For Film

Bert's journey in the movie industry goes way back to when he worked in a cinema, seeing great movies such as Stop Making Sense. From there he went on to work on a lot of different productions before founding his own company, Caviar. Starting out with advertisement, the company quickly expanded into features. Since then, his credits include movies such as The Diary of a Teenage Girl, The Rider and most recently the wonderful Sound of Metal. Listen to Bert talk about his way from selling cinema tickets to producing international movies, the coincidences and funny stories that led him to these films and the joy of late night Cannes negotiations. 

Growing up in Dublin, one of Ed’s closest friends was Lenny Abrahamson, with whom he started making films early on. When Ed founded his company Element Pictures later on with Andrew Lowe, the two continued collaborating together. After making some waves with films such as Frank or Garage, the company’s big international year was 2015 with both Room and The Lobster. They went on to produce more unique films such as Disobedience and The Favourite. Most recently, Ed and Lenny collaborated again on the wonderful series Normal People. Listen to Ed talk about his way from Filmmaking Society at Trinity to the Oscars, the Irish Film Community and why he was hoping to not like Normal People when first reading it - but thank god he did.

Alexa Karolinski ist the co-creator and writer of the great Netflix miniseries Unorthodox.                          The series focusses on 19 year old Esty, who slips away from her Orthodox community in Williamsburg. As Esty arrives in Berlin, she begins to explore the uncertain prospects of a new life and pursues an audition at the Berlin Music Conservatory. Unorthodox is loosely based on Deborah Feldman's 2012 autobiography Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. It is also is the first Netflix series to be primarily in Yiddish. Listen to Alexa talk about her way as a filmmaker, adapting the story of Deborah Feldman for the screen and getting all the details right. She also tells me why the reactions to Unorthodox make her feel positive about the world - something we can all need right now.

Naima started her way in the film industry in sales before following her passion for producing. She joined Emilie Georges at Memento and her breakthrough project was nothing else than Call me by your name. A project that had been long time in development, Emilie and Naima felt that they had to give it a go with Luca Guadagnino attached to direct. Still, production was tricky with a short time window and struggle to find public money. Listen to Naima talk about the whole experience CMBYN, producing movies that matter today and about that feeling of pure joy when you first screen a movie and every single one on the team suddenly loves each other. 

After watching the series Edge of Darkness when he was 13, Chris knew he wanted to work in TV. He started out at the BBC and worked his way up to becoming Head of Drama, working on shows such as MI5. He then joined Two Brothers Pictures, where he produced series such as Cheat, The Widow or Back to Life. Two Brothers Pictures has been in the spotlight recently for producing Fleabag, a series which Chris followed closely from the inside. Listen to him talk about becoming a producer and adapting to the changes in the television landscape, what makes a good script and what it was like to watch Phoebe Waller- Bridge in action.

Founded in 2004, Umedia has become one of the most important financing and producing partners for international productions in Belgium, making use of the tax shelter system. Their level of implication varies between helping with financing such as for the genre hit Revenge or acting as an active producing partner on films such as Mandy with Nicolas Cage. As COO, Bastien is a part of selecting these projects and working on them. Listen to him talk about the variety of projects Umedia is a part of, coproductions with the US and what special gear a producer absolutely needs when working on the set of Mandy.

After 10 years of producing solid arthouse movies, Jonas and Max found themselves in a so called producers midlife crisis: They were established producers, but knew that their outreach in terms of audience was limited. Through some coincidences, they started pitching the first feature by Patrick Vollrath 7500 all around Hollywood and ended up with Film Nation and Endeavor as partners. Since then, they focus on coproductions with the US and have movies such as Stowaway with Anna Kendrick and Toni Colette coming up. Listen to them talk about about their way from getting their first projects made to surviving the producers midlife crisis, their first glimpse at Hollywood (involving encounters with two Oscar throphies in one trip) and how they were being seen as two crazy German guys on their first trip to the US.

Dennis started out as a film critic, writing for newspapers such as The New York Times and Artforum, before turning to programming.  Since 2013 he’s the director of programming at Film Society of Lincoln Center and on the selection committee of the upcoming New York Film Festival. Listen to Dennis talk about the identity of the Festival and the programming process, the independent cinema scene in New York and our shared passion for John Cassavetes. 

Jennifer discovered the work of a sales agent during an internship at Europa Corp and immediately loved it. After handling sales for A+E Networks and Protagonist she landed her ultimate dream job at Lionsgate. What always drew her to Lionsgate was their ability to be in a space between arthouse and superhero movies – prestige movies with a commercial aspect as she describes it. Listen to her way from intern preparing in panic a festival bible to her position now, the DNA of Lionsgate and the phenomenon John Wick 3. You'll also learn what her favorite sales territory is - but don't tell anyone. 

Since a young age, the Curzon logo always got Cate excited and made her discover arthouse cinema. After her first experiences at the BBC and agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, she got the chance to work for her dream label in acquisitions. Since then, she’s made some great picks, always keeping an eye on the balance between British and foreign language films. Listen to her talk about her way from a break-up to Curzon, the process of buying movies such as Gloria Bell or The Souvenir and that special adrenaline rush when hearing the words "We got a deal". 

When Elisha took over MK2 with his brother Nathanael, they quickly adapted to a changing society by proposing not only an eclectic programming but also new cinema experiences. Elisha organized the popular festival Cinema Paradiso, a hybrid event which mixes food, dance, music and film all under one roof. This year marked the third edition and took place at the Louvre Museum. Listen to him talk about about innovating MK2 while always sticking to its core values, the battle for a diverse cinema proposal and how to organize the biggest 3D screening in history in only 6 weeks. 

Priscilla started out in development at Working Title after going from door to door with her CV. She then became script editor and gained set experience on commercials as a producer. Last year she landed her to date biggest success with the series Bodyguard, produced for BBC and then bought by Netflix. Listen to her talk about making the big step from script editor to producer, the challenge of shooting a series about terrorism in the center of London, and how having a global hit series can make small talk a lot easier. 

Olivier started out as a film critic, then programmed the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes before becoming artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival. Now he’s been at Arte since 2012 as a Head of Cinema. Arte had a lot of their co-produced films in Cannes this year, such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma and Atlantics by Mati Diop. Listen to him talk about the different ways of defending independent cinema with every position he had, how he chooses films for Arte and what it takes for him to read a screenplay a second or even third time.

Since 2004, Carly and Matt have produced over 30 films together, which have premiered at Festivals such as Toronto, Berlin, Sundance and Venice. They’ve also been awarded the Amazon Producers Award at Sundance this Year. Their newest film Share by Pippa Bianco, co-produced with A24 and distributed by HBO, was selected in Cannes this year as a Special Screening.  Listen to them talk about the making of Share, their work as Producers with Loveless and the link between the best biscuits in Nashville and their company.  

Before being appointed Co-Director of the Berlinale together with Carlo Chatrian, Mariette held different positions in the movie industry: she worked for a distribution company, as a producer and most recently she promoted German movies all over the world as Head of German Films. Listen to her talk about the magic ingredients of a film festival and which ones made it onto her top three list, important issues for festivals at the moment such as younger audiences and streaming services and what she has in common with Penélope Cruz.

After having worked for Celluloid Dreams, Wild Bunch and Les Films du Losange, Berenice Vincent got together with Agathe Valentin and Laure Parleani to found Totem Films. Besides her work as a Sales Agent, Berenice is very active in fighting for women's positions in the French movie industry, with the Collectif 50/50. Listen to her talk about the birth of the new company and the idea behind it, the progress for women in cinema and why a lot of people got the meaning of the name Totem completely wrong.

Starting out in the industry at a very young age, Thomas quickly had the idea of creating a multidisciplinary company, not wanting to make a difference between the production of Clips, Publicity and Films. While that sounded revolutionary at the time, 10 Years later the success of Pulse Films proves him right. Listen to him talk about learning from the worst and how that shaped him, his idea behind Pulse and why he answers to every mail he gets.

An established actress since a long time, Julie felt at one point that she wanted to be more involved in the production side of things. With her company Rouge she discovered Julia Ducournau and produced her acclaimed movie Raw. She also produced the documentary Faces Places with her long time mentor and friend Agnès Varda. Since then, Julie has expanded her company and is not only doing Distribution but also thinking about a music label.  Listen to her talk about her main idea behind Rouge, getting the movie Raw financed with methods she has to laugh about now and how she got Agnès Varda to listen to her..a little bit.

Sol started out wanting to become a director, but discovered his interest and passion for producing at film school. Since the beginnings of One Two Films, their mission has been to find projects with a high artistic value and international appeal. Sol has coproduced with a lot of different European countries and had a huge success with his first US coproduction The Tale last year. Listen to him talk about how he finds all these coproducing partners, the situation as a German independent producer and why he is called the foreign minister of the company. 

Her dad being a gaffer on music videos and commercials, Alexis grew up stacking apple boxes and wrapping chords on set. While this definitely wasn’t something she wanted to do, she knew that she wanted to be involved in getting movies made. And that's what she's been doing at Cinetic Media. Listen to her talk about the various ways Cinetic is involved in independent films, her work with filmmakers and what working as a Head of Tracking really means. 

During the Berlinale, I brought American Producer David Kaplan (It follows) and German Producer Janine Jackowski (Toni Erdmann) together. In between screenings  meetings, and after some late nights out we found a moment to sit down in Janines office. They got to talking about the different systems they’re producing in and their challenges, coproductions between Europe and the US and production of series - even if their heart will always be for cinema.

Originally Elizabeth Karlsen wanted to become a genetic engineer to engage in the world but she ended up doing that in producing movies. With her partner Stephen Woolley she’s set up Number 9 Films in 2002 and the’ve become one of the most important producing partners in the UK.  Listen to her talk about her way from peeling carrots on a Steve Buscemi Set to getting a movie such as Carol or Colette made- with all its challenges.

Starting out in the industry, Becca fell quickly in love with reading scripts and developing them. She started out at Red Crown Productions, then went to Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories as an Executive and has now been Head of Development at Stay Gold Features for one year. Listen to her talk about developing independent movies, tracking boards and film festivals as summer camp for film nerds.

Even though Georgia started out in Paris, working in Sales for Wide and Playtime, she always had one foot in New York. When she got the opportunity to come work there for Cohen Media, she didn’t hesitate. Listen to her talk about the market for foreign movies in the US, the film festival madness as a Sales Agent and Paris vs New York in terms of cinema culture.

Dan started out at indie distributor Think Film before joining Oscilloscope, founded by the late Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch. After Daniel Fenkel (now at A24) and other partner David Laub left, Dan became president of the indie distributor. Listen to him talk about the evolution of Oscilloscope, marketing of independent films and the changes in the industry.

After having studied Political Sciences, David got an insight into talent agencies at UTA, production at Killer Films and financing at Cinetic. At the age of only 27 he then founded Animal Kingdom with partner Joshua Astrachan. Since then, they’ve produced some of our independent favorites such as Short term 12, It follows or It comes at Night. Listen to him talk about breaking into the industry, his different producing experiences and the challenges when founding a production company.

Daniele started interning at Big Beach while finishing her studies at NYU and never really left. Now it’s been 11 years and she’s worked her way up to head of development. Recently she left New York to open the Big Beach office in Los Angeles. Listen to her talk about her way in the company, being involved in every part of the filmmaking process and the different ways to find projects. 

After having met Maren Ade at Film School, Janine Jackowski produced for Constantin and Rat Pack before starting Komplizen to produce full time with Maren. In 2016 Janine and Maren landed a huge success with their film Toni Erdmann, celebrated in Cannes and nominated for an Oscar. Listen to her talk about the moment she got the big news from Cannes, her projects and the difficult situation for cinema producers in Germany.