Consultants & experts

Filmmaker and scriptwriter Marie Amachoukeli studied at the prestigious Femis film school in Paris. She wrote and co-directed Forbach, which won the Clermont-Ferrand Grand Prize, the César-winning short It’s Free For Girls (C’est gratuit pour les filles), in competition at the 48^th Semaine de la Critique, and Demolition Party with Claire Burger. In 2014,  she makes her feature film debut with Party girl, as co-director with Samuel Theis and Claire Burger. The film won the Camera d’Or in Cannes and a number of international awards. In 2016, she puts the final touches to I Want Pluto to be a Planet Again, a short animation film she directed with Vladimir Mavounia Kouka, which was nominated for the César awards in 2018 and received several awards. In 2020, she writes the Colombian film Litigante for Franco Lolli (opening film of the 2019 of La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes). The same year, she finishes Hypno, an installation artwork for the 3^rd Stage of the Paris Opera. As a consultant, she collaborates with directors such as Clément Cogitore, Julia Ducournau, Guillaume Gouix and takes part in international writing workshops, such as Next Step and the Atlas Workshops.

Matthieu Darras leads and has created several programs of film/talent development and consultancy, active worldwide: The First Cut Lab, the Pop Up Film Residency, and the Full Circle Lab. Previously, he founded & directed the European Network of Young Cinema NISI MASA, wrote for the film magazine Positif for fifteen years, and was the artistic director of the TorinoFilmLab until 2018. Matthieu Darras worked for major film festivals in Europe: as member of the feature film selection committee for La Semaine de la Critique, as consultant for the Venice Film Festival, and as delegate for the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Born in 1976 in Marseille, Gabrielle grew up in Sweden and Germany. In 2001, she started working at ACE, a unique European network of producers providing tailor-made funding and development support services. Working with top European producers, she acted as an international development consultant and matchmaker for the film industry and a number of festivals. During her 7 years at ACE, she worked with nearly 130 producers on over 400 feature film projects. In 2008, she joined producer Bertrand Faivre at Le Bureau in Paris. Made a partner in 2011, Gabrielle has been developing and producing her own projects for Le Bureau since 2014, such as Tramontane (Semaine de la Critique 2016), Sollers Point (San Sebastian 2017), Digger (Berlin Panorama 2020) or After Love (Semaine de la Critique 2020).

Léa Fehner grew up among tent-theatre professionals and studied film at La Fémis in the scriptwriting department. Her first film Silent Voice (Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront) is a huge success in many festivals, including the Venice Mostra and the Deauville American Film Festival. It won the Louis Delluc Award for Best First Feature in 2009 and was nominated for the Césars. Her second feature, Les Ogres was awarded at the 2016 Rotterdam Festival. She is currently working on her third feature and is collaborating on the scripts of several first features.

Fabio Grassadonia is a Sicilian writer and director, working with Antonio Piazza in an award-winning filmmaking duo. Their second feature film Sicilian Ghost Story opened the 2017 Semaine de la Critique and secured distribution in many countries. They then won the prestigious Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award, which honours “emerging directors who possess the originality, talent and vision to be celebrated as the future of world cinema”. Sicilian Ghost Story won the Nastro d’Argento for Best Cinematography and for Best Production Design and won several awards in different festivals. At the David di Donatello Awards 2018 the film got four nominations and Fabio and Antonio were given the David di Donatello for the Best Adapted Script. Their first feature film Salvo premiered at the 2013 Semaine de la Critique, winning two prizes, the Nespresso Grand Prize and the France 4 Visionary Award.

Britta Krause is a script consultant and director based in Berlin. A graduate of the London Film School she has been working as a tutor with emerging screenwriter/directors most recently for Nisi Masa’s ESP workshop, Attagirl 2020, the Doha Film Institute and Full Circle Lab Upper Rhine. She was a script editor trainee at TorinoFilmLab in 2012 before joining the lab again in 2018 as trainer for FeatureLab. Britta is currently teaching Script Development Strategies at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg to students of the International Producing program as well as working one on one with writers and directors from all over Europe and the Middle East.

Antonio Piazza is a Sicilian writer and director, working with Fabio Grassadonia in an award-winning filmmaking duo. Their second feature film Sicilian Ghost Story opened the 2017 Semaine de la Critique and secured distribution in many countries. They then won the prestigious Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award, which honours “emerging directors who possess the originality, talent and vision to be celebrated as the future of world cinema”. Sicilian Ghost Story won the Nastro d’Argento for Best Cinematography and for Best Production Design and won several awards in different festivals. At the David di Donatello Awards 2018 the film got four nominations and Fabio and Antonio were given the David di Donatello for the Best Adapted Script. Their first feature film Salvo premiered at the 2013 Semaine de la Critique, winning two prizes, the Nespresso Grand Prize and the France 4 Visionary Award.

Laure Parleani holds a Master’s Degree in Business Law and a Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Law. She started out as Business Affairs with Les Films Pelléas then as Investment Officer and production manager at Palatine Etoile Ciné Nominé before joining Les Films du Losange as Sales Executive. She is a part of the 5050×2020 collective. In 2018 she co-founded Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films together with Bérénice Vincent and Agathe Valentin. Totem seeks out talents that question our world through sensorial emotion and stories that inspire and thrill audiences across multiple platforms (e.g. And Then We Danced by Levan Akin | Directors’ Fortnight 2019, Ceniza Negra by Sofía Quirós Ubeda | Semaine de la Critique 2019, Luxor by Zeina Durra | World Competition Sundance 2020, Gagarine by Fanny Liatard & Jérémie Trouilh | Cannes Label 2020).

In fall 2015, Hédi Zardi launched with Fiorella Moretti their Paris based company Luxbox, dedicated to international sales and co-production of selected projects. With a complementary industry knowledge built on experience in production, distribution, acquisitions, sales and festival programming they start with a solid film catalogue and a passionate pool of world cinema directors. The company launched at the Berlin EFM 2016, Inhebbek Hedi by Mohammed Ben Attia, Best First Feature Film and Silver Bear for Best Actor and in Cannes, Mimosas by Oliver Laxe, 2016 La Semaine de la Critique’s Grand Prize. The company was present with two titles at the Cannes 2020 selection, Spring Blossom by Suzanne Lindon and In the Dusk by Sharunas Bartas. In parallel to its World Sales activity, Luxbox has started to coproduce several projects, including Nuestro Tiempo by Carlos Reygadas which premiered at Venice International Film Festival. The next coproduction projects are Selene 66 Questions  by multi-awarded Greek director Jacqueline Lentzou (2018 Next Step project)  and Barchini by Italian artist Yuri Ancanari.