The Duel : the Filmmakers

Dover Kosashvili - Director

Born in Soviet Georgia in 1966, Dover Koshashvili immigrated to Israel with his family in 1972. He has directed two feature films and a short. His short, Im Hukim (By the Laws), first earned him acclaim at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, where it was considered for the Cinefoundation award.

In 2001, Koshashvili made his feature film directorial debut with Late Marriage, from a screenplay he wrote himself. The film was critically acclaimed in both the U.S. and abroad. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called the movie "...a powerful and very bitter comedy." Danny Graydon of the BBC wrote that the film has "a lively script, an array of touching characters and situations that are fully exploited of their dramatic and comedic potential, this is an honest portrait of family tensions that Hollywood rarely approaches." Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "Writer-director Dover Kosashvili is a shrewd observer of cultural collision, and his film - a stunning directing debut - is anything but sentimental." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "one of the cleverest, most deceptively amusing comedies of the year," and Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly cited it as one of the Top 10 Films of the Year.

Late Marriage was selected to be screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and went on to win the following awards from the Israeli Film Academy: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing, Best Music, Best Sound, and was nominated for Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography. The film additionally went on to win the Fipresci and Best Actress prize at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival where it was also nominated for Best Film, the Wolgin award at the Jerusalem Film Festival and a number of other prestigious prizes and awards from all over the world. in 2003, he released his second feature film: Gift From Above. The film went on to garner 11 nominations from the Israeli Film Academy, including Best Film and Best Director.

Dover Kosashvili's new film, Infiltration (2011), based on the novel by Yehoshua Kenaz, is about the hardships of the 1950s, the battle for status between different groups of Jews, and the individual's need to "infiltrate" and become somebody.

Donald Rosenfeld - Producer

Donald Rosenfeld has had a successful and distinguished career in motion pictures: producing thirty feature films over the past twenty years.

Following a Bachelors degree in History from Vassar College, and a Masters in Film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Rosenfeld became president of Merchant Ivory Productions, producing the films of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, as well as managing the company for eleven years.

From 1987-1998, Rosenfeld ran Merchant Ivory Productions, where he produced two films a year, including Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, Howards End, The Remains of the Day, Jefferson in Paris and Surviving Picasso. The films made with Merchant Ivory were nominated for a total of 19 academy awards.

In 1999, Rosenfeld founded High Line pictures, producing Sundance Grand Prize Winner, Forty Shades of Blue, as well as The Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day.

in 2001, the Emmy Award winning film, New York, directed by ric Burns; and in 2003, The Center of the World was released, winning The Peabody Award and two Emmy Awards. Eugene O'Neill, with Christopher Plummer, Liam Neeson and Al Pacino, opened to great critical acclaim in 2004; and, Andy Warhol, a four hour epic exploration of Warhol's life and art, won the Emmy as well as Peabody awards in 2006. Additional films produced over the past decade include: William Eggleston in the Real World, Tonight at Noon and Tree of Life. Rosenfeld is currently at work with Emma Thompson on a feature film from her original screenplay, entitled Effie, based on the life of John Ruskin as well as Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time.

In 1991, Rosenfeld was elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where, in collaboration with the Academy archive, he undertook the restoration and preservation of Satyajit Ray's classic films.

Mary Bing - Screenwriter / Producer

Prior to her film career, Mary Bing spent a decade as a practicing psychoanalyst. Upon entering the world of film, Bing produced the critically-acclaimed Forty Shades of Blue (winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance 2005). She also wrote and directed the short film, Brother, which played at numerous festivals, including Slamdance.

Paul Sarossy - Director of Photography

Chloe (Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson) is the latest project in the longtime collaboration of director Atom Eegoyan and cinematographer Paul Sarossy. The two filmmakers have worked together on the films Adoration, Where the Truth Lies, Ararat, Felicia's Journey, The Sweet Herafter, Exotica, The Adjuster and Speaking Parts, as well as the television production of Krapp's Last Tape.

Other film credits include The River King starring Edward Burns, Ripley Underground starring Willem Dafoe, Head in the Clouds starring Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz and Charlie Bartlett with Robert Downey Jr. Sarossy was also director of photography on Neil Labute's The Wicker Man, starring Nicholas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and Bruce Paltrow's Duets starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

In addition to several international film festival awards and nominations, Sarossy's honors include five Genie Awards for the films Head in the Clouds, Perfect Pie, Felicia's Journey, The Sweet Herafter and Exotica. He also received Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) awards for Rocky Marciano, Head in the Clouds, The Sweet Herafter, Exotica, and White Room, an America Society of Cinematographers (ASC) award nomination for Picture Windows and an independent Spirit award Nomination for Affliction.

Sarossy made his directorial debut on the film Mr. In-Between, for which he won Best Independent UK Film Award at Raindance, a Prix Sang Neuf at Cognac, and the Best Actor award at Tokyo.

His next project as director is Roundabout.

Kate Williams - Editor

Kate Williams is currently editing the film adaptation of the Nobel Prize winning writer Patrick White's The Eye of the Storm (Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush and Charlotte Rampling). It is the it is the fourth feature film she has edited for Fred Schepisi. Two other book adaptations with Schepisi were Graham Swift's Last Orders (Helen Mirren, Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins) and Richard Russo's Empire Falls which won the Golden Globe for its category and Williams received an Emmy nomination. Williams edited Frozen River for Courtney Hunt which was nominated for two Academy Awards.

In Melbourne, Australia, where Williams was born, she edited the Venice Film Festival award winning The Goddess of 1967 for Hong Kong director Clara Law. She edited the feature documentary for Michael Almereyda This So-Called Disaster following Sam Shepard's process as he directed Nick Nolte, Sean Penn and Woody Harrelson in a production of The Late Henry Moss. She has edited three films for the actor/director Steve Buscemi, Trees Lounge, Animal Factory and Interview. In 1997 she edited the award winning The Myth of Finger Prints.

Williams worked with the writer Mary Bing and the producer Donald Rosenfeld on Brother before editing Anton Chekhov's The Duel.

Angelo Milli - Music Composer

A native of Maracaibo, Venezuela, Angelo Milli is an award-winning film composer. He received his degree in film scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since 2004, Milli has written the original score for 10 feature films.

His most recent credits include: Ricardo de Montreuil's Mancora, Simon Brand's Paraiso Travel and Gabrielle Muccino's Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith.

Other films that have brought Milli international visibility include, Satanás, the critically acclaimed Colombian film, which also won him his first Colombian National Film Award for Best Original Music.