Julien Lilti

Scriptwriter

Julien Lilti completed his studies in sociology and rural development in 2002. After completing a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking in 2003, he worked as a reporter for Canal + for four years, while taking part in several films in front or behind the camera. In 2007, he left journalism to become a full-time screenwriter. Since then, he has both written for television (Pahé), for films and for documentaries (Gilles Caron, j’ai voulu voir). Hippocrates, a feature film he has co-written, was the closing film of the 53rd Semaine de la Critique. Adama, his feature-length animation film released in October 2015, has been selected in many festivals (Chicago, San Sebastian, Annecy…) and is amongst the three animated features nominated at the European Films Awards 2015. He’s currently writing two feature films and a TV show for Canal+.

Fabien Gaffez

Critic and festival programmer

Ewa Puszczynska

Producer

Ewa was born and raised in Lodz in Poland. She started her professional life working for one of the most famous Polish puppet theatres, Arlekin, as a literature researcher, playwright, editor and advisor. In 1993, she translated In my Grandmother’s Purse by Eric Bass, an American puppeteer, and was an assistant director to Eric when he was directing his play in Arlekin. Since 1995, she has been working for Opus Film, an independent film production company in Poland and has been managing project development and execution since. Ewa was producing David Lynch’s photo sessions in Poland and was line producer of the Polish part of his Inland Empire. She is a speaker at the Film School in Lodz and the Andrzej Wajda Film School in Warsaw, at the MAIA and SOFA workshops. She is a Member of PFA and EFA. Her very recent credits as a producer are: Ida, written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, The Congress written and directed by Ari Folman, Aglaja, written and directed by Krisztina Deak and King of Devil’s Island directed by Marius Holst.

Virginie Devesa

Sales agent

Virginie made her first foray into Cinema in Kiev in Ukraine, where she was part of the team organising the Molodist Film Festival. Back in France, she has worked for three years at Celluloid Dreams. She was then hired by the French Embassy in Moscow to organise with Unifrance the French Film Festival in Moscow. She then studied film production at the CEFPF in Paris and worked for Urban Distribution. Her experiences have led her to the creation of her own sales label, Alpha Violet with Keiko Funato. Alpha Violet catalogue includes Aquí y Allá by Antonio Méndez Esparza (2012 Nespresso Grand Prize), The Tribe by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (2014 Nespresso Grand Prize and France 4 Visionary Award) or more recently A Yellow Birdby K. Rajagopal. She has recently created Alpha Violet production to coproduce Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s second feature film Luxembourg.

Geoffroy Grison

Producer and scriptwriter

After a Masters degree in classical Greek poetry and an early experience as a stage actor, Geoffroy started working for Arte TV with Pierre Chevalier, as his script adviser. He went on to begin his career as a producer with Raphael Nadjari, with whom he produced five films: The Shade (1999), I Am Josh Polonski’s Brother (2001), Apartment #5C (2002), Avanim (2004) and Tehilim (2007) selected three times at the Cannes Film Festival, twice at the Berlinale and acclaimed by critics. Grison went on to discover emerging auteurs from France and abroad, producing the directorial debuts of filmmakers such as Laurent de Bartillat, Rodolphe Tissot, or Bulgarian contemporary artist Konstantin Bojanov (Avé – Semaine de la critique 2011). In 2013, he wrote his first script with Raphael Nadjari, A Strange Course of Events, which was selected for the 2013 Directors’ Fortnight. He has participated in several funding commissions for the French National Film Centre (CNC). He currently serves as commission member of the Strasbourg City Film Fund (France) and SSA/Suissimage Creative Development Fund in Lausanne (Switzerland). 

Thomas Pibarot

Distributor

After a first carrier in TV (TPS CINEMA as an intern, developing, programming and buying feature films for 7 Tv movie channels, and four years as Head of Acquisitions for Cinema), he then joined the cinema distribution with Bac Films in 2007 to work in acquisitions. When Jean Labadie left the company, he joined him in launching Le Pacte, a new Distribution, International sales and Coproduction company. He's been Head of Acquisitions ever since. Le Pacte's latest credits as a distributor include Hippocrates by Thomas Lilti, Our Little Sisterby Hirokazu Kore-eda, Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako, and as a coproducer, Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch, Tale of Tales by Matteo Garrone and Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti.