Christian Alvart
Director of Antibodies, Pandorum and Case 39 

 

German director of Antibodies and U.S. productions Pandorum, starring Dennis Quaid and Case 39 with Renee Zellweger. 

Mark Horowitz
H2O Motion Pictures, UK 

Robert Kulzer
Producer / Constantin Film 

 

Head of Constantin Film's L.A. office. Producer of Resident Evill and Wrong Turn franchises. 

Søren Stærmose and Ole Söndberg
Yellow Bird Productions, Sweden 

 

Swedish producers of box office hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, who are in negotiations to co-produce the Hollywood version of the Stieg Larsson thriller. 

Mark Ankner
Wiiliams Morris Endeavour Entertainment 

 

Mark Ankner joined the division in 2006 after quitting his position as Head of Development and Sales at Traction Media. Among the features Mark was involved with are Half Nelson, Hard Candy, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and Temporado de Patos. Mark has worked extensively in the international marketplace, predominantly in Latin America and Europe. Early in his career, Mark developed a reputation for working with filmmakers and selling them into the business side of the film community. His current responsibilities include corporate consulting, film and new media financing, distribution, forging innovative, and lucrative branded entertainment deals. Mark is now representing and consulting for clients in the international marketplace, such as Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna's production company, CANANA, and Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation. Mark also works with a wide range of brands, such as Nike, Coke, Adidas, State Farm, Patagonia, and Kashi to name a few. 

Nicolas Chartier
Voltage Pictures 

 

French-born sales agent and film producer Nicolas Chartier is partners with American film producer Dean Devlin in the sales and production company, Voltage Pictures. Voltage has produced its first independent feature film, The Hurt Locker (2009) directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Voltage cofinances, produces, or sells between 15 and 20 titles a year from $1M to $55M. Chartier previously was head of U.S. sales for Sydney-based Arclight Films. Chartier had previously cofounded Vortex Pictures for Gold Circle Films. 

Samuel Hadida
Metropolitan Filmexport 

 

Samuel Hadida has grown Metropolitan FilmExport, founded in the early 1980s, into the largest and most successful independent all-rights distribution company of English language pictures in France. His keen understanding of distribution and marketing made it easy for him to move into film production, starting with True Romance, the first film produced from a Quentin Tarantino script and his first collaboration with director Tony Scott. Hadida now produces or coproduces several films each year through Davis Films, his production company. 

Hadida has recently produced Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, starring Heath Ledger in his last film; Solomon Kane, the first epic adventure adapted from the classic pulp stories by Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan The Barbarian; Christophe Gans' Silent Hill and Le Pacte des Loups and Tony Scott's Domino with Kiera Knightley and Mickey Rourke. Hadida was also co-executive producer of George Clooney's Academy Award nominated Good Night and Good Luck. 

Other Hadida productions include David Cronenberg’s acclaimed psychological thriller Spider, Michael Radford’s Dancing at the Blue Iguana, Steve Barron's Pinocchio with Martin Landau (one of the first films to combine computer-generated images and live action), and Gabriele Salvatores' Nirvana. 

Zygi Kamasa
Lionsgate UK 

 

Zygi Kamasa is Chief Executive of Lionsgate UK, formerly known as Redbus Film Distribution, which was acquired in 2005 by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is one of the leading independent distributors in the UK marketplace. Zygi started his film career in 1993 as founder and Managing Director of Television production company Scorpio Productions, which was based at Pinewood Studios. Since founding Redbus in 1998 alongside his then partner, Simon Franks, Zygi has overseen the investment, production and distribution of over 250 films and has had over 100 UK Top Ten Box Office hits. As part of Zygi’s production drive he has also coproduced under Redbus such diverse hits as David Cronenberg’s Spider, the worldwide hit Bend it like Beckham and George Clooney's multi Oscar nominated Good Night and Good Luck. Last year under Lionsgate UK, Zygi announced an increased investment in British film production and now has over 15 films in active development. Their first film BLITZ starring Jason Statham was fully financed and produced by Lionsgate UK and is due to be released at the end of 2010. 

Peter-Uwe Maack
Commerzbank AG 

 

After an extensive career in retail banking, Peter-Uwe Maack joined the Commerzbank AG in 2000, where he participated in the creation and development of the Team Media. He was involved with the financing of Ein Russischer Sommer/ The Last Station by Michael Hoffmann (Cast: Helen Mirren - Oscar nomination for actress in a Leading Role, Christopher Plummer), Shahada by Burhan Quarban (Cast: Jeremias Acheampong - Berlinale Competition 2010) and Helen by Sandra Nettelbeck (Cast: Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic). 

Harold Van Lier
StudioCanal  

 

Harold van Lier has been Executive Vice President at StudioCanal since 2007, where he is instrumental in building a stronger international line-up for the European studio. He was previously SVP of International Sales at Summit (handling films such as Mr&Mrs Smith, Babel, Alexander and the Resident Evil franchise) and before that Director of International Sales at Intermedia, both in London and LA. In Berlin, StudioCanal is selling Brighton Rock, Eli Roth's Cotton, And Soon the Darkness, Carlos and Attack the Block. 

Markus Zimmer
TMG/Concorde  

 

After graduating from the Munich Film School (production and media management) and the University of Cologne with a degree in marketing and business affairs, Markus Zimmer started working for Tele München as Head of Feature Acquisition in 1996 and became Managing Director of TMG's theatrical distribution arm Concorde Filmverleih in 1999. As a producer, his credits include several films by German directors Margarethe von Trotta (including Rosenstrasse and Vision) and Joseph Vilsmaier (Bergkristall, Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar). His latest film, Jud Suess – Rise and Fall has its world premiere in the Competition at this year's Festival.