Residents

Born in Athens, Greece, June 1989. Grew up in Thessaloniki from 1996 onwards. Her work revolves around coming of age stories, family structures, intimacy, loss and love. Graduated with distinction from London Film School (2013), with film “Thirteen Blue”. Sarajevo (2014) and Berlinale (2015) Talents Alumna. In 2018 she won Best Short Film Award at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique with the film she was editing at the residence, “Hector Malot – The Last Day Of The Year”. At the Pop Up she worked on her first feature “Selene66”, that was released with the title “Moon, 66 Questions” with the premiere at the Berlinale 2021, Encounters section.

Oliver Adam Kusio is a German and Polish director, based in Berlin and Warsaw. He has collaborated with many film and theatre directors such as Rosa von Praunheim. In 2017 while he was studying at the Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF film school, he directed Ela-Sketches on a Departure. Selected by La Semaine de la Critique, the film gives a melancholic and radiant portrayal of a woman as she is about to leave to find a better life. At the Pop Up he worked on his first feature “Pax Europa”. 

After completing his film studies at the Royal Institute of Theatre, Cinema and Sound in Brussels, Koen Mortier made several short films and music videos. In 1999 he established CZAR in Brussels with fellow director Joe Vanhoutteghem. Koen has directed two feature films: ‘Ex Drummer’ and ‘22nd of May’. Both were selected for international festivals and won several prizes. His third feature ‘Un Ange’ (based on a novel by Dimitri Verhulst) was selected for Toronto International Film Festival ans as released in Belgium and in France. At the Pop Up he worked on “Skunk”.

Troilo moves between the world of cinema, television, publishing, and advertising. He began filming and taking photographs at a young age. Troilo’s work has been published in Newsweek Japan, Der Spiegel, D magazine (La Repubblica newspaper), GQ Italy, CNN, Wired Italy, Wired UK, Wired Corea, Wired Germany, Ventiquattro, Wallpaper, GQ Spain, Io Donna, Flair, Sport&Street, Velvet and Urban. In 2011 he directed Fan Pio, his first feature length film, and published in Germany his first book, Apulien, awarded as best photographic book at the International Photography Awards in 2012. At the Pop Up he worked on “Le Paradis, C’est Ici”, together with co-writer & co-resident Gaia Baldini.

Marija Kavtaradzė studied film directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her short film “I’m Twenty Something” won best student film at the Lithuanian Film Academy Awards in 2015. Her debut feature « Summer Survivors » made a splash at the Toronto Film Festival. This road-movie across Lithuania moved audiences due to its unique tone to portray mental illness – light-hearted, humorous and ultimately radiant. At the Pop Up she worked on “Slow”. 

Beatriz’ 2nd feature film “Los Silencios” premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2018, and was distributed internationally by Pyramide. The film received enthusiastic critical and audience appraisal internationally, for example reaching more than 30 000 admissions in French theaters. “While They Sleep” is in development stage. It will be produced in Brazil by Seigner’s company Miriade Filmes, together with Erica de Freitas’ Encantamento Filmes. Thierry Lenouvel will continue collaborating with Seigner as French co-producer. At the Pop Up she worked on “While They Sleep”.

Alan Holly is an artist and filmmaker from Dublin, Ireland. Alan has been working in the industry for the past ten years, as an animator, director, writer, editor and background artist. In 2010, he was one of the founders of the studio And Maps And Plans, where he has been working closely with a group of friends to produce artistically driven animated film projects, including several award winning films. His short film Coda was the short animation winner at SXSW and also shortlisted for the Oscar’s. At the Pop Up he worked on his debut feature “Piece”, together with producer Carla Vulpiani and co-writer Rory Byrne. 

Carlota Pereda has spent her career working in TV fiction. She has been a screenwriter and script supervisor for series such as Periodistas and Motivos Personales, has directed series,”El secreto de Puente Viejo”, LEX and Lalola. Her first short, The Blondes, was selected in over 137 festivals worldwide and/or awarded in prestigious festivals such as Medina del Campo, La Semana del Corto, Certamen Internacional de Cortometrajes Ciudad de Soria or CortoEspaña. This project is the leap to feature film of Pereda’s short ‘Piggy’, which notably won the Goya Award for Best Short Film. At the Pop Up she worked on “Piggy” that is now completed and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2022, Midnight section. 

Yona Ronzenkier’s debut feature “The Dive” premiered in Locarno competition in 2018, whereas the Israeli director was present in Cannes Film Festival with two shorts: “The Sign”, co-directed with Eleonora Veninova and presented at the Directors’ Fortnight as part of the SEE Factory, and “Parparim” presented in the Cannes Film Festival Official Competition. His 2nd feature film “Decompression” is in pre-production. “Siberia” received development support from the Israeli Film Fund, with Kobi Mizrahi producing in Israel and Dominique Welinski in France. At the Pop Up he worked on “Siberia”. 

Kaleena Kiff developed & produced the BAFTA Scotland award-winning feature The Legend of Barney Thomson. The black comedy stars Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson and BAFTA winners Robert Carlyle & Ray Winstone. Additionally, Kaleena produced the comedy feature No Men Beyond This Point (TIFF 2015), released by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recently, Kaleena and her partners premiered documentary feature film Stuffed in competition at the SXSW Film Festival. Kaleena is an alum of the EAVE, Toronto Producers Lab, Rotterdam Lab, Berlinale Talent Project Market, and an ACE Producer. At the Pop Up she worked on “Until I Find You”. 

Anita Doron’s latest script was The Breadwinner which was nominated for Best Animation Feature in the Oscars 2018, an Annie Award for best screenplay and a Canadian Screen Award for best adapted screenplay. Anita Doron was born in the former USSR but later fled to Canada where she attended Ryerson University studying filmmaking and scriptwriting. At the Pop Up she worked on ” Sweetwater”.  

Cristina Grosan is a Hungarian- Romanian filmmaker and visual artist. Since graduating from university, she has directed 6 short films, among which award-winning short “Holiday at the Seaside” exploring a mother-daughter relationship. She is developing her second feature, “Ordinary Failures” together with Czech writer Klára Vlasáková. The film’s development is supported by a grant from the Czech Film Fund. At the Pop Up, Cristina worked together with the scriptwriter Klára Vlasáková on Ordinary Failures.

Born in 1982 in Algiers, Yasmine Chouikh studied human arts and sciences and graduated in psychology and educational sciences. She worked as an actress in La Citadelle (1987) by Mohamed Chouikh, in a television film by Djamel Bendedouch in 1990, and then in Hamlet of Women (2004) by Mohamed Chouikh. She wrote in the cultural page of the daily newspaper l’Autentique and works as a journalist and presents a cinematographic television program on the national Algerian television since 2005. She has written and directed several shorts films, e. g. The Door and The Djinn.

She is the art director of the International Taghit Short Film Festival (Algeria) and has been in charge of short films at the International Arab Film Festival of Oran (Algeria).

Her first film, the romantic drama Until The End Of Time (2017) was selected as the Algerian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. At the Pop Up, Yasmine was working on Only God.

Born in 1987. Living in Munich, Germany. Studied directing at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). His graduation film La Palma was released in German cinemas in 2020 and is now available on Netflix Germany. He finished his first documentary Who we will have been in 2021 and participated in the 31st Drehbuchwerkstatt Munich 2019/2020, as well as the talent development programs ZFF Academy (Zurich Filmfestival 2020) and Berlinale Talents (Berlinale 2021). At thePop Up, Erec was working on Lightness and Weight.

Loïc Hobi is a French-Swiss filmmaker born in 1997. He studied directing at Luc Besson’s film school École de la Cité in France, graduating in 2019 with L’Homme Jetée. He has recently released The Life Underground, a coming of age short. Focusing on his identity growing up in a digital world, he has made more experimental films like New Gods. Merging his narrative and experimental sides, Loïc has just finished shooting Alexx196 & the pink sand beach. He is now developing his first feature Crypto Lover which he was working on at the Pop Up Film Residency.

Cyrielle Raingou is a Cameroonian filmmaker passionate about the concept and development of a certain African cultural identity, its promotion on an international scale and the economic interest it raises. She very often uses legends, metaphor, the symbolism of certain animals, to support human stories in their complexity, and the mystery of life. She holds master’s degrees in law and in film directing. At the Pop Up, Cyrielle was working on I`m Coming for you.

Pratik Thakare is a filmmaker based in Mumbai, India. Pratik went on to study Film Direction & Screenplay Writing at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata. His short film Salana Jalsa premiered at Shanghai IFF and was part of film festivals such as Dharamshala IFF, Filmschoolfest Munich, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). Having written a screenplay for an upcoming sports drama series, Pratik is currently developing the script for his debut feature. At the Pop Up, Pratik was working on A Midnight Meal.