Sarajevo Film Festival announces a CineLink Talks online line-up

The twelve 60-minute CineLink Talks will run from August 15-20, and will focus on opportunities and challenges facing both the region and the wider international film sector. Five talks are presented by Documentary Campus and have been curated by Paula Vaccaro, a London-based producer and scriptwriter, Pinball London.

 

Eleven CineLink Talks are organized as webinars via Zoom, and will feature a live Q&A in which audience members will be able to ask questions to panellists. Topics include new radical distribution strategies; the region’s response to Covid-19; a case study of Netflix’s Unorthodox; the sector’s response to anti-racism protests; and a masterclass with The Killing showrunner Veena Sud. Other speakers include Matthijs Wouter Knol, Karin Chien and Henning Kamm. The remaining CineLink Talk is a career interview with Bobby Allen, senior vice president of content at MUBI organized in collaboration with ACE Producers and will be available on the Sarajevo Film Festival’s ondemand.sff.ba.

 

Either click this link: https://www.screendaily.com/CineLinkTalks and fill in your details to register for multiple sessions at once; or register for individual sessions below. More information about each panel and speakers' biographies can be found at www.cinelinkindustrydays.com.

 

The session will examine how Covid-19 has impacted the business models of content providers in the former Yugoslavia region, and whether more collaboration between the region’s key players is required.

• Speakers: Igor Stanković, MCF; Sanja Božić-Ljubičić, Pickbox; Christof Papousek, Cineplexx.

Moderator: Jovan Marjanović, Head of Industry, Sarajevo Film Festival.

 

Radical changes are needed to dismantle unequal structures that inhibit access to audiences. How can the film sector empower transparency, a fuller spectrum of voices and new distribution pathways?

• Speakers: Elhum Shakerifhar, producer and self-distributor; Hebe Tabachnik, producer, curator and distribution specialist; Karin Chien, leading distributor of independent, contemporary Chinese cinema, Jamie Dobie, Executive Director Peace is Loud.

Moderator: Paula Vaccaro, Producer and Scriptwriter, Pinball London

 

A masterclass presented by renowned German producer Henning Kamm on making Netflix’s Unorthodox. Kamm will discuss the inner workings of the show, and what it was like working with Netflix.

• Moderator: Wendy Mitchell, contributing editor, Screen International.

 

What’s at stake for OTT and TV, and what can each do to ensure a sustainable future for creators?

• Speakers: Ivar Køhn, Head of Drama at NRK; Carolina Bilbao, VP Programming and Development of Hemisphere TV, responsible for the Latinx OTT Pantaya; Alex Garcia, producer, creator and investor in Mubi, Morbido TV, Mowies, Slated, Umbra and Rappi, Diego Piasek, SVP International Development MGM International TV, Joyce Pierpoline, Producer, Pierpoline Films.

• Moderator: Paula Vaccaro, Producer and Scriptwriter, Pinball London.

 

The Response of Southeast European Public Film Bodies to Covid-19 (presented by the Croatian Audio-Visual Centre) – 19:00-20:00 CET

With the region’s film industry slowly beginning to reopen, the session will examine how all segments of the business chain can be supported. Key questions are: will funding bodies push more money towards development? What kind of support do the exhibition and festival sectors need most? What practices have the regional film bodies in the former Yugoslavia adopted, and does the Covid-19 crisis require more collaboration from funding institutions? 

• Speakers: Sehad Čekić, Director, Film Centre Montenegro; Chris Marcich, Director, Croatian Audio-Visual Centre; Gordan Matić, Director, Film Centre Serbia

• Moderator: Jovan Marjanović, Head of Industry, Sarajevo Film Festival.

 

A masterclass with Veena Sud, iconic creator, showrunner and director (The Killing, Seven Seconds, The Stranger). She will discuss how the intersectionality of race, ethnicity and gender has shaped her work, and the dance BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) artists do in an industry that is still dominated by white male filmmakers and their gaze. 

• Moderator: Paula Vaccaro, Producer and Scriptwriter, Pinball London.

 

The session will look at the complicated relationship between freedom of artistic expression and political correctness, especially in regions that have suffered recent trauma such as the former Yugoslavia. Are filmmakers having to self-censor? 

• Speakers: Dana Budisavljević, director; Srdan Golubović, director; Šejla Kamerić, artist; Damjan Kozole, director. 

• Moderator: Amra Bakšić Čamo, Head of CineLink.

 

How can film and content creators push to dismantle Europe’s mainly white (and mainly male) stance? A panel with an anti-racist POV tackles the inherent racism in our markets, and an attempt to deliver a forward-thinking, honest vision of our values for the future.

• Speakers: Sarah-Tai Black, film programmer, arts curator, writer, and director of the Royal Cinema; Matthijs Wouter Knol, newly elected President of the European Film Academy and current director of the Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM); Uzma Hasan, UK-based producer who champions diversity from the inception of her projects.

• Moderator: Paula Vaccaro, Producer, Pinball London.

 

A conversation among five female actors from the former Yugoslavia region that will focus on key questions in the film industry today. What kind of films do we make? Are there enough women’s stories? How does exploitation, both in front of and behind the camera, manifest itself in the regional film industry? 

• Speakers: Lana Barić; Mirjana Karanović; Labina Mitevska; 

• Moderator: Vedrana Božinović.

 

If gatekeeping starts with festivals and reviewers, how can we demand that selections understand intersectionality and a plurality of voices? The session will discuss how BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) film programmers and film reviewers are joining forces to support a shift of power. 

• Speakers: Kaleem Aftab, reviewer, curator, producer, and author of the official Spike Lee biography, That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It; Faridah Gbadamosi, writer, producer and filmmaker; Elma Tataragić, scriptwriter and curator; Bedatri Choudhury, writer and curator.

• Moderator: Paula Vaccaro, Producer and Scriptwriter, Pinball London.

 

A career interview with Bobby Allen, senior vice president of content at MUBI, one of the fastest growing independent VOD platforms in the world, where he is responsible for all programming, content and editorial. He is also leading MUBI’s move into theatrical distribution and co-production. Before joining MUBI he was an independent film producer and the VP of sales and acquisition at Celluloid Dreams.

• Moderator: Simon Perry, ACE

 

A CineLink Work in Progress project, Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s Honeyland is one of the greatest documentary successes from the Balkan region, having won two awards from the Sundance Film Festival and two Academy Award nominations – for Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature. Atanas Georgiev, who produced and edited the film, discusses the road to the Oscars from a distribution and marketing perspective, and reflects on creative decision-making during post-production and storytelling.

• Speaker: Atanas Georgiev

• Moderator: Martichka Bozhilova, producer, Agitprop