Guest Speakers

Jeremy Humphries is an award winning BBC trained director of photography. He has over 30 years of experience working on documentaries for BBC, C4, ITV, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.  His projects have been as diverse as filming civil wars in Africa, to camera skills training for the cast of Bear Grylls The Island. Jeremy filmed Channel 4’s Escape to the Wild series which has been nominated in 2016 for a BAFTA in the Best Features category. As one of the most experienced and respected directors of photography in the UK, Jeremy is, as owner of Skills2Film, regularly called in as an expert consultant to oversee and train production crews for the leading television production companies.

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.

Mehrdad Oskouei is an Iranian filmmaker, producer, photographer and researcher born in 1969 in Tehran. He studied film direction at the University of Arts. His films have been screened at numerous festivals both at home and abroad to great critical acclaim, making him one of the major Iranian documentary makers. In 2010, Oskouei received the Dutch Prince Claus Award for his achievements. He is a founding member of the Institute of Anthropology and Culture and has sat on several international film festival juries, as well as being a cultural ambassador for the United Nation's humanitarian committee UCHA. He also teaches at film schools around Iran and is active in the Tehran Arts and Culture Association. His film The Last Days of Winter was released in France in 2013 to both critical and public acclaim. His film Starless Dreams was screened at 2016 ZagrebDox.

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.