Gabriele Brunnenmeyer is a script mentor, pitching coach and project consultant. She ran the MEDIA Antenna Berlin-Brandenburg, worked for Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film in the area of young talent support and has developed industry events including Connecting Cottbus, the IDM Film Conference Incontri and MDM’s Meet Your Neighbour in Leipzig. Alongside consulting on script development, packaging, and pitching for individual projects, she consults for several European Training rograms as HerArts FilmLab, Midpoint Feature Launch, Midpoint Shorts, Cutting Edge Talent Camp, Baltic Pitching Forum, Istanbul Film Station, Euro Connection Clermont- Ferrand, Cannes SFC: Rendez-Vous Industry, AKM, Berlinale Talents & Sarajevo Talents and many others.
Screenwriter and script consultant. She has a Master’s degree in Film Studies and has participated in several workshops for script consultants and writers, including Midpoint Training the Trainers and Feature Launch programs, Script Circle and Six Days of Practice, led by Francoise von Roy and Franz Rodenkirchen, and LIM – Less is More. Since 2013, she has been consulting projects for various programs on the international market, such as the Baltic Pitching Forum. She is also the co-founder of Script Atelier and Script a Story, Polish language development workshops. Since 2020 she has been Head of Development at Aurum Film. She leads the conceptual work on feature films and series for the company and is credited as a script consultant for, among others, Colors of Evil: Red, the worldwide Netflix hit, and as story editor for A Moment of Silence, the premium Canal+ series. She also develops her projects. Today We’re All Gonna Hide, a short film she co-wrote, will premiere at the 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia in 2024.
Laurence Boyce has been working in the film industry for almost 25 years with a focus on short film. He began at the Leeds International Film Festival (UK) as a programmer and still works there to this day as an advisor. He currently works as the Head of Programme (Live Action for PÖFF Shorts (Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival) in Tallinn, Estonia. Aside from his festival duties, Laurence works as a journalist for outlets such as Screen International, Sight & Sound and Cineuropa. He is a member of BAFTA, the European Film Academy, the London Critics’ Circle and FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics). He is also the chairman of the board of the Short Film Conference, an international network of organisations focused on short film.
Laurent Crouzeix is on the Executive team of the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and Short Film Market. Laurent manages Euro Connection co-production forum and designs various industry meetings and partnerships. As sustainability officer, Laurent actively engages in the event’s social and environmental action plan. Laurent’s first stop motion short doc Amerigo and the New World was released in 2019. Laurent is also an associate with local company Court-jus productions, who develop documentaries and XR works with a focus on history.
Ph.D. in film history at the University of Turin. Alessandro studied Danish silent cinema. For several years he collaborated in film research and in the retrospectives of Cinemambiente, of which he is still a programming consultant today. He subsequently held various roles in cultural, sporting, and touring events in Europe and North America. Alessandro was general secretary of the Torino Short Film Market from the first edition until 2021. Today he is the programmer of the Italian Short Film Center, distributor, and executive producer for Withstand, an independent production company based in Milan.
Wouter Jansen is the founder of the sales company Square Eyes. Launched in 2013 under the name Some Shorts, it changed to Square Eyes in 2019. The company represents bold, author- driven features and shorts, and in close collaboration with the filmmakers it devises bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. In the past Wouter has worked for 10 years as the head of programming at Go Short. He is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab, and has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy.
Sadhbh Murphy has worked for over 20 years in international TV and film distribution in Ireland. She joined Network Ireland Television Ltd as Sales and Acquisitions Executive in late 2007, and became a company director in 2018. Network Ireland Television is renowned for its successful distribution of high-quality narrative short films worldwide, including multiple Academy Award winners and nominees. They include An Irish Goodbye (dir Ross White and Tom Berkeley), The Silent Child (dir Chris Overton) and The Phone Call (dir Mat Kirkby). Sadhbh has spoken on numerous short film distribution panels at festivals and events as part of her role at NITV, such as Bolton Short Film Festival editions in the UK, Krakow Short Film Festival plus Cork and Kerry International Film Festivals. She has also been part of the judging panel at the Glasgow Short Film Festival and the Irish Film and TV Academy Awards. Along with Derry O’Brien, Sadhbh is a regular participant at the MIPCOM market in Cannes, meeting buyers of NITV’s television programmes, as well as Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival and Market, the largest market for shorts in the world. Sadhbh currently sits on the Board of Directors at the Dublin Desk of Creative Europe Media, designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries.
Born in 1985, Gábor Osváth is a Hungarian film producer. With his companies Filmfabriq and Boddah he has produced seven feature-length fiction films, several documentaries, award-winning shorts, one animation series and numerous commercials. Some of the most recent projects include ‘Captives’ (2019), directed by Academy Award-winner Kristóf Deák, which won nine awards at the Hungarian Film Week, and ‘Christmas Flame’ – directed by Dániel Tiszeker – which became the highest grossing Hungarian film of 2021. Gábor has produced the animated short films by Réka Bucsi and Luca Tóth, which screened at Berlinale and Cannes, as well as back-to-back Annecy winning shorts ‘Amok’ by Balázs Turai and ‘27’ by Flóra Anna Buda. The latter film debuted at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film. Gábor Osváth was chosen as one of the Emerging Producers of 2016 and is a member of the European Film Academy since 2020. His latest feature film ’Lesson Learned’ from director Bálint Szimler recently debuted at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2024.
Versatile producer, sales agent and distributor. He’s based in Brussels where he studied film editing at the Rits School of Arts. He is the founder of two companies: the production company Bekke Films and Radiator IP Sales with which he represents, distributes and sells a total of 200 short films and several feature films to date. The films have been selected and awarded at multiple international film festivals, including Berlinale, Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Sundance, SXSW, Locarno, Venice, … Berlinale Talents alumni, member of European Film Academy.
Sari Volanen is a commissioning editor at Yle (Finnish Broadcasting company). She works at Yle’s Film Team producing short films mainly with Finnish independent filmmakers and producers. She is in charge of a strand called “New Cinema” on Yle Teema channel. The main focus of New Cinema is on cinematic, surprising, original and quirky short films. The films in the strand are acquired through co-productions (main producer Finnish), prebuys (international) and acquisitions.
Līga Gaisa is a Latvian writer-producer. She is the founder and partner of the film studio Air Productions. The studio focuses on family content, female narratives, and stories with a social impact. She made her debut as a screenwriter in 2019 with the animated family film Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs. Līga is a graduate of the Tallinn University Baltic Film and Media School and the Latvian Academy of Culture, and has also participated in professional development and training programmes such as Series’ Women, CineKid Script Lab, Sources2, EsoDoc, ExOriente, IDFAcademy and others. She is also the chair of the Screenwriters’ Guild of Latvia and a member of the Latvian Film Producers’ Association.
Ruta Jekentaite is a Lithuanian producer who has worked in the media industry since 2008. She is currently CEO at Baltic Productions, a feature film and creative documentary production company producing original content known for its authentic cinematic aesthetic. The team produces and co-produces films by and for local and foreign directors. Ruta was part of the Ji-hlava Emerging Producers Program 2023 and is in the EAVE 2024 group. She has also trained at the Erich Pommer Institute in the legal and financial aspects of European co-production. She has 7 completed short films in her filmography (fiction and documentary), and is about to release 2 feature films in 2025.
Elina Litvinova completed her BA studies at the Baltic Film and Media School in Tallinn (2010), followed by Simon Perry’s international co- production training at Cologne International Film School (2011) and Master degree at the National Film and Television School (UK). After working as a Line Producer on both commercials and features for international producers Elina founded her company THREE BROTHERS in 2015. With passion for powerful author’s handwriting the company’s firstfeature credit was critically acclaimed Martti Helde’s SCANDINAVIAN SILENCE, co-produced with ARP Selection (Karlovy Vary 2019, Europa Cinemas Label Award). Three Brothers started active service production in 2022 with the multinational Scandinavian-Belgian TV- series ESTONIA. In 2023 Elina & 3B co-produced and serviced Alexandros Avranas’s new feature film APATHY, produced by Worso Films and Elle Driver in collaboration with Germany, Greece, Finland and Sweden. In post-production is also Frida Kempff’s latest feature that was also shot entirely in Estonia in 2023 (co-production between Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Estonia). Elina is one of the EFP Producers on the Move, belongs to EAVE, Berlinale Talent Campus and Ex Oriente Networks and is also a member of the Estonian Film Industry Cluster and European Film Academy.
Austėja Milvydaitė is Head of MEDIA Office at Creative Europe Desk Lithuania and has been consulting audiovisual industry professionals on all things funding for over 6 years. The MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe programme supports the European film and audiovisual industries to develop, distribute and promote European works. The MEDIA Office at Creative Europe Desk Lithuania promotes Creative Europe programme at national level, assists the audiovisual sector regarding participation in MEDIA and stimulates cross-border cooperation between professionals, institutions and networks.
The Croatian Audiovisual Centre is the Government-backed strategic agency for the audiovisual sector in Croatia. It aims to stimulate a successful, vibrant audiovisual industry as well as to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of audiovisual works throughout Croatia. It was founded in 2008 as a result of the Law on Audiovisual Activities unanimously passed by the Croatian Parliament in July 2007. It is funded by the grant-in-aid from the Government and through contributions of all those using audiovisual works, such as broadcasters, digital, cable and satellite operators, Internet providers, telecoms. The Department of Development, Film Production and Complementary Activities is responsible for supporting script and project development (film and television), film production, international co-productions and cooperation and all cinema related activities- professional training, education, film festivals… The Department also analyses the state of affairs in the area of film, supports and monitors the activities of development, film production, co-productions, festivals, training, education, professional associations and film institutions.
Eglė Davidavičė is an animation director based in Vilnius, Lithuania. She graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2019 where she made her first animated short films that have been successfully shown at film festivals. Her debut animated short film ‘The One Who Knows’ was awarded as Best Animated Film of the Year at the Silver Cranes Awards this year and it is still touring through international film festivals. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Visual Arts and developing a new animation project.
Founder and Producer of ART SHOT Production Company, Board Member of The Lithuanian Animation Association, Member of The European Film Academy. Creative producer Agnė Adomėnė focuses on development and production of artistic animated films. In 2012 she founded production company ART SHOT, since then has been producing films of different animation techniques, most of the films are co-productions and received international recognition. Agnė is also one of the founders and a board member of The Lithuanian Animation Association, a member of The Independent Producers Association of Lithuania, a member of The European Film Academy, a member of The Lithuanian Film Academy and WIFT LT. A jury member at Annecy IAFF 2018, France, BIAF 2019, South Korea, Anima 2021, Belgium, Animafest Zagreb 2021, Croatia.
Sergo Kibus is an animation director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He is a co-founder of the film studio Rebel Frame. Sergo holds degrees in photography and audiovisual media and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in “Asian Politics and Societies”. As an academic lecturer he has given courses on animation, scriptwriting and photography. His breakthrough as a director was an award-winning animated short “Teofrastus” (2019). In 2022 he directed a stop-motion horror short “The Undertaker”. His new film “Schrödinger”, currently in pre-production, won at the Baltic Pitching Forum and participated in the EURO CONNECTION 2022 at the Clermont-Ferrand Film festival.
Kadriann Kibus is an Estonian film producer and director. In 2011, she established her production company Rebel Frame which she runs with her husband, animation director and writer Sergo Kibus. Rebel Frame mostly focuses on documentary and animated film production and is co-production oriented working currently with partners from Armenia, Lithuania, and France. As a director, she has a feature-length documentary in the advanced production stage, and as a producer, several animated short films in different stages of development or production. Kadriann has participated in several pitching forums and workshops over the years, among them twice at Baltic Pitching Forum. In 2021 with “Schrödinger”, an oil painted animated short by Sergo Kibus, which became the winning project, and in 2023 with “Pulcinella”, a 3D animated short, which received Finnish YLE TV pre-buy award. In 2024, she was one of the two Baltic producers delegated by the Baltic Pitching Forum to take part in the Festival de Cannes´ Cinéma de Demain SFC | Rendez-vous Industry initiative ‘New Producers’ Room’.
Lizete Upīte is an animation film director from Latvia. Lizete began her audiovisual media studies at the Baltic Film and Media School in Estonia, but after Erasmus exchange studies in Portugal, she changed her major to animation. In 2013 she graduated from La Poudrière, school of directing animation, in France. Her graduation film, the short animation “Night on the Lake”, was made with participation of Arte France and screened in several festivals around the world, also receiving the Latvian National Film Award “Lielais Kristaps” as the best student film. Since then Lizete has been working on several international animation film projects as a director, editor and script advisor. She has directed and animated her own animation short films, namely, “Night Walks” (LV / 2018/ 6’) and “Riga’s Lilac” (FR, LV / 2019 /14’). With “Riga’s Lilac” Lizete took part in several pitching forums including the Baltic Pitching Forum, the European Short Pitch and Annecy Mifa pitches. The film received the “Lielais Kristaps” award as the best short film.
