Valerié Gaudissart
film director - France
Valerie learned to make films by making them, documentary films, fiction films, and films which mix up the two genres. Nearly twenty years have raced by since she began and she has many projects in progress, projects which are cosmopolitan, where people of diverse backgrounds and origins meet up, where long roads are traveled down, the whims of women given free rein, love stories unfolded. She explores the intimate, inner worlds of her characters, their utopias, their humor as well as the gravity of their situations.
Making films does not change the world, she says. If it did, given the hundreds of beautiful films which have been made, wouldn't the world be a better place? But it can help us to stay watchful. "Ich bin eine Terroristin", ("I am terrorist") which is her first feature length film, tells the story of a young girl who leaves home to follow in the footsteps of an assassinated German revolutionary in an attempt to change the world. The film was presented at TIFF in Tromsø this year.
Before that, she made three fictional shorts: "Apesanteurs" ("Weightless"), 2000, 20', is the story of an imprisoned woman who gets permission to leave the prison for two days to take care of family issues. "Mes Insomnies" (Insomnia), 2002, 35' tells of a woman going on a reverse honeymoon because of a disappointment in love. "Celeste", 2005, 45' is about a woman who hides her pregnancy. These films have been shown in many festivals and have even helped her earn her living. She also does cinematic workshops in prisons, in high schools, and is presently conducting one in a residence for abused women.
Her next fiction film is taking form. "You hid Saint Petersburg in your bag" will tell of an eccentric family who goes off to Eastern Europe in search of traces of their ancestors. She lives in France in the countryside, with two children, three donkeys, one mare, five cats, two ducks, two rabbits, seven chickens and one husband pianist.
Peter Rommel
Film producer - Germany
Born 1956 in Stuttgart. After serving an apprenticeship as bookseller, he worked for six years at the Berlin based world sales company and distributor Ex Picturis.
Subsequent to his collaboration with Icelandic director Fridrik Thór Fridriksson regarding the distribution and world sales of Fridriksson’s Oscar-nominated feature „Children of Nature“ Peter Rommel changed sides and became a producer: in 1993 he founded Peter Rommel Productions (now Rommel Film) in Berlin, initially to co-produce international cinema features, like „Movie Days“, „Sweety Barrett“ and „Devil’s Island.
The feature „Nachtgestalten“ by director Andreas Dresen constituted the first fully self-developed production. The generated reference grants were used to produce „Halbe Treppe“ in 2002. Both collaborations with Andreas Dresen were awarded a Silver Bear at the International Berlin Film Festival as well as the Deutscher Filmpreis in Silber and several other international awards. Their third collaboration „Sommer vorm Balkon“ was a co-production with X-Filme in 2005 and was awarded the Prize of the Jury for ‚Best Screenplay’ at the San Sebastian Film Festival, won the Silver Hugo Award for ‚Best Leading Actresses’ at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2005 as well as the Bayrischer Filmpreis for ‚Best Director’ in 2006. In 2008 he produced Andreas Dresen’s „Wolke 9“ which won the „Prize Un Certain Regard / Coup de Coeur“ at the Festival de Cannes and was awarded for ‚Best Director’ at the Palic European Filmfestival, for ‚Best Female Performance’ at the Cinéma Tous Écrans Festival 2008 and won the Bayerischer Filmpreis 2009 for ‚Best Actress’ and ‚Best Director of Photography’. The film also was awarded the German Filmprize for Best Actress, Best Director and German Filmprize in bronze for Best Film.
In 1996 Peter Rommel founded the Stuttgart based film production company Home Run Pictures, realizing coproductions like „3 Herren“ (director: Nikolaus Leytner), „Henker („The Headsman“, director: Simon Aeby) and as executive producer „Lost Killers“ (director: DitoTsintsadze), as well as director Stefan Krohmers debut „Sie haben Knut“ („They’ve got Knut“) and „Sehnsucht“ („Longing“, director: Valeska Grisebach) which was in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006.
In 2004 he founded along with international partners Shotgun Pictures, a company specialized on financing and coproducing international low-budget features like „Open Water 2“ (director: Hans Horn), „Princess“ (director: Anders Morgenthaler, opening film Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2006, Silver Méliès best european Film, Sitges IFF 2006, Mine Xplore Award, Flanders FF 2006), and „Suely in the Sky“ (director: Karim Ainouz) which premiered at Venice 2007 and was awarded for ‚Best Film’, ‚Best Director’, and ‚Best Actress’ at Rio de Janeiro IFF 2006.
Furthermore, Peter Rommel was EAVE-graduate in 1994, by now working as Group Leader. He was „Producer on the Move“ at the Cannes Festival in 2002. Also in 2002 he was honoured with the Producer’s Award „Heimat in Europa“, Rheinland Pfalz for „Halbe Treppe“.
Peter Rommel is a regular jury member at international film festivals (e.g. Max-Ophüls-Preis, Saarbrücken 1998; Berlin International Film Festival 2004, Locarno 2006).
He is a visiting lecturer at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg, and the German-French Masterclass and member of the European Film Academy (EFA).
Pål Jackman
Film director, Norway
Pål debuted in 2000 with the feature film DETECTOR. In addition to the writer Erlend Loe, director Pål Jackman and producer Edward Dreyer, film debuted nearly 15 people in various professional functions and roles in this production. DETEKTOR in 2001 represented something entirely new in the Norwegian film and was a hit both with audiences and critics. Pål Jackman has also enjoyed success with his music through bands Jackman and Wunderkammer.
2009 opened his latest film IRON ANGER (Jernanger) starring Bjorn Sundquist Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF).
Paul has been a workshop leader at NUFF@TIFF workshop in January 2011.
Vera Schöpfer
Film director and editor, Germany
Vera is born 1979 in Cologne, Germany. She studied Film at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Diploma in 2006 with the shortfilm BLACK MARIA. Since then Vera Schöpfer is working as a director and editor.
Besides her own projects she started the creative network www.screenagers.de and runs various film workshops – mostly documentary projects – with students at the age of 13 to 20 years. Several of these films won important prizes for young filmmakers or have been shown on international film festivals.
Vera Schöpfer lives with her husband, daughter and son in Cologne.
Camilla Strøm Henriksen
Film director, Norway
Camilla is born and raised in Oslo. She was only 20 years old when she made her debut on the big screen, in the Norwegian feature “A Handful of Time” (1989), for which she was awarded the Amanda (Norwegian Oscar) for best female actor in a leading role. She has studied dramatics at the University of Oslo and directing at London Film School.
Since then she has worked in film, TV, theatre and radio, mainly directing. She has made a short film “Lace” (2004), directed several TV productions, and worked as script consultant. She is currently developing a feature film project.
NUFF workshop in Gaza
Mustafa Bakeer
Cameraman, director and film producer, Gaza
Mustafa was born and raised in Rafah, one of the Gaza Strip cities. There he lived a life of adventure and danger. 2010 he graduated from the college of information technology, but he used to work as a cameraman since 2007.
During his work he was injured seriously in his arm and shoulder, but that didn’t stop him from continue working in filmmaking, he started to join course about filming and script writing to develop his skills.
2011 his third visual work gained the second level at a film competition in Gaza. His short film MY DREAMS is nominated to international film competition at NUFF 2011.