Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is a group of movie industry professionals hailing from all parts of the world. Its mission is to support the festival by contributing constructive ideas and solutions on how to strategically develop and grow the festival and improve the filmmaker and audience experience.

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Steve Bannerman

 

A pioneer in the Media and Entertainment industry, Steve is Head of Post for International Features at Amazon Studios. During his 30-year career, Steve helped launch Apple’s QuickTime TV Network, the world’s first content delivery network optimized for streaming video. He also founded Caststream, a successful streaming media and collaboration company, later acquired by Sun Microsystems. Steve has held executive sales and marketing positions at companies including Apple, Assimilate, GenArts, and Silverdraft Supercomputing. Prior to Amazon Studios, Steve was the CEO and Executive Producer of Local Hero in Santa Monica, CA. Local Hero, acquired by REAL by FAKE in Montreal, is Hollywood’s premiere VFX and post-production boutique, with credits including Big Little Lies, The Morning Show, Sharp Objects, Pitch Perfect, Mr. Robot, and Captain Fantastic.

 

Steve resides with his family in Marina Del Rey, CA. 

Stephen Pizzello

 

Stephen Pizzello is the editor-in-chief of American Cinematographer magazine, the flagship publication of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and the world’s leading journal on motion-imaging techniques.

 

A native of Salem, MA, he attended Boston University, graduating in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and film. After graduating, he spent several years working at a Massachusetts publishing company as a newspaper and magazine writer/editor before heading to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Following a brief stint as an agent’s assistant at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), he landed a job on the staff of American Cinematographer and was promoted to editor three years later. During his three-decade tenure, the magazine has earned many editorial honors, including 11 Folio Editorial Excellence Awards, or “Eddies,” and dozens of Maggie Awards. His own articles have earned several Folio Awards, a 1993 Maggie Award and six additional Maggie nominations. In 2017, the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) and Technicolor honored him with the William A. Fraker Award for “outstanding journalistic contributions to the art and craft of cinematography.”  

 

In addition to his magazine duties, Pizzello served for five years as head writer for the annual ASC Awards for Outstanding Cinematography. He has also produced and edited tributes for cinematographers and other filmmakers receiving career-achievement honors at the ASC Awards and other events, including reels for renowned directors of photography Roger Deakins, Caleb Deschanel, Robby Müller, Robert Richardson, John Seale, Dean Semler, Dante Spinotti and William Wages, as well as salutes to actor Harrison Ford, actor-director Angelina Jolie and director Nicolas Winding Refn. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Delphine Figueras, and three sons.

Delphine Figueras

 

She is the founder of Industry Insiders, a production and consulting firm specializing in awards and event strategies. She currently produces ASC Clubhouse Conversations, an online educational series for the American Society of Cinematographers that pairs ASC members with prominent filmmakers for in-depth discussions of their work.

 

Figueras also produces Inside the Set with Set Decor, an online interview series for the Set Decorators Society of America that features set decorators interviewing their professional peers and accomplished production designers. The shows have earned a combined total of five Telly Awards. Figueras coordinates the series Shot Talks for shotdeck.com, a company founded by Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Lawrence Sher, ASC. She is an associate producer of the annual ASC Awards show, which she co-hosted for five years.

 

She earned additional Telly and Aurora Awards as a producer and performer with the Porkchop Playhouse sketch-comedy group and is currently co-producing an untitled documentary about a visually impaired musical-theater director. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Figueras attended Webster University, majoring in Literature and Women’s Studies. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Stephen Pizzello, and their three sons.

Vika Safrigina

 

Vika has over 25 years of experience in advertising, brand development, events, client relations and publicity, specializing in Motion Picture & Broadcast Technology. She has worked closely with cinematographers, and technology brands, and has produced educational panels at industry events including Cine Gear Expo and Holly Shorts Film Festival. Vika has also consulted with organizations including The ASC, Digital Cinema Society, & CAS. A long-time Los Angeles resident, Vika is now based in Berlin.

Iris Baumüller

Iris grew up in Cologne, London and South Africa. After studying film and theatre sciences, she worked as an assistant-director for movies, television and commercials. In 2003 she founded DIE BESETZER CASTING based in Berlin and Cologne. www.diebesetzer.de

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Kim Magnusson

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Kim is an Academy Award-winning producer who founded M&M Productions with his father, Tivi Magnusson. Headhunted to run Nordisk Film's Film Division as CEO. He has been Oscar® nominated in the category "Live Action Short Film" six times and won the coveted award in 1999 for ELECTION NIGHT and in 2014 for HELIUM. He was chairman of the Danish Producers Association as well as chairman of the Danish Film Academy. Kim is a voting member of AMPAS® as well as both The Danish and The European Film Academy. In 2010, he launched Dansk Film Kompagni to develop and produce high-end, commercial-driven films for the international market. Kim splits his time between Copenhagen and Los Angeles.

Pilou Asbæk

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Pilou is an internationally renowned actor and Cultural Amabassador to Mallorca. He is known for his role as the troubled spinning doctor Kasper Juul in the Danish television political drama Borgen, and as Euron Greyjoy in the television series Game of Thrones.

Christina Nowak

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Christina is Anna Valley’s director of virtual production and a millennial maestro - whose substantial experience has played a key role in the industry and the communities within it.  From working on set with crew to marketing and business development, Nowak has a wealth of understanding from her time at cutting-edge film & TV technology companies.  Her recent roles include Head of Marketing at Ncam, business development at RED Digital Cinema and, prior to joining Anna Valley, director of film and TV for creative technology company, 80six. In addition to being a board member and section manager for SMPTE UK, a Friend of the ACO, Nowak is also extensively involved in Women in Film and TV (WFTV UK), Rise WIB, Cinegirl and other groups aimed at improving gender diversity and representation through media & entertainment.  She has a gift for combining a technical mindset with creative applications and a talent for supporting production, their crew, finding opportunities and uplifting revenue by cultivating meaningful business relationships.  

Joachim Zell

 

He is the Head of HDR Content Workflow at Barco. For 12 years he served as VP of Technology and Imaging Science at EFILM/Deluxe, where he designed and monitored production workflows from onset production to the movie release. Previously he was VP of Advanced Technology at Technicolor Thomson in Burbank and before that he was Marketing Manager Americas at Grass Valley Thomson.  During his time in London, Joachim worked as Product Manager, Digital Film Systems for Pandora Int. He supports SMPTE as Hollywood Section Manager and serves on the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council DI team that has defined the ASC CDL standard. Joachim is an Associate Member of the American Society of Cinematographers. He also acts as Co-Chair of the ASC’s MITC Next-Generation Cinema Display committee and Co-produces the ASC “Standard Evaluation Material V2” short. He holds the position of ACES Project Vice Chair at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In February 2020, Joachim became a Board Member of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA). Joachim holds a master’s degree in Film and Television Engineering and has co-authored four image processing patents.

Tara Marie Linke

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Tara Marie is a French-German actress who lives between Mallorca and Munich. She starred in the award-winning film The Downfall (2005) and has worked with directors such as Dominik Graf, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Bruno Ganz.  She is the founder and director of the I AM ACTOR acting school in Palma de Mallorca. 

Marc Clotet

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Marc was born in Barcelona, Spain. He is an actor known for  TV Show Madres. Amore y Vida (2020), The Chess Player (2017), The Sleeping Voice (2011) and The Caribbean 'All Inclusive' (2020). He is also an environmentalist taking steps to create more clean water opportunities in India and beyond with wearewater.org 

Marcos Cabotá

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Born in Palma de Mallorca he began his career as a filmmaker working on the script for his first feature film Amigos (2010), receiving the audience award at the Malaga Film Festival. He teamed up with film director Toni Bestard to write the script for the documentary I Am Your Father, earning a Goya Award nomination for Best Documentary Film. In 2014 he co-produced the film El Destierro, directed by Arturo Ruíz. The film received numerous awards and special mentions in the United States and Asia. He is currently in post-production for his new film.