He is the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and artistic director of DOC NYC. He hosts the podcasts Pure Nonfiction and WNYC’s Documentary of the Week.
Director - Danish Documentary
EVA MULVAD
She had her international breakthrough in 2006 with Enemies of Happiness, shot in Afghanistan. The film won mayor prices at IDFA and Sundance. In 2011, she toured the world with her black family drama The Good Life. It won for best documentary at Karlovy Vary. Her film A Modern Man and A Cherry Tale (2016 and 2019) both screened at CPH DOX and festivals around the world. In 2020, she presents Love Child, it premiered at TIFF in 2019 and won for best documentary at Chicago International Film festival.
Director, productor - Oeil d'or Cannes
STEFANO SAVONA
He studied archaeology and anthropology in Italy and England before embarking upon archaeological expeditions in the Middle East. Then, he turned to directing documentaries: in 2010, with Penelope Bortoluzzi, he founded production company Picofilms in Paris and produced and directed Palazzo delle Aquile (2011 Cinéma du reel Grand Prize), Tahrir, place de la Libération (released in theatres in 2012), and Samouni Road (2018 Cannes Film Festival Œil d'Or).
FRENCH DOCUMENTARY
Director
DIDIER CROS
Didier Cros learned his trade by going to the cinema. Author of numerous award-winning works, he focuses on social issues, examining the complexity of our world: prison life (Parloirs, Sous Surveillance–a FIPA prizewinner); the world of work (La Gueule de l’emploi); disability (Parle avec moi, La Disgrâce–featured at FIPADOC 2019); refugees (Ado d’ailleurs); and exclusion (Un ticket de bains-douches)…
Director, Productor - Boul Falles Images
RAMA THIAW
She split her childhood between Senegal and Europe. Following her studies, she completed a degree in film studies in Paris. In 2005, she began working for French production companies, before starting to direct her own films. A writer, director, and producer, she lives in Dakar, where, in 2010, she founded the production company Boul Fallé Images. In 2019, she staged the first Sabbar Artistiques festival, a multidisciplinary event held in Dakar dedicated to women of African nationality and descent.
Publisher - Actes Sud
FRANÇOISE NYSSEN
In 1978, her father asked her to join the Actes Sud publishing house, where she has served as presiding director since 1987. A founding member of the Méjan Cultural Association in Arles – her home and where she jointly set up the Domaine du possible school – she became Minister of Culture in 2017. She is also an Officer of the Legion of Honour and president of both the Éclat association, which organises the Aurillac Festival, and of the management association of the Avignon Festival.
MUSICAL DOCUMENTARY
Musician, Director
YAEL NAIM
She burst onto the music scene in 2008 with her uplifting hymn to reincarnation New Soul, a timeless, global hit. Bolstered by this success, she has forged a career not only as a musician but as a songwriter, director, and visual artist. After three albums and hundreds of concerts around the world, she has collaborated with acts including Stromae and Yoann Bourgeois, and produced a number of film soundtracks. Her bold and deeply personal fourth album, Nightsongs, was released last year.
Productor
PETER WORSLEY
As MD of Eagle Rock Films, he oversees all production and film distribution at Universal Music Group. He has acted as supervising producer recently for different documentaries as well as for concert films and has overseen recent global 4K event cinema releases. Prior to joining Eagle, he was head of Factual Distribution at Alliance Atlantis and before that Commercial Director at Europe Images International based in Paris.
Director
ANIA GAWLITA
She is an experienced and creative producer who has also channeled her innovative potential into filmmaking. In 2017, together with Tomasz Wolski, she directed a full-length documentary Festival. In 2018, she had her directorial debut with the documentary Horse Riders, for which she received many awards the Golden Frog at Camerimage and the Grand Prix at Cork Film Festival. Currently she is busy working on several documentaries and feature film projects, predominantly as a producer.
IMPACT DOCUMENTARY
Human rights activists
IGOR BLAZEVIC
He is the founder and director of the One World, the Prague-based human rights documentary film festival. In addition, he assisted with development of human rights film festivals in about ten countries and was one of the initiators of the Human Rights Film Network. Since 1992, he was involved in the activities of the People in Need, the biggest NGO Central European humanitarian working in many crisis spots around the world. Currently Igor is a Programme Director at the Prague Civil Society Centre.
Director
JENNY SAASTAMOINEN
Having graduated from the Creadoc programme in 2008 under Mariana Otero’s tutelage, Jenny Saastamoinen founded L’Œil Lucide in 2009 to support documentary creation. In her role as artistic director, she organises two annual festivals, Les Rencontres du Réel, and Now Future, plus workshops on programming and directing, and teaches in training programmes. She has also directed radio documentaries (Odile, winner of 1st prize at Longueur d’ondes). L’Effondrement is her latest project.
Director
PASCALE LAMCHE
She began filmmaking at the independent film center, Cinema Action, in the ‘80s in London and has worked internationally since then concentrating on work that brings a multi-layered and historical perspective to stories ranging. Her willingness to brush against the grain of received ideas and national foundation myths have garnered awards such as the Sundance Directing Award and the Trophée des arts afro-caribéens.
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DOCUMENTARY
Head of Partnerships New Media & PR - Centre PHI
MYRIAM ACHARD
She has more than 20 years of experience in public relations and press relations. For the past 14 years, she has worked with Phoebe Greenberg to develop and promote the Canadian and international avant-garde arts scene. She has been Chief, New Media Partnerships & PR at Phi since it opened in 2012, and is Director of Communications for the Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art.
Director, Founder & CEO Live Magazine
FLORENCE MARTIN KESSLER
After storming out of KPMG, Florence Martin-Kessler moved to India, then to the US, where she directed her first documentary. Following a Harvard Fellowship in 2011, she founded Live Magazine, a live-staged “living newspaper”, where journalists and artists share second-hand accounts and personal stories. Then, for a time, she continued writing and filming for Arte, the New York Times, and XXI. She now also sits on the boards of the CFJ and the SCAM.
Author & Director - INA
BRUNO MASI
Writer-director he worked as a reporter at Libération for ten years, and then for Arte’s cultural series Personne ne bouge! In 2011, he co-directed the web documentary La Zone, retour à Tchernobyl, and in 2014, devised the programme 1914, dernières nouvelles for Arte (which won the Golden FIPA). In 2018, he wrote and directed the series La Barricade, which is set against the backdrop of May 1968. Since 2011, he has also been head of education at INA
CINÉ+
Head of Ciné+
BRUNO DELOYE
Bruno Deloye has participated in documentary co-productions for 20 years. He began his career at Région Câble as deputy director for development, and in 1991 launched France’s first pay-per-view channel. In 1995, he joined MCM Euromusique for the creation and launch of the channel Muzzik before moving, in 2000, to Canal + Thématique. There, he worked as director of Cinéclassic (in France, Italy, and Spain, successively). Today, he directs the Ciné + Club and Ciné + Classic channels.
Producer - Les Films Hatari
MICHEL KLEIN
Michel Klein founded Les Films Hatari in 2002 and has produced more than 50 films, among which: the Portraits series (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, 2004); A Real Life (S. Léonor, Locarno 2009); Peau de cochon (P. Katerine); The Forsaken Land (V. Jayasundara, Golden Camera, Cannes, 2005); Orpheline (A. des Pallières, San Sebastián 2016); What Madness! (D. Governatori, Grand Prix and Mitrani Prize, FIPADOC 2019); Meeting My Father (A. Diago, SCAM Star, 2020); and Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream (F. Beauvais, Berlin 2019).
Director
ARIANE DOUBLET
She studied film editing at Femis. For 20 years, she has worked on an in-depth study of rural life, seeking a universal human landscape. While she often maintains a bemused complicity with her characters, this seeming lightness also reveals a critique of the modern era – its workings and its evils.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
JEAN-MARC CHAPOULIE
Both artist and filmmaker, Jean-Marc Chapoulie has for years examined cinema from every angle. Exhibition Curator for the Lyon Biennale in 2001, he was invited back as an artist in 2005 for his film TDF06 about the Tour de France. In the 1990s, he assisted André S. Labarthe and Janine Bazin on the Cinéma de notre temps series. His latest film, La Mer du milieu, produced by La Lucarne Arte, won the 2019 FID Grand Prize for French film.
CAMILLE DUVELLEROY
Camille Duvelleroy likes working outside the box. She writes and directs films in which interactivity shapes the experience: everything tells a story, whether viewers are active or passive. So far, she has contributed to more than 15 interactive documentary and film programmes. Find all her work on supersimone.com.
CLAUDIA MARSCHAL
After studying languages and film, Claudia Marschal completed a two-year master’s degree in documentary filmmaking in Lussas (France). She has directed films co-produced by Arte and France TV, and a feature film with Idéale Audience, Le Fresnoy, and Vosges Télévision that was previewed at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2019 and selected at international festivals. Her films, at the crossroads of drama and documentary, often mix archival footage with direct cinema and re-enactment.
SHORT FILMS
Co-founder Clermont-Ferrand Festiva
ROGER GONIN
From 1980 to 2015, he has been working for the Clermont-Ferrand Short film Festival and was at the origin of the Short Film Market and its technical development such as the first Market video server in 2003 and the online registration platform: shortfilmdepot.com. Although he is still strongly engaged in promoting the Festival, he remains passionate about magic lanterns and stereoscopic viewers, and continues his historical research with Clermont Auvergne University.
Producer Canal+ Courts
PASCALE FAURE
A specialist in short films, Pascale Faure directed Canal+’s Short Programmes and Créations unit from 2001 to 2020. From 1991 to 1999 she worked as co-artistic director for L’Œil du cyclone, an alternative art series on Canal+, and did the same from 2010 to 2017 for L’Œil de links, a series about online creatives. In 2020, she founded L’Œil en plus, and now works in consultancy for short and feature films, as well as film programming for cinematic platforms and cultural programmes.
Director OBON
ANNA SAMO (BERGMANN)
Anna Samo was born and raised in Russia and studied animation in Germany. As an independent filmmaker she uses a variety of analog animation techniques to create very personal and emotional work. She's been exploring the genre of animated documentaries in many of her films. Her work has been screened and won awards at acclaimed film festivals around the globe such as Berlin Film Festival, Annecy Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Sundance and Palm Springs. Anna lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
BEST WOMAN DIRECTOR
CLAIRE LAJEUNIE
Claire Lajeunie was a director for CAPA for 15 years before founding L2 Films in 2012. The issue of social outcasts, those on the fringe of society, is one of her favourite topics. She has also turned her attention to drama.
BOUCHERA AZZOUZ
She is a documentary filmmaker and essayist. She has directed three documentaries for Infrarouge, where she gave a refreshing look at urban neighbourhoods from local women’s perspectives. She is currently developing her first work of fiction.
FRANÇOISE MARCHETTI BOUVET
After nine years at Pathé as Director of Programmes for the Voyages channel, she became Secretary-General for TMC, then for the NRJ group’s Television division for seven years. From 2013–2017, she was Executive Director at Troisième Œil and, since 2018, at Patrick Spica Productions.
PATRICIA BOUTINARD ROUELLE
She was Director of Documentaries at France Télévisions for 16 years. In 2011, she founded Nilaya Productions, an independent production company specialised in creative documentaries, that have been widely broadcast in France and internationally.
CHRISTINE CAUQUELIN
In 2001, she became head of Documentary Acquisitions for the Canal+ group; in 2004, head of Documentaries for Canal+ France; and in 2014, the Découverte channels for Planète+. Since 2018, she has served as director of Documentaries for the Canal+ group and its Découverte channels.
MITRANI
JULIE DE MAREUIL
Post-studies, Ms. de Mareuil began her career at TV programme La Marche du siècle. For 20 years, she worked as a journalist for production companies, and then for France Télévisions, working in the Society and Geopolitics section of their documentary team since 2019.
TANIA RAKHMANOVA
Writer and director of a score of documentaries produced in France, the UK, and the USA, she has also staged several shows. Her films have been nominated for and awarded prizes at numerous festivals.
CYRILLE PEREZ
He has produced more than a hundred documentaries and dramas, from Football Rebels to (more recently) Marseille, capitale rap. Concerned about teaching and collective interests, he is president of Procirep’s TV Commission (2021–23).
DOMINIQUE FROT
Dominique Frot is everywhere. She is a key figure in French arts and culture, recently working with directors Mia Hansen Love, Larry Clark, Julia Ducourneau, Claus Drexel, Marc Fouchard, and Antony Hickling. The Dominique Frot multimedia library was recently christened in Saint-Aignan.
ANNE DORR
Anne Dorr has been directing for 25 years: starting with variety shows before moving to documentaries focusing on artists and those who have chosen the road less travelled, those who stand for humanist values.
NEW TALENT • ERASMUS+
PRODUCER
MATHILDE RACZYMOW
Following her literary studies, she began her film career working at festivals. In 2010, she joined the Zadig production team, where she helped produce numerous films for both television and cinema, before moving on to collaborate with other companies (Schuch Productions, Agat Films…). In 2018, she joined the Bilboquet team, contributing to the 2019 Eurodoc programme. Teaching in two different master’s programmes, she also plays a crucial role on various committees for both the CNC and regionally in France.
DIRECTOR
RÉMI ALLIER
After studying film editing in Paris, he enrolled at the Institut des arts de diffusion, Belgium, for film directing. The short films Jan and Zinneke that he made there attracted attention at several festivals around the world. His film Little Hands was highly acclaimed, winning the 2019 César Award for Best Short Film. He is currently writing his first feature film. His work centres on youth and the world of childhood
DIRECTOR
CÉDRIC SIMON
He is a journalist at Agence France-Presse (AFP), currently as Deputy Head of the Multimedia Department in Paris. Formerly, he was a noted reporter at the Social News desk in the Strasbourg regional AFP bureau and at the Brussels bureau at the heart of the European machine. During his studies, he was grateful to be part of the Erasmus programme, through which he studied Political Sciences for a year in Bologna, Italy
