Khalifa Suhail Al Marar was Vice President, Group Communications, at Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), where he was responsible for the strategic direction of national and global marketing and communications for one of the company’s strategic partners.
He is a multi-award-winning producer of social documentaries, receiving international accolades for his work at Cannes, New York, Abu Dhabi, and Los Angeles film festivals.
Al Marar holds a Master of Strategic Marketing from the Australian University of Wollongong in Dubai, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a double major in Finance and Marketing from California State University, Long Beach, USA.
Over the past 9 years, Drew Ambrose has worked as a senior producer and foreign correspondent for Al Jazeera English in Asia.
Before that he worked across Australia on current affairs programs such as Insight, Australian Story and Living Black.
At 21 years old, he was posted to ABC’s Jakarta Bureau as a video-journalist for the Australia Network. Since then Drew has reported from over 35 nations. He has also been lead journalist on many interactive, VR and online projects.
His journalism has won a number of accolades including the Walkley Award, New York Festival Gold Medal, Melbourne Press Club Quill and United Nations Media Peace Awards.
Oliver has 18 years experience in production, having worked across a variety of genres including branded content, interactive film & theatre, VR, studio, documentary & factual entertainment for major brands and broadcasters. He now heads up the Casual Films London office and looks after key accounts including Reckitt Benckiser, Rolls-Royce, Red Bull and Adobe.
In 2012, Greg founded NYC-based Bindery – an award-winning indie film and content studio – with the mission to create a more modern and integrated approach to crafting quality work.
Informed by his experience as an independent filmmaker, Bindery’s success comes from its script to screen studio model – where development, production and post all create together under one roof. This new model has brought big ideas to life for the likes of Apple, Nike, Google, Facebook, Sony, and L’Oreal.
Through Bindery Films, Greg develops and produces original content. He won an Emmy for his work on ZION, a film he premiered at Sundance and sold to Netflix. He most recently produced PLUS ONE (Executive Produced by Ben Stiller), which won the Audience Award at Tribeca. He currently runs a development slate of over a dozen projects, including the TV show NEUROTICA starring Karen Gillan (AVENGERS, JUMANJI).
A native Texan, Greg lives in New York City with his wife and four kids.
Mr. Belkin began his 30+ year career in the television and film industry and brought his passion and know-how to the business arena. Trained in Electrical Engineering, he is fluent in the full range of advanced technological tools.
Throughout his career, Nissan has been a trailblazer in utilizing the most cutting edge technological tools to heighten the effect of a story. Together with his deep understanding of relaying a business story or message, he is able to captivate audiences.
Nissan has directed and produced exhibition experiences for top companies and has created scores of permanent installations in museums, government buildings, visitors centers, and archeological sites.
As a founding member of the award winning Animage Films, (founded in 1992) a London based Production Company, Ruth Beni has created many original films, TV shows and adverts for national and international broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4.
In 2006 Ruth left the commercial sector and founded 'The Need to Know Campaign,' creating a series of visually arresting and moving films that highlighted women’s rights abuses such as Forced Marriage, Sex-Trafficking and Female Genital Mutilation.
Consisting of seven films to date 'The Need to Know Campaign' focuses on the urgent need to put an end to all forms of violence against women by striving to mobilize world opinion into effective action.
Gaye has over 20 years’ experience in the media industry, with a background primarily in branded and interactive film content. She has a real passion for human storytelling and heads up the diversity & inclusion, ethics and sustainability offer for RY’s film and animation department. She has worked with her team to deliver the kind of innovative thinking and powerful messaging that frequently wins awards at NY Festivals, Cannes and EVCOM. Gaye has built long-term client relationships over her 7 years at RY and has produced films and social media content, including multi-territory productions for a broad range of clients, including JTI, VF Corp, Standard Chartered, Wrap and Shell.
Benjamin Best is an award winning journalist and filmmaker including Silver and Gold at the New York Festivals. He's been in the industry for well over 15 years. During this time he's been directing and producing feature documentary films for television and cinema. Child labor in India, corruption in sports, Human Rights violations - the topics he's covering are investigative and take him around the world.
With over 20 years of experience, Payal has been one of the pioneering creative talents in the media industry. Having collected diverse experience from various content creation and production assignments within India and overseas, she brings in a rare mix of creative and finance skills.
Payal is co-founder and director at Greymatter Entertainment – a media company that offers 360-degree content solutions with a strategic focus on IPR creation. She has been instrumental in creating globally acclaimed and award winning television formats like ‘The Remix’ and ‘Street Stars’.
Prior to this, Payal has been a part of the launch of broadcast networks like Sony Entertainment Television & Ten Sports Network. She also has experience in film making having worked with distinguished film makers and being Executive producer for Sony Entertainment Pictures.
Payal has served as a Jury member for the EMVIES awards for the past 4 years. She is an alumnus of Sydenham College & is a Finance MBA from Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai.
Eric Black is the Director of Production & Technical Operations for Scholastic Media where he oversees the final stages of all current productions, as well as the modernization and distribution of Scholastic’s legacy properties. He has written, edited, directed, produced and recorded various promotions and special projects for Scholastic and has been an instrumental part of every Scholastic television and film production since 2002. Prior to his work at Scholastic, Eric held positions at the Jim Henson Company and Oxygen Media.
Eric stays current on the state of children’s media through his four children, ranging in age from 8 years to 9 months.
Responsible for the journey of digital brand transformation and market positioning in digital plataforms. Communication professional with extensive experience in the audiovisual and Pay TV industry. Project leader with management skills from planning to development of strategies to offer educational solutions and social impact campaigns, focusing on the empowerment of people and organizations.
Journalist and digital media professional. He has a master´s degree in Social Sciences and has benn at Globo Group since 2006. He collaborated wtih the creation of JEDUCA – Association of Joournalists of Education. He started his career at Savaget Comunicação, a video production company of Globo Ecologia (1998). He was a professor at the journalism and digital media laboratory at ESPM and a speaker at creative industry festivals, such as RioWebFest and SPWebFest. Member of the Editorial Board at LUPA Agency in the fight against misinformation. He also collaborated with Folha de S. Paulo newspapper (2004). National Press Foundation Fellow (USA, 2010) and Gabriel García Marquez Award Jury (Colombia, 2014).
A graduate of the Falmouth School of Arts, Bryson has over a decade of experience in broadcasting. She has worked exclusively with international broadcaster Al Jazeera since 2007. Her career began at Al Jazeera English in London, later joining Al Jazeera's award-winning Investigative Unit in Qatar whose mission is to not report the news, but to make the news. She is currently the Unit Manager for the Investigative Journalism Department.
Sharon Burden has over twenty years experience in the media and communications field. Sharon is currently a Senior Advisor with the Office of the eSafety Commisisoner which safeguards and empowers Autralians to have safe and positive online experiences. Sharon project managed the international award winning cybersafety video for teens, Tagged for which she was awarded a Public Service Australia Day Medallion.
Andrew Patrick Byrd is a member of the Producers Guild of America. He specializes in producing feature films, top tier festival shorts, and TV pilots. He has worked with several Hollywood A-list talent. Andrew is a member of the "Roger Corman Film School", which has been the springboard for many of Hollywood's top filmmakers. Andrew has a reputation for delivering exceptional products on-time and under budget. He has a vast knowledge of budgeting, scheduling, and production management. Andrew has an MFA from the Savannah College of Art & Design, and a BA from Wright State University.
World traveler, amateur photographer and science enthusiast; I am a science reporter based in Montreal. I work for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). I have also worked for science shows at the TSR (Swiss National Televison network). I have done science stories in Paris, Dubai, Geneva and Gibraltar. I have won the New York Festivals Gold World Medal for a sport documentary on the science of rowing solo across the Atlantic. I have also won best documentary at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for a science story on the New World Trade Center. I love my work and am honored to be a member of the Grand Jury.
Joan Cartan-Hansen has been a producer/reporter/writer/host for Idaho Public Television since 1988. Joan is the lead producer/host for "Science Trek and a producer/reporter/writer for "Outdoor Idaho." In addition, she writes and produces a number of documentaries and has contributed pieces to "The PBS NewsHour." Joan has won a number of awards including several regional Emmy® Awards, gold medals at the New York Festivals, Tellys, CINE Golden Eagles, Platinum prizes at Worldfest. In 2013, Joan was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences-NW’s Silver Circle for her contributions to the industry.
Joan is active in several professional organizations: The Idaho Press Club and NATAS-NW. Joan also sits on the Idaho Supreme Courts Media/Courts Committee and is member of the Idaho Supreme Court’s “Fire Brigade.”
You can view Joan’s “Science Trek” work and read her science blog for kids at http://idahoptv.org/sciencetrek/
As graphic manager for the News department of TV GLOBO in Brasília, I’ve been working close to the great political changes in Brazil for the last 25 years. Besides that, I normally take part on the global projects of my company in many other areas of the news department. I´m responsible for both the graphics and for the set decoration of news products in Brasília, and with the integration of those two areas, as well as keeping the graphic line of the whole news department in the country. I have a role on the research and acquisition of news softwares and hardwares.
Donovan is a founding partner of Beach House Pictures and amongst Asia’s top documentary and unscripted execs. As CD, Donovan oversees business and content development for BHP, strategizing growth in key markets like the US, China and Japan, as well as developing non-scripted and scripted content with SVOD players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+; and in China, with Tencent, Bilibili and Youku to name a few. Over the past 15 years, Donovan has produced highly rated shows such as Discovery International’s flagship series ED STAFFORD: FIRST MAN OUT and ED STAFFORD: MAN WOMAN CHILD WILD; brand supported Nat Geo series RECORD RIDES; CCTV9’s ART OF CRAFT series; and the CELEBRATION NATION series for Tencent and Nat Geo. His award-winning shows span travel (LONELY PLANET SIX DEGREES, TLC), food & adventure (NOMAD CHEF, TLC) and science & engineering (MEGASTRUCTURES: SINGAPORE’S VEGAS, Nat Geo). Donovan was Executive Producer for 15 ground-breaking 3D documentaries for Discovery and Nat Geo, as well as the blockbuster Nat Geo/Tencent special CHINA FROM ABOVE, which pulled in a record 300 million views in China. Season 2 of ED STAFFORD: FIRST MAN OUT in China broke 45 million views, unprecedented for Bilibili in 2020. Donovan just released a feature documentary narrated by KATE BECKINSALE called TOP DOG INDIA as director and executive producer. Donovan is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is a sought-after speaker and judge at international TV conferences and festivals.
Lydia Chan is the Managing Director of Casual Films US. She has a decade of production experience, working with clients to leverage the powerful tool of filmmaking in their marketing and communication efforts. Lydia currently leads a team of over 20 filmmakers, creating award winning content for big brands across multiple industries and platforms.
Kevin is an award-winning video and content producer with over a decade’s experience creating short-form digital content, branding, integrated campaigns and promotional content for leading networks, including Mediacorp, ESPN-Star Sports and The Comedy Channel (Australia).
He graduated with a double major in Cinema and Broadcasting from San Francisco State University, as well as a master’s degree in Film & Television from the University of Melbourne. He is currently a Senior Creative Producer with the Creative Lab at Mediacorp Pte Ltd, producing English and Chinese content and promotional spots while dabbling with motion graphics and getting inspired by comedy and experimental films.
Roger Childs is the Senior Production Executive of Ireland’s national public service broadcaster, RTÉ, and also the station’s Commissioning Editor of Religious Content. A multi award-winning producer and commissioner, with over 30 years’ experience across a wide range of genres and all media, Roger worked previously for the BBC, the UK Independent sector and WNET, New York. He has served twice before as a Grand Juror for the New York TV & Film Festival, where his own programmes have previously won four prizes
Director, Producer, and Editor. These are just some of the many roles that Wai Thong, founder of August Pictures plays. A veteran in the industry recognized for his passionate commitment to producing high quality dramas, Wai Thong is an established and well-seasoned independent Director and Executive Producer, whose works have garnered numerous international awards and nominations throughout his illustrious career including awards from New York Festivals, Asian Academy Creative Awards,Star Awards and Asian Television Awards.
In the latest 2020 Asian Academy Creative Awards, among 6 other awards, The Driver and Mind's Eye were national winners for Best Original Programme and Best Drama Series categories respecrively. The Driver would also go on to clinch the Grand Final Award for Best Promo. In 2019, his dramas Beijing To Moscow and The Driver won multiple nominations and awards at the Asian Academy Creative Awards and New York Festivals respectively. Most notably, Beijing To Moscow was the Regional Winner for Best Drama Series and Best Actor and Actress in a Leading Roleat the Asia Academy Creative Awards. The Driver won, among many others, the FInalist Awards for Best Drama and Mini Series at the 2019 New York Festivals.
Emily heads up the Moving Image 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 moving image 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.
In August 2020, Matt Creasey was appointed EVP Sales, Acquisitions and Co-productions at Banijay Rights - the distribution arm for the largest international creator and producer, Banijay.
Based in LA, well-known and very much respected throughout the industry, Creasey currently oversees sales, co-productions and acquisitions in the US, as well as leading the distribution teams in Latin America, Canada, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. With a multi-genre portfolio of over 88,000 hours of standout programming, Banijay Rights landmark brands include: Survivor, Big Brother, MasterChef, Temptation Island, Grantchester, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, Versailles, Biggest Loser, Home and Away, Money Drop, Mr Bean, Peaky Blinders and Black Mirror.
Boasting over 26 years’ experience, spanning a wide range of territories and genres, Matt has spent his career to date selling and exploiting some of the world’s largest entertainment brands. Prior to Banijay Rights, Matt was EVP Sales and Acquisitions at Endemol Shine International at the forefront of Endemol Shine’s scripted co-production business in LA.
Pablo Culell is a graduate of USAL, Argentina with a Bachelor of Journalism, and an analyst of social media and communications. Since 2006 he has served as VP of Production and Development of UNDERGROUND PRODUCCIONES, a company led by Sebastián Ortega. UNDERGROUND PRODUCCIONES, acquired by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises in 2019, is a division of Telemundo Global Studios.
He began his professional career in 1993, and later became Executive Producer for Canal 13 TV in Buenos Aires. Since then, his work has extended into several additional related roles, including teaching, as a university professor at the Insituto TEA, Argentina and serving as Artistic Management Advisor to América TV and as the Producer of successful Argentinean fiction programs, for different channels and radio stations.
Between 2002 and 2005 he served as General and Creative Producer of Ideas del Sur where he produced, under the artistic and creative direction of Sebastián Ortega, several fiction formats with great impact. Among them: "Tumberos", "Ser Urbano" and "Los Roldan". These programs obtained more than 30 national and international awards, among them the Martín Fierro award – the most important TV award in Argentina.
From then, and as of his time at Underground, he took on the general production of other important scripted content such as: "LaLola", "Los Exitosos Pells" and what is considered the most successful television fiction of recent times, the romantic comedy "Graduados", broadcast by Telefé, Argentina in 2012. It is the winner of a Gold Martín Fierro, among other awards.
He held the same credit for Underground’s next productions, garnering great results and obtaining several other awards. For several years he was a part of the International Emmy Awards’ Academy of TV, Arts & Sciences.
In 2015, he published his first book "Nacidos Para Contar" in which he tells of his experience as a scripted-content producer for television in Argentina, together with the author Jorge Maestro. It is considered the first Manual of Script and Audiovisual Production of Argentina.
In recent years, he has participated in multiple conferences and panels for festivals and universities throughout Latin America, to discuss the experience of producing scripted content in Argentina and the impact that Underground programs have had, worldwide, such as the international success "El Marginal".
In 2018, he ventured into Theater with “Jazmín de Invierno”, at the San Martín Cultural Center, for which he was nominated for an ACE award, as theater producer of the year.
Christoph Deja has been in the film business since 1994. As managing director of Rückenwindfilm GmbH he is responsible for production from script to screen - conception, camera, editing, directing and customer relationships.
His work is not only recognized by customers and audiences, but also by the by several national and international festival juries.
Barry Donnellan is a Director/Director of Photography with over 25 years of experience in the industry. As a Director/DoP he has worked in all television formats, including Ob-Doc and drama. As DoP he has worked internationally on many productions including the Award winning “Secrets of the Rainforest 3D” for the Smithsonian Channel/Sky 3D and BAFTA winner “Inside Nature's Giants” for Channel 4/ Nat Geo. He’s been IFTA nominated twice, once as a DoP for the multi award winning “Secrets of the Irish Landscape” RTE/PBS and once as one of the producer/directors of “Creedon’s Wild Atlantic Way” RTE. The culinary series “Kevin Dundon’s Modern Irish Food” RTE/PBS which he shot and directed won Silver at the New York film and Television Awards.
Durai is a multi-award winning Creative Manager at beIN Sports Asia – Pacific, where he leads a team who Produce branded content. With over 14 years of experience, he has worked with reputable brands such as Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery HD World, ESPN, Star Sports, Fox Sports, and Disney. His creative journey took him to Buenos Aires, Argentina where he Produced Disney’s landmark series, Art Attack. Durai has won awards in New York Fest, Promax Global Excellence, Promax Asia, Asian Television Awards and Citra Pariwara Advertising Festival. At home, he is a father of 2 gorgeous girls, 2 adorable dogs, 1 goldfish and thankfully 1 lovely wife.
Claudia is working since 2001 in non fiction and natural history departments.
Today she’s working as assistant for the CEO of Naturfilm/Doclights for the ARD primetime wildlife slot “Erlebnis Erde” and NDR’s “Expeditionen ins Tierreich” as well as for international coproductions (National Geographic Wild, ORF, Terra Mater, ARTE).
Richard Fabb is a BAFTA and Royal Television Society award-winning producer, and the Creative Director of LiveLab, the commercial arm of Griffith Film School. LiveLab is a full-time production studio - the only one of its kind in Australia - that places students on projects with real clients. In the UK, Richard worked on shows including Channel 4 News and After Dark, and on documentaries for Channel 4, CNN and RTE; in Australia he worked principally for Andrew Denton’s Zapruder’s other films, on Hungry Beast and Randling, as well as shows for The Comedy Channel, Seven, Ten, and SBS.
Jim Fabio began his career documenting military operations for the Department of Defense as a U.S. Air Force Combat Camera Officer. A two-time Emmy Award-winner, his diverse career path in film and television has since afforded him opportunities to produce, direct, shoot and edit both scripted and documentary projects for a multitude of clients and networks, to include ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS, MTV, VH1, ESPN, NFL Network, A&E, History Channel, HBO and Showtime.
JEREMY JP FEKETE is an international award winning freelance filmmaker, director & writer: including Bronze, Silver and Gold at the NEW YORK FESTIVALS. For his work he received several international nominations and awards from various TV- and Film Festivals, among others at the WORLDFEST HOUSTON / USA, HOLLYWOOD INTERN. INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARDS / USA, GOLD MOVIE AWARDS / GB(UK), ADOLF GRIMME AWARD / DE, GERMAN CAMERA AWARD / DE, ROSE D’OR / CH, REYKJAVIK INTERN. FILM FESTIVAL / IS and at the INTERN. FILMMAKER FESTIVALS OF WORLD CINEMA in MILAN, NICE and LONDON.
He startet his career as a visual artist with exhibitions at ART BASEL, KUNSTMUSEUM LUZERN, KUNSTHAUS AARGAU and KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL in Switzerland. 1993 he changed into the TV- and Film Business. Since then he is working as a filmmaker for documentary series, Biopics and documentary films for international broadcasters, like the german-french culture channel ARTE or for german channels like ARD and ZDF. His filmic handwriting is strongly influenced by his artistic education.
Jim Fitzpatrick is a Toronto-based director, producer and photographer with three decades of creative and production experience. He has directed and managed award-wining ad campaigns and productions for food and beverage, retail, education, government and social responsibility clients. His body of work includes commercials, drama, documentary, photography and live, high-profile events for agencies and leading brands.
Jim is a passionate creative with a strong background in communications and business strategy. He puts the focus on quality, originality and impact to deliver results for clients.
A dedicated director himself, Matthias Frickel leads a team of journalists at Deutsche Welle sport who share a common idea, to see football as a metaphor for life. As a director of documentaries about youth and refugee footballers or ‘the Polish Kafka’ Bruno Schulz', and as an editor of Kick off! TV Magazine he was awarded numerous prices including New York Film Festival, Ficts in Milano and the Polish-German Journalist Prize in Wroclaw. He has covered a broad range of topics related to political, cultural and sports related questions of mankind. The trained political scientist has conducted interviews with people from different backgrounds like Michael Ballack or T.C. Boyle, Herta Müller or Mesut Özil, Serge Gnabry or Günter Grass. The passionate storyteller reported from more than 35 countries for Deutsche Welle on five continents. For more than 20 years he traces after literature, football and life. He believes sport and film have the power to change the world and inspire people. Therefore he has build up partnerships with NGOs like Discover Football, the Goethe Institute and Football Film Festivals worldwide.
Matthias Frickel is a journalist and deputy Head of Deutsche Welle Sports. DW is Germany's international broadcaster. He is passsionate about literature, life and the beautiful game. He directed and produced several documentaries recognized by international awards including New York Film Festival, FICTS Sports TV & Movies and the German –Polish Journalist Prize. He believes Sport and film have the power to change the world and inspire people. Therefore he initiated partnerships with international broadcasters, NGOs like Discover Football or Football Film Festivals worldwide.
Dr. Martina Fröschl studied digital media with a focus on scientific visualizations for the general public. She is senior scientist at the Science Visualization Lab at the Digital Arts department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna. After her numerous contributions to various documentary and fictional productions for TV and cinema as visual effects and CGI-artist, she started to combine research and practice in her projects.
Tim Gallagher is Section Chief for Digital Content & Technology at the International Monetary Fund. A multi-award winning producer and director, he was a frontline television journalist for more than two decades for BBC News and Sky News. Prior to joining the IMF, Tim was Executive Producer for NBC’s investigative current affairs show, On Assignment with Richard Engel. He has served three times as a Grand Juror for the New York TV & Film Awards, where his own programs have previously won several prizes.
Mihai started his career in television in 2002 as a producer and moved up to host the most watched news talk show in Romania: “The Daily Synthesis” – since 2005. Working closely with the best professionals in the field, he got an in-depth understanding of every process and every challenge people faced both in front and behind the camera. In 2007, the media market in Romania was thriving; therefore he launched Antena 2 and became the CEO. Three years later, Antena 2, a lifestyle television became one of the Top 10 most watched broadcasting stations in the country.
The success story of Antena 2 enabled him to assume the role of CEO once again, for Antena 3 in 2010. Having a team of great journalists, Antena 3 experienced continuous growth becoming the number 1 news stations and, on many days, the number 1 TV station in the country.
Having been in video production for over 25 years, Vyacheslav is one of the key experts in corporate video in Russia. The projects he produced won awards at Cannes, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles (including 2 «Best of Festival» in a row), and other international film festivals.
Specializing mainly in corporate video production Vyacheslav has extensive experience in the production of commercials and entertainment programs for the largest Russian Federal channels
Vyacheslav is a Member of International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers
Creative Producer with extensive experience in the field. Multi Promaxbda Awards Winner and member of the jury. Since 2008, she has been part of the Academy’s Awards live show production team in Los Angeles, California.
As Creative Producer, she has led successful advertising campaigns for important shows in the United States, such as: The Billboards Awards, La Voz Kids, the Latin Music Awards, El Señor de los Cielos, among others.
Graduated from The New York Film Academy in Hollywood, she has been part of the directing teams for important fiction series produced by Telemundo Studios and Nickelodeon USA.
She is currently part of the creative and development team for Telemundo Global Studios in Miami, focusing on the Production Design department to national and international productions.
Peter M. Gordon has over forty years’ experience creating and curating content for platforms ranging from live theatre to online video. He is best known for joining Golf Channel before launch as Director of Programming, creating and implementing program plans and content that enabled the channel to grow from startup to a value of over $1 billion. He also worked in programming and development for HBO, NBC, and PBS. He currently teaches Business of Film in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Peter is also an award-winning poet whose published over 100 poems and two collections. He earned a BA from Yale and MFA from Carnegie-Mellon.
Boris Gorlov is the head of RT promo department with 15-year working experience in the media.
He joined RT in 2006 as a producer for English promo department, at the same time being a professor at the Moscow State Art and Cultural University. In 2009 he became chief-editor of Spanish promo department.
He leaded the united promo department in 2013 and continued his work on various promotions for all RT family channels: RT International, RT UK, RT Español, RT Arabic, RTDoc. With his team he won numerous TV awards including New York Festivals, PromaxBDA, Omni etc.
Ms Wuan-ling Guo has been working in the TV industry for more than 25 years. She has been the producer of international news programs, in-depth talk show, co-production documentaries, and children’s programs. And she serves as the director and curator for Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival (TICFF) and Best of INPUT in Taiwan. Starting from 2018, she also serves as the executive producer and commissioning editor of documentaries. She is the director of International Department at PTS Taiwan.
Recognized as an agent of change, Marie-Claude has 20 years experience in story production across different mediums and audiences, from journalistic reporting to corporate communications. Prior to co-founding 2 organisations, she was an award-winning journalist who spent 14-years producing and telling stories from over 30 countries as a Radio-Canada reporter and through Cpasifou, her independent multimedia project documenting her family’s year-long around-the-world journey. Driven by innovation, she believes that the spread of technology offers transformative opportunities to positively inform our society.
Shitij heads the Creatives, Production and Operations of one of India’s most trusted News Brands, NDTV 24x7. A science student in high school, Graduate in Arts with Political Science and Economics, then Software Engineering and also some Indian Classical Vocal Music training.. All this comes together with his deep passion for art, video, creatives, ideas and designs.
Currently, Senior Executive Producer with New Delhi Television (NDTV) and with over 23 years of experience in technology, news, documentaries, events and campaigns; his love for creatives and design, including mixed reality, has garnered multiple awards. His campaign designed for Lodestar UM & Samsung won multiple Golds including the Emvies, the Abbys, Spikes, among others.
He has been a jury in multiple regional, Asian and International award shows, such as Asian Television Awards, Singapore and The New York Festivals TV & Film Awards.
Outside of work, Shitij is also a climate warrior. He is deeply involved at personal level in research and voluntary work towards Climate Change, Renewable Energy (esp Solar Energy) & advancements in related Technology and Sustainable Development Goals.
He also loves to paint, sing and play some Piano in his free time..
Melanie studied Media and Communications in Augsburg. She joined nautilusfilm as assistant producer in 2001 and had been Head of production since 2004. Her filmography includes: ANDALUSIA (NDR, National Geographic, ORF, TVE, Parthenon Ent 2004), LIVE LONGER, LIVE WILD (NDR,Parthenon Ent. 2004), SUPERMOUSE (BR,ARTE, Parthenon Ent. 2004), THE MEADOW (NDR,ARTE, Parthenon Ent, ORF 2005) THE CRAYFISH IN THE JAM JAR (BR, ARTE 2008), EVOLUTION OF FLIGHT (SWR, WDR 2008), THE FOREST (NDR, ARTE, ORF 2009) BAVARIA`S ALPINE KINGDOM (ARD, NGCI 2009), POPPY`S PROMISE (BR, ARTE, ERR 2010), EN ROUTE TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE (NDR 2010), WILD SCANDINAVIA - NORWAY (NDR, WDR, ARTE, SVT, NATGEO, DISCOVERY 2011), THE MOOR (BR, ARTE, SVT, ERR 2013), THE GREEN PLANET(THEATRICAL RELEASE, NDR 2013), SECRET GARDEN (NDR, ARTE 2013) KINGS OF HEAVENS (WDR, ARTE 2014), WILD SLOVAKIA (BR, ARTE 2014), GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINs (NDR, ARTE, NAT GEO 2014), MAGICAL MOORS (THEATRICAL RELEASE, BR 2015), CHIEMSEE, A SEA IN BAVARIA (BR, WDR, ARTE 2015), CHILDREN OF THE SUN - WILD BEES (BR, WDR, ARTE 2016) and FJORDS OF NORWAY (NDR, ARTE, NAT GEO 2017).
Ms. Hara grew up as a global citizen, living in various countries. Fluent in English, she joined Fuji Television Network, the leading commercial broadcaster in Japan, where she was assigned to the Production department and worked on NARUHODO THE WORLD, a highly famed travel quiz show, and SMAPxSMAP, a variety show starring Asian super-star group SMAP. Since 2005, Ms. Hara has been with the International Department. One of her current tasks is to select and submit the station’s productions for various international awards, making her a connoisseur of fine programs.
After graduating in Film- and Television Sciences at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, Georg Hartmann went to work for Sonic Images Inc. in Hollywood, where he worked on two seasons of the TV series “Babylon 5”.
He then turned his attention to documentary filmmaking. In 1999, Hartmann produced and directed the feature length documentary “Close to Home”, which won the audience award at the New Haven International Film Festival, and the Festival in Palm Springs. Robert Redford’s “Sundance Channel” bought the TV rights.
Hartmann’s next documentary project “He’s having a Baby” for HBO made the Oscar short list and was recognized as “Documentary of Merit”, one of the highest honors given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Georg was invited to guest lecture at NYU Film School and taught students the nuts and bolts of documentary filmmaking at Maine Media Workshops.
Hartmann has also produced, directed and written Television programs and has served as Director of Photography for MTV’s “Big Urban Myth Show”. He was Executive Producer and Director for many hours of prime-time reality TV, most notably Discovery’s “Street Customs Berlin”, a program that aired worldwide.
In recent times, Georg has focused on writing prime time fiction. The miniseries “Deutschland 83” aired on Sundance TV in the US and was awarded the Peabody Award, as well as the International Emmy. In 2018, Georg wrote for Netflix's "Dogs of Berlin".
In fall 2018 Georg joined Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, where he currently serves as course director in the Film Production MFA program.
Georg Hartmann lives in Florida, with his wife Abby, a school psychologist, and their 16-year old quadruplets Sid, Max, Emmy and Lucy. In 2020, Georg co-created the limited TV series “He’s Coming”. The show is represented by CAA and has been picked up for development by Warner Brothers for a 2022 release.
Yuko Hashizaki is in charge of International Relations at Kansai Television Co. Ltd. Born in Osaka, she spent her schooling years in the UK and Australia, before returning to Japan for university studies.
Her first assignment in the company was the Special Events and Promotion department, where she gained experience in organizing and promoting live entertainment shows and sporting events. After a period in the TV sales department, she returned to the Special Events and Promotion department and worked on projects such as Cirque de Soleil Osaka Performances (Quidam) and Japan tours of Riverdance and The Ten Commandments, and traditional Japanese arts such as Mansai Nomura’s Kyogen performances. In 2003 and 2005 she worked on the Japan tours of Trieste and San Carlo Opera Houses.
From 2005 she worked in the news department for international relations where she produced international competition editions of documentaries and news features, and from 2012 she was in charge of international relations in the President’s Office. From September 2020, she manages the company’s international relations in the News Center, overseeing Kansai Television’s global promotion and producing and promoting international competition editions of Kansai Television’s programs.
Dillon heads up operations and content delivery at Sudo Roux backed by over 20 years’ experience in design, project management, production, operations, and content creation. He formerly led design and delivery teams at Foxtel, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), STW Group, and WPP, covering a wide range of verticals, from technology to entertainment, telecoms to education. With Dillon, you get more than just experience. You get somebody who cuts through the jargon to form genuine partnerships.
Philip looks back on 250+ film projects realized in over 20 countries as Director, Creative Director and Executive Producer Film at AUDI AG Global Communications. Spending the first decade of his career in a Berlin based agency shooting films for clients like AUDI AG, BMW Mini, Porsche, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen Philip changed to the client side in 2017, bringing along his versatile expertise in creation, production and supervision. Philip’s work is awarded internationally and he is part of various film award juries. He lives in Munich.
Award winning director, Celia Jaspers has over 25 years in the industry and has amassed vast experience in all aspects of production for film and television. She has extensive experience across all trades - theatre, television and film. As lead creative, her programmes have won awards from the 48 Hours Film Festival, New York Festivals international Television and Film Awards, Asian Television Awards, Jackson Hole Science Media Awards and the International Wildlife Film festival. And her debut short film has had section wins at V48 Hours Film festival Lockdown 2020, and International KidsnFilm Festival. While the 2nd short film is currently in selection for multiple film festivals around the world. She is currently a judge for the New Zealand Film and Television Awards and the New York Festivals Awards. Member of WIFT and the DEGNZ.
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Having a long history in Entertainment TV, since 2014 she is working in Program Development & Quality Management, specialized on International Formats, Trends and Programs.
She is also representing ORF in EBU’s, European Broadcasting Union’s, TV Assembly.
Additionally she has been holding lectures, first at Donauuniversität Krems, now at Fachhochschule St. Pölten (University of Applied Sciences) in the Master Course of “Film, TV & Media – Creation and Distribution” for years and is a member of the University’s faculty advisory board.
William Jeakle became a bestselling author at age 21 while at Stanford University, when he penned How to College with two fellow Stanford students. He has since written four additional books, numerous newspaper articles, and a monthly magazine column. After Stanford, Jeakle joined CNN as a director of special projects. His tasks included assisting in developing the business plan for CNN International, and helming numerous special projects for CEO Ted Turner. In addition, Jeakle directed CNN sales and marketing to Canada and Special Markets.
In 1990, Jeakle launched TVBooks, a publishing and production company, which helped develop the Bill Nye, the Science Guy television pilot and co-wrote Nye’s bestselling Big Blast of Science. In 1997, he launched Filmateria Studios. At Filmateria, Jeakle oversees the creative direction of the company, as well as crafting business alliances that strengthen Filmateria’s offerings. Filmateria has helped market products as diverse as Xbox, YouTube’s Screening Room, and Bungie’s Halo video game.
As writer, producer, and director, Jeakle has created hundreds of film and video titles directing talent including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Jeopardy star Ken Jennings, and actor and comedian Ed Helms.
Jeakle conceived and created the YouTube kids’ series Team Marco Polo, which has garnered numerous honors and well over a million views. He is the producer and co-director of the forthcoming documentary Late Fees, chronicling the rise and fall of Blockbuster video.
Jeakle’s work has appeared on Comedy Central, The New York Times, USA Today, Girls’ Life Magazine and The Washington Post. Along the way, his work has picked up an Emmy and several New York Festivals awards for creative excellence. He is currently a contributor to the Leadership section at Forbes.com.
Jeakle lives in Seattle with his wife Marisa. He has three children living in L.A. He enjoys traveling (he speaks Italian) and hanging out with his kids and dog, Muddy.
Andrei Jiro is a design manager whose primary goal is to create expectation for the audience. His specialty is designing solutions for news, sports and entertainment at Globo Group, largest commercial TV network in Latin America and one of the largest media companies in the world. With over 30 years of experience in this segment, Andrei has experience in team building, strategic management and implementation, leadership, create and enhance the content value. Andrei has worked on successful projects that have enhanced television content through scenic and graphic innovation. Among several awards won, the NYF Awards stand out: “JH / JG” and “Jornal Nacional” projects.
When Andrei was still in college, he was interested in two things: design and economics. When he learned about the potential of design in order to change our lives creating all kinds of expectation, he knew this is where his professional future would take him, and television would be a field full of opportunities.
He holds an MBA from IBMEC Institute(Sao Paulo-Brazil ) and degree in Industrial Design at FAAP Institution (Sao Paulo-Brazil). He currently lives in Sao Paulo with his wife and two kids.
Natalie Jowett is a writer, producer, director and visual artist who started her media career in the New York bureau of The Baltimore Sun newspaper while attending Columbia University. An opening at a sports television network guided her unexpectedly away from print and toward a film and television career that has taken her around the world, telling stories on topics that include racism, secular religious conflict, gender inequity and civil rights. During 12 years as a Senior Features Producer at ABC Sports Natalie wrote and directed an Emmy-winningdocumentary on the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics. Work on Oprah's Legends Ball marked a departure from sports, and Marvel's Hero Project was an opportunity to tell the stories of amazing kids who are doing heroic work solving real world problems. Natalie sits on the Board of Directors for JusticeAid, anon-profit that promotes justice through the arts. Natalie lives in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters.
Masakatsu Kasai is an executive producer of advertising business such as commercial films, promotions, and events.
He has won Grand Award at NYF TV&Film for Yamazaki Moments, Suntory and many other international awards including Cannes Lion, Clio Awards, Mobius Awards, and Adfest, and ACC and Galaxy awards as domestic awards, one of the biggest creative awards in Japan.
He has been dedicated his work for Toyota, Daihatsu, NTT, Suntory, Kirin, Canon and many other clients.
He is also responsible for a management of creative department where in-house directors, DoPs, editors, and creatives belong.
Besides that, TOHOKUSHINSHA FILM CORPORATION is engaged in feature film, video production, gear house, post production, broadcasting business, licensing sales management.
Manuela Kasper-Claridge is a journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster.
She initiated partnerships with the WEF and is on the board of trustees of Germany’s ifo Institute and a member of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
Former News producer and editor for Germany’s Broadcaster RTL Television.
Since 2008 Managing and Creative Director at FINAL FRAME. Winner of more than 25 international Awards and Festivals for corporate films and documentaries.
David is the Executive Producer of multi award winning documentary DRAWING AGAINST OBLIVION.
He is also a Member of several international juries such as the EMMY Awards.
Today FINAL FRAME produces corporate movies and documentaries for international clients worldwide.
A producer and consultant of post-production company FURMO DT. Focusing on trends of content sales and distribution, he provides consulting and directly engages in developing bland-new processes. He believes that the first step to localization is integrating language and cultural differences for delivering the original intended emotional experience to overseas audiences.
An avid story-teller, Changying is passionate about recording the human world in creative and visually compelling ways. She's committed in bringing to audience social issues as well as exploring the complex human nature. During her two-decade stint, Changying created several news and current affairs programs. Right now, she oversees two award-winning documentary programs: Assignment Asia and Rediscovering China, as well as CGTN's Foreign Desk.
Composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Self-taught, he began to experiment with sound and music from a young age.
His first scores for short films and documentaries began to attract attention and positive acclaim which led to him to receive commissions for other projects. He then moved into composing for advertising, a sector in which he now has years of experience and has received solid recognition.
Later, he began to create soundtracks for animation series, a format that particularly excites Iván as it allows him to delve deeper into the universe of sound that evolves and accompanies the viewer across seasons.
Also highly acclaimed, is his TV Branding work for channels such as Movistar+, Canal+ France, National Geographic amongst others.
All this experience has led Iván to understand that the way to approach each project is as an incredible adventure through which to find notes, sounds and noises in order to create an audio language that will enhance the identity and the feeling of the brand, or the characters and stories.
Iván is currently working on an EP that will be published in 2019, as well as working with Banjo Soundscapes, his creative studio for audio branding.
Banjo Soundscapes has received a number of special mentions and awards in the sector, including the prestigious award Gold World Medal New York TV & Film Awards 2018 for “National Geographic - Further Promos”.
I-Li Lo has been working in the production of TV programs of various kinds for more than 15 years. She has won several awards for her contributions to these programs; the major ones are described as follows:
"Under the sun-Hakka showcase" the best Education and Culture Program award in Golden Bell Award, Taiwan, 2008.
"Flavor of My Hometown"the best Lifestyle Program award in Golden Bell Award, Taiwan, 2012.
"The TV Music Feature" the finalist for Performing Arts in New York Festival’s TV & Film Awards, US, 2018.
Brian Lockhart currently serves as senior vice president of ESPN+ Original Content and ESPN Films. He is responsible for overseeing strategy and development of all original programming initiatives under the ESPN Films umbrella, as well as original series and studio shows on ESPN+, ESPN's direct to consumer streaming service. He previously served as executive producer of Original Content for ESPN+.
Prior to his role at ESPN, Brian was vice president and executive producer of Original Content for NFL Media. He was responsible for overseeing the development and production of a wide array of content on multiple platforms, from long-form documentary series to digital media ventures and features. His responsibilities also extended beyond storytelling to include production, business development, and strategic leadership across several divisions. Brian developed, produced, and launched the NFL Network Originals series Undrafted and Football Town, and the digital series NFL Life. He was also the driving creative force behind the development of the original NFL Network documentary series The Timeline, highlighted by the critically acclaimed installment “America’s Game” and “The Iran Hostage Crisis.”
He began his NFL tenure in 2007 as coordinating producer for the network’s Features group. There he helped construct and develop the short form unit that would grow to service multiple news, information/studio shows, and social platforms, and he steered the division’s embrace of digital storytelling outlets. Among the highlights of his tenure were digital/broadcast hybrid projects that earned him three of his eight career Emmy Awards: the groundbreaking multiplatform experience JFK: The Untold Story of That Day in Dallas and the digital series The NFL Season: A Biography. His impact on the NFL Media Group extended beyond the successful content itself. As one of the highest-ranking executives of color, he served as a member of the National Football League Diversity Council, and his work as co-chair of the Black Engagement Network earned him the 2018 Commissioner’s Award for Teamwork.
Prior to his NFL tenure, Brian spent six years as a features and replay producer for HBO Sports from 2001 to 2007. There he produced and developed nonfiction, news, and live event programs including Inside the NFL, World Championship Boxing and Costas Now.
A TV veteran of more than twenty years. Molby Low started his career with Singapore’s local TV stations and established his own independent production company WaWa Pictures Pte Ltd in 2007.
Under Molby’s steady leadership & unwavering passion for the local entertainment industry, WaWa Pictures have since grown to become a leading content provider in Singapore. Many of WaWa’s content is distributed in Asia.
Molby is in a constant process of grooming and mentoring new creative talents. He continually pushes to produce content that will not only intrigue the local & regional audiences but also resonate with the global viewers
Gabi Madračević is Founder, Managing Director and Creative Director of the design and branding agency Luxlotusliner in Munich.
She is responsible for many national and internationals clients and brandings with numerous award-winning projects at festivals and creative competitions worldwide.
After her studies of Visual Communication she founded the graphic studio “Buro 2” in Stuttgart, worked at BBDO Advertising Düsseldorf,
ProSieben and SevenSenses, and as a creative director at velvet mediendesign in Munich.
Founder, Managing Director and Executive Producer of Timecode Production GERMANY Matthias Martens has gathered more than 18 years of experiences in the TV-Business. He worked for ProSiebenSat1 (one of the biggest private media companies in Germany) as “Teamleader and Coordinator German Fiction” as well as an Executive Producer for the ARD (largest German Public TV Group in Germany) - and for ARTE and ZDF.
He produced a large spectrum of films and docudramas, for example “A Blind Hero – The Love Of Otto Weidt”, „The Good Göring“ or „Mata Hari – Dancing With The Death“ . His Films won several international awards including the World Gold and Silver Medal at the New York Festivals. Further more he produced documentaries of all genres, shows and other media formats, for example more than 300 episodes of “Menschen bei Maischberger”, which is one of the highest ranking and longest running talkshows for the ARD.
Maribel Martinez is creative director in México City. Over the last few years, her work has been acknowledged by many international festivals and awards such as: New York Festivals, Promax World Gold, Promax Latino, Broadcast Design Asociation, Animacor in Spain, Circulo Creativo and Caracol de Plata Mexico. Her work as creative director includes animated series as: Imaginantes* for Televisa. Maribel founded 19+36”, an independent studio focused on title sequence design for films.
In all of her films, Mary Mazzio (an Olympic rower herself), explores the concept of overcoming obstacles, whether it is a fight for social change (A Hero for Daisy, I Am Jane Doe), or issues of poverty and lack of opportunity (Ten9Eight, Underwater Dreams). Her mission of shedding light on compelling narratives of social significance has made her one of the country’s most prominent socially impactful filmmakers. For her film Underwater Dreams, Mazzio collaborated with the White House and raised more than $100 million dollars in public and private partnerships for STEM initiatives for underserved students. Her last film, I Am Jane Doe, elevated the voices of young sex trafficking survivors, catalyzing bipartisan federal legislation signed by the President in 2018 as well as legislation abroad. All of Mazzio’s films are about ordinary people doing extraordinary things – defying expectations and challenging assumptions of who and what they can achieve.
Bill McCullough is an 11-time Emmy Award winner who now serves as Executive Vice President of Content at FaZe Clan. Previously, he served as Vice President/Head of Content Development for NFL Media. After 2 award-winning seasons as a Creative Director in the Marketing group where he helped drive record ratings, Bill movedto the content side of the organization where he was tasked with developing and executing a multi-platform content strategy for NFL Media.
The former Vice President of HBO Sports and Executive Producer of GoPro Entertainment has earned a reputation for developing and producing premium content like the NFL Films documentary A Lifetime of Sundays, Dude Perfect Super Bowl Trick Shots (27M+ views) and the 8-part Facebook docu-series Hala Madrid! (30M+ views).
During his time at HBO, Bill creative directed and edited the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentaries Breaking the Huddle, Assault in the Ring, Lombardi and Namath. He won his first Emmy for editing the HBO documentary Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is.
Bill also directed the critically acclaimed HBO series’ Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and State of Play, and won his most recent Emmy as Director for Outstanding Sports Anthology. Other HBO projects include shows like The Chris Rock Show, Inside the NFL, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and Reverb as well as campaigns for Sex and the City, Carnivale. Angels in America, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Def Poetry, and HBO Sports.
During the early 2000’s Bill owned the NYC-based production company Wonderland Productions. A full service, Emmy Award winning production company built from the ground up by Bill, Wonderland’s client list included HBO, ESPN, NBC, ABC, CBS, IFC, PBS, SpikeTV, McDonalds, Jaguar, Land Rover, Unilever, Pepsi, Spike Lee and many independent filmmakers.
Bill has won Emmy’s as a Producer, Director, Creative Director, Editor and Composer.
Kelly McKeown is a show creator, director and executive producer, who specializes in ambitious, factual entertainment for global audiences. She is a proven leader in co-productions with more than 20 years experience.
As Director of Exploration Productions, Kelly led the editorial vision for Discovery Canada and Bell Media Studios’ in-house production company. By the end of 2020, EPI delivered 5,440 hours in the form of series, specials, and a daily science magazine show to more than 160 countries.
Kelly created and Executive Produced the award winning series Disasters at Sea. She also is the Executive Producer of the Mighty Franchise; Mighty Ships, Mighty Cruise Ships, Mighty Trains and Mighty Planes.
One of her biggest passions is documenting firsts in human endeavour through quick turnaround, high end prime time specials. She has Executive Produced numerous award-winning specials, including Saturn Inside the Rings, Pluto First Encounter, Jupiter Close Encounter, Landing on a Comet, Hunt for a Super Comet, Mars Landing, One Giant Leap, and Fire in the Sky.
She won a Canadian Screen Award and New York Festival for Best Science and Tech Series for her work on the world’s only daily science show DAILY PLANET. She has also created and led original series MegaWorld, Invent This! Taken Abroad, Year In Sci Tech and Shark World.
Ken Moffat is the founder and Executive Producer of Loulaki Blue, a Creative Communications Agency based in Sydney Australia.
Ken is a dedicated storyteller, having started his working life as a playwright. Then after a decade of working on major Australian feature films and television series Ken moved into the airline industry as Senior Producer of Qantas Inflight Entertainment, producing and directing numerous international award-winning programs during his tenure there. Then following several years as Creative Director and Executive Producer for a number of large Sydney agencies, he founded Loulaki Blue, a full service award winning Communications Agency specialising in video, animation and motion graphics. (Loulaki Blue has won a World Gold Medal and numerous Bronze medal and Finalist Awards).
He is delighted to join the NYF Grand Jury.
The Fuji Television producer of the weekly documentary series, The Nonfiction. Main prizes he won: Best Current Affairs Program in Asian TV Awards 2011 for The Nonfiction: Unforgettable - Three Family Portraits / Best Documentary Program in Association of All Japan TV Program Production Companies Awards 2012 for Maria’s New York - The Final Reunion / Gold World Medal in the Human Concerns category in NY Festival 2014 for A Death Scene Cleaner Gets Married. In 2013, he released two motion pictures: God of Ramen, which revealed the secrets of a legendary ramen chef / KANZABURO, that tells the life story of a popular Kabuki star.
Tracey O’Halloran is a London based, multi-award winning filmmaker and scriptwriter who has worked across television, commercials and corporate films. In 2019 she won a Grand Award and Best Direction at the New York Festivals Film and TV awards, as well as the Grand Prix Award at the 2018 Cannes Corporate Media Film & TV Awards, making her the first British filmmaker to win the Cannes Grand Prix.
Winner of over 30 film awards, Tracey has experience producing and directing drama, documentary, animation and comedy, always striving to find the best way to tell a story with humour and emotion.
Passionate about social issues, her films have been used to champion change, raise awareness and shed a spotlight on the most vulnerable in society.
Tracey started her career at the BBC and has worked for Channel 4 and ITV. She is currently Deputy Head of Film at Media Zoo working with some of the world’s biggest brands.
Sergio is an experienced award-winning Creative Marketer for Global Entertainment Media brands.
As Brand & Creative Senior Manager at Discovery Creative Italia he oversees the creativity for the on air and 360 marketing campaigns of 5 free to air channels.
Previously, he managed the operational and creative aspects of Scripps Networks Interactive Creative Services in Italy.
Over the past 20 years he’s launched and curated media brands in more than 20 territories including Russia,Poland and Baltic countries.
The History Channel (Spain&Portugal); OSN (Middle East); Viasat Broadcasting (Scandinavian, CEE and Russian markets) are just some of the brands he’s worked for
Both member of "Promax Europe Advisory Council" and "The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences of Spain", he regularly collaborates as Judge with some of the most relevant international promotion and design award competitions such as Promax, Emmy International, Clios, New York Festivals and, of course, MediaBrand.
In his spare time he researches and writes about creativity.
Some of this content is posted on his Linkedin feed.
He lives with his family, 4 dogs and 1 cat in the Sabina hills close to Rome, where he enjoys playing his guitar, and working his land of vines and olive trees.
As an award-winning Executive Producer and Group Partner, Sonal leads the Film team, film projects and integrated Brunswick Group and MerchantCantos creative campaigns, providing creative senior leadership at every stage.
Sonal has been writing, producing and directing in television and film for 20 years. Her expertise encompasses investor documentaries, corporate films, executive interviews, deal work, employee engagement and creative campaigns for business. She advises clients at Board level, producing content strategy for business-critical communications.
Sonal began her career in New York as a broadcast journalist for MTV, PBS, WNBC and New York 1.
Paul Petruccelli, the Digital Imaging Administrator at Pratt Institute, has been a Grand Jury Member for NYF for almost 30 years. He brings experience from the film, video, music, print, consulting, writing, publishing and educational fields together in a unique way for not only his students at Pratt but as an evaluator and performer. A winner of a CINE Golden Eagle Award, Paul has also been recognized as a digital innovator by HP and Canon and holds certification as a G7 Color Management Professional from Idealliance. A connoisseur of the different and off-beat gives him the perfect perspective for NYF submissions.
Duncan Preston is the Head of Global Creative Services of Al Jazeera English Creative, a multi-award winning creative professional with over 20 years experience in design across all media.
He joined Al Jazeera English in 2005 as a designer working on the launch of the channel and, now as the head of the Creative department, defining the brand and creative direction of the channel.
His team is responsible for all the channel's creative content; channel and program branding, graphic packaging, promos, daily news and information graphics, winning over 60 international broadcast design and promo awards.
Judith is executive producer/president of Curious Features. Also a showrunner, director, and writer of unscripted series and specials, her work has been recognized with awards and nominations and aired on networks in Canada, the US and all over the world. She loves collaborating with talented professionals to make absorbing television and films.
With training received as a network news producer, Deirdre became one of the key members of the original Entertainment Tonight staff, helping to launch one of the most successful shows in television history.
Deirdre is now called upon to lend her expertise from concept to completion; brainstorming with clients on upcoming projects, directing multi-camera in-studio and remote productions, web videos and b-rolls. Her experience working with celebrities and experts has fostered a long term interest in bringing out the best performance possible in those she coaches and directs. She gets tremendous satisfaction from media training and nurturing talent through the entire production process.
Ma. Regina Reyes is responsible for all newsgathering, content and strategic direction of the Integrated News Division of ABS-CBN Corporation. She has over 20 years of solid experience as a broadcast journalist. During her leadership, all news platforms of ABS-CBN – free-to-air, UHF and cable channels, digital, mobile and social media, radio and global became integrated. Reyes also established a Futures, Standards and Practices Group that aims to ensure the accuracy, balance and fairness of ABS-CBN News content.
Reyes joined ABS-CBN in 1986 as a Production Assistant, rose from the ranks to become Executive Producer and Head Writer of the award-winning late night newscast, The World Tonight. She supervised and produced live coverage of many special events, including the 2000 Impeachment Trial of former President Estrada. She was appointed News Director in 2001.
Prior to her promotion as SVP of Integrated News, Reyes was the network’s North America News Bureau Chief from 2002 to 2010. A premier news personality in the Filipino-American community, Reyes established and expanded ABS-CBN’s news operations in the US and Canada.
She covered issues on Philippine-US relations, Filipino-American community concerns and US politics, including the historic 2008 US presidential campaign and elections.
Reyes also helped in the community-building efforts of The Filipino Channel in North America. In 2007, she was named by the Filipina Women’s Network as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipino Women in the U.S.
Follow Reyes on Twitter @gingreyes and on Facebook/ging reyes
Deepti is a multiplatform content producer with over a decade of experience in producing screen content. Over an exciting career so far she has produced award-winning television programs, short films, editorial projects, narrative learning films, animations, illustrations, games and online learning experiences in Asia and Australia. She has worked as a news & current affairs producer, talk show director & producer, documentary director, journalist, writer and communications consultant. In her current role working as a member of Be Learning's Solution team she consults with clients across multiple industries in finance, corporate and government to facilitate the alignment of organisational strategy and vision to active learning solutions.
Wan Haiz is a Commissioning Editor at Mediacorp. He has 23 years of experience in the media that includes 8 years as a TV child star and a year in production. He has commissioned and managed over 400 programmes in the last 14 years. He has developed multi-platform content across a plethora of genre. His works have won the hearts of the panel of jury at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards, International Emmy Kids Awards, The WorldMediaFestivals, Asian Television Awards, Apollo Awards and Pesta Perdana Awards. He graduated with a Master of Communication degree from Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Independent media and political consultant. Served as Director of Program Review for the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) responsible for reviewing the news and current affairs programming for MBN’s television networks, Radio Sawa, MBN websites and social media pages. Previously, MR. Sarkisian served as Managing Editor for MBN’s two televisions networks, he was a producer with MBC US, Inc. and an International Radio Broadcaster and Production Specialist for Voice of America.
Multi awards-winning broadcast, creative and strategic thinker.
47 years old, married, 2 children, Laurent has started his career as a copy writer in advertising agencies in Paris for Young and Rubicam, Lintas, TBWA, McCann Erickson. Laurent has created campaigns for Absolut Vodka, Honda, Sega and for many more other companies or products.
Consequently, Laurent joined France 2 (free to air channel), ‘’Dream-On,’’ ‘’Reservoir prod,’’ as a copy writer, creating and producing many promos, branding many successful tv shows.
Laurent has also participated, as the On-Air Director of Discovery Channel Southern Europe, in the building, marketing, launching and branding of Discovery tv channels across Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. Laurent also launched many tv programs and specialized in documentaries and life-time programs.
Laurent has joined France 3 (free to air channel) as the Creative Director, leading a team of 40 people, taking care of the national TV and 24 regions tv. Strategic On-Air creative services including campaigns, brands, promos, digital and marketing strategy.
Since September 2017, Laurent is also in charge of the France 3 Off Air department of 51 people.
Former Acquisition executive of RTL television for films & series, producer and director of various entertainment programs in Germany.
Winner of more than 35 national and international awards for corporate and/or pr movies. Member of different international juries
Speaker on various events and high schools. Producer of, the “mother of all corporate movies/die Mutter aller Imagefilme” , Europe´s most successful corporate movie ever.
Meanwhile producing corporate movies in more than 50 countries worldwide.
The graduate of business administration with the focus on marketing, cross-entered the world of media in 1993. After editorial services to the most successful Music video program on German television, his focus lies on the creation of industrial productions. With 25 pictures per second he emotionalizes people for over 23 years. His discipline is the realization of image-, event- brand-, TV-, cinema-, point of sale- and trade show – communication in moving image. As head of visual media, he sees the world in Full HD to 8K and finds communication the most interesting, when imagined in space. 20 terabytes are his constant companion.
Chris Schueler has created over 100 television programs in the past 25 years that have garnered 24 Emmy® Awards and have been broadcast throughout the country and around the world. Winner of a Bronze, Silver, Gold and Grand Award from the New York Festivals, his focus is on educational and social issues. Mr. Schueler creates youth programming and social issue documentaries that are “Television to Touch the Heart.” His clients have included the United Nations, the National Institute of Mental Health, the PBS network, the CBS Network Foundation as well as networks and governments in 35 countries around the globe.
Since 1997 always involved in branding and promo.
His early days were in the cinema business where he was involved in the production, marketing and distribution strategy of more than 50 feature films as Head of Marketing. In those days he also worked as Music Supervisor for several of them
After that he moved, to pay TV at CANAL+ Spain where he was Creative Services Director (2004-2011) and Brand Director (2011-2015) running a DTH and OTT platforms and a portfolio of more than 20 channels.
His promos and branding works have received distinctions and awards at NY Festival, PROMAX, D&AD, ADCE Awards, LAUS...
Since 2015 he’s running and developing Movistar+, the new brand that results from the merge of CANAL+ Spain and Movistar (Telefonica Group). CONVERGENCE is the Sign of the Times….
CEO and co-founder of the Mercator Company
Industrial advertising expert. Author of sales/marketing, PR and IR films and presentations for Russian and European companies, such as Kaspersky, PwC, Vimetco, Sberbank, Russian Railways, Gazprom, ММК, Yota, Orange, Moscow Exchange, Rostelekom, Rosnano, Sibur and others.
Supervisor for information graphics at Russia-1, Russia-24, and Moscow-24 TV-channels. Member of the Academy of Russian Television. Weather presenter and travel show host on NTV.
Writes an articles, marketing and public speaking blog for Harvard Business Review Russia. Developed and teaches “Information Graphics,” “Visual Allegories,” “Presentation Film” and “Public Speaking” courses. Teaches the pubic speaking class at Skolkovo business school.
Author of «The Stanislavsky Method for Public Speakers» cartoon.
Actor and skydiver.
Ed: Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University(1994), MBA (AIBEc)(2004), Robert McKee’s story seminar(2007), Harvard Business School (OPM-38)(2009), Acting School (prof. Teplyakov class)(2014)
Jessica Soho is the most awarded broadcast journalist
in the Philippines with more than two hundred
fifty (250) local awards and more than thirty
(30) international awards to date.
She is the first Filipina to receive a George Foster
Peabody Award for her documentaries on the illegal
trade of kidneys and the harrowing plight of Filipino
boxers.
Her coverage of Super Typhoon Haiyan(local name:
Yolanda) in 2013 was instrumental in winning the
fourth (4th) George Foster Peabody Award for GMA
News and Public Affairs.
Soho is also a Hall of Fame recipient of Reader’s
Digest Asia "Most Trusted News Presenter” award,
having been bestowed with it for eight consecutive
times.
Last August 2018, she received the UP Gawad
Plaridel, the highest honor given by the University
of the Philippines system to a media practitioner.
She has interviewed UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon, former US President Jimmy Carter, US
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Filipino
immunologist Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, one of the
Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of
2013, among many others.
Her overseas assignments include the coverage of
the conflict in Afghanistan ( where she and her
team survived a landmine) and Pakistan, the exile
of the Marcoses in Hawaii, the Hongkong Handover
in 1997, the traditional Christmas Tree Lighting at
the Whitehouse in 2005 with former US First Lady
Laura Bush, the inauguration of United State President
Barack Obama in 2008, the Royal Wedding of
Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge
in 2011 and the canonization of Pope John
Paul II in 2014.
With a career spanning more than three decades
from the fall of the Marcos dictatorship to the
restoration of democracy in the Philippines, she
started covering the military and defense beats in
1985. In 1991, her report on the hostage crisis in
northern Philippines earned a Bronze Award in the
New York Film and Television Festival.
She served as First Vice President for News
Programs of GMA Network until 2014. Under her
leadership, the network soared to be the country's
leading and most credible broadcast news organization.
Soho was the driving force behind the creation of
I-Witness, the highly-acclaimed documentary series
of GMA-7. She also pioneered the Special Assignments
Team which produces investigative and
enterprise stories.
She has also served as juror for the International
Emmy Awards since 2010.
Currently, Soho is the anchor of GMA News TV's
flagship newscast. State of the Nation with Jessica
Soho, host of top-rating magazine show, Kapuso
Mo, Jessica Soho, and chief correspondent/ host of
the investigative news magazine program, Brigada.
Last year, her premium on in-depth analysis is once
again showcased in her live remote anchoring and
coverage duties from Itogon, Benguet, where a
massive landslide killed over 50 people. She
continues to engage reporters on a wide range of
timely news events, such as monsoon flooding,
Mayon Volcano’s restive activity, Chinese intrusion
in Philippine waters, and boxer Manny Pacquiao’s
latest victory, to name a few.
Soho graduated from the University of the Philippines
in Diliman, Quezon City with a Bachelor of
Arts degree in Journalism.
During his nine years as GM, Mikhail has developed and successfully launched over a dozen of award-winning TV talk shows, news programs and special series such as prime-time blockbuster "News with Rick Sanchez,” late-night show "Dennis Miller Plus One" with SNL alumni comedian Dennis Miller, financial show “Boom Bust”, the Emmy-nominated “On Contact” with Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, “America’s Lawyer” with hall-of- fame lawyer Mike Papantonio, "World According to Jesse” with former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, “The Big Picture” with Holland Cooke, daytime shows “In Question”, “Redacted Tonight”, “Watching The Hawks”, "Eat The Press", “Just Press Play” and "Sports HQ".
In 2013 he spearheaded the launch of "PoliticKING” with legendary broadcaster Larry King on RT America. This iconic daily show was on the air for 7 years.
Mikhail is the founder of digital platform Portable.TV. Its users can stream news and talk shows, sports, comedy, documentaries, video game reviews, travel guides, science and technology documentaries. Portable.TV is an official partner of the National Hockey League (NHL) since 2020. Same year Portable.TV began offering instant digital access to Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) content to fans worldwide and till this day it remains the only mobile and smart TV app to deliver both European and North American professional hockey.
Mikhail has established a career in media industry and is recipient of several awards, including 2 Gold PROMAX North America Excellence Awards for Best Art Direction in News. He serves as Director on the Board of International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Mikhail resides in Washington DC, outside of his professional life, he enjoys playing tennis and golf.
Pete has been a Co-owner/Director of The Edge for over 25 years. He’s responsible for managing client relationships and delivering creative solutions that focus on story-telling – with lasting impact and emotion.
The Edge celebrates their 30th birthday in 2021 and throughout that time they’ve been at the forefront of the way businesses around the world use film to market themselves, communicate and develop their people. Clients implicitly trust The Edge with film campaigns of all kinds that are critical to their business, from corporate reputation to transformation programmes.
Pete speaks regularly to client leadership groups large and small and runs sessions on the Psychology of Film and its role in Behaviour Change. He’s also been closely involved as a Taskforce member with the UK Government-sponsored ‘Engage for Success’, an organisation focusing on inspiring and fostering better engagement across the UK. And in 2019 he was awarded a lifetime EVCOM Fellowship – this special award is designed to celebrate innovative, visionary and outstanding achievement in communication services to the industry.
By training, Scott really should be working on the next generation Apple device or creating data storage for NASA. He was a science geek and attended college to get a science degree in electrical engineering, but somewhere in his sophomore year, his brain circuits shorted after getting a C. His first. Ever. So he switched to storytelling. After a decade-long run in television news, he opened his own production company, tallying six Emmys, a Gold WorldMedal and countless other awards. He also works in front of the camera as an actor. (Perhaps you’ve seen him on “Gone Girl,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” or “Drunk History.”) He occasionally wonders what his 18-year-old self would think if he knew he'd eventually earn a living as an artist. He remains grateful that a time-machine does not exist because he's certain this revelation would short circuit his teenager brain.
I was VP Creative Services at FOX Networks Group Latin America, leading the in-house team responsible for all marketing campaigns and branding for more than 15 channels. Now that FOX is a Disney company, today I'm Head of Creative Services for The Walt Disney Company Latin America, expanding my role to other lines of business. I manage a team of 120+ creatives, producers and editors in all the region.
My team was awarded in Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clio, El Ojo de Iberoamérica, One Show, Promax, New York Festivals Advertising and the Program Promotion Team of the Year at the New York Festivals TV & Film. I was part of the jury of Promax Global, The New York Festivals TV & Film, Argentine Creative Circle, Venice TV Award and El Ojo de Iberoamérica.
I started my career as a copywriter in Brazil before moving to Argentina. Besides helping other people’s ideas come to life, I love street photography and I have three books published in Brazil and Portugal.
With 25 years of experience in the local film and television industry behind him, Chih Chong brings along with him both depth and breadth gained over a broad spectrum of works in factual entertainment, magazine, comedy, drama and feature film projects. Since graduating with a B.Sc in film production from the University of Texas at Austin, Chih Chong has proved his mettle in this extremely volatile and competitive industry in Singapore having done work for companies as diverse as MediaCorp, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, Fremantle Media, Voom Networks, AETN, CTN, RTM, and many others. Chih Chong also dabbled in feature films and was a producer on the highly successful Singapore film, Forever Fever.
Nessa S. Valdellon has worked in television for over two decades as a producer, an executive producer, and a production manager of documentaries, magazine shows, reality TV programs and historical dramas. She is now First Vice President for GMA Public Affairs, which produces 27 of the most awarded television programs in the Philippines.
Valdellon began her career as a producer for the investigative news magazine program The Probe Team. She would later pioneer in the reality genre in the Philippines with several hit programs such as Wish and Extra Challenge. She produced Out! the first show in a primarily Catholic nation to focus on gay, lesbian and transgender rights. She co-wrote and produced social realist dramas My Hometown (Bayan Ko) and Teacher (Titser). She supervised historical dramas on Philippine heroes for primetime television. Her work has won various international awards for GMA Network.
Natural Science:
Studies of Material Science at Technical University of Vienna, PhD, Univ. Prof., Research Scientist at Imperial College /University of London, England, University Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany, University of California - San Diego La Jolla, USA , Max-Planck-Institute of Metal-Research Stuttgart, Germany.
Film and Television:
Education as Cameraman in Vienna, Free-lance Cameraman since 1968, since 1970 work for ORF (Austrian Television) as cameraman, writer, director, producer and host of scientific talk-shows.
Writer, director and/or producer of more than 200 prime-time documentaries for ORF, ARD, ZDF, WDR, BR, ARTE, BBC, Discovery, Smithsonian, WNET, etc.
Many international TV-Awards, Emmy-Award 2008 for “Nature Tech”.
Since 2016 director of Science Visualization Lab at Department of Digital Art University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Based in Madrid, Ramón Verdet is the creative director at AMC Networks Southern Europe, leading thematic channel company in Spain and Portugal. His works have achieved with more than 100 international awards including The New York Festivals, Promax, Clio, Laus,… Also directed documentary series and wrote and took part as musical composer for many of his works.
Podcast writing and directing, he believes that there is no limits for storytelling because, at the end of the day, we all need a good story to move on.
A broadcast and marketing executive, Brian’s experience includes live and post-produced programming, corporate communications, media strategy and buying, brand marketing and project management.
His credits as television producer include sports, music/variety, drama, documentary, public affairs, and comedy. In the field of post-production and broadcast design, his work includes network identity packages, broadcast design packages and commercials.
Clients include ESPN/ABC, Star Choice, Teletoon, HBO, ATCO, Alabama Power, AARP, Intact Insurance to name a few.
Brian’s work has earned him an Emmy nomination for the NBA Draft, multiple gold and silver Broadcast Design Awards, numerous NY Festivals, Telly, Pixie, Davey, Summit awards.
Chan Wai Tong is an Executive Producer. He graduated from Film College and obtained a Master of Cultural Studies. He started his career at stage and film production. He is a Examiners(Film and Media Arts) of Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He has experience producing and directing drama and documentary, always striving to find the best way to tell a story with heart and emotion. He has won more than 50 awards, such as:
Chicago International TV Competition - Gold Plaque (Direction)
US International Film & Video Festival - Gold Camera Award.
Houston International Film Festival- Platinum Award
Berkeley Video & Film Festival- Best of Festival
The Aurora Awards- Platinum Best of Show
Columbus International Film & Video Festival- Honorable Mention
The Accolade Competition- Award of Excellence (Direction)
USA The Videographer Awards- TV/Directing Award of Excellence
Asian Television Awards
Hong Kong Youth Literary Awards
Telly Awards
An award-winning Creative Director and Live Action Director, Meg has spent 20 years working with major broadcast and sports clients, including Under Armour, Red Bull, Google, the NBA, MLB, PGA and NASCAR, as well as clients like Dove Beauty, Gatorade, Sprite, ESPN, Delta Air Lines, Home Depot, Regal Cinemas, Chick-Fil-A and Yahoo! Sports. She’s got a soft spot for in-camera tricks, composition and animation, and loves to fuse live action and studio created worlds. She was formerly the Executive Producer and Director for Red Bull's Non-Live/ Long Format Productions group, as well as the former head of Under Armour's Content House and is the creator behind Under Armour Originals.
Meg earned her master’s degree in International Marketing Management and Branding from Boston University and her undergraduate degree from the College of Charleston. She understands campaign execution from both the production side and the client side, and brings a keen sense of understanding and innovative strategy to each of her projects.
When she’s not coming up with the next best campaign idea, she’s busy globe-trotting, learning German and spending as much time as possible in or near the water.
Meg is repped as both a Director and Creative Director in both the U.S. (Alkemy-X) and the E.U. (Outsider), as well as a Director on www.freethebid.com. She has been a keynote presenter at conferences around the world, as well as a featured guest on several global podcasts, speaking about Creativity, Content Creation and the Evolution of Digital Media.
Mr. Hugh C. Welsh is the President and General Counsel of DSM North America a global leader in Life Sciences and Material Sciences. Traded on the Amsterdam stock exchange with 24,000 employees world wide and $12 billion in annual sales, DSM develops, manufactures and sells nutritional and food ingredients, biomedical materials, specialty plastics and resins, fibers and renewable energy. Mr. Welsh currently serves on several DSM global and regional management teams and has direct responsibilities in DSM’s nutrition and food specialties operations as well as responsibility for legal, government affairs, corporate communications, finance, HR and other shared services, corporate partnerships and DSM’s sustainability, inclusion and diversity initiatives in the region North America. Hugh currently serves on the Board of Directors of, Partners in Food Solutions, the US Chamber of Commerce Corporate Citizens Center, Seafood Nutrition Partnership, Patheon, and Africa Improved Foods. He previously served on the board of BIO, the American Chemistry Council.
Jan Westphal is currently Head of Producers of RTL Television Germany. He previously served as Managing Director of the TV production company PRODUCTION EINS based in Cologne, Germany and also he was Executive Producer for Entertainment and Show at RTL Television. During his tenure he was, among others, the Executive Producer of German Idol, The German Music Awards and The German Television Awards. Prior to his Job at RTL TV he was a presenter, writer and programme manager for VOX TV, Deutsche Welle and NBC.
In his early days Jan was Head of Entertainment at Antenne Bayern, Germanys number one radio station, co-founder of Campus Radio in Munich and the former press spokesman of the Festival of Young Artists in Bayreuth.
Jan Westphal was a lecturer at the University of Munich as well as the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne. He also served as a UN media observer during the first free presidential elections in Namibia.
In 2008 Jan Westphal won the German Television Award for Best Entertainment (German Idol)
Ellen Windemuth - Chief Executive Officer, WaterBear Network and CEO, Off the Fence BV
Ellen is the CEO of WaterBear Network, overseeing the strategy and direction of the new interactive video-on-demand platform dedicated to storytelling around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. WaterBear is already partnered with over 80 global NGO's and is currently available in eight countries. Prior to founding WaterBear, Ellen was and still is CEO of Off the Fence, a global nonfiction production and distribution company based in Amsterdam. Under her leadership Off the Fence acquired, produced, and co-produced over6,000 hours of content including their latest feature documentary MY OCTOPUS TEACHER, a Netflix Original.
Ellen is a seasoned Executive Producer, Impact Producer and Distributor and has produced over 500 hours to date. She is the Chairperson of the Jackson Hole Film Festival Board and an avid supporter of conservation, land regeneration and the mitigation of air pollution. Her experience in factual programming and feature documentaries is extensive in both production and distribution. Ellen was recently presented with Wildscreen’s Christopher Parson’s Outstanding Achievement Awards 2018. She has three children and a great passion for the outdoors.
Noel started his profession as a print and television journalist and was a war correspondent in Pakistan right after the 911 Attack. With his fervent aspirations for Chinese arts and crafts, he not only wishes to promote this heritage but also to nurture the next generation. 2012, He worked together with Ray Mak to create a documentary - Soul of China, which won several international awards. 2017, they produce their second feature length documentary - Water of Life and Death, again won several international awards, including Gold World Medal and UNDPI Silver award of New York Festival Awards.
Guillermo was Production Coordinator at Turner Broadcasting System on the Creative Services Team working for Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TCM and TNT.
From FOX he worked as well on Creative Services as a Production Coordinator. They launch of 22 channels, working in a total of 32 channels and 11 brands in 10 countries/languages.
Now that FOX is a Disney company, he's Production Supervisor for The Walt Disney Company Iberia adding Disney Channel (Spain and Portugal) to his responsibilities as well as Disney Junior EMEA since October 2020.
Toshie Yoshida's career in the broadcasting industry spans more than 30 years. Prior to establishing TI ComNet, she worked as an announcer in Japan and the U.S. After returning to Japan, she worked as a producer on a number of programs.
In 2001, she established TI ComNet Japan, which specializes in translation, dubbing, film coordination, and program sales for broadcast content. In recent years, she has been lecturing and writing about the overseas development of local content.
Tatjana Živanović-Wegele is Executive Producer of the design and branding agency Luxlotusliner in Munich.
Born in Belgrade, graduated piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz / Austria. Gained further education as producer for broadcast, branding design and event in Munich /Germany.
Since 1991, she has been working as musician, composer, musical director, artist and producer for media and arts together with contemporary artists, directors and theatres.
Since 2002, she has been working as creative executive producer, consultant and controller as direct link between the creative department and the customer, for art, industrial clients and Broadcasters worldwide with award winning projects.