Guests
2017
Ana Maria Gheorghe
Ana Maria Gheorghe graduated the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale”, Bucharest, having gotten a B.A. in Audiovisual Communication and an M.A, in Screenwriting. She has written three feature length scripts and a number of short films, which received several awards and nominations in both national and international film festivals. Her latest short A NIGHT IN TOKORIKI received a Special Prize from the Generation 14plus jury at the 2016 Berlinale and was screened at almost 90 festivals such as AFI Fest, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, Namur. Currently, Ana Maria works for Saga Film as a film development and post-production manager.
Dora Nedeczky
Dora Nedeczky (*1984) is a producer based in Budapest. Early in her career she worked next to producers András Muhi of Inforg Studio, and Ferenc Pusztai of KMH Film. Dora holds master’s degrees in film theory and history as well as art philosophy. In 2012 she began to focus on her own company, Mindwax and participating in such trainings as EAVE Producers Workshop and EAVE FMW, MAIA, Robert Bosch Co-Production Competition, Berlinale Talents and Sarajevo City of Film for instance. Dora’s films have been screened at Sundance, SXSW, Palm Springs, Clermont Ferrand, Sarajevo, BFI London, Guanajuato, Frameline LGBT San Francisco, Winterthur, and Hiroshima, to name a few. In 2016 she has started collaborating with Moviebar Productions, Hungary as a producer and strategist.
Giacun Caduff
Graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a Bachelor degree in Film and Electronic Arts and went on to pick up a Masters degree in Creative Producing from UCLA in 2008. His thesis film “Etienne!” by director Jeff Mizushima played at more than 30 film festivals and won multiple awards. While in school, he founded box[ur]shorts™ Film Festival, which screens short films in movie jukeboxes at different venues around the world. In 2009 Caduff went on to create the Gässli Film Festival that takes place annually in a picturesque alley in his hometown Basel, Switzerland. In 2015 he had the opportunity to team up with director Timo von Gunten and produce a short film entitled “La femme et le TGV” starring Jane Birkin in the leading role. The film played multiple festivals and received an Oscar® nomination in 2017 for Best Live Action Short.
Julie Billy
Julie studied literature at the Sorbonne in Paris before obtaining a Master’s Degree in cinema in New York in 2007. She has been working at HAUT ET COURT (producers among others of the Palme d’Or The Class by Laurent Cantet) since 2010 supervising international co-productions such as Zero Motivation by Talya Lavie (2014 Tribeca Film Festival Best Narrative Feature award), The Kindergarten Teacher by Nadav Lapid (Critic’s Week 2014), The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos (Jury Prize in Cannes 2015). She also line produced Journey Through China by Zoltan Mayer, with Yolande Moreau, shot in China in 2014 and The Night eats the world by Dominique Rocher (in post production). She coproduced A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano (Europa Cinema Award in Director’s Fortnight 2017) and produced Latifa, a theatrical documentary by Olivier Peyon and Cyril Brody (to be released on October 4th).
Jurgen Willocx
Jurgen recently produced among others ‘Le Pli dans l’Espace’ by director Ann-Julie Vervaeke (Best debut at the International Short Film Festival). ‘Maverick’ by Domien Huyge (Selected for Chicago Childeren film festival 2017) and the short movie ‘Camino Del Sol’ by director Jeannice Adriaansens, currently in post-production. His own directorial debut, the short movie ‘Dissonant’, played on several festivals such as Montreal World Film Festival, Cork Film Festival and Oldenburg in 2016. After his participation in the Maia Workshop in 2016, he was selected as a producer for the ‘Rotterdam Lab’ during IFFR 2017 with the feature project ‘Waterwolf’ by Ann-Julie Vervaeke.
Gabriela Suciu
Gabriela graduated the Directing Class at the National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC) „I. L. Caragiale” in Bucharest, in 2010. Since 2008, she has consistently produced 6 to 8 titles a year, films of all lengths and genres. In February 2012, she graduated the Film Production Masters’ Program at the same university and founded “Atelier de Film”, a Romanian, Bucharest-‐based production and distribution company, supported by the UNATC to produce works of the graduates in the Film Faculty, studying for her PhD in Co-Production in the process. She currently manages Elefant Film Romania and Ultraviolet Media, while being also a constant collaborator on Axis Media Production and Dropia Film.
Oana Giurgiu
Journalism and Law graduate, Oana Giurgiu’s credits include The death of Mr. Lazarescu directed by Cristi Puiu (Un certain regard - Cannes 2005), production manager of Delta by Kornél Mundruczó (Fipresci award - Cannes 2008) and produced Tudor Giurgiu’s Love sick (Berlinale 2006 - Panorama), Of snails and men (Romanian boxoffice hit in 2012) and Why me? (Berlinale 2015-Panorama); Peter Strickland’s Katalin Varga (Silver Bear, Berlinale 2009, Best European Discovery – EFA Awards 2009), Somewhere in Palilula debut film of Romanian acclaimed theatre director Silviu Purcarete (Karlovy Vary IFF 2012), Sieranevada (Cannes Competions 2016). Oana is also executive director of Transilvania International Film Festival. Her debut feature documentary, “Aliyah Dada” was released at Astra FF in Romania and at Jerusalem JFF, received GOPO Award for best Romanian documentary in 2015.
Laurence Coriat
Laurence Coriat was born in France and moved to London in her early twenties. She wrote Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland which was selected in competition at Cannes in 1999 and won the best British Independent Film award that year. She went on to collaborate with Michael Winterbottom in 2006 on A Mighty Heart an adaptation of Marianne Pearl's account of her husband's kidnapping and murder “A Mighty Heart: The Daniel Pearl story”. The film starred Angelina Jolie who received a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Marianne Pearl. She co-wrote Winterbottom's most recent release Genova, which starred Colin Firth as a man struggling to cope with the death of his wife. She is currently collaborating with Winterbottom on the television drama "Seven Days".
residents
2017
Octav Chelaru
Among the short films that he directed, we mention "False Positive" (2014) - selected in the Transilvania Talent Lab 2914 and Timishort, the same year, also presented at FSK Kino in Berlin and in Tallin; "Occupied" (2015) - winner of the Best Romanian Short award at Timishort Festival in 2015, selected at Short Waves Film Festival (Poznań, Poland), ranked in the Top 5 European Shorts by Cineuropa; "Private Party" (2017) - winner of the The Pitch Award and Villa Kult Award at the NexT International Film Festival 2016, winner of the Best Pitch Award in the Sarajevo Film Festival, selected at NexT International Film Festival 2017, Anonimul 2017 and GoDebut European Film Festival 2017. His latest short film, "Black Clothes" (2017), financed by the Romanian National Film Center and produced by Radu Stancu (deFilm), was selected for the 2017 edition of the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. Currently, Octav is in development with a debut feature, which was born during his residency at the Villa Kult, in Berlin and continued throughout the Transilvania Pitch Stop at the Transilvania IFF in 2017. He will continue the development during the Pustnik Screenwriters Residency 2017.
Szántó Fanni
Fanni Szántó was born in Budapest and graduated from the Hungarian University of Theatre and Film Arts as a screenwriter. She wrote several short films, including Maflicsek and Playfellows, which have screened at numerous international festivals. Playfellows was awarded at the Watersprite International Film Festival, New Films Festival and Friss Hús International Short Film Festival. She runs a script - consulting company called Act One with her classmates from university.
Caroline Ingvarsson
Caroline Ingvarsson is a writer/director from Malmö, Sweden. Ingvarsson's latest short, Beneath the Spaceship (2015) premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and it won the “After Bergman” script award in 2014, an award by the Ingmar Bergman Center Foundation. In 2016 she was selected for Berlinale Talents. Ingvarsson was the recipient of the 2014 & 2016 Pixel Director Talent Award and the 2014 SWEA Los Angeles Film Grant. Ingvarsson’s short documentary The Dogwalker (2014) won 2nd prize for Best Documentary at Palm Springs Short Fest as well as the Audience Award for Best Film at Uppsala International Shortfilm Festival. Ingvarsson is currently in post production with her latest short We Were Three, which will have its world premiere in 2017. Ingvarsson holds a Diploma in Screen Studies from Sydney Film School, Australia, and a Masters Degree in Broadcast Journalism from City University in London, England.
Iris Pakulla
(Born in 1986, Paris) I hold a master in creative documentary “ Creadoc" from the Université de Poitiers and a degree in audiovisual communication from the UPF, Barcelona. Since completing my studies I widened my knowledge through seminars in different areas of anthropology and international politics. Since 2011 I live in Berlin working internationally for production companies such as Majade Filmproduktion, Polar Star Films, Sagamedia and Tondowski Films.
Simona Sava
Born in Vaslui, where I got the taste for stories. Went to film school, for a Master Degree in Screenwriting. Graduated with two shorts and many plans for future movies. Some of them are still waiting, others got their lucky draw, like this one I’m writing at Pustnik.
Ioana Turcan
Ioana Turcan is a cinematic storyteller living and working between Romania and USA. While she works interdisciplinary, her main focus is film; writing and directing.
Deben Van Dam
Deben Van Dam is a Belgian filmmaker who stepped on to the international scene with his critically acclaimed short 'The Way Of All Flesh' in 2013. Since then he has been active as a screenwriter for hire and directed numerous commercials before and after joining Belgian production company HAMLET in 2015. As of now he is finishing his newest short film 'Remise' in post-production and writing on his first feature film.
Luca Zuberbühler
As a filmmaker by nature, Luca was born by a cut in an emergency caesarean section in 1986. On the formal side, he got an education in communication sciences and went to filmschool (Zurich University of the Arts). His graduation short „Lothar“ brought him around the world and won a number of awards. During this inspiring period Luca became a professional cutter and director in the commercial film industry in Switzerland, where he is still active. In order to follow his passion for fiction filmmaking and eager to learn more Luca moved to Brussels in early 2016, where he is studying the masters in directing at Campus Sint-Lukas and taking workshops at l’Atelier de Direction d’acteurs with Beatriz Flores Silva. He is enthusiastic about directing entertaining films with a touch of fantasy and social criticism.