2025 Accelerator - South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles

INCUBATOR FOR FILMMAKERS AND STORYTELLERS

SEEfest Project Accelerator is a 2-week-long opportunity for filmmakers to present their projects in development. Up to twelve chosen artists are invited to 2-weeks of virtual workshops hosted by industry experts in – May. Some of the topics covered are marketing, impact strategies, pitching, target audience, streaming, technology, and entertainment law. Accelerator facilitates creative connections and cross-cultural collaboration, and in 2021 launched a spinoff Writers Group with former participants.

MENTORS

Toni Bell
Toni Bell is a documentary consultant, archival researcher, and impact producer for films like The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales and Fruits of Labor. She’s been a mentor and industry representative at Berlinale, Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local, Hot Docs, Sheffield, Korea Communications Agency, Big Sky, and more. She’s the former Filmmaker Services Manager at the IDA, overseeing the fiscal sponsorship program. She’s the creator/host of the u0022What’s Up with Docsu0022 Podcast and holds an M.A. in Visual Anthropology from USC, M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Naropa University, and a certificate in professional screenwriting from UCLA.

Alexia Melocchi
Alexia is an accomplished entertainment industry professional with a long-proven track record of success within both the domestic and international arenas. A vital contributor to the LITTLE STUDIO FILMS brand, Alexia Melocchi ‘s footing in the Entertainment Industry began in the international marketplace in the 1990s, as both a sales agent and buyer’s representative for eleven theatrical distributors. As a P.G.A producer with 30 credits, she uses her professional relationships and expertise in screenplay development, film and television IP packaging, securing co- productions and arranging for US and International Distribution for her clients projects. A regular participant at most major Film and Television markets as well as Festivals around the world, Alexia Melocchi still pursues international acquisitions and uses a global film marketing approach for the Projects of her Clients as well as the films she is producing under the Little Studio Films banner. During her tenure as a SalesAgent she sold more than 50 movies to profit on behalf of her producer clients and acquired more than 150 major Studio and Independent films on behalf of the Distributors she has ongoing relationships in Italy, Greece, Latin America, Spain, France, CIS and the Middle East. She was behind the acquisitions of films such as PEPPERMINT, THE BOY 2, LA LA LAND, ANNA, NOW YOU SEE ME 2, BEAUTIFUL BOY, SHAUN THE SHEEP and many more.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eAlexia Melocchi is fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Spanish and is frequently invited as an expert Panelist on the Global Entertainment Industry. She was invited to discuss her expertise at ITTV, SEE FEST, the LOS ANGELES GREEK FILM FESTIVAL, the NORTH HOLLYWOOD CINEFEST, three consecutive CANNES FILM FESTIVAL panels (hosted by the PGA, Stage 32 and the Producers Network ) and WOMEN IN ENTERTAINMENT. Her bestseller book “AN INSIDERS SECRET: MASTERING THE HOLLYWOOD PATH” is on Amazon worldwide.

Christopher Fink
Christopher Fink is a writer, director and producer, a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, having written films and television projects for companies including Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures. He has written, produced and directed two feature films, Moving August and None, as well as commercials, an award-winning political ad and promotional trailers for film and tv projects. Christopher has been working recently for an international sales company to help set up a film financing fund and oversee a film development and production division. Previously, while exploring Louisiana for a film production, Christopher discovered a need for infrastructure and co-founded Louisiana’s largest movie studio complex and first Hollywood-class motion picture studio, the $60 million, 23-acre Celtic Studios. In the process, he also gained valuable knowledge about the workings of tax credit programs both in the U.S. and internationally, worked with state and local officials in Louisiana including the Lieutenant Governor and the Mayor of Baton Rouge and one of his proposals was passed by the Louisiana state legislature in an update to Louisiana’s tax credit law. A regular attendee at major film festivals and markets including the Cannes Film Festival, Christopher is very knowledgeable about film finance, sales and marketing of films and international co-production. He was selected as Mission Leader for an international film mission to Beijing, China to explore coproduction, serves annually as a mentor for a filmmaker’s workshop at SEEfest and worked on the WGA Constitutional committee, drafting a successful revision to enhance open elections. Contact Info: [email protected] 818-501-7663.

Andrei Zinca
Andrei Zincă studied Film and TV Photography in Romania, and Directing and Film Production at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Before leaving Romania in 1982, Mr. Zincă worked as a Cameraman for eight feature films, produced at Buftea Film Studios, and produced, wrote and directed for Romanian Television “We, the people”, a travel documentary series, that brought him an award from the Union of Romanian Filmmakers (UCIN) for best documentary series. Outside Romania, his debut as a Director/Producer occurred in 1987, with “Rosa de America”, a six-hour period TV mini-series shot in Peru. In 1988, Mr. Zincă moved to the U.S., where he established himself as a leading Director/Producer for the TV Hispanic markets in the U.S. and Latin America, with more than 1500 hours of scripted television under his belt. In 1991, he was nominated for an Emmy Regional Award for “Conversaciones en el Vaticano”, a Special Program about Pope John-Paul II and the Vatican, which he directed and co-produced. In 2006, Mr. Zincă returned to Romania as a Line Producer for the feature film “Mirrors”, starring Keifer Southerland, directed by Alexandre Aja, a New Regency/20th Century Fox production. He also directed “La Urgență”, a local version of ER, winner of UCIN (the Romanian Association of Filmmakers) and APTR (the Romanian Association of TV Professionals) Awards for Best Series 2006. In 2013, he co-produced, directed, and co-wrote “Puzzle for a Blind Man”, his first theatrical feature, shot entirely in Romania and post-produced in the US. The US-Romania co-production was awarded for best picture, script, lead actors, and photography at various independent film festivals in the US, and was distributed by Netflix in Europe, and by various streamers in the US. The same co-production formula was applied to his second feature film, “So, What’s Freedom?”, inspired in a short novel by world-renowned Ana Blandiana. The film won the Audience Choice Award for Best Romanian movie at TIFF Cluj-Napoca 2020, as well as other Audience Choice Awards and Special Jury Mentions, at festivals in the US. The movie was distributed in Europe by HBO. In 2023, Mr. Zincă premiered his first production of a feature documentary, shot entirely in South Africa. After its World premiere at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival where it won three awards, “Who I Am Not” had its N. American premiere at SXSW, followed so far by selections in 67 international festivals, with 20 wins. The movie was shortlisted by The European Film Academy for Best Documentary, and in the US, was picked by the prestigious PBS/POV for its 2024-2025 slate. Mr. Zincă is the co-founder and CEO of Voxx Studios, a Los Angeles based audio post-production studio.

Michal Shany
Michal’s practice focuses on transactional entertainment matters related to feature films and series (scripted and unscripted). She advises studios, production companies, and networks across all stages of development and production. She regularly negotiates on behalf of Amazon Studios and served as production counsel to Keshet International on the drama series Echo 3 set to premiere on Apple TV+. Prior to joining Sheppard Mullin, Michal was an entertainment attorney at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP in Los Angeles. She handled a wide variety of entertainment matters, from motion picture distribution and financing on behalf of independent producers to music rights and live touring on behalf of artists, as well as corporate and CCPA compliance matters. Michal has organized two Film u0026amp; TV Industry panels selected for SXSW (2018 and 2020). Michal received her law degree from Boston University School of Law where she was a Note Editor of the Journal of Science and Technology Law and the Entertainment Law Chair of the Communications, Entertainment, and Sports Law Association. During law school, Michal interned with the Content Protection Group at Fox Entertainment Group in Los Angeles, created and moderated a panel on the business of documentary distribution in Paris, and studied abroad at the University of Oxford (with a primary tutorial of media law). Before law school, Michal received her Master in Documentary Film Directing from DocNomads, a two-year international program delivered by a consortium of three European universities: Lisbon’s Lusofona University, Budapest’s University of Theatre and Film Arts, and Brussels’ LUCA School of Arts. She directed, filmed, produced, and edited short documentaries in Portuguese, Hebrew, Hungarian, and French, and remains an active alumna. Michal previously taught English through the Auxiliares de Conversación program in Madrid and completed a year of National Service working with Down syndrome adults in Be’er Sheva, Israel.

PRODUCERS PANEL

Christine La Monte
CHRISTINE LA MONTE, producer/director/writer and former film marketing executive at Universal, Disney and Orion, is founder of La Monte Productions where current projects in post production include three Italian feature documentaries: AI WEIWEI’S TURANDOT, which follows Ai Weiwei as he makes his operatic directorial debut at the Rome Opera House, bringing his activist/artistic vision to Puccini’s Turandot; VIVA VERDI!, which she is producing/writing about Casa Verdi in Milan, the home for retired opera singers built by Giuseppe Verdi in 1896; and FIGLI DEL FIUME / CHILDREN OF THE RIVER, three men in search of meaning find their ancestral roots along Italy’s Po River. JUSTICE DEFERRED, a feature film in development based on Len Williams’ critically acclaimed legal thriller book is in development. La Monte produced the Palm Springs International Film Festival Audience Award-winning short film, DANDELION DHARMA; the Gary Goldstein scripted play, “Three Grooms u0026amp; A Bride,” and the syndicated television talk show, u0022Marilouu0022 starring Marilu Henner. Her directing credits include the Screen Actors Guild’s “A Heart United” with Sharon Lawrence and Jo Beth Williams, and “The Angina Monologues” with Brenda Strong. La Monte spent over 6 years at the public relations/marketing firm, Rogers u0026amp; Cowan as the Executive Vice President of the Motion Picture Group; as an international strategic marketer, she worked at Italian studio, CineCittá in Rome, and served as Marketing Executive, at TV 3 New Zealand, while living in Auckland. A long-time member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts u0026amp; Sciences, La Monte is a member of the Academy of Television Arts u0026amp; Sciences, and the Alliance of Women Directors. She is a past faculty member of New York’s School of Visual Arts where she initiated the Dusty Awards, an annual festival of student short films and awards ceremony. She is on the Advisory Board of LA-based SEEfest, and is a frequent guest speaker/panelist at independent filmmaking events, including USC, UCLA and New York Film Academy; she has been the Chair of the Humanitas Awards jury panel for the past three years. With US/Italian dual citizenship, she divides her time between Los Angeles and Rome with her author husband, Len Williams.

Evgeny Afineevsky
EVGENY AFINEEVSKY is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated director. In 2023 he released his new headline-breaking documentary FREEDOM ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, which premiered at 79th Venice Film Festival, where it was recognized with the Kineo Award, as well at Toronto International Film Festival and many other prestige’s festivals. Freedom on Fire also received Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for Films of Conflict & Resolution (Hamptons), the Power of Cinema Award (Mill Valley), as well as SCAD’s Inaugural Daring Documentarian Award. Movie been nominated for a Critics Choice Documentary Award in the Best Political Documentary category as well earned 3 Emmy nominations. In June 2023 Cinema for Peace Awarded His Holiness Pope Francis, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky at the Vatican with the special joint award. This is the first time that two global leaders and one filmmaker were honored with a joint award and that the awards are dedicated to someone — the children who lost their lives in the war in Ukraine.

In 2020 Catholics in Media Associates awarded him with 2020 CIMA Social Justice Award for his passion for telling stories that matter, his love for humanity and work for justice. Same 2020 despite the pandemic, he premiered in Rome his headline making movie FRANCESCO where he been awarded with prestigious Kineo Award.

His documentary, CRIES FROM SYRIA, was an Official Selection at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival; won International Documentary Association’s Courage Under Fire Award, the Humanitas Prize, a Cinema for Peace Award, and the Overseas Press Club’s Peter Jennings Award and Best Director at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, as well as a nomination for Best Documentary. It was also nominated for four Emmy Awards and a PGA Award.

In 2016, he earned an Oscar & Emmy nomination for WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, which was an Official Selection of the Venice & Telluride film festivals; won the People’s Choice Award for the Best Documentary from the Toronto International Film Festival & received the Television Academy’s Honors Award.

Jonathan Dana
Jonathan Dana has been a pioneer in the independent film business since 1971. He served as Director of Acquisitions and Development at The Samuel Goldwyn Company, President of Motion Pictures and Television at the Atlantic Entertainment Group, CEO of specialized distribution company Triton Pictures, and is a long time executive producing partner with CODE Entertainment. He has supervised the acquisition, production, and/or distribution of over 100 films.

Among other awards, his movies have won numerous prizes at both Sundance and Cannes. His films include dramas *The Spitfire Grill, A World Apart, Patty Hearst, Extremities, Mindwalk*, *Stormy Monday, Palmetto, Noel, Kill the Irishman, and The Forger;* comedies Valley Girl, Teen Wolf, Night of the Comet, Wish You Were Here, In the Soup, Drowning Mona, Scorched, You Kill Me, and the classic early pay-tv anthology series *Likely Stories*; foreign language films *Soldier of Orange*, *The Hairdresser*’*s Husband,* and Toto the Hero; and documentaries *Ballets Russes*, *Standing in the Shadows of Motown,* *Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse, A Brief History of Time, The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, O*scar nominee *Colors Straight Up,* and his own directorial debut *Sandstone* (1975), recently profiled on CNN’s The Seventies.

As producer’s representative Dana’s credits include sleeper hit *What the Bleep Do We Know*, Spirit Award nominee *We Were Here*, PBS’s *John Lewis: Get in the Way,* and Sundance Audience Award winner and Spirit Award winner and Oscar nominee, *The Invisible War*.

Dana’s recent credits include executive producing 2021’s world-wide hit *The Ice Road* starring Liam Neeson and Laurence Fishburne; executive producing the 2021 Venice and Telluride premiere *Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song*, shortlisted in 2022 for both Oscar and BAFTA, and consulting producer on the 2023 multi-part music biodoc *Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity,* currently streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime. Dana is currently exec producing Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, in post-production, and *The Mongoose*, starring Liam Neeson, Marisa Tomei, Ving Rhames, and Michael Chiklis, which just wrapped principal photography in Australia.

Dana was an initial investor and supervised the launch in 2000 of the online indie film community Withoutabox.com which was subsequently purchased by Amazon’s IMDb in 2008.

Dana is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds an MBA and a Ph.D. from Stanford Business School. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Paula DuPre’ Pesmen
PAULA DUPRÉ PESMEN (Producer, Writer) is an Oscar Nominated®, Emmy Award®, and Grammy Award® winning producer. Pesmen produced the Sundance Grand Jury Prize US Documentary winner and Oscar-nominated film Porcelain War and the Oscar-winning feature documentary The Cove. In 2010, she was named Producer of the Year by the PGA.

Pesmen launched her film career on the producing teams of such narrative features as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rent, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 2 and Stepmom. She produced the renowned documentary features Chasing Ice (Emmy winner, Sundance Cinematography Award, SXSW Audience Award), Keep on Keepin’ On (Audience Award winner at Tribeca and Palm Springs film festivals) and Quincy (Grammy winner).

For her philanthropic work, Pesmen was named a “Local Hero” by Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine.

Alessandra Pasquino
Alessandra Pasquino is co-founder of GroundStorm Media, a company that captures stories from the frontlines of communities. She produced “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence”, a documentary on the celebrated singer-songwriter, and currently is immersed in “The Wild Ones” exploring wildlife advocacy in the US. Additionally, she oversees a longitudinal documentary about the impact of a daring theatre experiment within an Italian prison and is also a consulting producer on “Exodus Stories” a documentary that follows three immigrants fleeing threats and violence as they journey on the migrant caravan through Mexico to an uncertain future in the US. Alessandra’s Sundance experiences include “Comandante” by Oliver Stone and “Bad Reputation” about rock icon Joan Jett. With a prolific career, she is known for producing award-winning documentaries, ethnographies, and experimental shorts. Alessandra’s unwavering commitment lies in pushing the boundaries of creativity within media production.

DUTCH FILM RESIDENCY PROGRAM

This program spotlights, through masterclass, screenings and residency mentorship, contributions to Dutch cinema by the ‘new Dutch,’ immigrants from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The program is supported by Dutch Culture USA of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

As part of the program three Dutch films will be screened:
Room Without a View – 1997; director Rada Šešić
In Whitest Solitude – 2001; director Rada Šešić
Beyond The Sea – 2020; director Anastasija Pirozenko

Rada Šešić

Rada Šešić is a festival programmer, film lecturer, and film director. Born in Yugoslavia, she lives in The Netherlands. She is the long-time Head of the Documentary Competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival. She is currently also the Programmer of the Documentary Competition at Trieste Film Festival. For 20 years, she collaborated on selecting films/film projects at the IDFA Amsterdam, and takes part in the selection of the DOHA film fund. Rada is the Lecturer in the Master of Film studies at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam and mentor/consultant at various European and Asian documentary workshops. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Eastern Neighbours FF in The Hague (2008-2023). 15 years ago, she started and still co-heads Docu Rough Cut Boutique. In Italy, at the industry part of Trieste Festival- When East Meets West she is the artistic leader of the platform Last Stop Trieste that has been going on for 11 years. She worked as a program advisor for the IFFR Rotterdam from 2000-2020. Directed several doc and short films (Lam Arabi in Sarajevo and in The Netherlands, with Dutch
production-short films Room Without a View which premiered at NFF and IDFA, film and video installation Soske, dance film In Whitest Solitude which premiered at IFFR, and On the Way to School which premiered at De Balie Amsterdam). The films were screened and awarded at some 60 other film festivals in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA, including MoMA in New York.

Rada has served on more than 50 juries worldwide. She is a member of NETPAC and European Film Academy, where she was a selector and a juror for three years. She has collaborated on books on cinema a.o. World Documentary Encyclopaedia edited
by Ian Aitken, published by Routledge, Cinema of Flames by Dina Iordanova, and wrote articles for film magazines Skrien and Filmkrant in The Netherlands, magazines in the USA, the UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and India. Rada lived in India in 2008 and 2010 and taught at the Sristi, Bangalore. Her research focus is South Asian cinema.

She is a regular mentor at Vision du Reel – Rough Cut Lab in Nyon, the BDC Discoveries platform Sofia, and Docs to Go / Krakow for over ten years. She is also one of the founders of DOKU Art Bjelovar, where she heads the selection.

Participating Filmmakers

Sabrina Doyle — Tarantella
Marc Rondo — Trust
George Nicholas — Like the Sea
Almanya Narula — Rani Comes to Harlem
Bianca & Dilara Foscht — Oma

Christina Kelly Holmes — For Women Only
Michael Scott Levy & Karen A. Minott — Brooklyn House of Pain
Virtic Emil Brown — My Life in Chapters, Sight Unseen
Ale Cueto, Rod Sáez Chávez — The Song of Extinction