ifs internationale filmschule köln Master’s Program Serial Storytelling

Lecturers and Guest Speakers

Overview

1. ifs Professors 2

2. Guest Lecturers (2013-2021)

● Showrunners and Series Writers 7 ● Producers, Commissioning Editors, Network Executives 19 ● Screenwriting Teachers and Script Consultants 29 ● Media Scholars 40 ● Festival Curators 43 ● Transmedia, Animation, Comics and Game Experts 47 ● Agents & Lawyers 50

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1. ifs Professors

Prof. Dr. Joachim Friedmann Professor for Serial Storytelling

Joachim Friedmann is a German screenwriter, comic writer, developer of online formats, and media scholar. He worked for popular TV series like »In aller Freundschaft«, »Die Camper«, »Der letzte Bulle (The Last Cop)«, and »Die Lindenstraße«. As a comic writer, he is the only German to write »Donald Duck« stories in English. He created the comic series »Lais and Ben« (Carlsen Publishing House) and wrote the comic adaptation of the TV movie »Mörderische Entscheidung« with Oliver Hirschbiegel. Another focus of his work is interactive, online-based formats. In this field, he was responsible for the concept and storytelling of the transmedia project centering on the DFB mascot »Paule« and designed the award-winning interactive learning game »Die Schlaumäuse«. Since 2001, he has been teaching dramaturgy, series development, and series writing at the University of Hildesheim and at various film schools. In 2017 he became professor for Serial Storytelling at ifs internationale filmschule köln. Friedmann’s dissertation on »Transmedia Narrative: Narrative Design in Literature, Film, Graphic Novel and Game« was published in 2016, his textbook »Storytelling« (UTB) in 2019.

Prof. Dr. Gundolf S. Freyermuth Associate Professor for Comparative Media Studies

Gundolf S. Freyermuth is a writer, media producer, and a professor of media and game studies at the Cologne Game Lab, which he co-founded in 2010. He also co-founded and co-edits the series »Bild und Bit. Studien zur digitalen Medienkultur« (»Image and Bit. Studies in Digital Media Culture«, since 2012). Freyermuth studied comparative literature and aesthetics at the Free University, Berlin. He wrote his MA thesis on the aesthetics of modern theater and his Ph.D. thesis on the impact of the techno-cultural process of digitalization on the arts, entertainment, and communication. From 2004 to 2014, he was a professor of comparative media studies at ifs internationale filmschule köln, where he still teaches as an Associate Professor. For the last decade, Freyermuth has been lecturing on digital games and game studies all over the world, inter alia in Los Angeles (UCLA), Hong Kong (Lingnan University), Shanghai (Shanghai Theater Academy), Budapest (University of Film and Theatre), Vienna, Klagenfurt, Brussels, Maastricht, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. Recent publications include: »Utopian Futures. A Brief History of Their Conception and Representation in Modern Media – From Literature to Digital Games.« In: Benjamin Beil / Gundolf S. 2/52

Freyermuth / Hanns Christian Schmidt (eds.): Playing Utopia. Futures in Digital Games, Bielefeld 2019 and »Games | Game Design | Game Studies. An Introduction.« (2015)

Prof. Uli Hanisch Professor for Production Design

Uli Hanisch, born in Nuremberg, grew up in the Ruhr area and initially worked as a graphic artist. In 1990 he began to design the films of Christoph Schlingensief. Shortly afterwards he worked with Helge Schneider. Hanisch supervises the films of many renowned directors such as Adolf Winkelmann, Sönke Wortmann, Max Färberböck, Andreas Dresen, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Leander Haußmann. Since 2009 Hanisch has also been working on American productions abroad. He has worked closely with Tom Tykwer for many years, including »Das Parfum« in 2005, for which he received several film awards, and the American production »The International« in 2007. He received his third German Film Award in 2012 for the production »Cloud Atlas«. In 2015, work begins on the historical series project »Babylon Berlin«, for which Hanisch also designs the new permanent outdoor backdrop »Neue Berliner Straße« in Babelsberg. Uli Hanisch has been a guest lecturer at all relevant film schools in Germany since 2001.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Hanstein Professor for Film Studies with a Focus on Theory, History and Aesthetics of Film

Ulrike Hanstein was born in Erfurt. She graduated in theatre studies at the Justus-Liebig- Universität, Gießen. She developed collaborative performance pieces, both as site-specific works and for theatre spaces. She worked as assistant director and production manager for theatre and performance projects. She gained her PhD in film studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, with a thesis on the melodramatic film aesthetics of Lars von Trier and Aki Kaurismäki. She was postdoctoral fellow in the research team »Transmissions: Media and Religion« (Weimar, Jena, Erfurt), and held academic positions at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena. She was a fellow at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. She worked as lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater »Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy«, Leipzig and at the University of Vienna. She served as an interim professor of Film Studies at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate Academy in Jena. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Hanstein is professor for Film History and Film Analysis at ifs internationale filmschule köln.

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Prof. Peter Herrmann Professor for Creative Producing

Peter Herrmann studied ethnology in Munich, followed by documentary film director and producer. The first feature film as executive producer is »Deathmaker« (Director: Romuald Karmakar), which was awarded the German Film Prize for Best Director and Best Film. Numerous productions followed, including Roland Suso Richter’s »Eine Hand voll Gras«, which won the children’s film section in Cannes in 2001, Jan Schütte’s »Fette Welt« and the award- winning TV two-parter »The Bubi Scholz Story«. With Caroline Link and her joint film »Nowhere in Africa«, he won the German Film Award in several categories and numerous awards at international festivals in 2003 as well as the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Many of his films are set in different parts of Africa, including »Desert Flower« and »Exit Marrakech«. »Desert Flower« was not only a great success at German box offices, but also sold very well internationally and won several prizes. Peter Herrmann is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of German Films, the official export and promotion organization of the German film industry, and a member of the Awards Committee of the Filmförderanstalt Berlin.

Prof. Mika Kallwass Professor for Screenwriting and Dramaturgy

Mika Kallwass studied directing at the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield near London. She started her filmmaking career in London with music videos and documentaries for Channel 4. After her return to Germany she made a feature film for cinema and TV for ZDF. In 1995 she was participant of the first cohort of the Schreibschule Köln e.V., a forerunner of ifs’ »Screenwriters’ Program«. In 2001 she received a scholarship for screenwriting and directing at Columbia University in New York, where she studied with Nora Ephron, James Schamus, and Mike Hausmann. Mika Kallwass works as a freelance screenwriter and script consultant in Germany. Since 2017 she holds the professorship for Screenwriting and Dramaturgy at ifs internationale filmschule köln.

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Prof. Uwe Kersken Professor for Masterclass Non-Fiction

Uwe Kersken is a renowned producer, writer and director of documentary films and series as well as docu-dramas with a focus on history, science and nature for German and international TV. From 1970 to 1980, he worked for German broadcaster WDR, amongst others in the editorial department of Germany’s leading news program »Tagesschau«. After that he created his own documentaries as a »One Man Show«. In 1989 he co-founded Gruppe 5 Filmproduktion where he worked as managing partner until April 2014. Uwe Kersken is internationally known for primetime documentary formats such as »The Forgotten Island« (BBC) »Die amerikanische Reise«, »Die Juden, Geschichte eines Volkes« (ARD), »Die Deutschen«, »Sturm über Europa«, »Die Varusschlacht«, »2057 – Die Welt in 50 Jahren«, »Welcome to China«, »Armageddon – Der Einschlag«, »Dawn of the Oceans«, »America Before Columbus«, »Planet Egypt« (ZDF & Dicovery, National Geographic, History, NHK, SBS, and many European partners). Not to forget the major series Wildlife Series »Fabulous Animals« (WDR, Canal+ & National Geographic) and »Dolphin-Stories« (WDR & Discovery). In 2009, Uwe Kersken initiated and designed the further education program Masterclass Non-Fiction at ifs internationale filmschule köln, where he is continually involved in the further development of the program and consultation of the participants. In 2014 he founded G5fiction with ZDF-Enterprises, where he is responsible for the development, financing, production and exploitation of high-quality, original drama programs, including »Duell der Brüder« and »Goldjungs«. Upcoming projects include »Die Nibelungen«, »La Légion«, »Alexander The Great, »Ellis Island, and »Radio Cold War«. For a more detailed CV and filmography click here.

Prof. Rolf Mütze Professor for Visual Effects and Animation

Rolf Mütze studied visual communication in Münster and received his Master in computer arts at the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco, where he received a scholarship by the Fulbright Commission. Since 2000 he has been working in the field of Animation and Visual Effects as Visual Artist, Technical Director, Animation Director and CG/VFX Supervisor. Projects include »Cloud Atlas«, »The Hobbit: An unexpected Journey«, »Deutschland 86«,and »Oktoberfest 1990«

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Prof. Ruth Olshan Professor for Documentary Narrative in Audio-visual Media

Ruth Olshan was born in Russia and grew up in Israel and Berlin. She studied Directing and Film Producing in Leeds (UK) and Cologne. Today she lives in Germany and works as a freelance director and screenwriter for feature films and documentaries. Ruth Olshan has received numerous awards and scholarships such as the Sir Richard Attenborough Prize, the Prize for Women Artists in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Prize and the Deutscher Fernsehpreis. Her films have been shown at international festivals such as Venice, Locarno, Munich, Tbilisi, Berlin, and Oberhausen. Since 2018 she also holds the professorship for Documentary Narratives in Audiovisual Media at ifs internationale filmschule köln. Ruth Olshan teaches dramaturgy and screenwriting at different universities in Germany and abroad.

Prof. Jutta Pohlmann Professor for Cinematography / Director of Photography

After graduating from high school, Jutta Pohlmann gained her first experience at the Tisch School of Arts, New York University, where she completed the summer course »Beginning Film Production« in 1991. From 1991 to 1997 she studied camera and directing at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, Hungary. As part of her studies she participated twice in the »Seminar for Director of Photography Students« – Masterclasses in Budapest, Hungary under Zsigmond Vilmos, Billy Williams and Dean Cundey. Since 1995 Jutta Pohlmann has been working as a freelance camerawoman for cinema, television and documentary films for directors such as Alexander Adolph, David Schalko, Petra Lüschow, Achim von Borries, Katalin Gödrös and Detlev Buck. She has directed numerous commercials, music videos and art films for renowned artists. She has received several awards for her work. Among other teaching activities, she was camera mentor for the feature film KATI KATI in Kenya, Africa in winter 2015, which was produced as part of Tom Tykwer’s »One Fine Day Film«.

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Guest Lecturers (2013-2020)

Showrunners and Series Writers

Lisa Albert Writer and Producer (»Mad Men«, »Halt and Catch Fire«, »UnReal«, »Paper Girls«), USA

Lisa Albert is an American television writer and producer. She has worked in both capacities on the AMC drama series »Mad Men« and has won a WGA Award for her work on the show. Lisa graduated from Swarthmore College in 1981. She was an honors graduate in English Literature. Some of Albert's other television writing credits include »The Cosby Show«, »My Sister Sam«, »Mr. Belvedere«, »Major Dad«, »Murphy Brown«, »Living Single« and »Suddenly Susan«. Lisa won three Emmys, five WGA awards (one for »Best New Series«, four for »Best Dramatic Series«), and a Peabody Award. Most recently, she has worked as writer and consulting producer on »Halt and Catch Fire« and »The Right Stuff«, and as writer and co-executive producer on »Unreal«, »Divorce« and the upcoming »Paper Girls« on Amazon.

Sebastian Colley Writer and Producer (»How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)«), Germany

Sebastian Colley has worked as screenwriter and creative producer for many successful TV productions such as »Circus HalliGalli«, »Harald Schmidt«, »Die unwahrscheinlichen Ereignisse im Leben von…« and »Neo Magazin Royale«. Since 2017 he has been head writer of the sketch comedy series »Kroymann«, for which he was awarded the Grimme Prize in 2018 and 2019. In 2019 he developed and wrote the award-winning Netflix series »How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)« together with btf GmbH.

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Orkun Ertener Creator, Writer and Producer (»KDD - Kriminaldauerdienst«), Germany

Orkun Ertener is a German screenwriter and novelist. His ZDF series »KDD – Kriminaldauerdienst«, for which he also acted as creative producer, was perceived as innovative and received several awards. Ertener made his debut in 1994 at German broadcaster BR. Numerous television films followed, including »Tatort« and »Stahlnetz« episodes. His first novel, »Lebt« (»Living«), was published in 2014, and ranked number one on the KrimiZEIT bestseller list.

Jane Espenson Creator, Writer and Producer (»Caprica«, »Game of Thrones«, »Battlestar Gallactica«), USA

Jane Espenson is an American TV writer and producer of situation comedies and serial dramas. She worked as a writer and producer on »Buffy the Vampire Slayer« for five years and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode »Conversations with Dead People«. Between 2009 and 2010 she served on »Caprica«, as co-executive and executive producer. In 2010 she wrote an episode of HBO's »Game of Thrones«, and joined the writing staff for season four of the British television program »Torchwood«, which aired on BBC. She was consulting producer and writer on ABC's 2011 series »Once Upon a Time«, and has co-written and produced the independent original web series »Husbands« with co-creator Brad Bell. Recent projects include »Marvel's Jessica Jones« (consulting producer), the upcoming »The Nevers« (executive producer) and »Foundations« (co-executive producer).

Johan Fasting Creator, Writer and Director (»Heimbane/Home Ground«, »Lilyhammer«), Norway

Johan Fasting has worked as a writer and consultant on several television and film projects since 2014. Johan studied Media Science at the University of Oslo and Film & TV Production at Westerdals School of Communication before completing his Bachelor in Screenwriting at the Norwegian Film School (2011 – 2014). 8/52

He started out as contributing writer on the third season of »Lilyhammer« before co-creating and show-running his own series »Heimebane« (»Home Ground«), a TV-drama running for two seasons at NRK 2018-2019. His current projects include »Ninjababy«, aka »The Art of Falling« (a film adaptation of the graphic novel by Inga Sætre), the feature script »Storm«, and the TV show »The Power«, for which he, again acts as Head writer/Showrunner.

Mats Frey Writer and Serial Storytelling Alumnus (»How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)«, »Für Umme«), Switzerland

Mats Frey was born in 1986 somewhere on a mountaintop in the snowy Swiss Alps. From 2007 to 2009 he worked as an assistant director for Condor Films in Zurich. After earning his BA in film at the Zurich School of Arts in 2011 he worked as a freelance director for commercials. In 2013 he co-founded a consultant and production agency for visualizations and now works as a writer and director. In June 2015 he earned his MA in Serial Storytelling at the ifs internationale filmschule köln. Since then he has been working as a freelance screenwriter for TV shows, such as »How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)« (btf/Netflix), »Für Umme« (Amazon Prime), and »Der Bestatter« (snakefilm/SRF), as well as for feature films (»Tatort: Der Elefant im Raum«/SRF, »Tatort: Zwei Leben«/SRF).

Andreas Fuhrmann Writer and Script Consultant (»In aller Freundschaft«, »Neighbours«), Germany

Andreas Fuhrmann is a German screenwriter and script consultant who specializes in daily and weekly dramas. As developer, storyliner, script producer, and writer he worked for daily shows of all major German networks (»Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten« and »Alles Was Zählt« (RTL), »Marienhof«, »St. Angela«, and »Verbotene Liebe« (ARD), »Julia, Wege zum Glück« (ZDF), »Alisa – Folge deinem Herzen«. He was head writer for the popular weekly drama »Hinter Gittern – Der Frauenknast« (RTL), and wrote for primetime shows, such as »In aller Freundschaft« (ARD) and »Das Traumschiff«. From 2011 to 2018 he worked as international development consultant for FremantleMedia on projects in Europe, Australia, South East Asia, Middle East, and the UK. He adapted the Australian show »Wentworth« for German TV (»Block B«) as well as the British crime drama Suspects for RTL Germany. He writes regularly on several German TV shows and has created and written 100+ hours of serial and primetime drama in Germany, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has recently worked as the head writer for the prime time drama »Die Heiland« (ARD), has written a feature film for Syrreal Entertainment and Tobis Film in Berlin. He is currently working on an adaptation of the award- 9/52

winning Spanish movie »Campeones« for TV NOW as well as developing a super natural drama for Jörg Winger's Big Window production company.

Morgan Gendel Writer and Producer (»Star Trek – Next Generation«, »The 100«), USA

Morgan Gendel has 30 years’ experience in TV as a network executive, writer, producer, and showrunner. The Hugo-Award winner (for »Star Trek: The Next Generation«) has written or produced more than 250 episodes of television, including »Law & Order«, »Drop Dead Diva« and »The 100«, on which he served as co-executive producer. He was showrunner or executive producer on »Spider-Man«, »V.I.P.«, »The Dresden Files«, and the Lifetime TV movie »A Decent Proposal«. He recently signed on to adapt the best-selling »Kingfountain« book series for Nucleus Media Rights, for whom he will also serve as showrunner, and his original sci-fi series »The Convergence« is currently being set up by Studio Babelsberg in alliance with Endgame Entertainment of Hollywood. As a consultant to Pro 7, he mentored writers of the TV series »Unschuldig« and did the same for the Russian company GoodStory and the series »Sweet Life«. Outside of the writing realm, Gendel is a member of NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium, to which he recently delivered a presentation on HABOLITH, his innovative design concept for astronaut housing on the moon and Mars.

Jeppe Gjervig Gram Creator, Writer and Producer (»Borgen«, »Follow the Money«), Denmark

Jeppe Gjervig Gram was born 1976 in Odense, Denmark. After graduating from university, he worked six years as a drama series consultant for the Danish network TV 2, dealing with acquisition of international series as well as commissioning of original Danish series, before enrolling in the screenwriting program at the National Danish Film School in 2005. He graduated in 2007. While still in film school Gram was headhunted by public broadcaster DR and employed as a regular episode writer on the one-hour drama series »Sommer« (2008-2009), one of the highest rating shows on Danish television the last twenty years, writing 3 episodes in total. Fresh out of »Sommer«, Jeppe Gjervig Gram teamed up with headwriter Adam Price and fellow film school alumni Tobias Lindholm to create a three man strong writer’s room, that created the first Danish political drama series »Borgen«. »Borgen« was a hit both locally and abroad, winning several prestigious television awards, among others the Prix Italia, the FIPA d’OR, and the BAFTA for best foreign series, and when another 10 episodes of the series was commissioned by DR, Adam Price and Jeppe Gjervig

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Gram continued their fruitful collaboration. Jeppe Gjervig Gram is co-creator and showrunner of »Follow the Money« – a drama series in 20 episodes about corporate crime for the same coveted Sunday night timeslot that formerly was the home of »The Killing« and »Borgen«.

Matthew Graham Creator and Writer (»Life on Mars«, »Ashes to Ashes«), UK

Matthew Graham is a British television writer, and the co-creator of the BBC/Kudos Film and Television science fiction series »Life on Mars«, which debuted in 2006 on BBC One and has received international critical acclaim. Graham began his career writing for the soap opera EastEnders and the children's drama Byker Grove, both for BBC One. In the 1990s, he wrote for the popular BBC Two drama series »This Life«, and created and wrote the post-apocalyptic drama serial »The Last Train« for ITV. He has also written episodes for Spooks and Hustle, and he wrote »Fear Her«, an episode of the 2006 series of »Doctor Who. »Ashes to Ashes«, a »Life on Mars« spin-off which he co-created with »Life on Mars« writer/co- creator Ashley Pharoah, was first broadcast on BBC One on 8 January 2008, to an audience of 7 million, according to overnight figures. In the US, ABC commissioned a remake of Life on Mars, also to be called »Life on Mars«, developed by David E. Kelley, creator of »Ally McBeal«, for broadcast in the 2007/08 midseason. His adaptation of the novel »Childhood's End« aired on Syfy in December 2015.

Annette Hess Creator, Writer and Producer (»Ku'damm 56-63«, »Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo«), Germany

Annette Hess grew up in Hanover and currently lives in Lower Saxony. She initially studied painting and interior design, and later scenic writing. She worked as a freelance journalist and assistant director, before launching a successful career as a screenwriter. Her critically- acclaimed and popular television series »Weissensee« and »Ku'damm 56/59/63« are credited with revitalizing German TV. She has received numerous awards from the Grimme Prize to the Frankfurt Prize to the German Television Prize. In 2019 she published her first novel, The German House. Her most recent series project, »Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo« for Amazon Prime, is currently in production.

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Dorte W. Høgh Creator, Writer and Producer (»Dicte«, »When the Dust Settles«), Denmark

Dorte W. Høgh, born in 1969, started her career as a successful journalist and radio and TV host during the nineties before graduating as scriptwriter from The National Film School of Denmark in 1999. She collaborated with director Per Fly, co-writing three of his film (»The Inheritance«, »Manslaughter« and »The Woman Who Dreamed of a Man«) before showrunning three seasons of the popular crime tv-series »Dicte« for Danish TV2. In 2009 she was nominated for an Oscar for her short film »The Pig«, which she both wrote and directed. Ida is co-creator and showrunner of the TV-series »When the Dust Settles« for DR.

Philipp Käßbohrer Creator, Writer and Producer (»How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)«)

Philipp Käßbohrer, born in 1983 studied at the Academy for Media Arts Cologne, where he met his creative Partner, Matthias Murmann. In their work as showrunners, producers, creative producers, writers, and directors they have realized a large variety of projects, including documentaries, TV shows, comedy series, art projects and video games. In 2012, they founded the Cologne, Germany-based production company btf GmbH (bildundtonfabrik). Their work has been recognized with the German Television Award six times and the prestigious Grimme Award ten times. In recent years, bildundtonfabrik has developed a reputation as one of the most original and innovative production companies in Germany. Currently they are working on season 3 of »How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)« (Netflix), a show which was created by Philipp and Matthias.

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Oliver Kienle Creator, Writer, Producer and Director (»Bad Banks«, »Four Hands«), Germany

Oliver Kienle, born in 1982, worked even as teenager as a writer, illustrator, composer, and director. From 2004 to 2010 he studied directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Oliver's graduate thesis film »Bis aufs Blut« (»Stronger than Blood«) was his first feature film for cinema. Since then Oliver has shown his adaptability as both a writer and director. (2018 »Bad Banks« (creator/headwriter); 2017 »Four Hands« (writer/director); 2015 »Point Blank« (writer); 2013 »Tatort: Happy Birthday, Sarah« (director)).

Bob Konrad Creator and Writer (»4 Blocks«, »You Are Wanted«, »Funeral for a Dog«), Germany

Bob Konrad was born in Heidelberg in 1968 and studied at the UdK Berlin. Since 1993 he has written and directed numerous radio plays, radio play series and radio comedy for public broadcasters. He found his way to television in 2000 through an animation series. His first feature film »Besser als Schule« followed. Since then he has worked mainly as a screenwriter for crime and drama series. 2012 he teamed up with Hanno Hackfort and Richard Kropf. Together they created and wrote »Koslowski und Haferkamp« (ARD), »Soko Potsdam« (ZDF), »4 Blocks« (TNT), »You Are Wanted« (Amazon), »Para – We are King« (TNT) and »Funeral For a Dog« (Sky). Bob Konrad lives and works in Berlin.

Hagai Levi Creator, Writer and Producer (»The Affair«, »Be'tipul«/»In Treatment«), Israel

Golden Globe winner for co-creating the series »The Affair« (Showtime, 2014), Hagai Levi was born in a small religious Kibbutz in Israel. In 2005, Levi created, co-produced and co-directed the highly acclaimed Israeli TV series »Be'tipul«, later adapted to the HBO's drama »In Treatment«

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(2007-2010, 106 episodes), which won several Emmy and Golden Globe awards. The show was adapted in another 18 countries, including Italy, Russia, Canada, The Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and more. In 2013 Levi created and directed a 5-hour mini-series, »The Accursed «', for HOT (Israel cable company). Levi wrote, directed, and co-produced the acclaimed feature film »August Snow « (1993). Levi created and co-produced the anthology series »Short Stories About Love«, which won twice the Israeli Academy Awards for best drama. He directed and co-created the medical drama series »101« (2000); co-created and co-produced the daily drama »Love Around The Corner« (2002, 270 episodes), and directed and co-wrote the TV drama »Premiere« (2002); among others.Levi also produced several documentaries, among them »It Kinda Scares Me« (2001, won the Melbourne, Turin and Haifa international Film Festivals), and served as a story/script editor for numerous Israeli drama series. Levi was a film critic for 10 years, as well as lecturer in the leading film schools in Israel, and was the head of drama department in the leading Israeli TV channel »Keshet« (2003-2006).

Juliana Lima-Dehne Writer and Serial Storytelling Alumna (»1899«), USA/Brazil/Germany

Juliana Lima Dehne is an award-winning Brazilian-American screenwriter. After working in various film and television departments, in the American, Brazilian, and European markets, Juliana relocated to Germany. She is a recipient of the VGF Stidpendium from the Bavaria Film Center at the Bavarian Film Studios, an alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (NYC campus), MA Serial Storytelling Program (ifs internationale filmschule köln) and Racconti Script Lab (IDM). Since 2015 she has been working in TV development, developing over 20 shows for the European and International Market with prominent German production companies. Juliana Lima Dehne is currently working on the anticipated Netflix series »1899« by the creators of »Dark« and in development for her own half-hour series. Juliana resides in Berlin with her husband, two children and their furry companion, a very energetic Parson Russell.

Alexander Lindh Writer (»Beck is Back«, »Armans Geheimnis«, »Druck«), Germany

Alexander Lindh, born 1988, lives in Berlin. After studying Cultural Sciences, Creative Writing and Media in Hildesheim, he began his writing career in 2011 at »Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten«, where he worked as storyliner, editor and dialogue writer. In 2013 Alexander participated in the one-year program »Serial Eyes« at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) and the London Film School (LFS), where he specialized in writing for

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television series in the Writers' Room/Showrunner system. He wrote for »Beck is Back« (RTL), was head writer of the second season of »Armans Geheimnis« (ARD), wrote for the series »Culpa – Niemand ist ohne Schuld« (NBC Germany) and for the two-part mockumentary »Ein Mann, eine Wahl« (Prosieben). Currently, Alexander is the sole writer of »Druk« (ZDF/FUNK), the German adaptation of the Norwegian teen series »Skam«.

Kath Lingenfelter Writer and Producer (»Westworld«, »The Leftovers«, »House, M.D. «), USA

Kath Lingenfelter is a writer/producer based in Los Angeles. She is currently in a multi-year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to develop and produce projects for television. She was formerly a writer and co-executive producer on HBO’s massive hit program »Westworld«, which was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 2017 Emmys. Prior to that, she was a writer and supervising producer on HBO’s critically acclaimed program »The Leftovers«, and a writer and supervising producer on »House, M.D.«, which ranked as the most watched TV show in the world during its run. Her other credits include »Caprica«, »Pushing Daisies«, and »Sleeper Cell«, among others. She has frequently collaborated with »The Science and Entertainment Exchange« (a division of the National Academy of Sciences), appearing on panels and giving keynote speeches around the world on the challenges and benefits of demanding credible science in entertainment. She comes from hearty mid-western stock and is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

James Manos Creator, Writer and Producer (»Dexter«, »The Sopranos«, »The Shield«), USA

Creator of the groundbreaking drama series »Dexter« and co-producer of season one of »The Sopranos«, award-winning American film and television writer James Manos has been setting standards within the international TV landscape for over two decades. A trained theater director, James Manos received a degree from Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, in English/Theater. Jim also studied in a collaborative program on play construction and directing with members of the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts in London. He studied acting and later taught acting classes in New York, and directed numerous plays. His vast experience in TV writing includes the role of the consulting producer on »The Shield« and executive producer on »South of Hell«. James Manos won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on the episode »College« of »The Sopranos« (shared with creator David Chase). For his work on the first season of »Dexter« he was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for best dramatic series.

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Manuel Meimberg Writer, Director and Producer (»Familie Braun«, »Sunny – Wer bist Du wirklich?«), Germany

Manuel Meimberg is a Berlin screenwriter, director and creative producer known for his innovative comedy series »Familie Braun« (ZDF). From 1996 to 2009 he worked in various positions for the RTL productions »Unter Uns«, »Verschollen«, and »Alles, was zählt«. His first own series concepts and pilot scripts followed, among others for Wiedemann & Berg TV München and Filmpool / Fiction GmbH, Cologne. Since 2011 Manuel Meimberg has been writing regularly for the ZDF series »SOKO Leipzig«, as well as for numerous series projects of UFA Fiction. His web series »Pietshow« was nominated for the »International Digital Emmy© Award« twice, his shortform Web- and TV-Drama »Familie Braun« won the »IFFMH Audience Award«, the Academy »Romy«, the »Deutscher Comedypreis 2016« and the »International Emmy© Award«. He is now working as a showrunner for »Sunny – Wer bist Du wirklich?« (UFA Fiction).

Ulrike Molsen Writer (»Letzte Spur Berlin«, »The Prophecy«, »Vor der Flut«), Germany

Ulrike Molsen is a German writer born in Berlin. From 1995 to 2000 she studied screenwriting and directing at KHM Academy of Media Arts, Cologne. In 2004 she received the scholarship of the Drehbuchwerkstatt Munich. Since then she worked as story liner and dialogue writer for numerous TV-shows while writing feature films such as »Tatort« or crime-series like »Letzte Spur Berlin«. Furthermore, she developed a variety of mystery series and lead different writers’ rooms connected to it (»The Prophecy«, »Vor der Flut«).

Matthias Murmann Creator, Writer and Producer (»How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)«)

Matthias Murmann, born in 1984 in Aachen studied at the Academy for Media Arts Cologne, where he met his creative Partner, Matthias Murmann. In their work as showrunners, producers,

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creative producers, writers, and directors they have realized a large variety of projects, including documentaries, TV shows, comedy series, art projects and video games. In 2012, they founded the Cologne, Germany-based production company btf GmbH (bildundtonfabrik). Their work has been recognized with the German Television Award six times and the prestigious Grimme Award ten times. In recent years, bildundtonfabrik has developed a reputation as one of the most original and innovative production companies in Germany. Currently they are working on season 3 of »How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)« (Netflix), a show which was created by Philipp and Matthias.

Janna Nandzik Creator, Writer, Director and Transmedia Producer (»About:Kate«, »Jerks«, »Druck«), Germany

Janna Maria Nandzik is a screenwriter, director, transmedia producer and script advisor with a preference for serial and digital storytelling. Janna studied film, literature and art history and likes to play with cultural references in her scripts. As former deputy managing director of the production companies Ulmen Television and Ulmen Film, she learned a lot about black humor from her former boss Christian Ulmen. In 2009 she wrote for Comedy Central on the cross-media show »Ulmen.Tv«. 2010 she created and produced her first TV series »Die Snobs – Sie können auch ohne Dich« for ZDFneo. In 2012 she made her directing debut: the German-French transmedia series »About:Kate« (ARTE), which received a lot of attention in the press and won awards in Germany and Switzerland. Most recently she wrote for the award-winning comedy series »Jerks« (Maxdome/ProSieben) and the teen drama »Druck« (ZDFneo/funk).

Ida Maria Rydén, Creator, Writer and Producer (»Dicte«, »When the Dust Settles«), Denmark

Born in 1970, Ida Maria Rydén graduated as screenwriter from The National Film School of Denmark in 1999, and began her career writing for television, film and the theatre. Her theatre credits include »Make Up« for The Royal Theatre and » Das« for Aveny T, which won the Reumert prize in 2002. Ida has written several TV-series including » The Hotel«, » Far from Las Vegas« and »Nikolaj & Julie« before show running three seasons of the popular crime tv-series » Dicte « for Danish TV2. Ida is co-creator and showrunner of the TV-series » When the Dust Settles « for DR.

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Frank Spotnitz Creator, Writer and Producer (»The X-Files«, »The Man in the High Castle«), USA/France

Award-winning writer and producer Frank Spotnitz has over 25 years’ experience in TV. He wrote or co-wrote more than 40 episodes of »The X-Files«. Spotnitz’s other credits include »Hunted« (BBC and Cinemax); »Strike Back« for Sky and Cinemax; »Night Stalker« for ABC; Michael Mann’s »Robbery Homicide Division« for CBS, as well as »The Lone Gunmen«, »Harsh Realm« and »Millennium« for Fox. In 2013 he founded Big Light Productions, a London and Paris-based production company, with a vision to create distinctive and ambitious TV drama series. Under Spotnitz’s stewardship, Big Light has produced a number of high-end drama productions including Amazon’s Emmy award-winning »The Man in the High Castle«, »Ransom«, »The Indian Detective« and three seasons of »Medici« for Netflix and Rai. The new drama series »Leonardo«, co-created by Spotnitz, is currently in production for RAI, France Télévisions, RTVE and Sony. In addition, »Eisenhorn« a new drama series is in development. In 2013 Spotnitz helped establish the Serial Eyes program in Berlin.

Natalie Thomas Writer and Serial Storytelling Alumna (»How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)«), USA/Germany

Natalie Thomas is a graduate of the MA Serial Storytelling program at ifs internationale filmschule köln. She has worked in the entertainment industry in the US and Germany for fifteen years, mainly acting and writing. Currently, she is part of the writers‘ room for »How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)« (Netflix). With An Films LLC, she wrote, produced and starred in films including »1901« and »Any Other Normal«. Natalie’s acting highlights include »Everything’s Gonna Be Pink«, a film directed by academy-nominated Roni Ezra, and the television shows »Blindspot«, »Law & Order«, and »Law & Order SVU«.

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Producers, Commissioning Editors, Network Executives

Roberto Amoroso Producer and Network Executive (Colorado and Rainbow. Formerly Creative Director of Original Productions for Sky Italia), Italia

Roberto Amoroso is the Chief Creative Officer of Colorado and Rainbow, where he is developing new shows and breaking new ground in the US/EU co-production space. He has been Creative Director of Original Productions for Sky Italia and responsible for TV hits like »The Young Pope«, »Gomorrah« and many others. Before that he has worked for Sundance Channel in the US and for Universal Networks in Rome. His television work has been awarded many times. Among his achievements: Academy Award Nominee in 2008 for the production of the short film »Il Supplente«, 6 Gold Promax Awards, 10 Silver Promax Awards, 2 Silver Telly Awards, 7 Bronze Telly Awards.

Hauke Bartel Producer and Network Executive (Head of Fiction RTL Media Group), Germany

Hauke Bartel, born in 1985, studied media management, communication studies and media sciences in Hanover, Örebro/Sweden and Potsdam-Babelsberg from 2008, after several years as a dramatic theatre advisor. He received his Master’s degree from Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF with a study on the significance of series in the German TV market. In 2013 he headed the international student film festival »Sehsüchte«. In 2014 he became series editor at VOX and in 2015 responsible for series acquisitions and series co-productions for the Mediengruppe RTL. In April 2017 Hauke Bartel became Head of Fiction at VOX, and since January 2020, he is jointly responsible for all fictional offerings across the Mediengruppe RTL, including RTL, VOX and TVnow alongside Frauke Neeb.

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Alexander Bickel Producer and Network Executive (Head of TV Film, Cinema and Series Programming at WDR), Germany

Alexander Bickel studied theatre, film, and television studies in Cologne and Newcastle and later theatre, film, and television criticism at the Bavarian Theatre Academy. He worked as a freelance editor for TV movies at WDR, before transferring to ZDF, where he became commissioning editor and later assumed a managerial capacity. He worked on the development of innovative fiction and non-fiction formats, including the science fiction series »Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot«, the scripted format »Stellmichein!« and »Blind Date« with Anke Engelke and Olli Dittrich. Among the best known productions of the past years are the event multi-part series »Generation War« and »Honigfrauen« as well as the series »Lotta« and »Ella Schön«. Many of his productions have been awarded prizes, e.g. the Grimme Award, the German Television Prize, the Bavarian Television Prize, the Golden Camera, and the International Emmy Award.

Thomas Disch Producer and Commissioning Editor (RTL Media Group / TVNOW), Germany

After his degree in Theater-, Film and Television Studies in Cologne and Paris, Thomas Disch curated three editions of the Film Festival Cologne before venturing into production. At Warner Brothers International Television Productions, he worked on popular returning series such as »Wilsberg« and »Friesland« before joining Peter Nadermann’s Nadcon Film as a producer. With a clear focus on international co-productions, Thomas collaborated on numerous Scandi-Noir- series such as »Modus«, »Springtide« or »Greyzone« for German public broadcaster ZDF. Other notable credits include the Finnish thriller-series »Bullets«, the Spanish big-screen adaptation of Dolores Redondo’s bestselling »Baztan-Trilogy« or Lone Scherfig’s »The Kindness of Strangers«, selected as 2019’s opening night film of the Berlinale. In 2019, Thomas joined Mediengruppe RTL’s team of fiction editors and has since worked on »Rampensau«, VOX’s adaptation of the Israeli hit-series »Metumtemet«, as well as »Unter Freunden stirbt man nicht«, an adaptation of the popular Israeli mini-series »Stockholm«.

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Kai Finke Network Executive (Director Content for Germany, Austria and Switzerland at NETFLIX)

In his six years at Netflix, Kai Finke has worked with producers, distributors and networks across Europe to build an extensive slate of co-productions and successfully helped to find a global audience for local content. He currently oversees Netflix’s licensing and co-production activities in German-speaking Europe as well as in Central and Eastern Europe and commissions a variety of Netflix Original Films made in Germany too. He has more than 15 years of experience in content distribution and acquisition, having previously worked for Munich- based distributor Telepool and Vodafone in Frankfurt.

Ingolf Gabold Producer and Network Executive (Formerly Head of Drama at DR), Denmark

Dubbed »The Godfather of Danish Television« DR has won four Emmy Awards, two BAFTAs, two Prix Italias and one Prix Europa during Gabold’s time at the helm. With mega-hits like »The Killing« and »The Bridge«, »Forbrydelsen« & »Borgen«, Gabold was instrumental in creating the new and highly popular genre »Scandinavian Noir«. Huge global audiences tune in to follow the exploits of powerful female characters like Sarah Lund, Saga Noren and Birgitte Nyborg in the hit Danish dramas. While head of Drama for Danish Broadcasting, DR, Gabold set the ground-work for the huge surge in the international popularity of Scandinavian programming over recent years. He later joined the production company »Eyeworks/Warner Television« bringing his vast experience in drama to their slate of programming.

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Vilje Kathrine Hagen Producer (»The Power«, »Home Ground«, »The Rules for Everything«), Norway

Vilje Kathrine Hagen studied Film & TV Production at Westerdals School of Cummunication before completing her Bachelor in Producing at the Norwegian Film School (2011-2014). In 2014 she joined the production company Motlys AS, where she has been responsible for various series productions, such as »Doppler«, »The Power«, »Home Ground« and »The Rules for Everything«.

Varinka Link Commissioning Editor (ZDF Das Kleine Fernsehspiel, Funk, Quantum)

Varinka Link is a commissioning editor at ZDF Das Kleine Fernsehspiel. She is part of the Quantum team and also works for the online network FUNK. There she is responsible for the development and support of web series (e.g. »Druck«). Varinka Link studied German language and literature and film studies in Mainz, theater, film and media studies in Frankfurt and developed and realized various fictional and journalistic formats as a creative producer.

Frank Jastfelder Producer and Network Executive (Director Original Production Scripted for Sky), Germany

As Director Original Production Scripted Frank Jastfelder is responsible for the development and commissioning of all fictional content for Sky Deutschland – national as well as international. Amongst these projects are the critically acclaimed series »Das Boot«, »Der Pass«, and »Acht Tage«. He joined Sky in 2010 after several years as a freelance writer and filmmaker for various non-scripted TV-formats and documentaries for German television. His work was shown on private and public TV channels such as arte, Bayerischer Rundfunk, The History Channel and RTL. Frank Jastfelder's professional career started in 1992 when he worked as a copywriter for acclaimed ad agency Scholz & Friends. Later he joined TV production company Me, Myself & Eye (MME). There, among other things, he wrote and directed four episodes of the critically 22/52 acclaimed documentary series »Pop 2000« (ARD), which was awarded with the Adolf Grimme Preis.

Jana Kaun Producer and Network Executive (Vice President Local Fiction, Seven.One Entertainment Group), Germany

Jana Kaun studied German, journalism and English at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität in Bamberg. After her studies she decided to follow her passion for films and series and started working in the television business. In 2008 she began working as a trainee at SKY Germany, where she was part of the editorial team. In 2009, she became commissioning executive in the Department for International Co- Production & Documentaries at ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland. Past projects include »Pillars of the Earth«, »World Without End«, »Labyrinth«, »Primeval«, »Crossing Lines«. In 2018, Jana started working as Executive Producer for the German Fiction department at ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland. Since February 2020 she’s Vice President Local Fiction by proxy. Jana is currently working on several projects and co-productions – adaptations as well as originals. She is excited to be co-producing the bestselling book »Blackout« by Marc Elsberg together with the recently launched platform joyn plus.

Marc Lepetit Producer and Transmedia Expert, UFA Fiction (»Ku’damm 56/59/63«, »Donna Leon«), Germany

Executive Producer (UFA Fiction). Following his studies at the Film Academy Baden- Wuerttemberg, Marc Lepetit joined Phoenix Film in Berlin, where he worked on TV series, feature films, and various business-development issues. His first project as a UFA producer for cinema was »Devil’s Kickers«. »Kill Your Darling« in 2009 was Germany’s first big transmedia project. At UFA Fiction, he has worked as a feature-film producer on the »Frühling« series, »Der Fall Harry Wörz«, and »Aus der Haut«, among other productions. His latest projects include the popular ZDF miniseries »Ku’damm 56« and »Ku’damm 59«. In addition, Lepetit is a member of the team responsible for new media activities. In this capacity, he initiated the project »Behind the Story for UFA Fiction, the UFA Lab, and Bild. In addition, working with SZ Magazine and Bayischer Rundfunk, he implemented the filmed version of »Der NSU Process – Die Protokolle des Zweiten Jahres« as an online project. Lepetit is also a lecturer in the area of cross-media storytelling at the Zurich University of the Arts.

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Christian Munder Producer at Sony Pictures FFP (»Nikola«, »Mein Leben und Ich«, »Der Lehrer«), Germany

Christian Munder began his TV career in 1993 working in the Sitcom/Comedy Development Department at the German network RTL. Since 1996 he works at Sony FFP. His credits as an Executive Producer include half-hour Sitcoms (»Die Camper«, »Nikola«, »Ritas Welt«, »Mein Leben und Ich«, »Alles Atze«), TV- Movies, 45-minutes Dramaseries and Dramedies (»Der Lehrer«). He worked in writing teams with German, British and American writers.

Dr. Peter Nadermann Producer and Founder of Nadcon Film (»The Team«, »Modus«), Germany

Peter Nadermann, CEO and shareholder of NADCON Film GmbH, began his career in 1985, as a commissioning editor for ZDF where he developed numerous international co-productions. During his term as a professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), he co-founded the media schools Schreibschule and Filmschule NRW. Since 1999, Peter Nadermann produced and co-produced numerous feature films, TV movies and series, for ZDF’s subsidiaries Network Movie and ZDF Enterprises. His major achievements include bringing Scandinavian crime thrillers such as »The Killing« and »The Bridge« to German TV screens, and films like »Adam’s Apples«, »Snabba Cash – Easy Money« and Stieg Larsson’s »Millennium«-Trilogy to the theatres in Germany. Many of these shows and films were remade for a wider international audience in the United States. With the writers Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe, Peter Nadermann developed the pan-European crime-thriller series »The Team«. New projects include the Swedish crime series »Modus«.

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Jens Richter Producer and Network Executive (CEO International at Fremantle), UK

Jens Richter is CEO International at Fremantle. He oversees content acquisition and investment strategy for the global distribution of Fremantle’s finished programming and home entertainment catalogue and manages the global sales and acquisitions team. Since joining the business, Richter has built and strengthened Fremantle’s slate and has driven activity in the co-financing and co-production space. With Fremantle partnering with Oscar- winning Fabula to produce the powerful Spanish-language series from Chile, »La Jauria«, and bringing Arte & Hulu’s »No Man’s Land« to screens worldwide. Richter has since been instrumental in the global roll-out of dramas such as Luca Guadagnino’s television directorial debut, »We Are Who We Are« and the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s best-selling »My Brilliant Friend« novels for HBO and Rai. Richter has been driving forward the company’s high-end factual strategy by acquiring quality content and nurturing talent relationships. Fremantle has recently partnered with UFA and Wild Blue Media on a landmark documentary, »Arctic Drift«, covering the ground-breaking MOSAiC Expedition. They have also secured the global distribution rights to »Enslaved«, the new documentary series for EPIX and CBC directed by three-time Emmy award-winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson and featuring best-selling author Afua Hirsch, which is launching into 130 territories. His team also amplifies the international reach of Fremantle’s formats by working with local production partners in some parts of the world

Christiane Ruff Producer and Network Executive (Managing Director, ITV Studios Germany), Germany

From 1988 to 1996 Christiane Ruff worked for RTL Television for various formats, first as producer, then as EP, and from 1990 as head of the entertainment department, later comedy/sitcom. From 1996 to 2009 she worked for Sony Pictures Film und Fernseh Produktions GmbH, where she was Managing Director and Head of Creative Affairs. In June 2011 Christiane Ruff became a freelance producer, responsible for various productions for Constantin Film Munich. For Deutsche Columbia she worked on the development of the feature films »Hummeldumm« and »Resturlaub«, both based on bestsellers by Tommy Jaud. Since July 2017 she is managing director of ITV Studios Germany.

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Philipp Steffens Producer and Network Executive (Formerly Head of Fiction at RTL), Germany

Philip Steffens is an international award-winning fiction producer with experience at major European broadcaster, and production companies. He co-created the very successful German crime series, »The last Cop«; the format sold in territories worldwide and won an International Emmy. He also co-created the criticality acclaimed PayTV Show »The Valley« and was responsible as Head of Fiction at RTL for the international hit »Deutschland 83«.

Lorraine Sullivan Manager, Creative Talent Investment and Development EMEA (Netflix)

Lorraine Sullivan has been working in the international film and TV industry for twenty years. After working as a commissioner for French TV platforms TPS and Canal+ in Paris, in 2013 she created Serial Eyes, the first European TV writing training program, from the ground up, splitting her time between London and Berlin. Serial Eyes, part of the Berlin Film School, is a partnership with the London Film School and the Danish Film School. Having built Serial Eyes into a notable force in European screenwriting, she joined Big Light Productions in London founded by veteran showrunner Frank Spotnitz (»The X-Files«) as a development producer on international projects. As part of her ongoing interest in nurturing new talent, she scouted European writers and created the first European shadow-writer scheme in a Writer’s Room. She then joined the Series Mania International TV Festival to create a new hub for international writers and directors within the festival and started a residency for European TV drama writers. In 2020, she joined »Grow Creative« at Netflix working on the strategy across Netflix task force groups in Europe, managing collaborations with training partners and scouting for new diverse talent.

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Jörg Winger Creator, Writer and Producer (»Deutschland 83/86/89«, »Hackerville«), Germany

Jörg Winger is Co-Creator and Executive Producer of the award-winning, eight-part spy series DEUTSCHLAND83/86/89. DEUTSCHLAND83 garnered numerous international and national accolades, including the International Emmy Award in the Drama Series category, the Grimme Award, and the Peabody Award. Jörg Winger has produced 300 episodes of the multi-award- winning primetime series SOKO LEIPZIG for ZDF. He also created and produced the award- winning German-Romanian cybercrime drama HACKERVILLE (HBO Europe & TNTSerie). Before becoming a producer, Jörg Winger got a master’s degree in Economics and worked as a journalist.

Eva van Leeuwen Producer and Network Executive (Manager of Local Originals at NETFLIX, Germany/The Netherlands), Germany

Eva van Leeuwen joined Netflix as a creative executive for Local Language Originals in 2018 to focus on growing the slate of German language Original Series. Born and raised in Düsseldorf, her passion for film and TV led her to studying in Münster and Coventry, before starting to work for various film production and distribution companies in 2006. Prior to joining Netflix she led the theatrical production unit for Sony Deutsche Columbia Pictures for six years and produced movies including »Who am I«, »25KmH« and »Help, I Shrunk my Teacher«.

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Kerstin Viehbach Head of Comissioning & Development (Fiction) at RTL DISNEY, Germany

Kerstin Viehbach studied Theater-, Film- and TV-Sciences at Ruhr-Universität Bochum before she started her media career as an online editor at Brainpool TV Productions. Since 1999 she has been working at RTL DISNEY TELEVISION, first as a TV-Producer for in- house productions, later as editor fiction and senior editor fiction in the Editorial Department Daytime. Since 2014 she has been team leader of the Editorial Department Fiction at Super RTL. With twenty years of experience in the production and broadcasting of non-fiction and fiction shows, magazines, and series for children, watching, reading, developing and producing content for children is still one of her greatest passions. Kerstin Viehbach is mother of two children and lives and works in Cologne.

Johnathan Young Producer and Network Executive (Vice President for Original Production in Central Europe at HBO Europe), UK

Johnathan Young is HBO VP for Original Production in Central Europe. His credits in Poland include 2 seasons of the award winning »Wataha«, two seasons of »Pakt« and most recently »W Domu«, shot, edited, delivered and transmitted during lockdown. In the Czech Republic »Mamon«, in Hungary »Aranyelet« and in Romania »Valea Muta«, »Umbre«, »Hackerville« and the upcoming »Tuff Money«. Prior to that, in 2014 he produced »The Mill« for Channel 4, and before that he spent two years in the BBC Drama Department as Executive Producer, simultaneously overseeing their two long-running one-hour dramas, »Casualty« and »Holby City« – 170 episodes in all. Both shows received BAFTA nominations during this time. From 2005 to 2011, Johnathan was Head of Drama at major independent Talkback Thames, part of the Fremantle group, where he oversaw 400 episodes of its long-running show The Bill, winning BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards. He was Executive Producer on Minder for Channel 5 and Series Producer on Golden Hour for ITV. He has also collaborated internationally with other Fremantle companies such as teamWorx in Germany on the miniseries » The Sinking of the Laconia«, »Anne Holt«, as well as »Springtide«, based on the novel by Rolf and Cilla Börjlind. Both received critical acclaim and premiered to impressive numbers during their broadcast in Sweden. Transmission in Germany is scheduled for late 2016. NADCON has also secured the rights to Leonardo Padura’s »Havana-Quartet«, as well as to Dolores Redondo’s »The Invisible Guardian«.

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Screenwriting Teachers and Script Consultants

Tom Abrams Writer, Director, Script Consultant and Screenwriting Teacher (USC Los Angeles), USA

Tom Abrams is an award-winning writer and director in both film and television. He instructs graduate and undergraduate students in the practice of screenwriting and directing. As a writer, Abrams shared a 1992 Emmy Award for the children's television series, Rugrats. His short film Shoeshine (1987) was nominated for an Academy Award and received the Montreal World Film Festival first prize. Performance Pieces (1989) won a special award at that year's Cannes International Film Festival. His other projects include The Desperate Trail (1995) for TNT, Conversations With The Beast (1995, co-written with Armin Mueller-Stahl), The American Princess (2000) for New Line Cinema, The Captain’s Wife for Fox 2000, Have Gun Will Travel for Warner Bros and The Battle of Ono for Executive Producer John Woo at Universal. For the last 15 years, Abrams has taught filmmaking internationally and consulted on projects in more than 20 countries.

Pilar Alessandra Script Consultant and Screenwriting Trainer (»On the Page«), USA

Pilar Alessandra is the director of the instructional writing program »On the Page« host of the »On the Page Podcast« and a highly sought-after speaker and script consultant who’s trained writers at Disney, DreamWorks, ABC, the AFM and around the world. She is also the author of »The Coffee Break Screenwriter« and »The Coffee Break Screenwriter Breaks the Rules«. Pilar’s greatest accomplishment is the success of her students, many of whom have won top competitions such as the Nicholl Fellowship, work on TV shows such as »Homeland«, »The 100«, »Dear White People«, »Grey’s Anatomy«, »Silicon Valley« and »The Chi« and have sold feature films and pitches to Netflix, Sony, Warner Bros. and other major studios.

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Eszter Angyalosy Writer, Story Editor and TV Drama Writing Tutor, Hungary

Eszter is a Budapest-based author, screenwriter, story editor, and TV drama writing tutor who works with Hungarian and international talents alike. She spent seven years as Editor-in-Chief at Libri, one of Hungary’s largest publishing houses, before joining HBO Hungary as Development Editor in 2015. In the same year, her first novel, Wonderland, was released. Until 2018, she worked on the development of a dozen original series in a wide range of genres, from comedy through sci-fi to teen drama. A tutor at the Torino SeriesLab, Italy, and the USA’s Stowe Story Lab, Eszter has proven herself as a sensitive and attentive script consultant and storyteller in the international arena.

Marina Bendocchi Alves Writer and Serial Storytelling Alumna, Brazil/Germany

Marina Bendocchi Alves, originally from Brazil, completed her Master’s in Serial Storytelling at the ifs internationale filmschule köln and specializes in writing serialized content, in German, English, and Portuguese.Marina has developed TV proposals for German production companies like G5 fiction, Bavaria Fiction, UFA Fiction, and U5 Filmproduktion. She gained experience as a staff writer on the long- running German daily soap »Berlin – Tag & Nacht«, and has worked as a junior producer for G5 fiction (ZDF Enterprises). Marina’s screenplays have received recognition in several screenwriting competitions, e.g. Oaxaca Film Fest, ScreenCraft Scifi & Fantasy Screenplay Contest, Table Read My Screenplay, The Indie Gathering. Before focusing on screenwriting, Marina wrote and directed a socio-critical theater play named »Shitty Shitty Plem Plem«, which was performed at the Pasinger Fabrik in Munich and is now being distributed by Zuckerhut Theaterverlag. During her BA in Theatre Studies, Marina made several award-winning short films.. Marina worked in the film industry as Sound Editor in films such as »Wir waren Könige« (Best Narrative Feature – Austin Film Festival 2014, MFG Star – Baden Baden TV Film Festival 2014) and »Der Bunker« (Best Picture – Fantastic Fest 2015, Best Film – Palmares Mauvais Genre Festival 2015).

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Keith Cunningham Writer, Script Consultant and Screenwriting Trainer (»The Soul of Screenwriting«), USA

Screenwriter and script consultant Keith Cunningham consulted on dozens of projects, led hundreds of seminars, and trained thousands of writers, directors, producers, and commissioning editors. His screenwriting and teaching career pro- fits from his insights as a psychologist and specialist in creativity, with years on set as a cameraman and lighting gaffer. The author of »The Soul of Screenwriting: On Writing, Dramatic Truth, and Knowing Yourself« has taught at AFI New York, the Director’s Guild, the Writer’s Guild in L.A., and numerous institutions, companies, and broadcasters all over the world. Keith Cunningham has been a guest lecturer at the ifs for over 12 years, and served as Substitute Professor of Serial Storytelling from 2016 to 2017. In addition, he headed the Writer’s Room Lab at the Deutsch- Amerikanisches Institut Heidelberg (DAI).

Gunther Eschke Writer and Script Consultant (»Bleiben Sie dran! Dramaturgie von TV-Serien«), Germany

Gunther Eschke studied German Language and Literature as well as Film and Television Studies / Screenwriting at HFF Potsdam. From 2001 to 2009 he worked as commissioning editor of German Fiction and co-productions at SAT.1. Between 2012 and 2016 he worked as a script consultant for REAL FILM Berlin. Gunther Eschke is co-author of the reference book »Bleiben Sie dran! Dramaturgy of TV- Series« (together with Rudolf Bohne). Currently, Gunther Eschke lives and works as a freelance creative producer, screenwriter, editor, script consultant and lecturer in Berlin.

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Charlotte Essex Writer and Script Editor (»Eastenders«, »Killing Eve«), UK

Charlotte Essex is a UK screenwriter and script editor. She began her career working at Company Pictures. She script edited »The Silence« for BBC1 and the adaptation of Martina Cole’s »The Runaway« for SKY1. Charlotte wrote a few episodes of Doctors for BBC1. Then script edited 21 episodes of the BAFTA award-winning »Eastenders« before joining Mainstreet in 2016 where she has script edited »Age Before Beauty« for BBC1 and is working on several projects in development.

Bob Harris Writer (»Bones«, »CSI: Vegas«), USA

Originally from Cleveland, Bob Harris graduated cum laude from Case Western Reserve University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. Bob has been a screenwriter (»Bones«, »CSI: Vegas«), a syndicated radio commentator, a touring stand-up comedian, a travel writer (Forbes, Travel+Leisure), and 14-time Jeopardy! contestant. Bob lost six of those Jeopardy! games but still got invited back somehow. In addition to TV and film writing, Bob Harris is also the author of five books, most recently »The International Bank of Bob« (Bloomsbury, 2013), a personal study of global microfinance pursued by investing in small businesses in 89 countries via Kiva.org. Bob personally followed his own money as it passed thru Kiva; its investors and partners; local loan officers; and finally clients themselves in Rwanda, Lebanon, Kenya, India, Bosnia, Peru, Cambodia, and more than a dozen other countries. As of May 2016, nearly 2000 readers of the book have formed a Kiva lending team called Friends of Bob Harris, which has lent more than $6.8 million to small enterprises in more than 80 developing countries. As a result of this work, Bob has been invited to speak at Google, Citi, Visa, more than 30 American universities, a plenary session of the European Parliament, and a panel at the US Department of State's annual Chiefs of Mission conference.

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Charles Harris Writer, Director, Script Consultant and Pitch Trainer (»Jaws in Space«), UK

Charles Harris is an experienced writer-director and script consultant who has worked with a number of the top names in cinema and TV, from James Stewart and Ricky Tomlinson to Spike Milligan and Alexei Sayle. He first worked as a freelance film editor on BBC documentaries and light entertainment and »The South Bank Show«, then as a director in theatre and TV, winning awards around the world. His first professional feature script was optioned for production in Hollywood, and since then he has continued to write original and adapted scripts for features, and published acclaimed short stories. In 2003 he directed his first feature, the award-winning »Paradise Grove«, and he has had two Amazon best-selling novels published – »The Breaking of Liam Glass« and »Room 15«. As script consultant and coach, he has worked with professional writers from Britain, Europe, Asia and the USA, lectured at international film festivals and on MA courses at London University and London Film School. He is a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and an accredited Advanced Trainer in Accelerated Learning techniques to help people in all kinds of work and personal situations unblock and achieve their fullest potential.

Lucy V. Hay Writer and Script Editor (»Bang2Write«), UK

Lucy V. Hay aka Bang2write is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. B2W is Feedspot's leading screenwriting blog in the UK (9th in the world!) and has been picked as one of »The Write Life«'s Top 100 Sites for Writers four years in a row. Lucy is the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts. She has also been a script reader for over 15 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. Publishing as LV Hay, Lucy’s debut crime novel, »The Other Twin«, is out now and is being adapted by Agatha Raisin producers Free@Last TV. Her second crime novel, »Do No Harm«, was a finalist in the 2019 Dead Good Book Readers' Awards. Her latest novel is »Never Have I Ever« for Hodder Books. Lucy is also Lizzy Fry whose debut, »The Coven« will be out in Feb 2021 with Sphere Books.

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Laurie Hutzler Script Consultant and Screenwriting Teacher (»The Emotional Toolbox«), USA

Based in Los Angeles, Laurie Hutzler assists entertainment industry professionals develop feature films and television program formats for both the domestic and international markets. She created the Emotional Toolbox®, a unique method that offers a set of specific techniques, exercises and tools to create and strengthen emotion-based creative content. Laurie has worked as a consultant to the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, talkbackTHAMES, Mersey Television/Lime Pictures and Aardman Animation Studio (UK), for Pixar University, Disney and Dreamworks (US), Endemol Netherlands (NL), RTL, Weidemann Berg and Grudy UFA (Germany), GloboMedia (Spain) and TNT (Russia) among others. She is a consultant for Endemol and for FremantleMedia across a variety of formats in the UK, Europe and Australia. Laurie taught screenwriting in the MFA program at the UCLA Film School for 10 years, and was recently an Artist-in-Residence in Television and Digital Entertainment at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She has taught for the Royal Literary Fund in Cambridge, England; The Sorbonne in Paris, France; Royal Holloway College, University of London, London England; DFFB film school in Berlin, Germany and ifs internationale filmschule köln, Germany.

Nicola Lusuardi Writer, Script Consultant, Story Editor and TV-Supervisor (»Gomorrah«, »The Young Pope«), Italy

Since 1990, Nicola Lusuardi has been working as a playwright and screenwriter. He has been script consultant, supervisor and creative producer for several Italian and European broadcasters and production companies. Since 2013 to 2019 he consulted the original scripted contents produced by Sky Italy. Since 2020, Nicola Lusuardi has been head of development at The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle company focused on international projects. He is also the head of study for the SeriesLab (TorinoFilmLab and Séries Mania) and teaches at ifs internationale filmschule köln and Serial Eyes Berlin. Nicola Lusuardi is co-founder and partner in Alfred Film.

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Richard Manning Writer, Producer and Screenwriting Teacher (»Farscape«, »Janette Oke«), USA

Richard Manning has written episodes for 18 TV shows, served on nine writing staffs, consulted on two TV productions outside the USA, been a showrunner twice, sold three pilots, and created a series. His credits include one-hour drama, half-hour drama and comedy, feature films, webisode series, and animation. On the educational side, he has taught 36 courses in dramatic TV writing to nearly 300 students in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and contributed a chapter about creating one-hour TV pilots for the book »Inside the Room: Writing Television with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers' Program«.

Katrin Merkel Development Producer and Script Consultant, Germany

Katrin Merkel is a German development producer and script consultant. From 1988 to 1995 Katrin studied German studies (MA) and French at the University of Hamburg. She worked in various jobs in film and television production before she became a freelance writer and script editor – since 2001 for RTL. From 2002 to 2003 she completed further training as script consultant at Master School Drehbuch, and worked from 2005 to 2009 as head of script editing and script consultant at RTL. Since 2010 she has been working as a freelance script consultant and development producer. Since 2018 Katrin Merkel has been a member of Pro Quote Film.

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Sylke Rene Meyer Writer, Director, Media Artist and Screenwriting Teacher, Germany/USA

Sylke Rene Meyer is a writer, director, media artist, performer, educator, and co-founder of the performance group »Studio206« in Berlin (2007), extended in LA (2019). From 2009 to 2017 she was professor for Screenwriting and Dramaturgy at ifs internationale filmschule köln, where she designed the original curriculum of the MA Serial Storytelling, Europe's first Master's program in collaborative writing for TV. In 2018, she co-founded the performance group »Family Room Collective« in Los Angeles. Sylke Rene Meyer's practice is informed by and engages with film, media history, theory, and criticism, and encompasses feature and documentary filmmaking, as well as writing and collaborative experimentation across theater, new media and digital platforms. Her work has garnered numerous awards such as an Emmy Award, and Best Film Awards at major festivals such as Seattle, Chicago, and Montreal. She is a professor of creative writing, and the director of the Institute for Interactive Arts, Research, and Technology (InArt) at California State University in Los Angeles.

Franziska Müller Writer and Script Consultant, Germany

Franziska Müller is a Berlin based freelance script editor, script consultant and screenwriter with fifteen years of work experience. She regularly assesses scripts for production firms such as Constantin Film, as well as for national and international Film Funds. In 2011 and 2012 she was mentor for feature film in the European script development program »Prime4Kids&family«. Recently, she consulted on films like »Latte Igel und der Wasserstein«, »Romys Salon«, »Welcome to Iceland«, the upcoming European co-pro series »Heirs of the Night«, and participated in writing Sven Taddicken’s »Das schönste Paar«.

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Mary Kate O’Flanagan Writer and Script Consultant, Ireland

Mary Kate O’Flanagan trained in the craft of screenwriting with the professors of screenwriting at The University of Southern California. She has worked as a tutor alongside her former professors for the last 7 years. She has continued to be mentored by them, in particular David Howard, author of The Tools of Screenwriting. She is a guest tutor at the Czech Film School FAMU, The National Film School in Ireland as well as on many pan-European programmes. She has also worked in Africa and America. – Mary Kate has lived in several countries and speaks several languages; she is particularly drawn to stories that cross borders. – Mary Kate is a working writer in her own right. She has written five feature-length screenplays, all of which have been funded by The Irish Film Board and subsequently optioned, currently in development. She holds an MA in Screenwriting, has won pan-European awards for her screenwriting and is a published short story writer.

Rachel O’Flanagan Writer and Script Consultant, Ireland

Rachel O’Flanagan is a story consultant who works across the business and arts industries. She works with teams and individuals in Ireland, the UK and Germany to develop visual storytelling and audience engagement. She has worked on a wide range of television and film productions ensuring that scripts communicate the writer’s vision, connect with audiences and achieve commercial, as well as artistic, success. Rachel O’Flanagan works with her sister and colleague Mary Kate at »A Dramatic Improvement« and they have designed and delivered training workshops in visual storytelling for »The Irish Writers Centre«; »Film Base«; »Screen Training Ireland«, and the advertising industry via »IAPI«. In 2014/2015 they were lead tutors and writing mentors at »Y Labordy«, an initiative funded by »S4C«, »Film Wales«, »Literature Wales«, and »The Royal Theatre of Wales«

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Tatjana Samopjan Creative Consultant and Story Editor, Sweden

Tatjana Samopjan is a creative consultant, speaker and coach specialising in development of TV series, movies and documentaries. Tatjana has worked with ACE Producers, EAVE, European TV Drama Series Lab, Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Gothenburg Film Festival, Helsinki Script, The Netherlands Film Academy, ifs internationale film schule köln, University of Television and Film Munich, Seriencamp and many others. Previous experience includes roles as head of development at Palladium Fiction, a Stockholm- based production company and story editor at SVT Drama at Swedish Television. As a member of several European advisory boards she is involved in financing new projects. Tatjana’s original keynotes and lectures have been well-received all over Europe. They show unusual connections between life and drama. In recent years her explorations of contemplative traditions have informed and deepened her way of working with storytellers.

Dr. Frauke Schmickl Script Consultant and Script Editor, Germany

Dr. Frauke Schmickl studied German and Media Studies in Austria with a focus on film dramaturgy and received her doctorate on the subject of Suspense Dramaturgy in Film and Literature. She currently works in Berlin as a freelance script consultant, script editor and lecturer for various institutions and production companies.

Sebastian Stobbe Writer and Script Consultant, Germany

Sebastian Stobbe studied Film and Media at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg with a focus on cinematography, before shifting towards dramaturgy and script consulting. He is a

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graduate of the step-by-step program of the Masterschool Drehbuch Berlin, Focal, and the Drehbuchforum Wien. He worked as a dramaturgical assistant at Script House in Berlin and co- founded the script consulting company »Die Drehbuchlotsen« with Petra Hengge in Cologne in 2007. Since then he is a freelance script-consultant concentrating on both fictional and documentary films and formats. A second field of work is dramaturgical consultations in the editing process. Since 2014 Sebastian Stobbe also works as a writer for documentaries and feature films.

Alkioni Valsari Writer and Script Consultant, Greece/Germany

Alkioni Valsari is a Greek director, screenwriter and script consultant. She earned her BA in theatre studies with honours at the University of Wales and her MA in theatre directing at Rose Bruford College in London. She was part of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme in London, and has attended filmmaking workshops in Athens at the School of Cinema and screenwriting at ifs internationale filmschule köln. She has directed theatre productions in Greece and the United States and taught theatre directing. In 2013, she wrote and directed her debut short film »A Sound Story«. In 2014 she moved to Germany where she worked in film production, and her short screenplay, »Tapetenwechsel«, won many awards in festivals. In a workshop on script consulting with Dr. Linda Seger in 2018 she discovered her talent for guiding writers which has since become a further field of expertise.

John Yorke Producer, Script Consultant and Screenwriting Trainer (»Into the Woods«), UK

John Yorke is the managing director of Angel Station and works as a narrative consultant and trainer across television, radio, business, politics and advertising. He is the former managing director of Company Pictures, the UK drama independent, producing shows as varied as »Shameless«, »Skins« and Golden Globe winner »Wolf Hall«. Previous to this he was Controller of BBC Drama Production and head of Channel Four Drama. As a commissioning editor and executive producer, John has championed many of the defining works of British television, including »Wolf Hall«, »Life on Mars«, »The Street«, »Shameless« and »Waterloo Road«. His CV encompasses big popular works like »Hustle«, »Spooks«, »Casualty« and »Holby City« alongside award-winners such as »Bodies«, »Omagh«, »Sex Traffic«, »Not Only But Always« and »The Curse of Steptoe«. John’s television career began in story-lining »EastEnders« during its very first BAFTA-winning year, a relationship that lasted 16 years. A multi-Bafta award winner, he has worked with a vast array of talent, from Paul

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Greengrass and Paul Abbott to Tony Jordan and Jimmy McGovern, making him uniquely placed to watch, learn and analyze the work of the finest writers in British television. In 2005, John created the BBC Writers Academy, the only writing course in the world guaranteeing broadcast work and which has produced a generation of successful television writers. John Yorke is visiting professor of English language and literature at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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Media Scholars

André Czauderna Education Researcher (Program Manager at Cologne Game Lab), Germany

André Czauderna is an education researcher working at Cologne Game Lab (TH Köln), where he manages and develops the study programs BA and MA Digital Games as well as teaches player research. His research interests include educational games, learning in gaming affinity spaces, games as/in political education, game design education, and qualitative methods. Czauderna holds a PhD from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Dr. Marion Esch Researcher (Chairwoman at MINTEE – MINT-Entertainment-Education Foundation), Germany

Marion Esch studied media sciences, political science, and educational science at the Technical University of Berlin and received her doctorate at the Institute for Media Studies. From 1996 to 2002 she was scientific director and from 2003 to 2005 board member of the European Academy for Women in Politics and Economics Berlin. (EAF). From 2002-2008 she was a university assistant at the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Operation (IWF). Since 2008, she has been a visiting professor at the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management (IWF) at the TUB, exploring new ways of attracting young talent and launching the STEM and Equal Opportunity initiative in fictional television formats. As Chairwoman of the Board of the MINT-Entertainment-Education Foundation, she is currently further developing approaches to STEM education through fictional program formats.

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Prof. Dr. Lisa Gotto Researcher (Professor of Film Theory at University of Vienna), Germany/Austria

Lisa Gotto is professor of film theory at the University of Vienna. She received her M.A. from the University of Cologne and her Ph.D. from the Bauhaus University Weimar. Since 2001, she has taught at a variety of institutions, including universities and film academies in Munich, Cologne, Weimar, Lueneburg and Mannheim. From 2010 to 2018 Lisa Gotto was professor for Film History and Film Analysis at ifs internationale filmschule köln. Her major research interests are in film history and film theory, media studies and digital media culture. She has published books and articles on technological and cultural transitions in media history, on film theory, and on game studies. Her recent publications include »Hollywood im Zeitalter des Post Cinema. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme«, ed. with Sebastian Lederle, Bielefeld 2020, »Fernsehserie und Literatur. Facetten einer Medienbeziehung«, ed. with Vincent Fröhlich and Jens Ruchatz, München 2019, »Filmische Moderne. 60 Fragmente«, ed. with Oliver Fahle, Britta Neitzel et al., Bielefeld 2019, »New Game Plus. Perspektiven der Game Studies. Genres - Künste - Diskurse«, ed. with Benjamin Beil and Gundolf S. Freyermuth, Bielefeld 2015, »Serious Games, Exergames, Exerlearning. Zur Transmedialisierung und Gamification des Wissenstransfers«, ed. with Gundolf S. Freyermuth and Fabian Wallenfels, Bielefeld 2013, »Eisenstein-Reader. Die wichtigsten Schriften zum Film«, ed., Leipzig 2011.

Dr. Janet McCabe Writer, Editor and Researcher (Birkbeck University of London), UK

Janet McCabe is a UK writer, editor and academic. Currently she is Reader in Television and Film Studies at Birkbeck University of London, where she has worked since 2012. She is the co- director of Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture (BIRMAC) and one of the curators for the Essay Film Festival. She is also a network co-ordinator and a member of the steering committee for the WFTHN (Women’s Film and Television History Network). She completed her PhD, with a feminist histography of early German cinema, at the University of Kent, Canterbury, and holds an MA in Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. Janet McCabe’s is Editor-in-Chief at »Critical Studies in Television«. She is the author of »The West Wing and Feminist Film Studies: Writing the Woman into Cinema«, was the co-series editor for »Reading Contemporary Television« and has co-edited a number of collections including »TV’s Betty Goes Global: From Telenovela to International Brand, Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond« and »Reading Sex and the City: Critical Approaches«. Her latest monograph, »Disconnected Heroines, Global Femininities: Transnational TV Feminism and the Geopolitics of Representation in Bron-Broen-The Bridge and Beyond«, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury Academic (2021).

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Dr. Keyvan Sarkhosh Researcher (Research Coordinator at Max Planck Institute of Empirical Aesthetics), Germany

Dr. Keyvan Sarkhosh is Research Coordinator at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt. He studied Comparative Literature, Philosophy and Social Anthropology at the University of Münster and obtained his PhD from the University of Vienna, with a thesis on the films of Nicolas Roeg. He was a research fellow at the Department of German Studies at the University of Münster/Germany (2006-2009) and at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna/Austria (2009-2013). He joined the newly founded Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2013. The focus of his research is on the history and aesthetics of cinema, the aesthetic perception and evaluation of films, and the relationship between high and popular culture. He recently completed a study on trash films and their audiences and is currently investigating the generic outlines and emotional impact of ‘feel-good films’. Key publications include: Sarkhosh, K. (2014). Kino der Unordnung, Filmische Narration und Weltkonstitution bei Nicolas Roeg. Bielefeld: Transcript; Ferstl, P., & Sarkhosh, K. (Eds.). (2014). Quote Double Quote. Aesthetics between High and Popular Culture. Amsterdam: Rodopi; Sarkhosh, K., & Menninghaus, W. (2016). »Enjoying trash films: Underlying features, viewing stances, and experiential response dimensions«. Poetics, 57, 40-54; Sarkhosh, K. (2019). Woher kommt die Lust an billigen Trash-Horrorfilmen? Empirische Befunde im Licht des Distancing-Embracing- Modells. In E. Brock & T. Lerchner (eds.), Denken des Horrors, Horror des Denkens: Erschreckendes, Monströses und Unheimliches aus philosophischer Perspektive (pp. 199-214). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.

Su-Jin Song Researcher (Teaching and Research Assistant at Cologne Game Lab, Germany)

Su-Jin Song is a teaching and research assistant at the Cologne Game Lab of the TH Köln and also a film producer and director based in Germany. Su-Jin Song studied creative producing at the ifs internationale filmschule köln. She worked as creative producer for film production companies and realized many international productions. She also directed two documentary films – »Doppelter Herzschlag« and »Unsere Eomeoni«. In 2015 she started her MA studies in Game Development and Research at the Cologne Game Lab, where she got a scholarship in the Incubator program with her team, fantasticfoe. Su-Jin Song’s current film and game projects reveal a close connection between practice and theory, storytelling, design and research. Her research interests include interactive storytelling, game and film studies.

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Festival Curators

Csongor Dobrotka Founder and Festival Director (»Die Seriale«), Germany

Csongor Dobrotka is founder and festival director of »Die Seriale«, Germany's first festival for digital series and web series. He is a director, screenwriter, and producer, and studied Drama, Theatre & Media at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at JLU Gießen. Since 2009 he has also been working for the Hessian Film and Media Academy (hFMA) and founded the production company DOBAGO FILM in 2011, which now specializes in the production of digital series. He is the director and co-author of the internationally award-winning digital series »Number of Silence« and regularly participates as a jury member and speaker in events worldwide that focus on serial web content, such as Bilbao Seriesland, Seoul Webfest, Marseille Web Fest, Roma Web Fest, Sicily Web Fest, Minnesota Web Fest and Buenos Aires Web Fest. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the DC Webfest in Washington since 2018.

Johannes Hensen Head of Program at »Film Festival Cologne«, Germany

Johannes Hensen is the head of program of the renowned Film Festival Cologne and oversees curation of the festival‘s content. He worked for various national and international film productions, in film distribution and sales. He gained experience as a media journalist and media consultant and supervised projects of the independent cultural scene in terms of organization and curation. Hensen studied media economics in Cologne and Newcastle, has an excellent network in the media industry and is an expert on worldwide trends and tendencies in the audiovisual sector.

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Gerhard Maier Co-Founder of »Seriencamp« and the storytelling forum »Plot«, Germany

After getting his master's degree in American cultural studies, politics and economics, Gerhard Maier turned his passion for movies and series into a job and worked as journalist (Spex, Juice, ME.Movies), editor-in-chief (piranha, King Magazin) and texter (Universal, Capelight, Koch Media, Amazon) on all things of »audiovisual entertainment«. In 2014 he co-founded »Seriencamp« which consists of Germany’s first festival dedicated exclusively to serial storytelling and of the three-day »Seriencamp Conference« (which focusses on latest creative trends and developments in the industry). He regularly gives keynotes and workshops on cultural and structural aspects of the series industry. In 2018 he founded the interdisciplinary storytelling forum »Plot« (whattheplot.com) as a conference to connect and inspire filmmakers, artists, marketing experts and tech developers.

Marie Baracco Founder and Manager of Kandimari Agency/Festival »Série Series«, France

Marie Barraco started her career in audiovisual production before turning to cultural events management. She then founded Kandimari, the consulting, communications and event management agency specialized in the sector. She created and managed the »Scénaristes en Séries« festival in Aix-les-Bains (2005-2010). In 2012, she founded »Série Series«, the European TV series festival in Fontainebleau, as well as »Série Series Africa« and »Série Series Kids« in 2018. All her initiatives are led in conjunction with professionals of the sector, who are fully included in all thinking processes.

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Transmedia, Animation, Comics and Game Experts

Csongor Baranyai Game Designer (Professor for Game Design at UE University of Europe for Applied Sciences), Hungary/Germany

Born 1976 in Budapest/Hungary, Csongor Baranyai has been living in Germany since 1988. From 1999 to 2005 he studied film and television dramaturgy and screenwriting at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (HFF) in Potsdam Babelsberg. During this time he participated in several short movie productions as director, assistant director, script consultant, and script/continuity person. From 2005 to 2008 he worked as game designer and conceptioner for several companies as a permanent employee. Since 2008, Csongor Baranyai has been working as a freelancing game designer, narrative designer and consultant for game developers, transmedia projects and artists, while pursuing several projects of his own. Csongor Baranyai was head of the further education program Interactive Media at the ifs internationale filmschule köln, where he also helped design the curriculum for the international Master Digital Narratives. Since 2015 he is professor of Game Design at UE University of Europe for Applied Sciences, where since 2016 he is also head of the BA study program Game Design // UE.

David Daubitz Writer, Producer and Narration Manager (Limbic Entertainment), Germany

David Daubitz studied philosophy and creative writing at the Universität Hildesheim and specialized in the field of dramaturgy at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität. He developed series concepts at RTL Disney, wrote pitches and screenplays at UFA X, analyzed screenplays for Bavaria Fiction and worked in the Narrative QA department at Ubisoft. As a freelancer he consulted and developed series, published Sci-Fi short stories, wrote narrative designs for games and additionally for an AI-featured project with the focus on interactive storytelling. Recently, he delved more into the gaming industry as Narration Manager for Limbic Entertainment responsible for the quality of the stories of AAA titles.

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Peter Höpfner Global Creative Director Egmont Publishing

Peter Höpfner began his career at Egmont Ehapa Media in Germany as Editor-in-Chief in August 2001. For the past three years, he has been responsible for fictional content in Egmont Publishing's global set-up, including licensors such as Disney, Mattel, Hasbro, Mojang, Nickelodeon, and Egmont's own brands, and temporarily headed the New Business and Corporate Publishing area. Before joining Egmont Ehapa Media, the trained banker worked, among other things, as a media advisor and journalist and as an editor at the Berliner Morgenpost.

Jörg Ihle Writer, Game Writer and Transmedia Expert, Germany

After graduating AFI in Los Angeles, Jörg Ihle worked as a screenwriter selling several scripts to major studios. In addition, he co-produced, directed and wrote the independent films »Two Days«, »The Tribe« and» Privacy«. Jörg Ihle went on to write video games for Ubisoft such as »Settlers 7«, »Anno 1404«,»Red Steel 2« and »Silent Hunter 5« and two animated feature films for Trixter and Parapictures in Germany. Jörg Ihle builds and develops transmedia brands for Germany’s biggest theme park Europa-Park, in co-operation with toy and game companies, publishers, film and television producers as well as attraction designers. He lectures on story worlds and transmedia in film schools across Europe.

Marc Lepetit Producer and Transmedia Expert, Germany

Executive Producer (UFA Fiction). Following his studies at the Film Academy Baden- Wuerttemberg, Marc Lepetit joined Phoenix Film in Berlin, where he worked on TV series, feature films, and various business-development issues. His first project as a UFA producer for

47/52 cinema was »Devil’s Kickers«. »Kill Your Darling« in 2009 was Germany’s first big transmedia project. At UFA Fiction, he has worked as a feature-film producer on the »Frühling« series, »Der Fall Harry Wörz«, and »Aus der Haut«, among other productions. His latest projects include the popular ZDF miniseries »Ku’damm 56« and »Ku’damm 59«. In addition, Lepetit is a member of the team responsible for new media activities. In this capacity, he initiated the project »Behind the Story for UFA Fiction, the UFA Lab, and Bild. In addition, working with SZ Magazine and Bayischer Rundfunk, he implemented the filmed version of »Der NSU Process – Die Protokolle des Zweiten Jahres« as an online project. Lepetit is also a lecturer in the area of cross-media storytelling at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Russ McGarry Writer for Animated Series (»Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja«, »My Knight & Me«), USA

Russ McGarry has nearly two decades-worth of experience writing and producing. He has written in a variety of formats and voices, including but not limited to Sitcoms, Animated series, Stand up comedy, Voice over, Pitch packets for networks, and Copywriting. His credits for animated series include »Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja« (Disney) and »My Knight and Me« (Télétoon+). Russ is also one of four producers to have shot and edited the documentary feature film »One Fall« (trailer found at www.onefall.com), which won the Gold Award at the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival.

Janna Nandzik Writer, Director and Transmedia Producer, Germany

Janna Maria Nandzik is a screenwriter, director and transmedia producer with a preference for serial and digital storytelling. Janna studied film, literature and art history and likes to play with cultural references in her scripts. As former deputy managing director of the production companies Ulmen Television and Ulmen Film, she learned a lot about black humor from her former boss Christian Ulmen. In 2009 she wrote for Comedy Central on the cross-media show Ulmen.Tv. 2010 she created and produced her first TV series »Die Snobs – Sie können auch ohne Dich« for ZDFneo. In 2012 she made her directing debut: the German-French transmedia series »About:Kate« (ARTE), which received a lot of attention in the press and won awards in Germany and Switzerland. Most recently she wrote for the award-winning comedy series »Jerks« (Maxdome/ProSieben) and Teen Drama »Druck« (ZDFneo/funk)

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Alison Norrington Writer and Transmedia Producer (Founder and Chief Creative Director of Storycentral), UK

Alison Norrington is a writer/producer, CEO, Founder & Chief Creative Director of storycentral, a London-based entertainment studio that incubates and develops ground-breaking transmedia properties with global partners in film, television, publishing, advertising, branding and gaming. Alison is a best-selling novelist and playwright, with an MA in Creative Writing & New Media and is a PhD researcher. Over her 20-year career she has worked with and consulted to Sundance TV, CBS Interactive, Walt Disney Imagineering, FOX International, AMC Networks, Harlequin Mills & Boon, McCann, Coca Cola, F&W Media, Eurovision Broadcasting Union, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. She is currently writing and producing a web-series with LA partners, a TV show with Swedish partners and continues to work with emerging filmmakers and storytellers at CBS Interactive, Sundance TV, DR (Danish TV & Radio), Boost HbG (Sweden), London Film School and Akademie Fur Kindermedien (Germany). Alison is the writer and producer of the web series »The Loedown«, author of three bestselling novels – »Class Act«, »Look Before You Leap« and »Three of a Kind«, and creator of the first transmedia romcom »Staying Single«. She has also written plays »A Fish & A Bonsai« and »Pistols at Dawn«. In 2012, Alison launched storycentralLABS, which works with global events and partners to create a hackathon environment with a clear and tangible brief of an existing or in development IP with a major network or studio. Alison runs workshops, training programs and labs worldwide and is a judge for a series of global media festival including Banff World Media Festival, International Emmy Awards, Canada Media Fund and Publishing Innovation Awards.

Kerstin Viehbach Head of Comissioning & Development (Fiction) at RTL DISNEY, Germany

Kerstin Viehbach studied Theater-, Film- and TV-Sciences at Ruhr-Universität Bochum before she started her media career as an online editor at Brainpool TV Productions. Since 1999 she has been working at RTL DISNEY TELEVISION, first as a TV-Producer for in- house productions, later as editor fiction and senior editor fiction in the Editorial Department Daytime. Since 2014 she has been team leader of the Editorial Department Fiction at Super RTL. With twenty years of experience in the production and broadcasting of non-fiction and fiction shows, magazines, and series for children, watching, reading, developing and producing content for children is still one of her greatest passions. Kerstin Viehbach is mother of two children and lives and works in Cologne.

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Agents & Lawyers

Matthew Dench Agent (The Dench Arnold Agency), UK

Matthew Dench began his career as a script reader before joining The Dench Arnold Agency. He has been an agent working with writers and directors for over fifteen years working across all levels of film and television. He is a frequent guest lecturer on screenwriting and the film industry for several organizations including the LCC, University of London, Leeds University, EM Media and the National Film and Television School. He acted as a producer on the feature film »SUS« which has won awards at festivals worldwide.

Andrea Etz Agent (etz&wels), Germany

Andrea Etz studied German, Romanic Languages and Literature as well as Art History in Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, and Vienna (Master's degree, M.A.). She worked as a dramaturgy assistant at the Vienna Burgtheater and as a music theater dramaturge at the Städtische Bühnen Kiel. Her postgraduate studies in Berlin focused on Cultural Management. Since 1999 Andrea Etz has worked as an agent for filmmakers. In 2009 she co-founded etz&wels GmbH together with Anne Wels.

Dr. Christoph Fey Entertainment Lawyer (Von Have Fey), Germany

Christoph Fey is an entertainment lawyer at Von Have Fey, internationally recognized for his work in the business of film and television. Christoph represents writing, directing and producing talent, working on critically acclaimed shows such as »A Perfect Crime«, »Deutschland 50/52

83/86/89«, »Eyewitness«, »Homeland (Hatufim)«, »In the Fade«, »In Treatment (Be Tipul)«, »The Cleaners« and »Unorthodox«. Alongside being a lawyer, he runs Fred Films, an independent agency packaging finance for big budget drama series. Christoph is a founding partner of the Entertainment Master Class, a non-for-profit, peer-to-peer executive education program, launched in 2005 as the first »Format Academy« worldwide. He has written widely on copyright law and the business of television, most recently the book »Trading TV Formats« for the European Broadcasting Union.

Julian Wilkins Commercial Media Lawyer and Solicitor (London Screenwriters’ Festival Legal Clinic), UK

Julian Wilkins is an English qualified solicitor or lawyer. He is also a Notary Public, Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) accredited commercial mediator and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is an experienced commercial media and intellectual property solicitor but during his career has undertaken a broad practice including civil litigation. His interest in media law is reflected by being a member of the UK editorial team for the EU Audio Visual Observatory IRIS online section. Julian has contributed to various legal journals as well as Broadcast magazine. Also, he edits the ITN (Independent Television News) 1955 Club Newsletter. He developed and edited Blue Pencil, a magazine about legal issues relevant to the creative industries. Since 2011 he has convened the legal clinic at the London Screenwriters’ Festival. Julian is a guest lecturer on intellectual property issues for the University of Reading’s LLM course on Advanced International Commercial Law. Also, he is on the register of visiting lecturers for the University of Law. Speaking roles include at the Westminster Media Forum and guest speaker at Finland’s Media and Message Conference. Julian is also writing and developing scripts and has been a finalist in the Media Lunch Club’s script competitions. Julian is a member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) and his mentor won the WGGB 2020 Olwen Wymark Theatre Encouragement Award for new writers. Julian has undertaken executive producer’s roles.

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Ama Walton Attorney at Law/ Expert for Copyright and Media Law / Business Mediator, Germany

Ama B. Walton is a registered expert in copyright and media law, business mediator and speaker. She is an established expert in the entertainment industry with a focus on all aspects of music and film law as well as cooperative negotiation and conflict resolution. She was on the board of BMG Rights Management GmbH as their global General Counsel and CHRO for three years. Prior to BMG she was managing director of the music companies of Constantin Film AG and before that she was part of the management team of EMI Music Germany GmbH & Co. KG as their Senior Vice President Business & Legal Affairs. She is an inspiring sparring partner for her clients, using her creative power and business expertise to ensure fair access and balance of resources.

Photo credits: see www.filmschule.de

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