Development: John Appel – Documentary Filmmaker and Mentor, The Netherlands

Financing: Patricia Finneran – Sundance Documentary Fund, USA

Sales & Promotion: Peter Jäger – DocAutlook Film Sales, Austria

David Rane, Festival Co-Director and Producer, will introduce the experts to the group of participants and give each expert a chance to present the focus of their work. After the groups have met with the their experts, there will be a short wrap-up for the whole group, once again facilitated by David Rane, before we close the event.

This event is aimed at documentary producers and directors who have made at least one long format creative documentary for either festivals, cinema or TV and who are looking to get some first hand expert advice in 3 key areas of documentary production. The aim of this event is to give participants a chance to directly interact with highly respected industry professionals. Therefore, participants are strongly encouraged to prepare and come forward with their specific questions during the sessions and "drive" the group discussions from their end.

John Appel has worked as a professional cameraman/director since '87. As an independent filmmaker Appel directed more than 30 documentaries for cinema and television. He worked as a cameraman on more than 50 documentaries. In 1999, he won the Joris Ivens Award at IDFA for the film Andre Hazes / She Believes in Me, the most successful documentary film in Dutch cinema released in 40 years. His film The Last Victory (2004) won many international awards and was nominated for Best European Documentary 2004. In 2009 he won the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary for the film The Player, also nominated for Best Feature Length Documentary 2009.

Appel studied Classical Languages and Literature in the University of Amsterdam before graduating as cameraman and documentary director at the Dutch Film and Television Academy. In 2000, he established a production company with filmmaker Heddy Honigmann (VOF Appel&Honigmann). Appel is a Guest lecturer at the Dutch Film and Television Academy (since 2000), at the Binger FilmLab and many international workshops and training initiatives. He is Commissioning editor for HUMAN, the Humanistic TV Broadcaster (since 2006) and regularly mentors professional filmmakers.

Patricia Finneran serves as Senior Consultant to the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP). Based in New York City, Finneran represents the DFP internationally at workshops, festivals and seminars, and supports DFP initiatives including the granting programs and the ‘Stories of Change’ partnership with the Skoll Foundation and the Good Pitch partnership with the Channel Four Foundation.

Patricia will introduce the participants to the funding strategy of the DFP, their Grant structures and the selection process.

Peter Jäger is the managing director of Autlook Filmsales, one of Europe's leading sales agent for feature documentaries. Autlook represents documentary features by leading directors like Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Peter Mettler, Gonzalo Arijón, Georg Misch, Peter Liechti, Andreas Horvath and many more.

Peter will focus on the relationship between filmmaker, sales agent and festivals as launch pads for documentaries, but also on the state of the "market" today. Peter will also outline what kind of films he is looking for.

Use the form below to submit your application. You will be notified by email wirh further details.