history in his hometown of Turin, Italy. He started working at film festivals in 2004 and founded Lights On, an international distribution agency, in 2015.

Lights On focuses mainly on the distribution of short films, but also has a few selected feature films in its program, such as Lúa Vermella (Red Moon Tide) by Lois Patiño, which premiered at the 2020 Berlinale Forum. The short films distributed by Lights On have premiered at some of the most prestigious festivals worldwide: Semaine de la Critique – Cannes, Sundance Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs – Cannes. Lights On is a world distributor of quality films based in Italy, passionate about supporting emerging filmmakers from around the world and helping them take their first steps from short films to feature films.

CHRISTINA PELEKANI 

is an experienced film industry professional, who has started working in the film business as a creative director in films’ campaigns, marketing manager & acquisitions’ consultant.

Since 2016, she is working as the Head of Marketing & Communications for the Greek film distributor Feelgood Entertainment S.A. She is responsible for Paramount Pictures, Disney Studio (Disney, Pixar, Lucas, Marvel, 20th Century & Searchlight), Sony Pictures & independent movie releases, as well as local productions for both Greece & Cyprus. She is also a member of the company’s acquisitions team.

Christina formerly worked as a Marketing Manager, Acquisitions’ consultant & Buyer for Village Roadshow Greece (Warner Bros. Pictures former distributor in Greece).

She holds a MA in Arts Management from the City University of London and a BA in Marketing. She is a graduate of EAVE Producers Workshop (2014), Power to The Pixel Cross-media Workshop (2015) and EUROVOD workshop (Venice, 2019). She is also a member of EFA (European Film Academy) & EWA (European Women’s Audiovisual Association).

Since 2015, Christina is a regular lecturer and advisor at industry events, film festivals and film development & training workshops, such as EAVE, First Cut Lab, First Cut+, Midpoint Feature Launch, WEMW, Torino Film Lab’s – Red Sea Lodge, Rotterdam Lab, Agora at Thessaloniki IFF & Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, just to name a few.

Christina is also the founder of Endorphin Agency (former Film Sales), which provides marketing and distribution consulting for projects, even at the early stages of development.

marketing & distribution consultant / founder of Endorphin Agency

GIULIA GRANDINETTI

is a director, producer and dancer. She has a degree in Literature and Philosophy – Performing Arts and Sciences. Her latest short film “Tria – del sentimento del tradire” (2022) will premiere at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival/La Biennale di Venezia in the Orizzonti Short Film Competition. She describes herself as a dystopian director: she loves to play with the distortion of the rules of human existence. Her ambition leads her to make a feature-length film, ”Alice and the Land that Wonders,” as her first film, completed in 2020. Her films screened in several festivals and won various awards, such as “Alice and the Land that Wonders” at Around International Film Festival Amsterdam 2020, and “Guinea Pig” at Premio CineLab Spazio Corto TS and FF2020 Trieste Science-Fiction Festival. Her short film “Guinea Pig” also won the Best Director and Best Editing awards at Linz ISFF 2021.

YI TANG

is a Chinese film producer and director based in New York, she is winner of Palme d’or at Festival de Cannes 2021.

Most known for Black Goat (2019), All the Crows in the World (2021) and Yokelan, 66 (2022). Studied for Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Film/Video Production at NYU Tisch Grad Film in New York University. She has won Grand Jury Award from SXSW and a Special Mention at AFI Fest.

She is a Qatar-based Sudanese scriptwriter, researcher, and independent filmmaker.

Suzannah is best known for the award-winning 2021 short film Al-Sit which was a part of Linz ISFF 2021. The film won 23 international awards, including three Academy Award (Oscars) qualifying prizes, including winning the Grand Prix award at the Tampere International Film Festival 2021 in Finland.

Currently, Mirghani is developing her first feature film which is part of L’atelier de Cannes 2022. She is also an Assistant Director for Publications at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar.

She has several years of experience as a film festival judge, she holds a Master’s degree in Sound Design and Mix from Bournemouth University in the UK. She has worked on over 60 feature films and documentaries that have won awards or been nominated at more than 100 international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, BAFTA, BFI, Toronto, Sundance, IDFA, Asia Pacific, Chicago, Shanghai, Tokyo, Locarno, Visions du Reel, Karlovy vary, Sheffield, Hot Docs, Bussan, Edinburgh, Goa, San Sebastian and Krakow. She also did the design and sound mixing of Abbas Kiarostami’s last film 24 frames. She lives with every frame and every line of the script, spending many hours capturing the essence of the story and the details of the director. Then she creates sound, or rather stories with carefully designed sounds to match the director’s idea.