team | ventura

Mariano Llinás

(Tutor)

Born in Buenos Aires in 1975. He is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He graduated from the Universidad del Cine, where he teaches screenwriting. He directed Balnearios (2002), Historias extraordinarias (2008), La flor (2018) — a 14-hour film that is considered the longest fiction film in the history of cinema — and Clorindo Testa (2022), among other films. Together with Laura Citarella, Alejo Moguillansky and Agustín Mendilahárzu, Llinás is a member of the production company El Pampero Cine, which operates outside the traditional financing structures of industrial cinema in Argentina. As a screenwriter, he has also participated in Santiago Mitre's films La cordillera and the Oscar-nominated Argentina, 1985, among others. In 2011 he won the Konex Award as one of the five best film directors of the decade in Argentina.

Paolo Benzi

(Guest Tutor)

Paolo Benzi lives and works in Italy. He’s the founder of the Italian independent film company Okta Film. Among the films produced: L’ESTATE DI GIACOMO by Alessandro Comodin, REDEMPTION by Miguel Gomes, THE OTHER SIDE by Roberto Minervini, I TEMPI FELICI VERRANNO PRESTO by Alessandro Comodin, WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD’S ON FIRE? by Roberto Minervini, BABI YAR by Sergei Loznitsa and GIGI LA LEGGE by Alessandro Comodin. He’s currently producing THE DAMNED by Roberto Minervini and JOURNEY TO THE LAKE (Free Spirits/The Land and the Law/Our Trees) by Emmanuelle Démoris, among others. Since 2012, he’s a head tutor for Emerging Producers at Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Republic) and since 2020 he’s a tutor for the Rough Cut Lab at Vision du Réel

Hayet Benkara

(Consultant)

Hayet Benkara is a French-born, Toronto and Europe-based film industry advisor. In 2012, she created and managed TIFF Studio, the first year-round training programme at TIFF for film professionals, and produced TIFF Talent Lab. Benkara worked for many prestigious film festivals such as Cannes (Producers Network), Berlinale, International Film Festival Rotterdam (co-production market CineMart), Dubai, Abu Dhabi International Film Festivals (UAE), The Doha Film Institute, Guanajuato Film Festival (Mexico), Era New Horizon (Poland), the Bosphorus Film Festival. In the past three years, she has been head of studies at the Open Doors Lab of the Locarno Film Festival, and pitching coach at the Atlas workshop of the Marrakech Film Festival. In 2021 she launched a new co-production market at the Festival du nouveau cinema in Montreal. Over the years, Hayet Benkara has developed a very strong international network and a very good knowledge of the international market place. Year round she advises young and established filmmakers and producers on development, production, co-production, distribution, marketing, and festival strategies.

Martina Bleis

(Expert)

Martina Bleis has been head and project curator of the Berlinale Co-Production Market since 2015 with additional responsibility for its publications and public relations work. She studied applied cultural sciences in Lüneburg. In addition to completing her MA, she is also a graduate of the EAVE Producers Workshop, a training programme for the professional development of producers in Europe. She has been involved in the Berlin International Film Festival since 2001, initially working in the organisation of panel discussions and for Berlinale Talents. In the autumn of 2003, she was part of the team responsible for founding the Berlinale Co-Production Market whose co-directorship she took on in 2015 and for which she has borne sole responsibility since 2019. In addition, she consults as a curatorial advisor and a mentor – in particular for up-and-coming producers and directors developing feature film projects – for international training and coproduction initiatives.

Vincenzo Bugno

(Expert)

Vincenzo Bugno was born in Venice and lives in Berlin. After graduating in literature, art history and cinema he worked as a journalist and film critic for Swiss, Spanish and particularly Italian media (Corriere della Sera, Manifesto), and later for various TV broadcasters (Arte, ZDF, Tele+, Sky Italy), also as a writer and director of many reports on cinema and other cultural topics. For several years he has been a consultant/curator for international film festivals. From 2006 to 2009, Bugno became a member of the Programming Committee at the Locarno Film Festival and Head of its Open Doors section. Since 2002, Vincenzo Bugno has worked at the Berlin International Film Festival in various capacities, also as Member of the Competition Selection Committee and Festival Delegate/Advisor for different regions and countries. He is the Head and a jury member of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund/WCF, founded 2004 and initiated by the Berlinale and the German Federal Cultural Foundation with the objective of supporting film production in regions lacking a structurally strong film industry. He is also Curator of the FeatureLab/TFL-TorinoFilmLab and has been Artistic Director of the BFFB (Bolzano Film Festival Bozen) since October 2022.

Satu Elo

(Expert)

EAVE Deputy CEO Satu Elo has worked since 2010 at EAVE – European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, based in Luxembourg. She is responsible for the organisation of the EAVE Producers Workshop, EAVE+ and EAVE on Demand, among others. Between 2004 and 2010 she worked at the Finnish Film Foundation as part of the team responsible for the international promotion of Finnish films, and from 1998 to 2004 she was in charge of the executive management and part of the programming team of Espoo Ciné International Film Festival in Finland. Other earlier activities include work as freelance journalist and translator. Satu Elo is a member of the European Film Academy.

Valeska Neu

(Expert)

Apart from her studies of Contemporary History, Journalism and Cinema in Germany and France, Valeska has been involved in the film industry since 2002, writing for internet magazines, organising film festivals and as advisor for film projects. She was working for production companies specialised in arthouse cinema before joining the team of the Berlin based sales company Films Boutique in 2010. There, she performed as the head of festival management and since 2016 as sales manager overseeing sales in the Nordic countries, Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as all TV and VOD operations. Films Boutique is a Berlin-based international world sales agency with a heart, slightly obsessed with arthouse & documentary films.

Thomas Ordonneau

(Expert)

Distributor and producer. Through his company Shellac, he has distributed THE OTHER SIDE and WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD’S ON FIRE?, by Roberto Minervini, AQUELE QUERIDO MES DE AGOSTO, TABU and AS MIL E UMA NOITES, by Miguel Gomes, A ESPADA E A ROSA and JOHN FROM, by João Nicolau, LE PARC, by Damien Manivel and I TEMPI FELICI VERRANO PRESTO, de Alessandro Comodin, ELDORADO XXI, by Salomé Lamas, among other titles. He co-produced the new film by Pietro Marcello, MARTIN EDEN.

Montse Triola

(Expert)

Producer, performer and theatre director. After studying drama at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, the Master's in Theatre Practice on visual and performative theories of the 20th century at Rose Bruford College in the UK, and English philology at the University of Barcelona, she founded Andergraun Films in 2003 together with Albert Serra, and has produced all the director's filmography: the feature films HONOR DE CAVALLERIA (2006), EL CANT DELS OCELLS (2008), premiered at the Quinzaine de Réalisateurs of the Cannes Film Festival; HISTORIA DE MI MUERTE, awarded Pardo de Oro for Best Film at the Locarno Festival 2013; LA MUERTE DE LOUIS XIV, Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2016; LIBERTÉ, awarded Special Jury Prize Un Certain Regard, at the Cannes Film Festival 2019; and PACIFICTION, Official Selection at Cannes 2022. She produced the film AFTERWATER directed by Dane Komljen, which premiered at the Berlinale 2022 and was awarded Best Film Award in the Revoluciones Permanentes section of the Seville International Film Festival. She is currently preparing the documentary TARDES DE SOLEDAD, by Albert Serra and the historical feature BEATRIZ, LA MUJER by Filipino director Lav Díaz.

Luís Urbano

(Expert)

Luís Urbano has a degree in Economics from the Instituto Superior de Economia of Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. In 1996, he returned to his origins and founded, in partnership with friends,the cultural production cooperative Curtas Metragens (CRL) in Vila do Conde, the entity responsible for the organization of the Vila do Conde International Short Film Festival and the Short Film Agency. In 2005, he became the producer at O Som e a Fúria, producing to date 65 films, features and shorts. He has been a member of the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, since 2020. He is a member of the European Film Academy and the European Producers Club, since March 2021. He was the winner of the Eurimages Co-production Award 2020, awarded by the European Film Awards. Was a member of the jury of the Eurimages Co-production Development Awards, 2021, at the Berlinale co-production Market.

Gemma Vidal

(Expert)

Gemma Vidal has been responsible for four years, since its foundation, for La Incubadora, a feature film development programme for emerging producers promoted by ECAM, from which titles such as Cinco lobitos, La inocencia and Ane have emerged. Prior to this, she worked as production coordinator at the production company Avalon for four years, in charge of the company's feature film and TV series projects from the development phase to their release. At the same time, she has worked as an external expert for the development of feature films in the MEDIA Creative Europe Programme and has been part of the committee for funds such as the ICAA. Since 2021 she has been an executive producer at Atresmedia Cine.

Aleksandra Zakharchenko

(Expert)

Aleksandra Zakharchenko is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. After receiving her Master's degree in International Economics, she began her professional career in alternative energy. She moved to France in 2012 to dive into cinema and started working for the Nancy International Short Film Festival as one of the programmers. In 2013 she joined the European Short Pitch project as coordinator for three years in a row. She obtained her second Master's degree from Lyon 2 in Cultural Project Management and later a course created by the University of Toronto in Gender Analytics: Gender Equity through Inclusive Design. She started working for Institut Lumière and Lumière Film Festival in the commercial department. In 2017 she joined the Cannes Marché du Film team and Ventana Sur Latin American Film Market where she currently holds the position of the Head of Programmes and Training and runs both markets industry events.

Sara García Villanueva

Artistic Director

Sara García Villanueva is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Play-Doc, Tui International Film Festival, from 2005 to the present. She has also coordinated the Play-Doc Workshops, a series of training programmes aimed at filmmaking and film production. She also co-founded and programmed Play-Doc TV, a VOD platform dedicated to independent film.

Ángel Sánchez

Executive Director

Ángel Sánchez is the co-founder and Executive Director of Play-Doc, Tui International Film Festival, a reference for documentary film in Spain. He also directed Play-Doc TV, a VOD platform dedicated to independent cinema, available in Galicia, Asturias and Euskadi. Throughout his career, Ángel Sánchez has produced numerous training activities, project tutorials, workshops, masterclasses and seminars, grouped under the name Play-Doc Workshops. He is also the President of Proxecta, an association for Galician film festivals.

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