Born in 1962 in Kazakhstan, Sergey Dvortsevoy graduated from the Aviation college in Ukraine and from the Radio technical Institute in Novosibirsk. As an Aeroflot radio engineer, he traveled all over the country, until he saw an announcement for higher education in directing and screenwriting in Moscow.
Sergey has directed short and medium-length documentary films which have won top prizes at prestigious film festivals like DOK Leipzig (Germany), Visions du réel (Nyon, Switzerland), Festival dei Popoli (Florence, Italy), Cinema du Réel (Paris, France) and many more.
However, Sergey prefers to describe his award-winning films IN THE DARK, HIGHWAY, BREAD DAY and PARADISE as “life cinema.” His goal has always been to show the simplicity and warmth of the world in a mixture of naturalism and poetry.
In 2008 he directed the feature-length fiction film Tulpan, winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and of numerous other awards at international film festivals – Best Director at the Tokyo IFF, Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards, and the East of the West Award at the Karlovy Vary IFF.
His latest film, Ayka (2018), highlights the deplorable living conditions of migrants in Russian society, which earned Samal Eslyamová the award for best actress at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
Phil has been an editor for the last 20 years, starting in fiction before settling into documentary. Part of award-winning international productions such as Prison Sisters, Killing Time, and I am Samuel, he also works as a rough-cut consultant and has been part of the films Liberation Day, Home Games, How Big is the Galaxy, and more.
His latest work, Finnish filmmaker Mia Halme's People We Come Across, will have its premiere in competition at the DocPoint festival in Helsinki at the beginning of 2021. Working out of Sweden, his projects have originated in places as far afield as Serbia, Kenya, France, Russia, and beyond.
He has travelled the world as a tutor with EDN, B2B Doc, and independently, helping filmmakers develop their projects, and giving master classes on pitch pilot trailers, the craft of storytelling through scripting and editing, and the genius of sticky notes. Phil blogs about documentaries and technology on his Storysmith blog, and hopes to one day bike across Europe.
Danish Gitte Hansen is a documentary consultant and tutor in the international film industry with more than 20 year’s experience in developing, financing, and executive produce projects and distributes documentary films with international potentials.
Gitte has executive produced 20+ international independent documentaries and series for the international sales agent and production company First Hand Films in Zürich where she was deputy director and headed sales and acquisitions for many years.
Titles Gitte has executive produced includes award-winning and widely distributed films such as Presenting Princess Shaw by Ido Haar, 2016, Israel, (POV, YES, Participants, Magnolia, SVT, VPRO, France TV, NHK, Against Gravity, RTS, CBC, VRT, Al Jazeera, Netflix), Sound of Torture by Keren Shayo, 2013, Israel, (YES, SRC CBS Canada, Al Jazeera, VRT, SRF, RSI, ZDF, Czech TV, DR, YLE, HBO, VPRO, SVT, Women Make Movies, Icarus), Jaha’s Promise by Patrick Farrelly, Kate O’Callaghan, 2017, US, UK, The Gambia, (The Guardian, ORF, VRT, GNT, SRF, France TV, RTE, NRK, UR, TRT) and A Thousand Girls Like Me by Sahra Mani, 2018, Afghanistan, France, (NHK, EBS, GNT, ORF, Steps, Al Jazeera, MUBI, UR, Women Makes Movies, RTS, RTBF).
Gitte is serving as a lecturer, mentor, and tutor at national, regional, and international workshops and project-driven training schemes such as Close-up, IDFAcademy, DocCampus Master School, Baltic Sea Forum, Crossing Borders, and Thessaloniki Doc.
Tue Steen Müller was born in 1947 in Denmark. From 1975 to 1996, he was employed at the National Film Board of Denmark as press secretary, distributor, festival manager, film consultant and spin doctor for various managers of the organization.
He is the co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord and Documentary of the EU. From 1996 to 2005, he was the director of the European Documentary Network and was honoured by the organization in 2014 for his effort in European Documentary film.
He writes for the web portal lmkommentaren. dk. Müller was awarded the Danish Roos Price in 2004 and in 2016 he was awarded the Order for Merits to Lithuania for his effort in Lithuanian film through 25 years.
Estelle is a producer at Point du Jour - Films du balibari, a merger of both companies focusing on creative documentary films for French and international markets.
She has (co)produced more than twenty films internationally, both for television and theatrical release, selected in festivals such as IDFA, Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Locarno… Estelle has been focusing on creative films that delve into the heart of humanity, with stories taking place in France as well as in Myanmar, Mali, Serbia or Canada, from multi-awarded VILLAGE WITHOUT WOMEN by Srdjan Sarenac in 2010 to THE LAST SHELTER by Malian director Ousmane Samassékou, CPH:DOX Award Winner 2021/ IDFA Best of Fests and A THOUSAND FIRES by Saeed Taji Farouky, Marco Zucchi award at Locarno’s Critics Week ‘21/ IDFA ‘21 International competition.
With her partner Clara Vuillermoz, Estelle won the 2019 Procirep French Producer Award, documentary category. Estelle is an EX ORIENTE and EAVE alumni and has been a tutor for workshops such as PRODUIRE AU SUD / FIDADOC in Agadir, EURODOC (regional groups) and recently the EAVE CHANGE workshop.
Elhum Shakerifar is a BAFTA-nominated producer, curator and writer working through London-based company Hakawati ('storyteller' in Arabic). Her credits include The Reluctant Revolutionary, A Syrian Love Story and A Northern Soul (2012, 2015, 2018, Sean McAllister), The Runner (2013, Saeed Taji Farouky), Of Love & Law (2017, Hikaru Toda), ISLAND (2018, Steven Eastwood), Even When I Fall (2017, Sky Neal & Kate McLarnon) and Ayouni (2020, Yasmin Fedda).
Elhum is programme advisor for London Film Festival and has curated film programmes for Shubbak, Barbican and Birds Eye View.
She has taught documentary at Berlin Freie, at UCL London as well as internationally - from Georgia to Lebanon via Egypt and Tunisia. Elhum was recipient of a BFI Vision Award in 2016, she was awarded the Women in Film & TV BBC Factual Award in 2017, and named a Producer on the Rise in Screen International’s 2018 Brit50 list.
