Fanny Heinonen
The specialist Fanny Heinonen from the film commission Film Tampere helps leverage the growth and internationalisation of the region’s AV industry. Fanny has a degree in film and television production from the Tampere University of Applied Sciences and 10 years of experience within the industry.
Fanny has worked as a casting director, a makeup artist and a production manager in both domestic and international productions including films, television, and photography. Fanny has participated in the making of many of the films in the National Competition of the Tampere Film Festival.
The core work at Film Tampere is to finance productions with a regional production incentive and to develop the production environment together with other stakeholders.
Marina Richter
Marina D. Richter is a Belgrade-born, Vienna-based film critic, script advisor, journalist, and published writer. Since 2004 she has been a foreign correspondent for the culture resort of the Serbian daily “Politika”.
She also contributes to the Austrian film magazine “Celluloid”, the “Asian Movie Pulse”, weekly “Vreme”, “Sirp”, Film.sk, “Lupiga” and on-line daily XXZMagazin. Her texts were also published in “Cineuropa”, European Film Academy’s “Close-up”, Austrian monthly publication “Morgen” and “Monitor”.
She is a member of Serbian Fipresci and of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Marina is the founder and editor-in-chief of Ubiquarian, an online platform specialized in short films and documentaries. Since 2020, she has been in the Selection Committee of NIFFF (Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival).
Saara Saarela
Saara Saarela is a Finnish film director with two Masters degrees in film, from Finland and France. With 25 years of experience in directing, she has made several awarded short films, television series as well as features, Twisted Roots (2009) and La Vénitienne for Arte (2010) to name a few.
Her newest feature film Memory of Water is a dystopian drama set in the far future, in a world where pure water is running out. The film premiered in Finland in the fall 2022 and has been touring international festivals since.
Saara is also currently the Associate Professor in film directing in Aalto University, ELO film school Finland.
