Guests
2020
Alexandru Baciu
Alexandru Baciu was born in 1977, in Bucharest. In 1999 he graduated from the Bucharest Film Academy as film director. He continued his studies at the University of Bucharest, Communication and PR department, which he graduated in 2003. As a scriptwriter, Alexandru Baciu worked together with Răzvan Rădulescu and Radu Muntean for Muntean’s The Paper Will Be Blue (Locarno IFF 2006), Boogie (Cannes, Quinzaine des réalisateurs, 2008; Awarded Best Script at Hamptons IFF), Tuesday, After Christmas (Cannes, Un certain regard 2010), One Floor Below (Cannes, Un certain regard 2015; Awarded Best Script at Seville IFF and RiverRun IFF). Muntean's last film, Alice T., with a script by Alex Baciu, Răzvan Răduleascu and Radu Muntean premiered in Locarno IFF. He also teamed up with Răzvan Rădulescu for Gruber's Journey and Principles of Life (San Sebastian IFF, 2010). In 2011, he co-directed, along with Radu Muntean, Visiting Room, a documentary produced by HBO Romania. Together with his wife, Maria Popistașu, he co-directed, in 2017, The Seagull, a short based on a script by Maria Popistașu.
Philippe Barrière
After studying philosophy and formal logic, Philippe shifted to script analysis and cinema project development. He was Head of Development at Mille et Une Productions between 2006 and 2009. Since 2010, he works as an independent script consultant in France. He was a story editor at the 2014 Torino Film Lab and Midpoint Training in 2015. As a script editor for the British Film Institute, he follows first feature films' development. This year, he returns to the Torino Film Lab Script Lab. Philippe is also the co-writer of "Made in Bangladesh", a feature by Rubaiyat Hossain, selected at Toronto Film Festival 2019.
Julie Billy
Julie Billy has worked for Haut et Court for 10 years supervising international co-productions such as THE LOBSTER by Yorgos Lanthimos (Jury Prize Cannes 2015) or THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER by Nadav Lapid. She also line produced JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA by Zoltan Mayer shot in China. She produced and co-produced several features, among them: the documentary LATIFA A FIGHTING HEART directed by Olivier Peyon and Cyril Brody (Rotterdam 2018), THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD by Dominique Rocher (Tribeca 2018), A CIAMBRA by Jonas Carpignano (Italian entry for the Oscar 2018, awarded with Europa Cinemas Label in Director's Fortnight 2017) and THE COUNTY by Grimur Hakonarson (premiering @TIFF 2019). She also recently produced the first feature film GAGARINE by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh (the buzzy title of the Official Selection Cannes 2020), and co-produced the latest short film by Jerry Carlsson NIGHT TRAIN with Verket Produktion in Sweden (premiering in Venice 2020). She currently coproduces A CHIARA by Jonas Carpignano with Stayblack Production in Italy, and VOUS N’AUREZ PAS MA HAINE by Kilian Riedhof with Komplizen Films in Germany.
Bianca Oana
Bianca Oana is a writer and producer dedicated to discovering filmmakers with a particular artistic view, regardless of the medium they choose to explore. She was head of development at Strada Film where she co-wrote Cătălin Mitulescu’s feature Loverboy, which premiered at Cannes 2012. She went on to produce documentaries including Turn Off the Lights and Toto and His Sisters, as well as Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie, which won the Golden Bear at Berlinale 2018. She has recently finished production on Alexander Nanau’s latest film, Colectiv, plus the HBO Europe documentary, Golden Girl. Currently she is developing Adina Pintilie’s next project, Death and the Maiden, while working as a consultant in various industry programs.
residents
2020
Tim Ellrich
Tim Ellrich is a German film director, who is currently in his diploma year at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Since his childhood he has worked in a cinema in his hometown and studied Film-, Media- & Theatre Studies in Vienna before applying in Ludwigsburg. In his Films Ellrich tries to deal with the absurdities and tragedies of daily life. His films were screened at more than 400 film festivals and won several awards like the Jury Award at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 2016. His first feature documentary MEIN VIETNAM premiered at Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival this year and he is currently working on his first live-action feature film TAL DER KÖNIGE with ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel.
Cristina Grosan
Cristina Groșan is a Romanian-Hungarian filmmaker and visual artist. Since graduating from university, she has directed 6 short films, which toured the worldwide short film circuit, screening in Palm Springs IFF, Clermont-Ferrand IFF, Sarajevo IFF, London ISF, Helsinki IFF, Zubroffka IFF, Tirana IFF, St. Petersburg, Thessaloniki IFF, among many others. Her award-winning short “Holiday at the Seaside” exploring a mother-daughter relationship screened at more than 40 festivals, was distributed in several territories and recently premiered online, amassing more than 1 million views. She is looking forward to the distribution of her first feature, "Things Worth Weeping For", as soon as being together in a dark room is safe again.
Mika Gustafson
Golden Beetle (Swedish Palme D’or) for best documentary Silvana (2018) screened at 80 international festivals. Bachelor in film directing at Valand Film Academy (2016) and winner of Nordic talents same year. Graduation film Mephobia won prices at: Lovers Film Festival and Premiere Plans, among others. Mephobia was part of the exhibition at Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve: MIKA GUSTAFSON Mephobia & other short films (2018). Dragon Award Jury: Best documentary, Gothenburg International Film Festival. Linköping Art grant recipient and Sven Lyra Award in 2018. SISTERS was selected for the talent program - Stockholm Debut, as one of five projects. Part of BERLINALE TALENTS & SCRIPT STATION 2020.
Mark Noonan
Mark is a writer/director from Ireland now living in Berlin. His debut feature You’re Ugly Too (2015) premiered at the 65th Berlinale and was nominated for a European Film Academy award. His feature arts documentary Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect (2017) screened at the Venice Biennale in 2018 and was released theatrically by Kino Lorber in North America and by Salzgeber in Germany. Mark has been a selected participant of the Berlinale Talents (2011), the Talent Lab of TIFF Toronto (2016), the Less is More script lab (2019), the Sam Spiegel Jerusalem Film Lab (2019), and awarded writing fellowships from the Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris (2016), the NIPKOW Programm in Berlin (2019) and Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (2020) among others.
Razvan Oprescu
I'm 32. By profession I am a civil engineer and for the last 10 years I worked on construction sites. I wore my helmet and my boots, but I was always closer to the stage than to a barrack. In high school I was part of a theatre company. In 2013, I attended a screenwriting workshop with Cristi Puiu. He made me forget everything I knew about film and that was a turning point for me. In 2018, with Alin Boeru and Vlad Ghinea, we founded Baia Băieților, an independent film production group. Every year we spend 2 weeks on the road filming and the rest in a small flat, editing. From old communist resorts to forgotten football stadiums, we have been telling stories that scream to be told within us. Our first product "The Trophy of Youth" (2018) was nominated for a Gopo Award and we just finished our second one, "You, with the Moustache!" (2020).
Zhanna Ozirna
Zhanna Ozirna is a director and a screenwriter working between two cities - Kyiv and Lviv. She took part in the Berlinale Talents program 2020. The development and the teaser of her debut feature film Ground Zero were supported by Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. In 2017 she became a winner of Oppose Othering grant program in the frames of GoEast Film Festival with her short doc Bond which in a year got an award as Best Ukrainian film (86 IFF) and Jury Special Mention (Odesa IFF). Now Zhanna also works as a lecturer of Ukrainian Catholic University at Master’s Program in Media Communications and as a program coordinator of international short film festivals. She іs currently studying for script-doctoring.
Cenón Obispo Palomares
After he obtained his BA in Film and Audio-Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines - Diliman, Cenón Obispo Palomares worked as headwriter, writer, and creative group head in various local media networks, including ABS-CBN and Star Cinema. He was also a faculty at the UP Film Institute until 2014. His script, Kusina / Her Kitchen, won the grand prize at the 56th Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. It was also a finalist at Cinemalaya Philippine Independent FF [2016] under his direction. His script for the short film, “Si Astri maka si Tambulah”, was a finalist at QCinema IFF [2017], and Tampere FF [2018], and won the Jury Prize at Cinemalaya FF [2018]. In 2019, he wrote the horror film “Clarita,” a blockbuster hit in the Philippines.
Xeph Suarez
Xeph Suarez is a Mindanaoan writer, director, and producer. In 2017, he won Best Director and received the Jury Prize for Best Short Film in Cinemalaya Philippine Independent FF for “Si Astri maka si Tambulah.” He is the producer of 2016 QCinema IFF Best Short Film,“Hondo.” His works have been selected in PÖFF Shorts - Tallinn Black Nights FF, Tampere FF, Lovers FF in Torino, Jogja-Netpac Asian FF among others. He is an alumnus of ASEAN-ROK Film Leaders Incubator by the Busan Film Commission. He is currently developing his first feature film “Dancing the Tides,” which participated in Full Circle Lab, Southern Voices Lab by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, Southeast Asian Film Lab by the Singapore IFF, and EAVE – Ties that Bind.
Léa Triboulet
Léa Triboulet grew up in the South of France. After receiving an honors Master’s degree in scenography at the art school Ecole Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg (France), she joined the international programme Film Factory in 2013, which was led by Béla Tarr in Sarajevo (BiH). She has directed several short films which have travelled to film festivals worldwide. Her short film “The Brother” (CNC quality prize) was selected for the Rotterdam IFFR, Clermont-Ferrand, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, Uppsala, Leeds, Hamburg, Sarajevo FF, Sarasota FF, New Orleans amongst international others. She is currently developing further short film projects as well as feature projects.
Iva Brdar
Iva Brdar is a playwright and screenwriter. She graduated from Dramaturgy Department at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts Belgrade and has completed a Master in Theatre Studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III. For her theatre plays she was awarded with Brücke Berlin Theaterpreis, Sterijino Pozorje Prize and Heartefact Fund Prize. Her plays were staged in Europe and US. She collaborated as a screenwriter on several short and feature films.