Pro Hub mentors 2025

Hayet Benkara is a French-born, Toronto and Paris-based film industry advisor.

For over 15 years she had the privilege to work at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, under the stewardship of Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey.

She was the Manager of the market and TIFF Studio, the first year-round training programme for film professionals (producers, directors, and screenwriters) still running until this day. She also produced TIFF Talent Lab which takes place during the festival. 

Hayet worked for many prestigious international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno, IFFR, Marrakech, Abu Dhabi, Guanajuato to name a few. She launched the industry departments in Dubai and DFI, the Doha Film Institute.

In 2021, she launched le Nouveau Marché, a ‘’boutique’’co-production market as part of the Festival du cinéma nouveau in Montreal, creating a bridge between north America and the rest of the world.  Because of her extensive international network and holistic approach to the film industry, she is often invited to conduct workshops,  moderate panels on topics related to the film industry.

Year round Hayet advises producers and directors from all over the world on development, production, co-production, distribution, marketing, and festival strategies.

Territories
World

Originally from Honduras, Marjorie Bendeck holds a BA in communications and marketing, and an MA in organisational psychology, besides film production studies in Mexico and the EICTV in Cuba.

Based in Germany since 2003, where she headed the selection committee of Berlinale Talents until 2012, while also working for funds and training initiatives in Europe and Latin America. Her areas of expertise include evaluation of feature film projects as well as workshops for pitch, script and project development. Engaged as a regular consultant with organisations like the Mediterranean Film Institute, ACE Producers and the Berlinale World Cinema Fund. She is project manager for the Locarno Open Doors Projects Hub, currently focused on the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and head of Connecting Cottbus, an East-West co-production market focused on the wider Eastern Europe.

Territories
World

Samm Haillay founded his BAFTA and Independent Spirit nominated production company, Third in 2001, dedicated to the creation of visionary artistic works in cinematic and gallery contexts. Working across narrative and documentary, Samm has produced or executive produced eleven features, often in complex co-productions with multiple territories.

His features have premiered at festivals including Cannes, Venice, Rotterdam, Sundance, Tribeca and Toronto and his shorts have collected over forty-five awards including top prizes at Berlin, Venice, Edinburgh and Chicago. Samm is a member of BAFTA, EAVE and ACE and delivers mentoring and training through EAVE, Feature Expanded, the Venice Biennale College Cinema, Film London, Creative England, For Film’s Sake and Visions du Reel. He is also the creator of the BFI’s Producer Training Programme that has been delivered in four countries and counting.

In 2019 he founded Kirlian, supported by Creative England, to develop an assistive tech solution to effective development of artist-driven cinema.

Territories
World

Wouter Jansen is the founder of the sales company Square Eyes. In 2013 he started Some Shorts, which changed to Square Eyes in 2019, which specializes in having outstanding non-mainstream films find the audience and recognition they deserve. With Square Eyes, Wouter represents bold, author-driven features and shorts, and collaborates closely with the filmmakers to devise bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. This has resulted in a small catalogue of films premiering at prestigious festivals and winning multiple awards over the last few years like main prizes at Cannes, TIFF, Berlin, Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand. In the past, he worked as the head of programming at the Go Short – International Film Festival during the first 10 editions. Wouter is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab, and has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy. He has moderated as well as lead workshops at festivals like IDFA, True/False, Winterthur, VIS Vienna Shorts and others. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni.

Territories
World 

Marina Kožul has worked in the field of short films and alternative cinema for twenty years, developing audiovisual projects, curating, and publishing. Within the Croatian non-profit organization, 25 FPS Association for Audio-Visual Research, whose main project is 25 FPS Festival, an international film festival showcasing experimental, innovative and artists’ film and video, she works as one of the film
programmers and producers.

She has curated programs for festivals, art cinemas in Zagreb and other Croatian cities, and campaigned for experimental film and animation at European and international film and media events and markets. She served as a member of several international juries for festivals such as the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Festival des cinémas différents et expérimentaux de Paris, Diagonale Graz, Sarajevo Film Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Courtisane Ghent, Uppsala Short Film Festival, Le Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal, among others.

Territories
World

Sophie Mathisen is the Executive Director of For Film’s Sake – Australia’s flagship film charity providing opportunity for marginalised filmmakers in development, production, distribution and cultural exhibition. As President of Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Australia, Sophie founded For Film’s Sake Festival, delivering theatrical premieres and cultural activations in partnership with private, public and third-sector partners in and across major Australian cities. In 2018 FFS pivoted to direct theatrical distribution earning up to twelve week theatrical runs for its slate of independent titles. In 2020 FFS launched the first global narrative feature development lab exclusively for female, trans and non-binary filmmakers, Attagirl, financed by Screen Australia, Telefilm Canada, the British Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute and the New Zealand Film Commission. Twenty eight teams and seventy-nine filmmakers have been supported by Attagirl including 2024 Venice Critics Week breakout Don’t Cry, Butterfly. In 2024 Sophie also created Margins – the first development lab for playwrights seeking adaptation pathways in conjunction with Australia’s new writing theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre. Sophie often works as an external examiner for funds and development schemes, a development producer for small-scale companies and directly as a script and story consultant focusing on process-led dramaturgy for artist filmmakers.

Territories
Europe, Asia–Pacific

Madeleine Molyneaux is a US based producer and curator. With her company, Picture Palace Pictures, founded in 2004, she works closely with emerging and established artists and filmmakers to develop, produce, and represent creative documentaries, hybrid narrative fiction, artist moving image work and curatorial initiatives that often defy easy categorisation. Her productions and international co- productions regularly premiere at major international festivals, and screen, stream and exhibit worldwide. Her long standing collaboration with artist Kevin Jerome Everson includes producing and representing numerous features and shorts, many of which have screened at IFFR.

Madeleine also works as an grant reader, project consultant, archival researcher, music supervisor and post-production supervisor, with a particular passion and focus for issues of rights and clearance and fair use.  She was the U.S programmer for Festival du nouveau Cinema Montreal (2005-2015), Film/Video Curator at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans (2008-2010), film festival juror (BFI/London Film Festival, Cinema du Reel, doc Lisboa, New Horizons, Glasgow Short Film Fest, exground Wiesbaden, and the NY Asian Film Festival) and served as a board member for the Media City Film Festival.

Madeleine loves genre in all its permutations and formalism in all its rigour. And humour. Always.

Territories
World

Ana Alice de Morais was born in Brazil, where she studied cinema before founding the production company 3 Moinhos. With a focus on producing and co-producing arthouse films across Latin America, her projects have been featured at prestigious festivals such as Berlinale and International Film Festival Rotterdam. In 2018, she moved to Montreal/Tiohtià:ke. Since 2021, she has served as the co-artistic director of RIDM – the Montreal International Documentary Festival. In 2023, she expanded her mandate by becoming programming director of the Forum RIDM, the festival’s professional market.

Ana Alice is also a consultant and mentor within the film industry, working with various events and training programs. She has participated as a jury member for numerous festivals and markets, including Cannes Docs – Marché du Film, the Montreal International Black Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival of Saint-Louis in Senegal, the Visões Periféricas Festival in Brazil.

Territories
World

Since 2018 Maria Ruggieri is  the  Head  of  Sales  and  Acquisitions  of  the  International  Sales  Boutique Company  ASIAN  SHADOWS, founded  by  producer  Isabelle  Glachant,  aiming to  promote Asian  Independent  Cinema and  Filmmakers to  the  global  stage  and  to  the  attention  of  the  International audience, market and industry, working on various aspects of the film including  creative production, festival strategy, and international distribution. 

She worked as creative producer of the Indonesia–France–Malaysia–Thailand co-production  Marlina  The Murderer  in  Four  Acts by Mouly  Surya  (2017,  Cannes  Directors’  Fortnight;  10  Citra Awards; Indonesia Oscars Entry) and as producer for the Hong Kong docu-drama Secret  Garden by  Emily  Tang  (2015). She  was  China-correspondent  for  Venice  International  Film  Festival  (2006-2009)  and  Locarno  Film  Festival  (2015-2020),  and  program  consultant  on  European  Cinema  for Beijing International Film Festival Forward Future  (2015-2016). Since  2001, she  is  also  program  consultant  on  Chinese  Popular  Cinema  of  Udine  Far  East  Film Festival,  the  largest Showcase  of  East-Asian  Cinema  in  Europe,  highlighting Chinese  film  productions,  analyzing their  success  in  terms  of box  office, popularity  and culture  impact,  and writing essays on films and filmmakers shaping film industry and market in China. 

Territories
World

Joe Yanick is the co-founder of Yellow Veil Pictures, a worldwide sales agent and North American distributor focusing on genre-defying, boundary pushing cinema.

Launching in 2018, with Tilman Singer’s debut Luz. Yellow Veil have since worked on debuts from Josh Lobo (I Trapped the Devil) A.T. White (Starfish), Matthew Pope (Blood On Her Name), Jack Henry Robbins (VHYes), as well as boarding films by Larry Fessenden (Depraved), Rob Grant (Harpoon), Joel Potrykus (Relaxer), George A. Romero (The Amusment Park), Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King (The Spine of Night), Toby Poser, Zelda Adams and John Adams (Hellbender and Where the Devil Roams) and Grace Glowicki (Dead Lover). 

In 2024, Yellow Veil’s first co-production A Desert premiered at the Tribeca Festival, and went on to win Best Film in the New Vision section at Stiges. 

Territories
World