Contact

Official address
Andreas Vesaliusstraat 9c
3000 Leuven
BELGIUM

Mailing address
Mutsaardstraat 34
2000 Antwerpen
BELGIUM

Lauma Kaudzīte

Managing Director

Lauma Kaudzīte is Project Coordinator of European Short Pitch. Parallel to that she is the manager of SHORT RIGA, where she curates the BalticAnimation Meet-Up and SHORT RIGA Test Screenings – all in the context of Riga International Film Festival. She is also active in the Latvian Animation Association and manages the industry events at Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS. She is part of the selection committee of Baltic Pitching Forum, SHORT RIGA & European Short Pitch.

Laurence Boyce

Chairman

Laurence Boyce has been working in the film industry for 20 years with a focus on short film. He began at the Leeds International Film Festival (UK) as a programmer and still works there to this day as an advisor. He currently works as the Head of Programme for PÖFF Shorts in Tallinn, Estonia. Aside from his festival duties, Laurence works as a journalist for outlets such as Screen International, Sight & Sound and Cineuropa. He is a member of BAFTA, the European Film Academy, the London Critics’ Circle and FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics).

John Canciani

Secretary

Based in Switzerland, John is the Artistic Director since 2013 of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and has curated programs for different Festivals and Art Institutions. He’s a founding member of Pro Short the Swiss Short Film Lobby, a programmer at the Cinema Cameo in Winterthur and a Member of the Swiss and the European Film Academy. John is a board member and expert at the  Foundation visions sud est. He has a Master in Advanced Studies in Curating and published an issue of OnCurating with the title “The future of short films.

Gina Dellabarca

Vice Chairman

Gina Dellabarca is the Festival Director and co-founder of Show Me Shorts Film Festival, Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading international short film festival. The festival puts on more than 100 screenings at 40 cinemas nationwide each year. They also produce a range of educational programmes and operate a sales agency. Dellabarca has tertiary qualifications in film, marketing and management from Victoria University of Wellington. Her background includes cinema management, marketing and publicity. She is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to the New Zealand film industry.

Yuna Fahim

Yuna graduated from Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran, Iran and has worked for Iranian National and International television and has produced documentaries for Iranian International Television. He was artistic director of the international section of the Tehran Short Film Festival, where he also been headed the programming committee as well as being director of international affairs at Iranian Youth Cinema Society. He has organized cultural short film events inside and outside Iran. After moving to Canada last year, he is now programming for Show Me Shorts and Nostalgia.

Vincent Langouche

Treasurer

Vincent is the programme director and coordinator of Leuven International Short Film Festival in Belgium since 2016. Vincent has worked for the festival in all conceivable capacities since 2004, ranging from editor, director, operator and programmer to volunteer. Besides the short film festival, Vincent also works as a programmer for Docville, International Documentary Film Festival and freelances as editor, animator and director.

Jaime E. Manrique

Jaime E. Manrique is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Bogota Short Film Festival (BOGOSHORTS) in Colombia. He’s also the Founder & Director of Laboratorios Black Velvet, an integral film management company. He’s been the Director of Communications and released campaigns for more than 60 Colombian films & film festivals, among them Cartagena Int’l Film Festival for 9 years. Jaime is also the creator & editor of Pantalla Colombia: a weekly newsletter about the present Colombian film industry. He teaches at several universities in Colombia & at San Antonio de los Baños Film School in Cuba.

Niels Putman

Niels Putman (°1992) is a film critic & journalist, curator & programmer and distributor based in Antwerp, Belgium. He graduated as a Master in Audiovisual Arts at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound in Brussels and as a Master in Filmstudies & Visual Culture at the University of Antwerp. He’s currently the Chief Editor of Kortfilm.be – the only magazine in Belgium dedicated to short films – and the Chief Editor, as well as a co-Founder, of Talking Shorts. Niels also works as distributor for the brand new Belgian streaming platform and distribution company Avila. Parallel, he is the Communications Manager for Torino Short Film Market. Niels works as a freelance film journalist for several Belgian outlets and is part of the selection committee of Leuven International Short Film Festival. He’s a member of the Belgian Film Press Union and FIPRESCI.

Aneta Ozorek

Aneta Ozorek is based in The Netherlands and is the Artistic Director of KABOOM Animation Festival, film curator and education expert. She has an extensive industry experience in the organization of film events, educational workshops, exhibitions and festivals on the European market. She is Head of Shorts of CEE Animation Pitching Forum and member of the board of REX Animation Film Festival. She’s also the Polish Ambassador of the European Animation Award and a Member of European Children Film Association. Aneta has illustrated seven books for children.

Julie Rousson

Julie holds a Masters degree in cultural project production, with a master’s thesis about the impact of Internet and numeric revolution on the short film industry. She permanently joins Sauve Qui Peut le Court Métrage, the association behind the Clermont-Ferrand Int’ Short Film Festival, in 2015 after several years working on punctual missions. She is a member of the International competition selection committee, coordinates the Pop-Up & #SHORT program dedicated to web fiction, coordinates the industry events at the Short Film Market, especially Euro Connection and the relation with administrative institutions. She is also a board member of the Short Film Conference.

Marie-Elaine Riou

After spending some years in Barcelona, studying and working in film production, Marie-Elaine came back in Saguenay, Canada to work as the Short Film Market coordinator of REGARD – Saguenay International Short Film Festival. As the only short film festival Academy Awards-accredited in Canada, REGARD plays over 200 short films in 5 days for now 26 years in a row. Marie- Elaine is now director of the festival and gets involved on the board of many associations, such as Promotion Saguenay and Festival La Noce. She was also part of several juries of short film festivals in Colombia, Spain, France and Belgium.

Sébastien Simon

Sébastien Simon graduated from the E.S.E.C film school and from Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. His latest works as filmmaker include ‘One-minded’ (2014) and ‘The Troubled Troubadour’ (2016). He is involved with several film festivals in various capacities: programmer for Busan International Short Film Festival and Jeju French Film Festival, preselection member for Slamdance Film Festival and Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival, and workshop director for Rencontres Cinématographiques de Cavaillon.

Chipo Zhou

Chipo Zhou is the artistic director for the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) in South Africa. She started her career as an actress on the Zimbabwean small screen which subsequently led to getting involved with the International Images Film Festival (IIFF)  as  the Assistant Festival Director to the then newly launched Bulawayo chapter of the festival. She was then invited to sit on the board of Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe (WFOZ), aged 19 years old, as their youngest Executive member, a position she held for four consecutive years. After which she took a step back and enrolled at AFDA (South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance) where she holds a degree in Motion Picture Medium. Zhou has also made positive leaps in order to diversify her knowledge by thriving in other complementary roles such as coordinating the South African Communication Association (SACOMM) conference as well as being a media consultant for DERT-SA, an NGO servicing issues of human rights and education within Southern Africa. She has great interest in practice led research, with particular focus on Women in Film and Television.

Advising the board on a regular basis are Frank MoensToril Simonson, Mick Hannigan & Zita Carvalhosa who all have been part of the Board of Directors in previous years.