Jury 2022

For nearly 30 years Peter Beck is working in the department of film, storytelling and digital content creating.

Wojciech Bojanowski is an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent. He has been covering wars, conflicts, terrorism, migration, and natural disasters around the world. Journalist of the Year 2018. Author of nationally and internationally awarded documentaries, including: „Route through hell”, were crew joint the migrants, who were attacking the trucks in Calais during the night „Death at the Police Station” - an investigative story that uncovered the brutality of the police and the unauthorized use of a taser that led to death of a young man in toilet at the police station. The publication led to a debate in parliament and dismissal of the involved policemen and police management „Let them drown” is a documentary picturing the struggles of migrants, who try to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Reporter follows the people saved by the rescue team in the western Europe. He published feature stories in national newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek. Affiliated with TVN for 14 years. Now, with a small but committed team of people he is working on „special projects” for TVN and TVN24 - mostly exclusive news stories and documentaries, in some cases accompanied with interactive digital content. Graduated from Journalism at the Jagiellonian University, Leadership Academy Alumni. Passionate about journalism in every form, astronomy, and extreme sports.

Filming around the world, Peter Bostoen has worked with people from a wide variety of social, cultural and religious backgrounds. This versatility – combined with extensive technical skills, deep creative insight and a sympathetic approach – allows him to excel at expressing human emotion with strong visual power.
Peter has specialized in corporate and institutional communications, but he incorporates his previous practice in shooting commercials, documentaries and TV drama. He has won international awards for several of his commercials and corporate films.

Dewald is a South African born filmmaker (director, cinematographer, and editor) specializing in branded content - be it commercial projects, short stories, or longer format documentaries - who is on a never-ending quest to pursue a balance between visual aesthetics and engaging storytelling.

Over the past decade he has filmed in over 40 countries across the continents for brands such as Nike, Red Bull, TAG Heuer, The Guardian, Oxfam and various others.

He is currently based in Lisbon, Portugal where you can find him and his dog, Winston enjoying the sunshine when he is not busy filming or hanging out in an edit suite.

Hailed as an ‘incredible artist’ by the legendary Hans Zimmer, Suad Bushnaq is an award-winning film composer. With more than 40 film credits, she scored award¬-winning features & shorts that screened at festivals like Locarno, Hot Docs, & Edinburgh. She won a prestigious Hollywood Music in Media Award, Best Original Score at the Fine Arts Film Festival in LA & the Hollywood North Film Awards, the Beyond Music Foundation Creativity Award by Grammy-Laureate Larry Klein, & the Kathleen McMorrow Music Award. Her nominations include a prestigious Canadian Screen Award (Canada’s equivalent to a BAFTA), and two more Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Suad was mentored by Hollywood composer Christophe Beck at the SESAC Film Scoring Residency and was competitively selected for the Festival de Cannes Spot the Composer program.

Daghan Celayir was born in Istanbul and also finished his studies in visual arts in Istanbul. He was selected among 200 artists worldwide to receive the UNESCO artist in residency prize. He participated in the artist residency program in Australia, Bundanon. In 2008, he produced and directed the short titled “The One Note Man” which was screened in 82 film festivals including Rotterdam and Angers, and have won more than 15 prizes including the Jury Prize in 53rd Valladolid IFF, Best Film in 32nd Cine de Elche IFF and Audience Award in Sao Paulo Film Festival. The film was screened on Canal Plus France & Spain, France 3, TVU Japan. In 2013, he co-directed a short animation titled “A Cup of Turkish Coffee”, a French Turkish co-production supported by ARTE & CNC. It won the Best Short Film Award at the 51st Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and the 59th Valladolid IFF Meeting Point in 2015. Daghan is extremely well founded technically and has a contemporary visual approach and a talent for spotting a good story. In 2011, Daghan directed Time Run for Red Bull International, among 11 other films that he made for RB, this particular one has been part of World of Red Bull Campaign aired worldwide and in Super Bowl Finals 2012. In 2017, the commercial film “Home of Turquoise” that he wrote and directed for Turkish Airlines and Ministry of Culture, was selected as the best tourism film worldwide by International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals. The film received 22 awards (9 Grand Prix) in all major film festivals on tourism films. After its release the film has been viewed more than 60 million in the internet, aired in most of the TV channels and cinemas especially across Europe and North America. His fashion film “The Universe” had 3 nominations in Berlin International Ciclope Film Festival and won the Best National Fashion Film Award in Istanbul Fashion Film Festival and has compete in Los Angeles and Berlin Fashion Film Festival. Along new branded, commercial and film projects, his developing feature films ‘‘If Pope Knew” and “Ghetto Drifters”.

Graduated in Social Psychology, Jasper learned the film craft at NYU’s Film School, before starting to work for MTV in Amsterdam. He started 1Camera, a Corporate Cinema Agency, in 2008 and currently serves as its creative director. Under Jasper’s leadership 1Camera has become an international, award-winning corporate film production company, being recognized for its storytelling by non-other than Hollywood storytelling guru, Robert McKee, in his recent book, ‘Storynomics’.

Emily heads up the film and animation team at Radley Yeldar. She has been making award-winning films for both public and private sector organisations for more than 17 years. She brings both creativity and strategic thinking to film projects and has wide ranging knowledge and experience of differing industry sectors and production genres (from drama and documentary to commercials and animation) and interactive projects, recently delivering a wholly animated 360 VR experience for one of our clients. Emily has worked with a wide-range of clients at RY including GSK, Beiersdorf, The Science Museum, TEDx London, Visit Britain, and JTI.

Laura Delle Piane is an Italian director, editor and videographer. Her artistic practice is underlined by a commitment to strong social themes and by the experimentation of new devices of audiovisual narratives to create filmic objects where the boundaries between art, documentary and fiction would be erased. After her cinema studies in Rome and Paris, Laura immersed herself in the world of contemporary art alongside the visual artist Stefan Shankland, whose work she accompanied with video creations that were exhibited at the Ivry-sur-Seine contemporary art gallery. In 2010, Laura was invited to inaugurate the 10th Biennial of Contemporary Art in Havana with Hoy come ayer, a documentary on the memory of a peripheral district of Havana. In 2014, her documentary Depuis Que Je Suis Né was awarded and screened at numerous international festivals: Rome Independent Film Festival, Al Jazeera Film Festival (Qatar), Ethnocineca Vienna, Byron Bay Film Festival (Australia), International Political Film Festival in Buenos Aires. Her latest film BatiledhuThe madman, in collaboration with artist Nicol Vizioli, is currently in post-production. Alongside her activity as director, Laura accompanies numerous documentary projects as editor (France television) or cinematographer.

John Driedonks has created a multi-platform documentary storytelling course "CampusDoc" in cooperation with the City University of New York (CUNY). During this twenty-week crash course 20 students pitch, research, produce, crowdfund, film, edit and distribute their own documentary concepts. Distribution starts after the premiere of the short docs during the CampusDoc (International) Film Festival.

As senior lecturer at the School of Journalism UUAS John Driedonks coordinated between 2006-2017 a real-life converged newsroom with a focus on broadcasting TV talkshows, and web. The student-run talkshows are still aired on the local TV station: RTV Utrecht

In addition to his regular activities for the School of Journalism, John Driedonks was guest lecturer at several universities in Europe, Qatar, China and South Africa. Between 1982-2006 he was a journalist, finally as editor-in-chief of RTV Utrecht (radio-television + web).

Magdalena Dulac is a philologist and the head of audiovisual production for the Colas Group (world leader in the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure). In this capacity, she supervises the Group’s audiovisual projects, which have won more than twenty professional communication awards over the past ten years.

The Emmy award-winning producer and director Maryam Ebrahimi was born in Tehran in 1976. She studied Art and Art theory at Art faculty in Tehran and continued her education in Sweden in ’Art in the public realm’ at Konstfack. Later she started to work as producer, director and researcher in documentary field. She co-directed and produced Nima Film’s 2012 documentary ‘No Burqas Behind Bars’, set in an Afghan women’s prison and directed the short documentary ‘Susie’s Dollhouse’ for Swedish broadcaster SVT.

For Nima Film Maryam also produced ‘I Was Worth 50 Sheep’ (2010) filmed in Afghanistan, ‘Those Who Said No’ (2014) filmed in Iran, Sweden and Japan and ‘Prison Sisters’ filmed in Sweden and Afghanistan.

Her last feature documentary as director is Stronger than a Bullet¨. The film was shot in the border between Iran and Iraq and had premiere at IDFA 2017. “Born to Struggle” was her last project working with Nimafilm. The documentary was shot in Rohingya refugee camp.

She is also shooting her new documentary The Phantom pain of Rojava, a film about the women revolution in Rojava, north of Syria. The film is produced by Mantaray Film.

Maryam won the Chicken & Egg Award 2021, an award for women nonfiction filmmakers.

She has a deep knowledge of visual storytelling as well as extensive experience in location shooting.

I was Worth 50 Sheep 2010, Producer

He graduated from high school in 1980 in Casablanca, Morocco, with a bilingual high school diploma (Arabic and French). After graduation from the University of Orléans in France with the D.E.U.G. degree in German studies, he proceeded studying Romance languages, German studies, and literary studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. After his master's degree, he worked as an editor for the TV-program Reiselust at ZDF. Since 1995 he has been an author, director, and documentary filmmaker at Südwestrundfunk (SWR). Since then, he has produced numerous documentaries for SWR and Arte.

Fernando Faria Paulino, PhD in Anthropology (Visual Anthropology), Professor at University Institute of Maia, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Information Technologies (in the areas of visual communication, visual semiotics, documentary video, photography and new media) , researcher at CITEI – Research Center for Technologies and Intermedia Studies and researcher at CIAC Research Centre for Arts and Communication / University of Algarve. He is the Head Coordinator of the undergraduate degree of Multimedia Communication | University Institute of Maia, Coordinator of CLM Multimedia Lab Center ISMAI and Coordinator of the CCCom Communication Sciences Center | Multiplatform Audiovisual Studio ISMAI. Research interests: anthropology, visual anthropology and anthropology of visual communication, methodology, technology and epistemology of images and audiovisual culture, visual semiotics and visual culture, digital media, multimedia / hypermedia, new media, documentary film and documentary photography, interactive documentary, i-docs and web-docs; anthropology, cultural heritage, culture and tourism development. He is author of several scientific articles, documentary filmmaker, as well as hypermedia products author, essentially based on anthropological content nature.

Jo Marie has been hiphopping around in the German communication business for 15 years. After a decade of learning from the best, she decided to make it even better and opened up Überground, "A HOLISTIC IDEA COLLECTIVE MAKING HIGH CLASS COMMUNICATION PROJECTS REAL" in 2015.
From the scratch and without clients to kickoff she and her team managed to come up with some of the most renown campaigns in Europe, e. g. the well-known international campaign for famous fitness brand Freeletics. Christmas 2016 the team rocked the market with the 1000degree #SANTACLARA Campaign for Europe’s biggest discounter Lidl which replaced Santa Claus, entered all main European charts and was celebrated best and most shared XMAS Viral 2016. One year later Jo Marie’s foundation Überground was honored with the Dare Greatly Award from Cadillac Europe and the title Rookie Agency of the year. Lately the team invented a new worldwide lottery-product called Thankyou Million für Tipp24, wowed the audience with "Own the experience. Not the car." for AUDI and – launched the campaign "Break the rules of fashion" for REBELLE.
In Germany they say "Wirbelwind" and that’s how she leads her team of übercreatives and manages the whole enterprise: FOR the idea and FOR the people. Being herself, a mother of a 2 years old boy called Parker, she is always up for solutions to not only make perfect work but also to live a life. Maybe because of this, her übercrew consists of the perfect 50/50 of women and men, and eventually a nanny that looks after the kids happening to be present from time to time.
The last 24 months were determined by a fat campaign production for LIDL international called #kidsgone – a mini movie starring 40 kids from around the world and the message for grown-ups to stop messing things up, what they normally do at Christmas time, a massive campaign concerning sustainability issues, the launch of a new car selling platform involving a Ninja defeating walrus, a lot of Snapchat filters and a very funny 2020 Start-Campaign for LIDL.
Jo is a member of the German Art Director’s Club and was a teacher at Miami Ad School for 5 years. She is a trusted “Kapitän” and responsible for the curriculum at Texterschmiede, the most awarded German copywriter’s school.

Director, producer, and photographer in Norway. Has worked in filmmaking and television since graduation from the media program at Volda University College in 1986. A resident of Bergen for the past 25 years. “Siblings are forever” is his first film in the cinema and was the most watched Norwegian documentary in Norway the past five years and the TV version is still the most watched documentary at the Norwegian TV2 channel.

Best feature in the Filmfestival Della Lessinia (2014) and the best feature at the Big Sky documentary filmfestival US. (2015)

“Siblings are forever – the grand journey” is a sequel produced in 2015

Steve Garvey has 30+ years' experience in film and video as an agency head, producer and in-house comms director. He runs Moving Image, the UK’s independent hub for insights into brand video and corporate film.

Former CEO of two of the UK's top 10 corporate production companies, he founded and ran Reuters Corporate Television, and produced documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC. He was comms director at Yes Television and ran industry association EVCOM.

My career has always been guided by a desire to learn and explore new, exciting things. This has taken me on a journey from traditional print via Corporate Identities, to social media and web design, and finally above-the-line advertising. Within all these different fields, I’ve been happiest working on projects with the potential to bring about positive change in the world and empowering women.

I have always loved and been good at design. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to practice and hone this skill through a diverse range of projects. I have experience in both Design and Art Director roles, and I find the most pleasure in combining these two parts to craft my own ideas.

Driven by this mix of hard work, perfection, and coffee, I have won some pretty shiny things too, both locally – including Loeries Grand Prix, Pendoring Umpetha and Ad of the year – and internationally – including Gold, Silver, and Bronze at CANNES and the One Show Club, a few D&AD Pencils and a Clio award to name a few.

Ala Hamdan an award-winning filmmaker. She studied filmmaking at NYFA and now is a co-founder of (at Films) production company. Ala's work focuses on PSAs on social justice and uplifting topics, documentaries, and short films. Some of her web-series work was viewed over 5 million times on various social media platforms.

Conrad Heberling teaches Media Economy and TV Marketing Research at the German Film University Babelsberg “Konrad Wolf”. He has nearly 20 years of experience in management positions with TV stations in Germany (RTL2 Television, DAF Television), Austria (Austria 9 TV) as well as internationally. He holds a number of international advisory positions such as with Dori Media International, a leading producer of telenovelas, drama and game shows and has authored numerous scientific papers in regards to topics such as “Big Brother”, “Popstars”, merchandising, children´s television and many more.

Tim van den Hoff (1981) is a Dutch filmmaker with a focus on social issue documentaries in Europe and the United States. After receiving a Master of Arts in Philosophy (cum laude) from Erasmus University Rotterdam and working for Dutch public broadcaster VPRO, he started his own production company in 2011. Using his academic background, Tim likes to dig for the deeper questions that will inform and structure his documentary work. Themes examined in his films have included public memory, identity formation, and knowledge production. His work has been screened internationally. His exploration of U.S. Civil War memory Monumental Crossroads is used at hundreds of universities across the U.S. Tim is often invited as a guest lecturer to discuss his work and underlying themes.
In 2021, Tim was selected for a two-week intensive masterclass by legendary film director Werner Herzog, further strengthening the foundations of his cinematic practice. Tim is presently working on a film about Dutch contested heritage, commissioned by public broadcaster NTR.

Till Hohmann is a creative driven by wanderlust — always open to explore both, new physical as well as intellectual geographies.

His 20+ year creative career has taken him from Berlin to cities such as London, Hamburg, Singapore, and New York – working in local, regional, even global leadership roles for agency brands Jung von Matt, JWT, Grey, VMLY&R Commerce, Serviceplan Group, and of course: Ogilvy. He also is no stranger to the MENA region, where he served as an Executive Creative Director for the UAE during one of Memac Ogilvy’s most successful and transformational periods from 2007 to 2010, helping win their first ever Agency and Network of the year accolades.

In his work for clients such as Mercedes-Benz, MINI, BMW, The Economist, Unilever Foods, GSK, Sixt, Coca-Cola, Till has demonstrated his solution focused, channel- and media-agnostic mindset from the start – with award-winning work spanning all disciplines and categories, open to experimental craft and technology, from mobile to gaming, exploring business solutions as much as creative ideas. He believes in the power of collaboration across disciplines and cultures and has a history of mentoring and nurturing the next generation of our industry.

With a good 450+ creative and effectiveness awards under his name Till is a trusted expert and jury member with 15 years’ experience as member of some of the most iconic shows on the planet.

Philip Hollerbach can look back on already 12+ years of experience as an award-winning PR and marketing film and content professional in the automotive industry. His international works for many leading companies such as Audi, Bentley, BMW Mini, Lamborghini, Porsche or VW (to mention just a few) took him to approximately two dozen countries on all continents. His work was already medaled with multiple awards at international festivals, including the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, AutoVision and the World Media Festivals.
The versatile director is experienced in helicopter & drone shots, stunt shoots, automotive Russian & Scorpio Arm shoots, underwater shoots, slow motion, full CGI animation, documentary work and much more.
Since 2017, he works for AUDI AG as Executive Producer Film & Content Global Communications.

Winner of 19 German National Corporate Film Awards and more than 150 international and national Awards. President of the International Tourism Festival "The Golden City Gate" at the ITB Berlin.

Kristina is like having an ace in your hand. A Los Angeles native and alumni of UCLA, she has over 15 years of experience producing music and sound for top music production companies. Starting her career at HUM, she spent 9 years producing commercials for global brands including Nissan, Honda, McDonalds, Lexus, Visa, Microsoft, Walmart before moving to an Executive Producer role at Stimmung, working with some of the finest directors in the industry like Dante Ariola, Mathijis Van Heijningen, Rupert Saunders and producing projects for Coca-Cola, Gatorade, Nike, Google, Old Spice, ESPN winning many of the most prestigious industry awards along the way. ‘I’ve dedicated my career to working with top creative agencies and talent. I’m inspired by great work and a passion and commitment to executing work at the highest level’. In 2019 she joined The Elements Music to head up the production side of the LA business. Her experience and well-respected reputation in the industry, has been undeniably valuable and even in the short time she’s already a much loved and integral member of the team. ‘Kristina really strengthens our team and is a huge factor in supporting and accelerating our growth.’ Ian Dalsemer, Creative Partner at The Elements Music.

Born in Turkey, Kaftan completed a B.A. in Philosophy at Bosphorous University in Istanbul. She completed her M.A in film and video at York University (Canada) in 2002. Her first documentary, “Faultlines”, investigates the aftermath of the earthquake which hit Turkey in 1999. Kaftan then wrote and directed Vendetta Song (2005) produced in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada. This gripping hour long documentary about her personal journey into the killing of her aunt in a small village in Turkey was broadcast on Vision TV and Télé-Québec in Canada and has received several awards including CIDA Prize for “Best Canadian Documentary” on International Development at Hot Docs; the “Quebec Film Critics Association Award for Best Medium Length Documentary”; “Best Documentary” at the Calgary International festival and Best Documentary, Female Eye Film Festival. Her third documentary “Bledi, this is Our Home” tells the story of the non-status Algerians and their struggle to remain in Canada. The film is made for the Quebec broadcaster Télé-Québec. Kaftan produced and directed several documentaries for Al Jazeera English Channel. Some of them are: The Passion and Penalty, a film about the match fixing scandal in Turkish football, Sarajevo, My Love, a film about a Serbian general who defended Sarajevo during the siege of the city. Eylem recently completed her first feature film, called Hive. The film is about a female beekeeper’s struggle with wild bees and a bear. Hive (Keeping the Bees) is currently traveling many international film festivals, winning numerous awards at many prestigious festivals. It is currently on Netflix, worldwide.

Irina Khangoshvili is author, director and producer of documentary films and television programs. Since 2010 has worked for different television channels in Georgia, Russia and Europe. The participant and prize winner of several international documentary film festivals in Europe and Russia. The prize winner of TEFFI international film festival (Russia). The jury member of International Russian film festival (Spain, Marbella.), ITFFA – international tourism film festival in Africa. For the last 6 years has been collaborating with Currenttime TV (Radio Liberty’s American Russian speaking channel) with an international travel show “We welcome” with Zurab Dvali. The show “We welcome” has received awards in Greece, Bulgaria, Latvia, Portugal.

Over 25 years, Teruhiko Kimura has been creating corporate films and digital contents based in Tokyo, Japan.

Since 2011 he is Managing Director of the Japan Association of Audiovisual Producers, Inc.

Sven-Erik Knoff is an award-winning Norwegian photographer and film producer who portrays the wonderful reality of the world the way it is. He seeks out iconic places, stunning scenery, architecture, and both known and unknown personalities. His work shares with us magnificent scenes, people, light, colors, and moments that are otherwise the preserve of the ardent adventurer. The carefully thought-out lines, eye-catchers, and perfect lighting – these are what bring forth the visual stories Knoff relates to in his work. He seeks to capture the moment just as it was when taken and share the natural and spectacular reality on behalf of his clients and in his own projects. Working with light, lines and composition at the shoot are his passion, along with the painstaking, manual work needed to control an image under demanding conditions. His realistic portraits, films, nature, and landscape photography have been noticed in Norway and abroad.

Knoff's images have been published by major clients and Norwegian and international media, and has won several international awards, including “Best Camera” at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards 2017 for the production of 'Iconic Norway' in cooperation with the production company, Natural Light. After over 20 years in the food and wine industry, followed by more than 7 years working with tourism organizations in Norway, Sven-Erik decided to fulfil his dream and cultivate his lifelong fascination for film and photography.

Within the space of just a few years, he has built up an impressive portfolio of films and photographs with the emphasis on real life. Sven-Erik Knoff is also an entrepreneur in the field of visual displays and is currently working on developing solutions within 3D and photogrammetry for multi-purpose-use in an international market.

He has been working for TV stations such as: ORF, RTL, SAT1, SKY, SPORT1, KABEL1 and VOX. Director of sport events, producer for comedy shows, gala events and concerts. Emmy Award winner for Red Bull Air Race.

Canadian citizen Ronald Krapp was born in Hamburg in 1968. After finishing his education as a bookseller and publisher he went off to Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg to study Advertising Film Direction.
This was where he obtained first awards for his works. One of his student films was copied by a large automotive company without his prior agreement and was televised worldwide. This is how Ronald learnt about the worth of a good idea – including his own ideas.
Since 2001 he has been working as director and conceptual writer for advertisements, corporate films, and TV trailers. He loves to draft and write promotional concepts – for others, too. When a project is funny, absurd, or very lyrical, you can trust he will put his heart and soul into the project while sitting in his office in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
In 2009, Ronald Krapp started educating film students in Salzburg and Berlin as a lecturer for conception of advertising films and documentaries, for which he also has a major soft spot.
During a gunfight in the streets of Berlin, a 9mm bullet broke into his Kreuzberg office and missed him tightly. Ronald decided to focus on the few upsides of the incident, took it as an inspiration and started to write TV crime stories with an author friend of his.

His motto: Why have hair when you can have ideas!

Alexander Lauf is based in Prague , Czech Republic. He studied at the Film University in Prague named „FAMU“. Further he was awarded with the „Young Directors Award Cannes, the finalist“. He is specialised in life style and beauty TV commercials, in post production effects and 3D animation. Besides that he is interested in art, architecture, movies, nature and water sports.

Patrick Lehn has been working in corporate communications for over 20 years. One key aspect of his work is storytelling. He was project manager of a film series and PR campaign that won over 40 awards at international competitions. He joined the dormakaba Group in April 2022 as Senior Manager External Communications.

Björn Lindberg is a music producer and sound designer based in Malmö, Sweden. He has previously worked with Swedish Grammy nominated Åkervinda, and as a sound designer and composer for dance and theater performances, as well as radio dramas in Sweden and Denmark.

Recently Björn created the sound design for companies like Brilliant and Studio Mint and released his own project “Ears - a soundtrack for Malmö”. During the pandemic Björn also launched his solo project By Land and participated in the releases of several bands such as Brigaden.

“Björn Lindberg has awareness of the denominations in sound and a sense for the power of rhythms. He works in flowing soundscapes or in sharp textures, sometimes with unexpected shifts within the same compact pop song … Björn creates dynamics with small gestures — those gestures that require a distinct sensibility and capacity for reflection” — Håkan Engström (Swedish music journalist).

Sarah Macdonald is a New Zealand born BAFTA winning documentary director and journalist. She spent 10 years working for both the BBC and Channel 4 creating major investigative documentaries that had significant social impact. She made four films on child abuse, particularly focusing on the Catholic Church and clerical child abuse that prompted the first ever sacking of a Bishop by the Vatican. In 2014, Sarah launched MAKE Waves, a UK/Singapore based independent production company, with the former CEO of BBC World News, Sian Kevill. Since then, the company has won scores of awards creating international factual content for global broadcasters including HBO, CNN, Channel News Asia and A+E Network.

Thorsten Meier-Bartlog has 20+ years of experience in production of audio-visual media for all ranges of use, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Toyota, Brose and many more.
In 2008, he co-founded and ran GoodFilm GmbH Stuttgart as Executive Producer.
In 2015, he switched sides and from then on gained experience from the clients’ point of view. He currently is at Schaeffler AG and carries responsibility for all global topics including film, photography, and CGI.
He strongly emphasizes on cross-media and sustainable production for various versatile applications in marketing and communication.

He currently works at RADIO TELEVISION ESPAÑOLA as a Director of Documentaries and Reports.

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS

• Premio Academia de Televisión Concha García Campoy, MALAIRE (MALARIA)
• Premio Francisco de Cossio Junta de Castilla y León, MI HISTORIA, ADOLFO SUÁREZ
• Premio Cuerpo Nacional de Policía de Periodismo, ACOSO EN LA SOMBRA
• Premio Internacional Junta de Extremadura, LA CAZA FOTOGRAFICA
• Premio Internacional Periodismo Rey Juan Carlos, DETRÁS DE LA ABAYA
• Premio Internacional Rey Juan Carlos, DETRÁS DE LA ABAYA
• Premio Especial Príncipe Rainiero Festival de Montecarlo, CAMBIO CLIMATICO
• Premio Roma Civis de la Televisión italiana, GITANOS, EUROPEOS SIN ESTADO
• Premio Manos Unidas Documental, MALI, LA RUTA CLANDESTINA
• Premio Internacional Periodismo Rey Juan Carlos, El PAPA QUE VINO DE POLONIA

Eleonore is Marketing and Media Manager and was 9 years Global Head of Advertising at Red Bull where she was responsible for Creative, Media and Partnerships.

After her studies in Vienna, she started her career at Procter&Gamble where she held various positions locally and regionally in Brand and Media management over 17 years. She became P&G Media Director for Western Europe in Geneva before she moved on to LVMH as Global Media Director in Paris.

Eleonore sits on the board of the International Advertising Association (IAA) Austrian Chapter and was since 2014 member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Advertising and the EMEA Client Council of Meta (Facebook). She already held various jury roles for different creative and media awards in Austria and internationally, amongst others for the Cannes Lions 2022 in the category “Entertainment for Sports”.

Tracey O’Halloran is a London based, multi-award-winning Filmmaker and Executive Producer who has worked across broadcast television, commercials, and corporate films.

Winner of over 40 international film awards, in 2018 she was the first British person to win the coveted Grand Prix award at Cannes. She has won the Grand Award at the New York Festivals Film & TV Awards, as well as awards for Best Director and Best Script.

Tracey has experience writing, producing, and directing drama, documentary, animation and comedy and always strives to find the best way to tell a story with humor and emotion.
Passionate about social issues and using creativity for good, her films have been used to champion change, raise awareness, and shed a spotlight on the most vulnerable in society. Her films have contributed to helping change corporate policies and the law.

Emilie is an acclaimed editor working across multiple mediums including film, documentary, tv series, shorts, commercials and music video.

She collaborated with Eva Husson from her feature film directorial debut, Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story as well as her sophomore feature, Les Filles du soleil (Girls of The Sun) presented in Cannes in official competition and in 2021 on Mothering Sunday produced by Elisabeth Carlson (Carol).

She also frequently collaborates with director Sally Potter having edited both the award-winning and critically acclaimed The Party as well as Universal’s The Roads Not Taken starring Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning which premiered in competition at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival and was released in 2020.

Her work across television includes editing Arte’s Les Papillons Noirs, the second series of Maroni as well as working with Husson on editing an episode of Amazon Original series Hanna.

She also edited the 2019 documentary Wine Calling, directed by Bruno Sauvard which charts new naturel wine growers in Catalonia, the south of France.

Rolf Pedersen went to film school in Paris. He has over 30 years’ experience in film and video as production manager, head of TV in BBDO Oslo advertising agency, and as producer for commercials, music videos and corporate films. He now runs Encore Film — an independent production company in Oslo, Norway. He is also into feature films and TV series for the international streaming business.

Melanie Pfaffstaller is a passionate producer and specialized in commercial film projects for almost 25 years.

After studying Journalism and Communication Science, several years of experience in TV production and as production manager at renowned advertising film productions, she founded her own production company, mel p filmproductions, in 2010 in Vienna and has realized campaigns for McDonald’s, Sky, ING Diba and many more.

Melanie Pfaffstaller is characterized by her strategic thinking and putting creativity always first, not only in terms of forming her team but also in regards of her cinematic approaches in developing concepts. As a member, and since 2019 also chair member, of the Creative Club Austria, she commits to these values beyond her own productions and has always tabs on young talents.

An analytical mind and a philosophical approach. Often with plenty of bravado, but deep in his heart a creative child on a quest to find enchantment. Fascinated by the cultural impact that brands can have, unique founding stories, compelling brand copy and the eureka moment when that idea for a script or campaign concept pops up… As a founder at Gobsmacked® Ian is a two-time Cannes Corporate Media & TV awards winner himself.

Stephan has 20+ years in production ranging from advertising, corporate, events, feature film, documentaries, social & digital content. Stephan has worked with clients across many different sectors including the finance, energy, luxury, telecommunications, educations, constructions, retail, FMCG, pharmaceutical, automobile and transport industries. Over the years he has earned multiple awards around the world including Cannes, New York, Hamburg and Sydney.

A long and successful career spanning more than 40 years ago has seen James work for large multinational and smaller independent advertising agencies. His skill set has evolved from art direction to a copywriting and ultimately creative direction.

He has worked on a diverse array of brands in categories including premium beer and wine, finance, automotive, sporting events, the arts and most notably, tourism.

Along the way James has been fortunate enough to pick up numerous creative awards.

His work for the South Australian Tourism Commission, “Barossa. Be Consumed.” won 7 Grand Prix and 10 Trophies in 11 countries, and was ultimately awarded the 2013 CIFFT Best Tourism Film of the Year at the Festival of Festivals in Vienna.

Award-winning Filmmaker, Motorbiking Mother and Occasional Ballerina. Jane Sayers has achieved a highly successful career in TV and corporate film production – Series Producing the Emmy award winning Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places in 2017. Jane has written, directed and produced hundreds of hours of primetime documentaries for international broadcasters and has recently created the Content Engine - an award-winning in-house film unit within Shell.

Lisa Scheid has been in the film industry for over 20 years. As a producer, she has worked for various film productions in Austria and abroad. For her, creativity and profitability of a production must always be in balance.
Her main focus is on the constant renewal of thinking and on the promotion of young talents. For more than 6 years she has been CEO of the creative film production house Das R& which creates concepts/scripts and produces film for all formats: cinema, television, or online channels.
Love, Courage and Consciousness are her driving values, and she strongly believes that the creative industry can profit from more authenticity, honesty, and togetherness. She is never afraid to get off the beaten path and try things differently.

Peter Schels has been distinguished him as an expert for corporate videos and recruiting films.
The press called him even the “father of all imagefilms”.
He has been rewarded many times especially for best writing and script.
Moreover, he is a popular speaker and seminar facilitator for the topic of corporate films.

Simon is freelance director, editor and author for Film, TV and Corporate TV projects. After having finished his studies in Austria and the USA, he carried out several national and international projects including documentaries, reports and journal articles for ORF broadcast, ServusTV or Red Bull Media House. Furthermore he developed Corporate films for various international companies. He affiliates a long-term working cooperation with DMG Film Wien. He has received numerous prizes for his films: a report named „Die letzten Fahrenden“ developed for the TV magazine „Am Schauplatz“ (ORF) won the P.Leopold-Ungar – Recognition price. The documentary „Das Schicksal fragt nicht“ received a prize at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.

Chris Schueler has created over 100 television programs in the past 25 years that have garnered 26 Regional Emmy® Awards and have been broadcast throughout the country and around the world. Focusing on educational and social issues, Mr. Schueler creates youth programming and documentaries that are “Television to Touch the Heart.” His innovative process of program creation was the focus of Mr. Schueler’s recent TED talk. That audience driven process has been integral in creating social change for his work with clients including the United Nations, the National Institute of Mental Health, the PBS network, the CBS Network Foundation as well as networks and governments worldwide.

Mr. Schueler has created projects in locations worldwide including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Central America, Russia and Africa. His documentaries have raised public awareness and also impacted public policy nationally and internationally. His programs have ranged from global warming solutions to mental health stigma and included topics such as date and domestic violence, AIDS, alcohol, gambling addiction, opioid abuse and many others. As a director, Mr. Schueler has worked with Glenn Close, Bryan Cranston, Sam Donaldson, Montel Williams and others. The National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs named Chris Schueler national “Innovator of the Year” for his News 101 project.

Mr. Schueler has a BA in English and Theatre from the University of the Pacific and an MA in Playwriting and Directing from the University of New Mexico. UNM has honored him with its Lobo Award and UOP with the Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service. In addition to being CEO of Christopher Productions, Mr. Schueler is the Executive Director of SafeTeen New Mexico which was named one of the six best Community Outreach Programs in the United States. Due to the quality of his work, Mr. Schueler has been honored to be on the Grand Jury for the New York Festivals the past 8 years. Mr. Schueler is the only three-time winner of the Board of Governors Award (Emmy© Award) from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Rocky Mountain Chapter.

Philip Spaar, born and raised in St. Gallen, lives now with his family in Zurich.
He studied journalism and communication and gained work experience as editor for various TV stations including ProSieben (Galileo) and the Swiss Television (Giacobbo/Müller). He spent a semester abroad at the University of Television and Film in Munich (HFF) were he graduated in Film and Television Documentary. For more than four years now he has been working as multimedia-editor at Swiss Life AG – the largest life insurance company of Switzerland – at corporate communications. Thereby he is responsible for several award-winning corporate film productions. Additionally, he works as a lecturer for video productions at the College Zurich (ZFH). The father of four loves his kids, his wife and films.

Rita-Maria Spielvogel is a passionate creative with a communicative vision and international expertise. She has been creative director and member of the board at BBDO Vienna since April 2017. She started her career in 1999 as a copywriter at PKP, moving to fcbi in 2003. With the step to creative group head at DRAFTFCB, Rita took over the leadership of the creative agendas of national and international brands. In 2011, Rita followed the call of Wunderman Germany. Until the beginning of 2015, Rita-Maria worked in Frankfurt as creative supervisor for Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, Jaguar, and Land Rover, among others, for which she received several awards. Afterwards, she took over the creative direction for defacto BE/ONE Munich and Erlangen as executive creative manager, before she went back to her roots, respectively to Vienna and BBDO.

Rita-Maria is a full member of Creativ Club Austria, president, and member of national and international juries such as CCA, ADCE, MAX Award, Golden Drum etc. Her work has been honored by major international award shows such as Cannes Lions, New York Festival, ADC Europe, Golden Drum, CCA, DMVÖ, MAX Award & Co.

From Cape Town to Kuala Lumpur, Oliver leverages the best of both worlds with audio engineering and music composition.

His career kicked off with a variety of major composition projects through which he established and led the audio & music division for a Cape Town-based production company. The hunger to grow and expand the way people connect with audio-based media led him across the globe to KL, where he joined the Two AM team.

With the help of good coffee and a drive to hunt for fresh angles, he leads the creative family and vision of the company.

Tobias is an award-winning senior film editor and partner at The Den Editorial in Los Angeles with over 15 years of work experience. Besides occasionally dipping his toes into feature film projects his main area of expertise is editing commercial spots and music videos. Tobias graduated from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. He started his career at the Bavarian Broadcasting in Munich as editor.

As a freelance film editor his montage of commercials and image films not only regularly wins awards but also recognition of his well-known clients.
Since 2007, he has been working for internationally active companies and agencies — the list on his homepage is long and ranges from Mercedes Benz to L'Oréal to Dr. Oetker and Siemens. Moreover, he also assembles films, documentaries, and music videos to deepen and develop his skills in the various tasks. He also passes on his knowledge to students of cultural and media studies at the Heinrich Heine University in his adopted hometown of Düsseldorf.

In 2021, Jens Thraenhart has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), the official national tourism organization of the island nation of Barbados in the Caribbean. BTMI is responsible for promoting Barbados as a sustainable tourism destination and the ultimate Caribbean vacation island by implementing marketing strategies that help the responsible development of tourism.

In 2014, Jens Thraenhart was appointed by the tourism ministries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and China (Yunnan and Guanxi) to head the Mekong Tourism Coordinating (MTCO) as its Executive Director. in 2008, he co-founded award-winning China digital marketing firm Dragon Trail in 2009 and has led marketing and Internet strategy teams with the Canadian Tourism Commission and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Since 1999, he is the CEO of Chameleon Strategies.

Jens Thraenhart (www.thraenhart.com) has over 30 years of international travel, tourism, and hospitality experience, spanning positions in operations, marketing, business development, revenue management, strategic planning, and e-business.

Early in his career, Jens's entrepreneurial edge was sharpened with him founding and operating a successful food catering company, starting a New York-based Internet leisure travel internet company and managing an independent luxury golf resort in Germany.

Jens Thraenhart has a doctorate degree in tourism and hospitality management (DHTM) from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is educated at Cornell University with an MBA-accredited Master of Management in Hospitality, as well as a joint Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University Center 'Cesar Ritz' at Brig, Switzerland. Jens Thraenhart was recognized as one of the travel industry’s top 100 rising stars by Travel Agent Magazine in 2003, was listed as one of HSMAI’s 25 Most Extraordinary Sales and Marketing Minds in Hospitality and Travel in 2004 and 2005, was named one of the Top 20 Extraordinary Minds in European Travel and Hospitality in 2014 and recognized as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Travel and Tourism in 2022. He is the 2nd Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the UNWTO Affiliate Members, past PATA Board Member, past Executive Board Member of HSMAI, and past Chair of PATA China.

Qualified in communication planning, he got into film production in 2006 and co-founded Maybaum Film. Since then, he made countless films in the field of corporate and advertising films as director and later as director of photography. He worked on diverse international documentaries and his works on corporate films have been awarded many times. His company employs 15 people and is one of the leading production companies for corporate films in Switzerland.

Marco Valpiani is a film producer and lives in Zurich. He looks back on over 30 years of creative and advisory work in the film sector. As a producer, writer, and director he realized commercials, branded and corporate films. In 2015 he won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards with “The Heartbeat of Switzerland”, which he realized for the Swiss Federal Railways. In the last ten years, one feature film and two documentaries have also been shown in theaters, for which he was responsible as co-author and producer. His professional career includes positions in renowned companies such as Condor Films, Wirz & Fraefel, Atlantic Productions, Teleclub, Ringier Film, Lichtspiele 'The Film Agency' and Seed Audio-Visual Communication AG.

Maarten van Rouveroy (1976) is a documentary producer, cameraman and editor. Having graduated in cinematography and marine biology, his main areas of interest are the natural world, environmental issues, human rights and other global issues. Through his company Noctiluca, Maarten has produced a variety of documentary and corporate productions, handling the process from script to shoot and from edit to distribution. He also regularly produces and shoots for media including CNN, Al Jazeera, Business Insider and Bloomberg and works for a range of international non-profit organizations and corporate clients.

As the Global Head of Bloomberg Media Studios, Ashish merges data science and strategy to craft creative solutions that allow brands to meaningfully connect with Bloomberg’s audience of leaders and influencers. Bloomberg Media Studios has grown over 40% under his direction, becoming an award-winning powerhouse through campaigns that touch virtually every industry, from luxury and technology to health and finance.

Over the past 20 years, Ashish has been driven by his belief that the best creative work is rooted in science and purpose. Prior to Bloomberg, he was Managing Director of Kelton, where he expanded a research company into an insights-driven Brand Development & Innovation consultancy for clients like Google, Diageo and Pfizer. Before that, Ashish brought his passion for innovative thinking to game design at Atari, where he launched the first-generation Sony Playstation; branded entertainment at William Morris Endeavor, where he worked to gamify brand experiences; and to advertising agencies like Digitas, where he established the creative practice for health and wellness in New York.

Ashish’s creative impetus has resulted in numerous awards and industry recognition from Communication Arts, Creativity, Digiday, Webby’s, Cannes Corporate and more. He holds a BFA in Design from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts, New York. His interactive art has been exhibited at the NTT Center in Tokyo, ZKM in Karlsruhe, German, and the Postmasters Gallery in New York. He is fluent in Hindi, struggles with Italian and lives with his daughter in Brooklyn.

Ivan is an award-winning freelance multi-genre filmmaker. He began his career as cinematographer in the mid-nineties shooting music videos, tv films and documentaries across Europe.
Over the years, he turned to commercial-filmmaking and has been shooting ads for brands like Bayer, Coca-Cola, Douwe Egberts, Gösser, Henkell und Söhnlein, LG, McDonald’s, Molson-Coors, Nestlé, Römerquelle, Samsung, Telekom and Unilever.
For the past ten years, he has also been directing his own films.
As a specialist for super slow-motion, food and liquid beauty filming he earned serious reputation.
Furthermore, he is passionate about shooting of sport-event promos.

After his study at the School of Arts in Utrecht (Bachelor) and the Portsmouth University (European Media Masters of Arts) he started working as an independent producer.

The last twenty years he produced more than 500 different corporate, documentary and fiction productions.

As a company they produce daily content for different online platforms up to large (corporate) films for events, experience projects, corporate channels or television.

They work exclusively for the Dutch Government and different national and international corporate clients like Heineken, KPN, Dutch national railway, ABNAMRO and ProRail.

Their goal is to tell beautiful stories in a special way. They do this with a big dedicated team in Amsterdam and The Hague.

Steve Woods began working in film making animation inserts for Corporate Films. Since then, he has directed and produced documentaries, animations, dance, and experimental films.

He also teaches Experimental Animation at the National Film School in IADT, Ireland. He has curated programs for several Irish and international film festivals most notably 5 screenings of Irish animation for Annecy International Animation Festival 2012.

Steve is on the board of the Galway Film Fleadh and the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland.

Dave Woodside is an award-winning Toronto based Director of Photography with over 20 yrs. of experience telling stories with a camera. Creative, thoughtful, efficient, and quick, he’s been able to bring his insight and aesthetic to hundreds of commercials, branded content, films, TV series, corporate videos, music videos, and documentaries. Dave has shot commercials and branded content for many of the country’s top brands and biggest companies including Swiss Chalet, Nike, KFC, Nokia, McDonald's, John Frieda, Mr Sub, Shoppers Drugmart, L'Oreal, Nescafe, Canadian Tire, Corus, The Source, and many many more. Dave is equally at home capturing the energy and authenticity of events as they happen and has shot dozens of documentaries and documentary style shows seen by millions of people all over the world. This includes, among others, the award-winning global food documentary series Confucius Was A Foodie (11 million viewers per episode on PBS alone), and the UK based productions Story of the Songs, and D-Day: Invasion. He’s shot popular franchises like The Amazing Race, Top Chef, and Big Brother, as well as niche documentaries like A Perfect Cure, Manifest: Power of Thought, Conversion, and Red Fever. Dave also deeply enjoys tackling narrative storytelling and has recently shot a number of award-winning films for a diverse array of filmmakers. Dave finds that bringing creative concepts to life and presenting experiences and products in the most flattering and evocative way possible is both exciting and fulfilling. It doesn’t matter if he's creating polished tabletop shots that make your product shine or capturing the gritty experience of someone’s triumph over adversity, Dave knows that every idea, and every story needs to be matched with memorable visuals that make the audience sit up, take note, and remember.

Robin is Co-Founder and Head of Creation of aha! film GmbH. For almost 10 years he has been developing non-fiction formats for universities, museums and public institutions. His special focus is on mixed forms of documentary and animated approaches. Occasionally he writes for knowledge programs for ZDF or directs himself, e.g. the award-winning TV reportage "Ein Mann, ein Fluss, ein Abenteuer". Robin is a lecturer at the HFF Munich; he studied Directing at the Filmacademy Baden-Württemberg and prior to that he earned a degree in business administration at the University of Cologne.

Filiz Zengin was appointed Editor-in- Chief to tv4 in January 2022. Prior to this appointment, Zengin was an Executive Producer at 24 TV for 10 years. She was part of many TV Documentaries and shows as a producer. After graduating from the University of Istanbul, she worked for NTV, and interviewed many worldwide musicians, artists, and directors. She moved to London and then to New York. She lived 5 years in New York. She studies Media Arts and Technology in New York. While she was living there, she worked as an Assistant Producer at WABC TV/ Eye Witness News. She also has made educational videos for kids with Autism by volunteering job. Now, she lives in Istanbul.

Max Zilker is an award-winning editor for commercials, fictional movies and corporate films. After having graduated from university with highest distinction, he has entered the world of commercials and corporate films. His commercial “Schwitzender Klaus“, for which he has been in charge not only of the montage but also of the visuals effects, he has been awarded the “Porsche Award”, two times gold and one time silver. In the masterclasses given by Patrick Tucker in London as well as in the classes of Mark Travis, he has reinforced his interest in the direction of films. At present, he is developing his own materials and lives with his wife and his daughter in Munich.

Zbigniew Żmudzki graduated in Economics and Film and Television Production Management in Lodz, Poland.

He is an Oscar-winner with “Peter and the Wolf”.