People

Gonçalo Galvão Teles

Gonçalo Galvão Teles graduated from the University of Lisbon with a Law Degree before traveling to the United States to complete the Master's Program in Screenwriting at the prestigious University of Southern California (USC).

Upon returning to Portugal, his first produced screenplay, the animated short "The Suspicion", went on to win the Cartoon D'Or for Best European Animation of the year 2000.

Since then, Gonçalo has developed a career as writer, director and producer of more than twenty films and is presently directing his new feature film "Ice", scheduled for released in the Spring of 2014. He is a full professor at the film department at Universidade Lusófona.

James Mavor

James Mavor leads the postgraduate courses in screenwriting at Screen Academy Scotland, Edinburgh Napier University - one of only three Film Academies in the UK.

The MA Screenwriting is accredited by Creative Skillset and regularly attracts a diverse cohort of international and UK students. The course takes a general approach covering writing and development for film, TV and the new digital platforms. Close contact with industry professionals is a key element of the programme.

James combines teaching with his work as a professional screenwriter. His credits for television span 20 years across soaps, series and single dramas, including The Bill, Monarch of the Glen and Split Second, a TV movie starring Clive Owen and Helen McCrory.

He has also written award-winning work in short film, theatre, radio and short fiction.

Since joining Screen Academy Scotland in 2007, James has been involved in a number of adaptations and collaborations with crime author Ian Rankin, including Reichenbach Falls (2007) and Doors Open (2012), a 120' comedy thriller for ITV produced by and starring Stephen Fry.

Recent work includes script development with Edinburgh-based, Bafta-winning animation team Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson on Dom, their debut feature doc.

James is working with producer John McKay on Berwick Law, a low budget feature film in development with BFI/Scottish Film Talent Network, and on Chosen, a spooky TV series set in Estonia, with John McKay's Compact Pictures and Allfilm in Estonia.

Research interests include adaptation and developing collaborative projects and links between students and industry.

Manuel José Damásio

Manuel is a full professor and the head of the film and media art department at Lusófona University.

He obtained his tenure in 2011 from Minho University in Portugal and holds a PhD in media studies from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

He has worked as a trainer, consultant and producer in the audiovisual industry at a European and international level for more than twenty years and has a strong past experience as head researcher and project manager in several national and European research and development projects.

Mart Raun

Mart Raun is a director and cinematographer, lecturer at the BFM since 2012. He has worked as cinematographer for feature, documentary, short films, commercials and as a freelance storyboard artist and illustrator for films and hundreds of commercials.

For ten years he has also worked as gaffer and electrician for films and commercials and as a freelance Assistant Camera and DIT for films and commercials (35mm, 16mm, HD, HDV). In addition to filmmaking and teaching he has been writing about films since 2012 and is currently a film critic for Estonian newspaper Äripäev, one of the most successful economic newspapers in Europe.

Mart Raun is also the course coordinator of Viewfinder JMD programme.

Paul Freaney

Paul Freaney lectures in Film Studies and Screenwriting at the National Film School, at IADT. He originally designed and launched the institutes' Masters in Screenwriting and is the Programme Chair of that programme. It has been running now for twenty years and has built a reputation as one of the finest courses of its kind in Europe.

In 2014 he wrote and directed the short film drama - "These Dog Days". It Premiered at the Indie Cork Film Festival and played the Cork Film Festival in 2015. He has developed a number of feature scripts with directors, producers and recently developed a feature "I'm A Wheel" with a Screen Ireland development loan. His most recent screenplay is a contemporary drama entitled "It's Like This". He is on the Board of Directors of the Guestbook Project Foundation, founded by Professor Richard Kearney of Boston College; the foundation promotes peace building in divided Communities through shared storytelling. He is also a member of the Emmy awards screenwriting-judging panel.

Sandra Rocha

Sandra Rocha studied Communication Sciences and Audiovisual and is currently responsible for the Cooperation Projects Office for the Film and Media Arts Department at Lusófona University.

For the past 17 years she has been managing all cooperation actions between partners, both from academia and industry, namely several cooperation projects under Media Programme Training and Erasmus Plus. She is the consortium coordinator for KEM and local manager for Docnomads.

Christopher Granier Deferre

Christopher has over twenty years' experience working in film and television with experiences ranging from high-budget studio fare to low-budget factual television.

In 1998 he founded Poisson Rouge Pictures an independent film company, since then, he was involved in raising over £35m in film finance and the production of over 15 films and in 2000 he co-founded Britshorts, now one of the leading short film distributors, where he held the post of Head of Production & Acquisitions.

From 1994 to 1999 Christopher worked as assistant director for three-time Oscar Nominees Ismail Merchant and James Ivory.

He is a regular guest speaker at The National Film and Television School (London) and has consulted for The Royal Shakespeare Company and Adidas. He is a member of the Production Guild of Great Britain, and Life member of BAFTA.

Bruce Sheridan

Bruce Sheridan is President of CILECT, the world association of film, television, and media schools, and led the North-American region of that organization from 2014 to 2018. He won the 1999 New Zealand Best Drama Award for the tele-feature "Lawless", and has directed or produced several award-winning feature documentaries, including "Perfectly Frank", "Spellbound", and "Head Games". His most recent project, "Our Blood Is Wine", (directed by CCC Cinema Directing alumna Emily Railsback), was selected to the 2018 Berlinale. He teaches directing, screenwriting, and producing for drama and documentary in CTVA, where he was Department Chair from 2001-2017.

Over the last decade he has conducted extensive research on human creativity and learning from the perspective of embodied and extended cognition, with emphasis on improvisation, collaboration, and mentorship. Related publications include book chapters for Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Creativity Embodied and Extended; Play, Learning, and Creativity), and CILECT's 21st Century Film and Television School books (Screen Producing and Education in the 21st Century; Creativity, Physical Space, and Teaching Screen Directors).

Edith Sepp

Edith Sepp graduated from Gustav Adolf's Secondary School and started working at filmstudio "Tallinnfilm" as an Assistant Director. Few years later she started studying film direction at Lòdz, graduating with a Master's degree in Norhern Media school. After studying, she worked as a director and producer in film production companies in Estonia and in the UK – developing features and making documentaries, TV–shows, short films. After childbirth, she worked as a lecturer at the Baltic Film and Media School (BFM) and was also the head of Tallinn Summer School at the University of Tallinn.

In 2011, she returned to the film world and started working as an advisor of film at the Estonian Ministry of Culture and since 2013. She is the head of the Estonian Film Institute. EFADs board member since 2014.

Elina Litvinova

Despite working as both film and commercial producer in Allfilm, Elina’s passion belongs to film production. She started her way into film industry at Baltic Film and Media School, studying Audio-visual Media, continued by Simon Perry’s course at the Cologne Film School, R. Bosch training and Ex Oriente development workshop.

For years, Elina has been producing formats that vary from music videos and concert visuals to short films and feature documentaries. Her recently produced titles have been screened and awarded internationally. Since late 2012, Elina has been producing a feature documentary film Anthill, directed by Vladimir Loginov. The development and production of the film is fully funded by the Estonian Film Institute and Cultural Endowment of Estonia. The film has also been selected for Nordisk Pitching Forum in Sweden.

The national premiere in Estonia along with a photo exhibition of Anthill is planned for spring 2014. Allfilm has now got about twenty feature dramas and documentaries in various stages of production. Soon-to-be-released titles include In the Crowsswind (dir. Martti Helde), Fast Eddy (dir. Marko Raat), Tangerines (dir. Zaza Urushadze), and Landscape with Many Moons (dir. Jaan Toomik).

Larry Sider

is Director of the School of Sound and from 2002-2006 was Head of Post-Production at the National Film and Television School (UK). He is a film editor and sound designer who has worked in documentary, animation and fiction. Most recently, he was Supervising Sound Editor for the Quay Brothers' The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes and Dave McKean's Mirrormask. Past projects include Patrick Keiller's London and Robinson in Space, Chris Austin's musical biography of jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, The Brother With Perfect Timing, and Street of Crocodiles and Institute Benjamenta by the Quays.

He has taught at numerous schools including the Royal College of Art, International Film School (Köln), European Film College (Ebeltoft), California Institute of the Arts, the Maurits Binger Institute and Bournemouth Media School. He is co-editor of Soundscape: The School of Sound Lectures 1998-2001 and The New Soundtrack Journal.

Marco Amaral

A colorist based in Lisbon where he co-founded Walla Collective - A post-production collective working mainly for film. In the last years he has been involved with dozens of european productions - shot in film and video formats - many of which were selected and awarded on the biggest film festivals around the world. He has been teaching color-grading to kino eyes students since its first edition.