Joel Basman was born 1990 as the son of an Israeli father and a Swiss mother in Zurich. As a 14-year-old, he starred for two years in the Swiss TV soap opera ‘Lüthi und Blanc’. Since then, the actor has made numerous feature films and television films, won major international awards and has been working as a fashion designer since 2013. He became known for ‘Luftbusiness’ (2008), ‘Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark’ (2015), ‘Unter dem Sand’ (2017), ‘Wolkenbruchs wunderliche Reise in die Arme einer Schickse’ (2018), ‘Papillon’ (2017) and ‘Monuments Men – Ungewöhnliche Helden’ (2014) as well as from demanding roles in ‘The King’s Man – The Beginning’, ‘Die Schachnovelle’, ‘Eldorado KaDeWe – Now is Our Time’ (2021). He can currently be seen as ‘Kafka’ in the ARD/ORF series of the same name. (Photo: Maurice Haas)

Lisa Brühlmann Born and raised in Zurich. 2005–08: Drama school in Berlin. 2010–13: Studies at the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts), Film/Directing/Screenwriting. Bachelor of Arts in Feature Film Directing (2013) and Master of Arts in Feature Film Directing (2016) from ZHdK. Swiss Film Award (2018): Best Feature Film and Best Screenplay for ‘Blue my Mind’ (2017). Nominated for the Emmy Award (2019) in the category ‘Outstanding Directing for A Drama Series’ for ‘Killing Eve’ (2018). With ‘Sisters’ (working title) (2024), the internationally successful filmmaker returns to her origins in feature film. (Foto: Franco Tettamanti).

David Bucheli studied German philology, media studies and science studies in Basel and Lucerne. He is a PhD student at eikones – Centre for the Theory and History of the Image and led the interdisciplinary research project ‘Cinematography in Switzerland around 1900’ from 2019 to 2022. As a lecturer, he taught at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Basel and at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts for Design, Film and Art. He is currently researching the history and theory of cinema, psychotechnics and operative images.

Jean-Marc Fröhle Founded in 1996, Point Prod is specialized in audiovisual productions providing contents and services to the main European broadcasters. Jean-Marc Fröhle is leading its fiction pole, which was founded in 2005 and has since established itself as a major player in the production and co-production of fiction in Switzerland in partnership with Swiss and European broadcasters. Since 2011, Jean-Marc Fröhle has developed and produced five successful original series. The latest productions are ‘Anomalia’ (2015),  ‘Banking District’ seasons 1 and 2 (2017 and 2020) and ‘La vie devant’ (2022).
‘Winter Palace’, an original idea by Jean-Marc Fröhle, is in production and is the first collaboration between Netflix and RTS. Concerning feature films, Elie Grappe’s first feature ‘Olga’ has been awarded in Cannes and other festivals (Brussels, Hamburg) and received three awards at the Swiss Film Award 2022: Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay, Best Sound.

Cyrill Gerber Producer Cyrill Gerber studied philosophy and German literature completed FOCAL’s material development program in 2010. He then worked as a screenwriter at Constantin Entertainment in Munich and, after further training as a TV producer, began to build up Milan Film AG in Basel. Since 2016 he has been producing feature films and documentaries for the arthouse sector. Films such as ‘Out of Paradise’ (2018), ‘Die Pazifistin’ (2021), ‘Une histoire provisoire’ (2022) and ‘Soul of a Beast’ (2022) have won various awards. In addition to the development and production of several films, he has expanded Milan Film’s business area to include a department for the development of series. With ‘I’ll Remember You’ (2023), he produced his first documentary series. Since 2023, Milan Film has had a second office in Zurich, Milan Film Productions GmbH.

Simon Koenig (born 1983) since 2018 he has been the Commissioner for Cultural Projects with a focus on the visual arts, film and media arts at the Department of Culture, Presidential Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Managing Director of the Film and Media Art Promotion of the Basel Region, Head of Art Loan Basel-Stadt. Since 2023, he has been responsible for parts of the implementation of the ‘Tipping Initiative’ (promotion of youth and alternative culture). Prior to that, Simon Koenig taught at the Department of Art History and the Department of Media Studies at the University of Basel, worked as a production manager, curator and freelance cultural journalist. He wrote his dissertation on the topic of darkness in cinema and film as part of the National Funding Priority in Image Criticism at the University of Basel (Photo: Chr. Knörr).

Julia Krättli  has been Managing Director of the Zurich Film Foundation, the largest regional film funding agency in Switzerland, since 2019. Before that, she ran Zense, a consulting agency she helped to set up, which edits content of all kinds and communicates it with the help of films, illustrations, visualizations and gamification. Large international companies were among her customers. In addition to her professional work, she is a volunteer in an Aargau theatre association and is co-president of an alumni organisation of the University of St. Gallen. She holds a degree in Art History and German Philology from the University of Basel and in Management, Organization and Culture from the University of St. Gallen.

John Lueftner is co-founder and managing partner of Superfilm, with offices in Vienna (AUT) and Munich (GER). He is member of the European Producers Club and president of the Association of Austrian Film Producers. Lueftner received numerous awards for his latenight shows ‘Sendung ohne Namen’, ‘Willkommen Österreich’ and ‘Ringlstetter’. His portfolio includes series such as ‘Braunschlag’, ‘The Team’, ‘Altes Geld’, ‘M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder’ and ‘Ich und die Anderen’. Among Superfilm’s latest productions are the highly anticipated event series ‘Kafka’ and the international sports-drama series ‘School of Champions’, currently shooting second season. The company realizes feature film projects, spanning from crime scenes to arthouse cinema.

Benjamin Magnin After studying media and film studies at the Universities of Zurich and Paris Sorbonne, Benjamin Magnin worked as a film journalist at ‘Cinébulletin’. Later, he worked for several years as an audience researcher at RTS in Geneva, before moving to the fiction department, where he was responsible for TV and cinema co-productions as an editor. From 2016 to 2018, he worked as a producer at CAB Productions, where he produced fictional and documentary films. He also worked as a freelance script consultant for various Swiss film productions such as ‘Double vie’ (2019) by Bruno Deville. Since 2018, he has been working as an editor for series at SRF, where he was jointly responsible for the TV series ‘Neumatt’ and ‘Tschugger’.

Stéphane Mitchell was born in Geneva, Switzerland and is a graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the University of Geneva’s Faculté des lettres. Her writing debut is the awards winning feature ‘On dirait le sud’ by Vincent Pluss, Best Swiss Film 2003. She wrote the critically acclaimed TV drama ‘Déchaînées’ with Adèle Haenel and Irène Jacob, and was head writer of three RTS series, including the ‘Banking District/Quartier des banques’ recommended by the ‘New York Times’. She co-wrote Frédéric Baillif’s feature film ‘La Mif/The Fam’, which won the Grand Prix of the International Jury in the 14plus competition of the 2021 Berlinale and was nominated for the 2022 Swiss Film Prize. Her current projects include ‘En eaux salée’, a 4-parts Arte/RTS miniseries by Denis Rabaglia, and Linsay Shapero’s Netflix/RTS miniseries ‘Winter Palace’ (both in production).

Maral Mohsenin holds a PhD in film history and aesthetics (University of Lausanne, University of Amsterdam). She has been working since 2015 in the programming team of the GIFF, first as the retrospective curator, then the series programmer, and finally the head of programs since 2022. At the same time, she was a restorer and film curator at the Cinémathèque suisse from 2016 to 2022, has collaborated with several festivals in Switzerland (Visions du Réel, VIFFF) and occasionally intervenes in conferences and courses at the University of Lausanne. (Photo: Kenza Wadimoff)

Leander Verdievel (born 1981) has been working for VRT, the Belgian public broadcaster, for almost twenty years, for which he has co-developed, written and produced several programmes in different genres. Screenwriting has always been his passion and in 2018 he created his first TV fiction series for VRT: ‘Sense of Tumour’. In 2023, his second series, ‘The Club’, was released about three couples who cannot have children. This series won the Reflet d’Or at the Geneva International Film Festival.

Kateryna Vyshnevska is an independent Ukrainian producer. She most recently served as the Head of Development and Co-productions at Ukraine’s largest studio FILM.UA. She developed and executive produced content across all genres (TV series, feature films, factual TV) and oversaw international partnerships and strategy. Her credits include ‘Those Who Stayed’, an anthology series broadcast in more then 30 countries in co-production with NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland) and Red Arrow Studios, the documentary series ‘Citizens at War’ (Australia/UK/Ukraine co-production for ZDF), the feature film ‘Koza Nostra’ (Ukraine/Italy co-production) and the thriller series ‘Hide and Seek’. Kateryna Vyshnevska is a regular speaker at major film and television events and a member of the MIA Drama Selection Committee (Rome).