The third sessions of the Ex Oriente Film and Ex Oriente Series will culminate during the East Doc Platform 2025 at the East Doc Forum in Prague on March 18. Learn more about the tutors, experts and the open programme.
Leading mentors of the workshop programs include filmmaker and dramaturgist Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová, director and producer Filip Remunda, film consultant and strategist Gitte Hansen, producer and director Diana El Jeroudi, and producer Christian Popp. These experts will share their extensive knowledge in documentary storytelling, production, and financing. Through expert-led discussions, screenings, and case studies, they will provide valuable insights into the evolving landscape of documentary filmmaking, benefiting both emerging and established filmmakers.
Meet the tutors
Filip Remunda
Filip Remunda graduated from FAMU – documentary directing department in the masterclass of Karel Vachek. He was awarded for his film Village B at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2002. Together with Vít Klusák, he created "film reality show" about the fictional hypermarket Czech Dream (2004). Existential film-jam session about three Jazz musicians Steam on the River won the Slovak Film Academy Award in 2016. Remunda's family pandemic story Chickens, Virus and Us received several environmental awards in 2021. In 2001, he co-founded the Institute of Documentary Film In 2003, together with Vít Klusák, he founded an independent production company Hypermarket Film, which is behind the ranks in the global context of successful feature films documentaries.
Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová
Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She graduated in humanities at Charles University and in documentary film at FAMU in Prague. Her creative professional experience includes direction of documentary films mainly on social and political topics. Ivana is one of founding members of Institute of Documentary Film (IDF), Prague where she was head of workshop, Ex Oriente Film and East European Pitching Forum from 2002-2012. Ever since she has been involved with the Institute (IDF) as a Lead Tutor for the Ex Oriente Film workshop and its Board member. Ivana has been a guest lecturer at the Prague Film Academy (FAMU), (VŠMU) Bratislava and others. Since 2014 Ivana has been cooperating and working with Czech Television, since 2025 since Head of Documentaries.
Christian Popp
Christian was born in Romania in 1971. After a Master Degree in History and Arts in France and Germany he has been between 1998 and 2005 a commissioning editor for ARTE. From 2005 to 2024 he worked as producer in Germany and France for interscience film, Docdays Productions, YUZU Productions and TAG Film. He has produced more than 40 documentaries. Beginning of 2025 Christian joined the French company YAMI 2 Productions. The films Christian produced have screened at Festival de Cannes, IDFA, Sundance, Berlinale, Venice and more. He was for more than 20 years consulting and mentoring at various documentary events (IDFAcademy, EAVE, Documentary Campus, Ex Oriente…). Beside his job as producer and expert, he was Head of Industry at FIPADOC for the 2020 and 2021 editions.
Diana El Jeiroudi
Diana is an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for personal narratives that explore socio-political realities beyond specific contexts. Her latest film, REPUBLIC OF SILENCE (Venice 2021), received critical acclaim. Over two decades, she has produced and co-produced notable films including 5 SEASONS OF REVOLUTION (Sundance), NOTTURNO (Venice), and EAU ARGENTÉE (Cannes). She co-founded DOX BOX, first as a festival in Syria, then as a support association in Germany. A mentor at Berlinale Talents, Ex-Oriente, and more, she is a lifelong member of AMPAS, IDA, and DAE. Diana continues to make films as a director, writer, and editor, while also serving as CEO of No Nation Films.
Gitte Hansen
Gitte Hansen is independent consultant, tutor and mentor in the international documentary industry and serves at many regional and international events such as IDFA, CPH:DOX, FIPADOC, DokMunich, Nordisk Panorama and Documentary Campus Master School. She is a committed mentor with Close Up, CineDoc and Finnish AVEK/Kehittämö, and leading tutor for the annual Below Zero workshop and pitch in Tromsø focussing on life above the Arctic. Gitte has executive produced more than 20 international documentaries for First Hand Films in Zürich where she has been deputy director and headed sales and acquisitions for many years. Gitte holds a Master in Film & Rhetoric from the University of Copenhagen.
Mirjam Wiekenkamp
Mirjam Wiekenkamp has been working as a publicist for both fiction and documentary since 2008. She is the founder of NOISE and represents films at festivals such as Berlinale, Cannes, CPH:DOX, IDFA, IFFR, Karlovy Vary, Locarno and Venice. Some of the documentaries she has recently been working with include Fiume o morte! (Igor Bezinovic, winner Tiger Award IFFR 2025), About a Hero (Piotr Winiewicz, opening film IDFA 2024), Songs of Slow Burning Earth (Olha Zhurba, Venice FF 2024), The Flats (Alessanda Celesia, winner DOX:AWARD CPH:DOX 2024), Intercepted (Oksana Karpovych, Berlinale 2024), Favoriten (Ruth Beckermann, opening film Berlinale Encounters Competition 2024), and Apolonia, Apolonia (Lea Glob, winner Best Documentary Award IDFA 2022).
Claas Danielsen
Claas Danielsen studied documentary directing at the HFF Munich where he later became assistant to the professor. He made seven documentaries which won international awards and were sold to European broadcasters. In 1999 he built up Documentary Campus as Head of Studies. In 2004 he became Artistic and Managing Director of DOK Leipzig, the Int’l Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Films. In 2016 Claas moved on to the MDM film fund (Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung) as Managing Director. He was board member of the German AG DOK, the European EDN, the Balkan Doc. Center and he is a member of the European Film Academy. Claas has taught at international film academies, served on numerous international festival juries and the selection committees of German film and media funds.
Lucie Kon
Lucie is Commissioning Editor on Storyville, the BBC’s landmark international documentary strand where she commissions, co-produces and curates a diverse and distinctive slate that brings the best feature documentaries from around the world to BBC audiences.
Jesper Osmund
Jesper Osmund is an acclaimed film editor, narrative consultant and tutor. With a career that began in fiction, Jesper found his calling in documentaries embracing the creative freedom of editing without a script.
Martin Horyna
Martin Horyna is a story consultant, festival advisor and film critic. He has been working for the Karlovy Vary IFF since 2011, being a member of the selection committee until 2023. At KVIFF, he currently consults on Asian cinema and experimental works. He also works for Pragueshorts film festival, Alternativa film festival and other film events. Martin is the acting president of FIPRESCI’s Czech national section, a member of Slovak Audiovisual Fund’s expert committe In 2019, the Screen International listed him among “Future Leaders” of film programming and curation.
Lucie Králová
MgA. Lucie Kralova, Ph.D. is acclaimed Czech film director, scriptwriter, dramaturgist and lecturer at FAMU. Her documentaries were screened at many international film festivals and received number of awards, e.g. "Ill-fated Child"(2003) and "Sold" (2005) were both awarded as Best Czech Documentary at Jihlava IDFF; documentary detective story, "Lost Holiday" (2007), distributed internationally on 35mm, received the Crystal Globe for Best Feature Doc at Karlovy Vary IFF and other prizes; Lucie also woks as dramaturgist/script consultant on significant documentaries, e.g. "Caught in the Net" (2020) by Klusák/Chalupová (the most successful Czech doc in cinemas ever) or "Alchemical Furnace" about Jan Svankmajer (2020) screened e.g. at IFF Rotterdam 2020. Her documentary opera "Kapr Code" was premiered in Burning Lights Competition at Vision du Reel, Nyon, and was awarded as Best Music Documentary at Krakow International Film Festival. Lucie is author of the book “Understanding Television” (published in 2022), long-term ethnography based research on institutional and power mechanisms within the most important public broadcaster in Czech Republic, Czech TV.
Mariia Ponomarova
Mariia Ponomarova (Kyiv, 1991) is a Ukrainian film director, creative producer and film industry professional based in the Netherlands since 2014. Mariia studied directing at Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema & Television. In 2016 she completed the Master of Film artistic research programme at the Netherlands Film Academy. Fiction and documentary films Mariia worked on were screened at such acclaimed festivals as DokLeipzig, IDFA, Sarajevo FF, Sheffield DocFest, Chicago IFF, Krakow FF, Palm Springs SFF and more. Her feature documentary Nice Ladies had an international premiere at HotDocs in 2024. Mariia is a part of the Emerging Producers 2025 workshop, is a member of the European Film Academy and a Senior Consultant at the Documentary Association of Europe.
Ruth Reid
Ruth Reid is a producer and consultant with two decades of experience in the film industry making films and series which have been screened globally on streaming platforms, at festivals, theatrically, in galleries and on linear tv. In the last five years Reid has been working in-house at two global streamers: HBO and Netflix. Originally from the UK, she is now based between Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Tereza Bóna Keilová
Tereza Bóna Keilová is a film professional born in Prague, Czech Republic (1982). Her nearly 20-year long experience includes working on the sets of several independent feature films, feature documentaries, commercials, and TV series. She studied Film Production at the Private Film School Písek and has worked in the film industry since 2003. Her portfolio ranges from working with independent and award-winning producers to major studios like 20th Century Fox. Tereza currently works in the documentary section of HBO Original CEE on the regional level. She is working on many high-end European documentaries in collaboration with producers from Central and Eastern European countries.
Stephen Bergson
Steve has worked all his career in TV, film, web and print media, specialising in historical and archive based programming. Having gained a first class degree at Exeter, he started his career with the BBC working in its large and important film archive before going to work for ITV station TVS where he headed up the archive research team, working on a diverse range of mainly factual programmes. On one project, he discovered a cache of film cans in a barn in Norfolk in the East of Britain, which he edited and produced into a short film of a lost ballet production, which went on to win gold at Houston and New York festivals. Later Steve worked for a range of high profile projects like ABC’s ‘Century’, Jeremy Isaacs/CNN’s landmark series ‘Cold War’ which won BAFTA and Peabody awards - and the recent series, 'World War 2 in Color' for the Smithsonian Channel in the US. He has also worked in recent years with directors like Steve McQueen on ‘Small Axe’, Richard Loncraine on ‘Special Relationship’ and Peter Kosminski on ‘Britz’ as well as Gary Hustwit, director on current Oscar nominated title, ‘Eno’. As a member of the APA (Archival Producers’ Association) and previous publisher of a magazine for archive producers and ex-editor of the magazine for the FOCAL trade organisation, 'Archive Zones', Steve has recently helped draft the guidelines for AI use and has a strong interest in the almost endless possibilities in the creative application of computing power to the archive arena…. to maintain the relevance of archives without compromising editorial integrity of productions.
Timo Novotny
Timo Novotny studied in the visual media class of Peter Weibel at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and graduated with an award. Since 1997, he has been working as a freelance artist in the realms of film, photography and design. In 2006, Novotny finished his first feature length motion picture, Life in Loops – A Megacities Remix. Due to its success, it was transferred to 35mm and had cinema distribution in arthouse cinemas. It was screened at more than 65 IFFs and won several prices, most notably “Best Documentary” at the IFF Karlovy Vary. Novotny's second feature length documentary Trains of Thoughts, premiered at the IFF Karlovy Vary, was in even more competitions and was shown at the opening of the 13th Biennale di Venezia of Architecture. Timo Novotny also made a name for himself as a music video director and for his work on live performance visuals, as well as specially prepared cinematic shows, performing these in over 30 countries. Most recently, he released his subway series METROCOSMOS, which became a huge success with over 2 million views on ARTE alone. The series will soon be broadcast on CTV, ORF, and BR.
Programme
The final sessions of Ex Oriente Film and Ex Oriente Series bring together leading documentary filmmakers, producers, and industry experts for a dynamic series of lectures, panel discussions, and case studies. Covering topics such as festival publicity, international co-productions, audience engagement, and the role of AI in filmmaking, the event offers invaluable insights into today’s industry. Highlights include a lecture by film publicist Mirjam Wiekenkamp on crafting press materials and launching successful festival campaigns, and Claas Danielsen’s session on shaping original ideas into standout films, financing, and distribution.
A key focus will be international co-productions, featuring the team behind Mr. Nobody Against Putin, winner of the Special Jury Award at Sundance IFF 2025. Directors David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin, producer Radovan Síbrt, and Lucie Kon will discuss the challenges of cross-border collaborations and working with major broadcasters. Tereza Bóna Keilová from HBO Original Central and Eastern Europe will explore co-producing with major streaming platforms, while Czech TV will present strategies for international collaborations.
Jesper Osmund, a renowned film editor, will lead a session on crafting compelling pitch trailers, offering hands-on storytelling advice. Ethical concerns surrounding AI in documentary filmmaking will be tackled in a panel featuring Lucie Králová and Stephen Bergson, introducing the Generative AI Initiative of APA and best practices for archive-based documentaries.
The program also includes in-depth case studies. Filmmaker Mariia Ponomarova will share the journey of Nice Ladies, a Dutch-Ukrainian documentary shaped by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, highlighting key decisions and partnerships. Austrian director Timo Novotny will present Metrocosmos, a documentary series that delves into financing, production, and creative direction.