Developing Your Film Festival 2022

Algirdas Ramaška is the CEO of Vilnius International Film Festival ‘Kino Pavasaris’ – the largest cinema event in Lithuania. He has over 15 years of experience working in the film sector, with a skill set that covers cultural event organization, film distribution, communication, marketing and sponsorship. A. Ramaška also organizes the international industry event Meeting Point – Vilnius and runs Kino Pavasaris Distribution. He consults other film festivals and cultural institutions on organizational matters, lectures at international seminars, and sits on the board of experts at major cultural organizations. He focuses on creative decision-making in his work – a skill that was incredibly useful while reorganizing the 25th edition of Vilnius IFF as a digital festival due to the coronavirus pandemic. The team succeeded in making this happen within just one week, to great results. Algirdas is most passionate about cinema and cycling, which complement one another by providing him with the creative energy necessary for everyday tasks.

Wendy Mitchell is a journalist, moderator and film festival consultant. As a journalist, she is contributing editor and Nordic correspondent at Screen International, where she used to be editor in chief. She has also written about film and entertainment for The Guardian, Variety, IndieWire, Rolling Stone, Sight & Sound, Salon, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News and more. She is the producer of Sundance Film Festival: London, the UK and Nordic delegate for San Sebastian. She is also been a speaker, mentor or consultant for Berlinale EFM, Cannes Marche, EAVE, First Cut Lab, The National Film and TV School and more.

Dave Taylor-Matthews is an experienced festival organiser with 10 years experience in film exhibition. Dave worked on multiple editions of Encounters and Dublin International Film Festival, before joining Eventive in 2021 where he works predominantly with festivals based in the UK and across Europe. He has also been a programmer at Bristol's Cube Cinema, led an outdoor cinema project for children displaced by the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, is a festival pre-selector and a BIFA voter. Dave holds an MA in curating film.

Sarah Boiling is a freelance consultant specialising in bringing culture and communities closer together through strategy, research and evaluation, and facilitation. Sarah held a number of senior audience development roles at organisations including the Barbican, Tate and The Audience Agency before establishing as an independent consultant in 2015. Since then she has worked with a wide range of clients to help them understand the needs of their communities, and shift their approaches to become more relevant and engaging to the people around them. She has been a regular contributor to the CICAE Art Cinema = Action + Management course, and has delivered training and development for the British Council in Malaysia, Georgia, Russia and Greece. Closer to home she works regularly with the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and with Arts Council England's Creative People and Places. Sarah is also an accredited Action Learning facilitator and coach.

Kim Yutani is the Director of Programming of the Sundance Film Festival; she assumed that role in 2018. She began programming short films for the Festival in 2006, and became a feature film programmer in 2009, focusing on US and international fiction feature films, overseeing short film programming, and working on the Festival’s Offscreen panels and conversations. She was instrumental in creating Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong, which has now expanded to become Sundance Film Festival: Asia. Kim represents Sundance internationally, serving on juries, speaking on panels, and working to cultivate relationships with film commissions, industry, and artists around the world. Since 2014, she has also overseen a collaboration with the Berlinale’s European Film Market -- housed within the Sundance Film Festival at EFM program -- which has provided exposure and sales opportunities for Sundance films immediately after world-premiering at the Festival. She started her programming career at Outfest Los Angeles, one of the world’s leading LGBT festivals, where she was the Artistic Director and the Director of Programming. She was also a programmer for the Provincetown International Film Festival. She is currently a member of the SXSW Film Advisory Board, #GoldOpen Advisory Council, and Advisory Council of Vidiots Foundation. Prior to her film festival work, Yutani was a film critic and freelance journalist focusing on independent film, and got her start in the industry as assistant to the director Gregg Araki.