Joana Vicente

CO-FOUNDER

Joana Vicente is an award-winning producer, executive, 
and entrepreneur who has played a defining role in the 
global independent film ecosystem. She has led some of North America’s most influential film institutions, serving as CEO of the Sundance Institute and as Executive Director and Co-Head of the Toronto International Film Festival.
She also served as Executive Director of Gotham (formerly IFP) and the Made in NY Media Center.

Jason Kliot

CO-FOUNDER

Jason Kliot is an Academy Award–nominated producer whose films span more than 40 feature films and documentaries. He has produced acclaimed work by directors including Jim Jarmusch, Brian De Palma, Nadine Labaki, Steven Soderbergh and more, championing both first-time filmmakers and established auteurs.
His films have premiered at and won major awards at the Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, 
and Venice Film Festivals, including two Sundance Grand Jury Prizes and the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice. His work 
has received more than 25 Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Filipe de Botton

Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor

Filipe de Botton is Chairman of Logoplaste, the company he co-founded with his father, leading its expansion to 60 factories across 16 countries. A prominent entrepreneur and investor, he has built and backed businesses across manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, consumer brands, and wine, serving on the boards of Norfin, Invesfin, Santini, and Logowines. He is Founder and Life President of the Portuguese Diaspora Council, a French Foreign Trade Advisor, Vice-President of CADin – Neurodevelopment and Inclusion, former Board Member of Sporting Clube de Portugal, Chairman of Associação Amigos de Portugal, and former President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa Alumni.

Tony Gonçalves

Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor

Tony Gonçalves has spent his career at the center of the media and entertainment industry's most significant generational shifts. From managing $20B revenue portfolios at WarnerMedia and AT&T to pioneering the launch of HBO Max, Tony is recognized for turning complex ambiguity into market-defining results.
Through The Evrose Group, he now serves 
as a strategic partner to leaders navigating the intersection of global business and cultural impact. By bridging the gap between U.S. capital and Portugal’s burgeoning tech and media sectors, Tony offers a rare vantage point: the high-level perspective of a global CEO combined with the active, "boots-on-the-ground" capability of an executive producer.

Sabrina Dridje

Program Director

Sabrina Dridje is a consultant at the intersection of creativity, commerce, and community. She specializes in partnerships, programming and business development through human curation. Recent clients include SXSW London, Residence (BUCK, It’s Nice That), The Webby Awards and the Immersive Experience Network. Previously she has held positions at the Telly Awards, film sales agent Hanway Films and a Story x Tech Media Lab in Brooklyn - a project of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment.

Liliana S. Lasprilla

Program & Project Coordinator

Liliana is a producer and industry coordinator working across film festivals and training programs, including Porto/Post/Doc Film & Media Festival, FEST – New Directors I New Films, and Eurodoc, and has recently joined Open Cities International. As founder of Sabina Films, she was selected for the Rotterdam Producers Lab and Locarno Match Me! program in 2024. She is currently completing post-production of I Hereby Declare, Affirm and Sign, by award-winning filmmaker Vlad Petri, co-produced with Romania and France; and Head on the Wall, by Manuel Manrique, co-produced with Spain, commissioned by Filmax International. Alongside her producing work, Liliana teaches and works as a Creative Europe Funds consultant.

Inês Cabral

Operations & Partnerships

Inês Cabral has built a career in operations, venture building, business development, with experience in Investor relations and go-to-market strategy across high-growth international companies. She is currently responsible for Operations and Partnerships at Open Cities, having previously held roles at D.Labs and Web Summit where she managed the Startups Program. Alongside this, she maintained a deep connection with film, having written, directed and produced the short Ciao (2023) and trained at the Prague Film School.

Ben Abergel

Creative Technologist

Creative technologist and filmmaker working at the intersection of AI, real-time tools, and filmmaking. Through his company Ciné Nissim, he delivers AI-driven creative services, R&D, and consulting for film and television, as well as commercial work for brands. He served as Co-Head of AI Technology & Production on two collaborative projects with the Entertainment Technology Center and Hollywood studios, aimed at establishing new structures for working with AI tools industry-wide. His work was also selected as a finalist in the Luma Dream Brief.

Matt Szymanowski

Creative Technologist

Director, writer, and creative technologist working at the intersection of cinema and AI. A Silicon Valley native now based in Europe, his debut feature, The Purple Onion, 
was a Sundance Lab finalist. His latest projects include Captive Mind, a psychological sci-fi feature, and A Human Future, a documentary on AI and the future of work.
A Berlinale Talents alumnus and MacDowell Fellow, Matt studied directing at Łódź Film School and screenwriting at Emerson College. A TEDx speaker and host across Europe and the Middle East.

Sarah Ivy

Anchor Mentor

Sarah Ivy is an award-winning producer and director specializing in AI-driven R&D and commercial production with expertise in scalable hybrid workflows that blend generative AI with live action and traditional post. A graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, she has built an extensive career working with major studios and production companies including Warner Bros., DC Entertainment, Jerry Bruckheimer Films & Television, and CBS's Criminal Minds, among others. As Vice President and Producer at Master Key Productions, she led international shoots for hit shows including Scandal, Covert Affairs, and Royal Pains. Sarah has also produced and directed critically acclaimed feature documentaries, earning awards for impact-driven storytelling. Passionate about the intersection of film and technology, she actively explores machine learning's role in the creative process and educates fellow filmmakers on the transformative potential of generative AI.

Kieran Hoyle - Wonder Studio

Anchor Mentor

Kieran Hoyle leads IP initiatives at Wonder Studios, driving co-productions and hybrid live-action workflows. A former production executive at Fremantle and Oxford MBA graduate, he brings expertise across production, financing and business strategy. Wonder Studios is based between London and the USA, blending traditional and AI workflows to expand the boundaries of creative possibility and improve the economics of production. Co-founded by Xavier Collins (formerly Uber; Deliveroo) and Justin Hackney (formerly ElevenLabs; OpenAI), they work with leading broadcasters and studios (BBC, SKY, NBCU), streamers (Disney, Netflix) and AI companies, as well as Oscar-winning directors and leading independent producers, empowering filmmakers and creativity through innovative technology

Gretchen McGowan

Anchor Mentor

Gretchen McGowan is an award-winning producer and Head of Production at Goldcrest Features. Her credits include Carol, Restrepo, Hell of a Cruise, 64 Days, The Fire That Took Her, Once Upon a Time in Ukraine, The Limits of Control, and American Swing. She has overseen more than 25 feature films and is the author of the memoir Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking.

Flaminio Zadra

Anchor Mentor

Flaminio Zadra is an Italian producer and co-founder of Dorje Film, with over two decades of experience producing internationally acclaimed films. His credits include The Edge of Heaven, Soul Kitchen, In the Fade, The Story of My Wife, Rheingold, The End, Linda Wants Chicken!, and Aicha. A member of the European Film Academy, EAVE, ACE, and Inside Pictures, he also mentors for leading international film labs and institutes.

Elias Ribeiro

Anchor Mentor

Elias Ribeiro is a producer and creative leader whose career spans four continents. Former Executive Director of the Realness Institute and Founder of Urucu Media, he has designed and led programs supporting hundreds of audiovisual professionals and collaborated with partners including Netflix, Ford Foundation, and Amazon. His producing work has represented South Africa, Lesotho, and Mozambique in the Academy Awards, with a focus on international co-production and emerging talent. Elias is currently based in Lisboa.

Fabienne Martinot

Writer Mentor

Fabienne Martinot works between creative and script development and the preparation of projects for financing, collaborating with Portuguese and international producers and directors. She has been part of the production company O Som 
e a Fúria since 2010, where she coordinates film and series projects in their early stages, advising on scripts, editing artistic materials, and preparing applications. She also works independently as a script consultant. She trained in Screenwriting and Production at Lisbon's Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema.

Erik Jendresen

Writer Mentor

Erik Jendresen is an American author, playwright, screenwriter, and producer. 
He is widely recognized for his work on the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, for which he received one Primetime Emmy Award as creator and one nomination as writer, and also for co-creating National Geographic's Killing Lincoln. 
He is also known as the co-writer of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. He is an advisor for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

Katherine Dieckmann

Writer Mentor

Writer-director Katherine Dieckmann’s four feature films include Strange Weather, starring Holly Hunter and Carrie Coon; Diggers, with Paul Rudd and Sarah Paulson; and Motherhood starring Uma Thurman. Dieckmann began her career as 
a journalist before directing videos for bands such as R.E.M., Aimee Mann, and Sharon Van Etten. She was the originating director on the groundbreaking Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete. A Professor Emeritus at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts Film Program, Dieckmann taught Screenwriting for over 25 years, mentoring both established and emerging filmmakers. She has been an Advisor for The Sundance Institute and the Almanack Screenwriters Colony, and is a member of the Writer’s Guild and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten 

Writer Mentor

Marietta von Baumgarten is a Swedish screenwriter and an international script consultant whose work includes Sundance Labs, Torino Film Lab and Biennale College Venice. She worked in Myanmar, China, Qatar, Mongolia, Canada, Nepal, Pakistan, and all over Europe. The films she's worked on have competed in major film festivals. Call Girl was nominated for a European Film Award and won the Fipresci award at TIFF. She is a Member of the Swedish Screenwriters Guild and the European Film Academy. Also the Co-founder of The Write Retreat.