MARIS LAJA

ESTONIA

Maris is promoting nature education in Tallinn Zoo already for the ninth year, along with her active team. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Biology at Tartu University and has tried to apply her knowledge as a schoolteacher, hobby group teacher, cultural and educational assistant at the American Embassy and as a head of the Estonian Natural History Museum. As an organiser of nature education projects for schools, the most important thing for her has been how to make nature themes important and interesting for young people, so that the right values, preservation and respect can arise. Her interest in the world’s nature and culture has taken Maris to many trails in high hills as well as in rainforests, deserts and polar regions. All of this, whether in the northern or southern hemisphere, has deepened her conviction that only the environmental awareness of each of us can guarantee us a sustainable future.

Maris Laja

REMO SAVISAAR

ESTONIA

Remo has been a professional nature photographer for over 15 years. With his photographs, he has won many first prizes and high recognition from international photo competitions. As a film photographer, he has experience with feature films, short films, advertisements and television. He has written and illustrated with photographs over a hundred articles on nature and photography. His photographs and photo stories have been published in various magazines (including National Geographic). Remo has been a member of the jury at many photo competitions, regularly gives lectures on nature, nature photography and provides photo training. Remo has organised several solo exhibitions of nature photographs and participated in joint exhibitions. His work has been displayed in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and China. In 2019, Remo’s object of observation was a rare Great Grey Owl in Estonia, with whom he spent more than 100 field work days. His favourite objects in nature are birds and mammals, whose activities he likes to delve into.

Remo Savisaar

IGNAS VAN SCHAICK

NETHERLANDS

Ignas has been working as director/producer of nature films at EMS FILMS since 2010.

Releasing international renowed theatrical films and TV series as The New Wilderness, Holland – The Living Delta and Katwalk/Wild Amsterdam (MAFF 2019). The last few years also focusing on immersive projections and VR with good examples as the flight experience attractions This is Holland and Fly over Iceland. He started his career in the book industry as publisher of professional information and has been active in the media world for more than 30 years. He has a lot of experience in the development of cross-media concepts and e-commerce, including books, magazines, collectors, DVDs, games, events and digital media. In the Netherlands, he spent a number of years responsible for the home entertainment exploitation of brands such as BBC and Discovery Channel and later as Dutch publisher at National Geographic and the science magazine Quest. He was responsible for the expansion and localization of the brands through the development of line-extensions. As producer and co-owner of EMS FILMS he now is in preparation of four new theatrical productions that will be released in 2020 – 2023:  The schoolgarden (2020), Catlove (2020), Wild Port of Europe (2021) and The Wild North sea (2023).

Ignas van Schaick

KERSTI UIBO

ESTONIA

The calling of Kersti is to travel as far away from home as to travel deep into the inner-life of the human person. Her auteur films have won awards at both great and small international documentary film festivals. She has taught film-making in England, Germany, India, New York and in Tallinn BFM Creative Documentary department. Kersti's trajectory from Metsapoole, her home-village on the border of Estonia and Latvia took her as a young girl to secondary-school in Tallinn, from there to Moscow Foreign Languages Institute and later to London University to study in the History Faculty and as a 34-year-old mother of two to the National Film and Television School where, she studied in Herb di Gioia’s Documentary Directing class. Kersti regards Nature and the Sea as her greatest teachers because they are in constant flux and from our first breath until our last, induct us into knowledge.

Kersti Uibo

MARKO RAAT

ESTONIA

Marko Raat is an Estonian director, curator and film critic, active in the fields of both arthouse fiction film and documentaries. He has a vast background in theatre directing, TV productions and in fine art. His latest feature length documentary ‘Funeral Diaries” ( 2019) , after premiering at Dok.Fest Munich and opening DocPoint Tallinn, is still travelling the festival circuit. Runs a personal documentary summer cinema Võrgukuur for 10 years. 

Marko Raat

BRUNO CHATELIN

FRANCE

A member of the European Film Academy since 1990 (former  Board Member); Les Cesar voting member since 1987. Fest Forums Advisory Board Member, International Film Festival Summit Advisory Board Member, Board Member on a few festivals and Co-Founder of Animation Day in Cannes.

Following a marketing career in ad agencies he started a film career in 1985 working for Sony then UGC FOX in France as Marketing Director and Managing Director. He has launched over 200 films and has worked closely with key creative talents: Claude Lelouch, Costa Gavras, Terry Giliam, Stephen Frears, Keneth Branagh, James Ivory, Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Sean Penn, Tom Hanks, Al Pacino, Scorsese and many more. After Sony he merged 20th Century Fox with UGC in 1995.

He co-founded filmfestivals.com in 2000 which regularly partners with the largest festivals and markets and has served over 6.000 festivals worldwide and a community of 370 000 monthly visitors, and newsletter subscribers base of 193 000.

As a festival agent curating the best for fests Bruno has been in charge of many film sales and festival strategy / promotion including Revolution by Rob Stewart, which won the 1st prize at MAFF 2016 and his final movie Sharkwater Extinction, which won the Grand Prix at MAFF 2019.

Bruno Chatelin