Mentors, lecturers and speakers

Dana Budisavljević was born in 1975 in Zagreb, where she graduated from the Film and TV Editing Department of the Academy of Dramatic Arts. She worked as a film editor, production assistant and organizer of film festivals. Her directorial debut was the documentary Straight A’s! (2004), after which she went on to win wide acclaim with Family Meals (2012). With Hulahop, a production company she founded with Olinka Vištica in 2006, she produced documentary series Slumbering Concrete by Saša Ban, as well as films I Like That Super Most the Best by Eva Kraljević, Then I See Tanja by Juraj Lerotić, and others. The Diary of Diana B. (2019) is her debut feature-length film. It premiered at the 2019 Pula Film Festival, where it won six awards, after which it was screened and awarded at international festivals.

David Charap is an internationally acclaimed film editor. Trained at the British Film School and in the editing rooms of the BBC, David established himself as a prolific filmmaker while living in the Czech Republic. He edited dozens of projects ranging from acclaimed feature films like Buttoners and Last Resort to commercials. Returning to England, he established a London cutting room and has edited both documentaries and dramas. His factual credits include a prize winning account of The Beslan Siege, an Emmy for accounts of Czech show trials, and more recently, films about sons of prominent Nazis, and the experimental portrait of a rock singer recovering from a stroke, The Possibilities are Endless. He has become a sought-after consultant helping guide Virunga, a film about how war starts in the Congo to recent Oscar nomination.

As a commissioning editor for ZDF, and Deputy Programme Director and Head of Theme Evenings for ARTE, Hans Robert’s commissions include: Buena Vista Social Club, Oscar-winner Taxi To The Dark Side, Peabody-winner Why We Fight, Sundance winner The House I Live In, and the acclaimed Up The Yangtze and Mama Africa. He has also served as head of the Berlin Film Fund. Hans Robert is member of the European Film Academy, which he helped to create in 1988, a member of EDN and honorary member of the German Film Academy. After his retirement from ZDF/ARTE he is living in Berlin and running the film and TV-production company Ventana Film, focusing on international documentary films. His recent co-production Return to Homs has received the Grand Jury Prize for the best international documentary film at Sundance Film Festival 2014. Ventana Film is also co-producer of the Finnish-German documentary Emergency Call which had its premiere at IDFA 2014. Currently Hans Robert is working on his next feature documentary Fathers and Sons about the German secret service BND and, among others, a current affairs doc on European returnees from Jihad. He is also working as a tutor and expert at the Greenhouse-Workshop for young filmmakers from the Southern-Mediterranean region. 

After graduation in Communication Studies at the Trieste University, Alessandro Gropplero started to work in 2000 as a production manager with Pidgin, an Italian independent production company based in Bologna; in 2005, after a collaboration with the London-based company Number 9 Films, he came back to Udine and worked for two editions of the Udine Far East Film Festival. In May 2007, he was appointed head of international relations of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund. As such, he planned, implemented and managed a variety of international events, such as When East Meets West and Ties that Bind, both supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme. He is an EAVE graduate, board member of Cine-Regio (the largest network of European regional funds), board member of Eurodoc and a member of the European Film Academy.

Born in Zagreb, Croatia, Hrvoje Hribar graduated in film directing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. He has worked as a first assistant director, screenwriter, ra- dio playwright, cook and essayist. Through his production company FIZ, he produced and directed the comedy What Is a Man Without a Moustache?, the highest grossing film at Croatian box offices in 2006, which was shown at more than 30 international film festivals. Prior to that, he wrote, directed and produced two documentaries (The World is Great and Once There Was a Man), as well as his first feature The Tranquilizer Gun. As a director and a scriptwriter, Hribar is also the author of a TV film Croatian Cathedrals and the short film Between Zaghlul & Zaharias. In 2001, he directed the TV series New Age for Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). He was awarded the Oktavijan (best Croatian film of the year) several times. Since November 2010, Hribar has been serving as a member of the Executive Committee of FERA. In September 2010 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the main audiovisual agency in Croatia.

Vjeran Hrpka was born 1972 in Osijek, Croatia. He graduated in film and TV cinematography from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Art. As a cinematographer he worked on many fiction, documentary and entertainment programmes in Croatia, as well as in more than 50 countries across the world. He collaborated on more than 20 films as cinematographer and also worked with local and international TV broadcasters like BBC World, History Channel, Reuters, TV5, NHK, ZDF, Al Jazeera International etc. He is experienced in TV ENG, EFP production around the world, live production, commercials, commissioned films and music videos. For his work he received many awards at group exhibitions and film festivals. Since 2011 he has been working as an artistic advisor at the Osijek Academy of Art, teaching photography and cinematography. In 2014 he became a teaching docent.

Vanja Jambrović graduated in philosophy and comparative literature from Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and film production from the Academy of Dramatic Arts. Since 2009 she has been making films with Restart. Vanja’s track record includes more than 20 films of all shapes and sizes. Her films have circled the globe, having been screened in competition at Hot Docs or Toronto IFF to Karlovy Vary IFF, Sarajevo FF and hundreds more.Vanja is running the Restart Laboratory – a platform for first time directors and Restart Masterclass – a year-long program dedicated to connecting world-class filmmakers with Croatian audiences through a series of interactive lectures. With her projects Vanja was part of several professional workshops such as: EAVE (2015), Producers on the Move (Cannes 2014), Robert Bosch Coproduction Prize Germany Eastern Europe (Berlin, 2013),Berlinale Talent Campus (Berlin, 2013), Emerging Producers 2012 (Jihlava), Sarajevo Talent Campus (Sarajevo, 2012), EURODOC (France 2010) and many more.

Kim Longinotto, born 1952, is a British documentary filmmaker, renowned internationally for her compelling human portraits and her sensitive and compassionate treatment of unknown topics. She studied camera and directing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, where she now tutors occasionally. Since 1976 she has directed, filmed and produced around 20 films. She is best known for known for her films Salma (2013), Sisters in Law (2005), The Day I Will Never Forget (2002) and Gaea Girls (2000) that won many awards at international festivals like Cannes, Sundance, IDFA and many other.ZagrebDox has screend many of her films in its various programs.

Mikael Opstrup has been a dedicated documentarist since he made his first documentary in 1977. Most of the 80s Mikael worked in distribution and theatrical release of documentaries. In 1988 he attended scriptwriting at the Danish Film School and worked as freelance producer up through the 90s. He made a desk cross-over in 1998-2002, working as a production adviser at the Danish Film Institute. In 1998/99 he attended EAVE. In 2002- 2008 he was a co-owner and producer at Final Cut Productions in Copenhagen where he produced a number of international documentaries. He was a board member of EDN from 2005 to 2008, the last year as chairman. Since 2011 he works as the Head of Studies at EDN.

Martina Petrović has a major in International Relations and a minor in Psychology. Martina has gained most of her working experience at the Ministry of Culture, De- partment for International Cultural Cooperation, being responsible for various cultural exchange programmes between Croatia and other countries; among many activities, she was responsible for the organisation of Croatian film presentation during international film fe- stivals in Berlin and Cannes. From 2008, she has been actively involved in establishing the Croatian Audiovi- sual Centre, where she has stayed, after being chosen by the European Commission as the Head of MEDIA Desk Croatia. Following immediate and successful re- sults in terms of ensuring the financing by the MEDIA Programme, working thoroughly on the promotion of the Croatian film, resulted in receiving the first Albert Kapović Award by the Croatian Producers Association, given at the opening of Zagreb Film Festival in 2010. As the Head of MEDIA Desk Croatia (today’s Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office), she has been actively involved in organising innovative and active presenta- tions/workshops – important tools for education and networking – between Croatian but also European film professionals.

Marija Ratković Vidaković was born in 1985 in Karlovac. She holds a BA in Film, TV and Theater Production and an MA in the Production of Stage and Performing Arts from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She is a final year student of German and Spanish Studies at the Faculty of Humanities in Zagreb. She is one on the founders and the longtime director of the Four River Film Festival in Karlovac and the Karlovac River Cinema. Since 2017, she lives and works in Sweden. IKEA for YU (2018), codirected with Dinka Radonić, is her directorial debut.

Sanja Ravlić has extensive experience in the audiovisual sector, as a script editor, producer and consultant both in Croatia and the UK. In 2007 she joined the core team of the newly founded Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the governing film agency in Croatia. From March 2010 to June 2012 she was Head of Development at the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and from January 2013 to January 2015 Head of Co-productions. Sanja is Croatia's representative on the Board of Management of Eurimages, Council of Europe's support fund for co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works, a member of the European Film Academy and a member of the Programme Council of the Croatian Radiotelevision.

After graduation from the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana, Jožko Rutar started working as a producer of cultural events and performances. He worked with the contemporary dance group EN-KNAP for five years as a producer of dance performances and films. In 2004 he joined the Staragara production company and produced several feature, short and documentary films. In his career as a producer he produced three feature films and numerous shorts and documentaries that were presented in Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam etc. Jožko Rutar is an EAVE graduate, a member of the European Film Academy and a board member of the Slovenian audiovisual collecting society AIPA. On 1 July 2011 he was appointed by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia to the position of director of Slovenian Film Centre. 

Rada Šešić is a festival programmer, film lecturer, critic and film director. Head of the documentary competition at Sarajevo FF and co-head of the Docu Rough Cut Boutique-SFF. On the selection committee of the IDFA official competition. Head of Last Stop Trieste at WEMW. On the selection committee of the DOHA Film Fund.

Lectures and is a mentor at the Master of Film at the Netherlands Film and TV Academy in Amsterdam. Taught South Asian cinema at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Media and Culture for eight years. Director of the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival launched in The Hague 13 years ago. Selector of the DOKUart festival in Bjelovar. On the EFA documentary jury. Documentary mentor and consultant at various international workshops/pitching sessions in Europe and Asia. She was a lecturer at the Dutch Institute for Film Education (NIF) and advisor at STIFO, where she evaluated Dutch documentary projects for six years. Member of the board of the Balkan Documentary Center and NETPAC. Lived in India and taught two semesters at the Srishti Institute, Bengaluru. Lectures at the Croatian Film Association’s “Dr. Ante Peterlić” School of Media Culture. As a film critic, she collaborated on the book of Dina Iordanova (UK), as well as on Aitken’s Encyclopaedia of the Documentary Film, writing several parts on Eastern European Documentary authors. She also collaborated on 3 books in India: on directors Bimal Roy, Mani Kaul and Girish Kasaravalli. Regularly publishes her writings on cinema in Dutch publications Skrien and Filmkrant, USA Animation Magazine, Croatian Hrvatski ljetopis and Bosnian Sineast.

Directed several short films in Yugoslavia, a. o. LAM ARABI (1990), was assistant director to Vesna Ljubić’s fiction feature films, in the Netherlands directed four films – Room without a view (1997), Soske (2001), In Whitest Solitude (2002), On the Way to School (2007). Her films were screened at 60 festivals, won awards and are archived by MoMA, New York, and EYE, Amsterdam.

Paolo Vidali was born in Udine, where he also studied. In 1970 he began working in Rome, as a scriptwriter and first assistant director on a dozen films, and later as a dialogue director and dubbing director. Since the early 1990s, he has been a constant presence on the documentary film market, as an author and a producer. He collaborated as a consultant on drafting the Friuli Venezia Giulia legal act that established the regional Fund, and currently he is the managing director of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund.

Želimir Žilnik was born in 1942 in Niš, and he is living and working in Novi Sad, Serbia. He has written and directed numerous fiction and documentary films which have garnered many awards at national and international film festivals. He is one of the pioneers of the docu-drama genre. From the very beginning his films have focussed on contemporary issues, featuring social, political and economic assessments of everyday life: Newsreel on Village Youth, in Winter (1967), Little Pioneers (1968), The Unemployed (1968), June Turmoil (1969), Black Film (1971), Uprising in Jazak (1973). Žilnik’s fiction debut Early Works (1969) won the Golden Bear at Berlinale and four awards at Pula Film Festival. In 1995 his film Marble Ass won the prestigious Teddy Award at Berlinale. ZagrebDox has screened Žilnik’s films Logbook Serbistan (2015), Pirika on Film (2013) and Europe Next Door (2005), which won the Big Stamp. He was an International Jury member at ZagrebDox 2019. Žilnik’s latest films are The Most Beautiful Country in the World (2018) and Among the People: Life & Acting (2018).