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MENTORS 2018-2021

HEAD OF STUDIES

LAB 2018-2022

Mark Atkin

Mark Atkin (UK) is an award-winning producer of immersive and interactive work. He is Immersive Curator at CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, SILBERSALZ Science and Media Festival, Germany, and Director of Electric Dreams. As Head of Studies of CPH:LAB, he spearheads the development of creatives in immersive media.

MENTOR

LAB 2020-2021

Myriam Achard

Over the past 6 years Myriam Achard (CA) has devoted a great deal of her energy to representing PHI internationally, and has thus created an extraordinary distribution network for immersive projects on which PHI takes part today as a co-producer, as well as a distributor.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2020

Anrick Bregman

Anrick Bregman (UK) is an award winning cross-disciplinary new realities director, exploring immersive storytelling through VR, AR, film and games, and beyond. His work is research focused, and lies at the intersection of narrative and experiential technology.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2022

Katerina Cizek

Katerina Cizek (CA) is a two-time Emmy-winning documentarian, and pioneer in emergent media. She is heading up the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the National Film Board of Canada, she helped transform the organization into a digital hub with her ground-breaking projects Filmmaker-in-Residence, and HIGHRISE.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Toby Coffey

Toby Coffey (UK) is Head of Digital Development for the National Theatre. In 2016 he established their Immersive Storytelling Studio. Its work has been shown at film festivals around the world. Toby has over 18 years expertise in the digital arena from creative, technical, production and social perspectives.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2022

Sarah Ellis

Sarah Ellis (UK) is Director of Digital Development for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Responsible for creating an innovative digital offer presenting the best of the company to a global audience; for bringing new thinking and the best fresh developments enabling its progression.

MENTOR

LAB 2021-2022

Shehani Fernando

Shehani Fernando (UK) is an award-winning producer/director and the founder of Indigo Storm, a new immersive studio driven by documentary storytelling. Her work has been exhibited at festivals including IDFA, Venice and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She is also the producer and presenter of the StoryFutures Academy podcast.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2021

Sandra Gaudenzi

Dr Sandra Gaudenzi (IT) consults, researches, lectures and writes about interactive and immersive narratives. She is Course Leader at the University of Westminster and co-convenor of the i-Docs conference. She has recently co-edited the book “i-docs: the Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary”.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Jane Gauntlett

Jane Gauntlett (UK) is an artist, writer and director for interactive theatre, audio, game, film, VR and AR. Jane is currently working on The Future Project and founded In My Shoes Project. She directed the 360 immersive experiences ‘ In My Shoes: Dancing With Myself’(2015), and ‘In My Shoes: Intimacy’ (2017) which both premiered at Sheffield International Documentary Festival.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Steye Hallema

Steye Hallema (NL) works as creative director for his own company WildVreemd and works as freelance director for Jaunt VR. He is the director of the VR music video What do we care4 and the VR collaboration Ashes to Ashes. He is also the inventor and creative director of the Smartphone Orchestra.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2020

Phil Harper

Phil Harper (UK) is a BAFTA award winning VR director. Since helping to setup Alchemy VR in 2014 he has written and directed many VR documentaries, including one featuring Sir David Attenborough. His film ‘The Antarctica Experience’ is showing in specialist cinemas across Australia where it became one of the highest grossing documentaries of 2018.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

James Hedley

James Hedley (UK) is an award-winning VR Director/Producer working at Sky VR Studios in London. Having first worked in 360° filmmaking over 6 years ago, James has developed VR projects with an array of broadcasters and organisations such as Sky, C4 and the UN.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2022

Vassiliki Khonsari

Co-founder of iNK Stories, Vassiliki Khonsari (GR) is a producer and director across multiple screens, including film, games, installations, and virtual reality. Recent titles include HERO, multi sensory/location based VR; FIRE ESCAPE, interactive VR series made in partnership with Google; BLINDFOLD, interactive VR and 1979 REVOLUTION, a cinematic video game.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2022

Ingrid Kopp

Ingrid Kopp (SA) is a co-founder of Electric South, a non-profit initiative to develop virtual reality and innovative mobile storytelling projects across Africa. Ingrid also curates the Tribeca Storyscapes program for interactive and immersive work at the Tribeca Film Festival.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2020

Uri Kranot

Uri Kranot (DK) is main tutor of Anidox lab. Director, animator, filmmaker, teacher, he is member of the Academy of motion picture arts & science. He created numerous award-winning animated films and VR projects, co-directed with his partner Michelle Kranot.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2020

Simon Lajboschitz

Accomplished director and manager, with a keen view from the customers’ perspective, Simon Lajboschitz (DK) built a community hub in the Virtual Reality industry in Denmark, by founding the 1st VR store in the World, Khora and becoming the leading Danish VR experts.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2021

Jonathan May

Jonathan May (UK) is currently Acting Director for AbandonNormal Devices. As an arts producer and programmer he leads ambitious cross-disciplinary teams to create arts events from building-wide festivals in the favelas of Bogota; installations in Mexico nightclubs; to public artworks at Tate’s Turbine Hall.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2022

Annette Mees

Annette Mees (NL) is an award-winning artist and immersive theatre director. She is known for her experiential work across art forms mixing live and digital experiences. She is currently the Head of Audience Labs; a new department at the Royal Opera House dedicated to creating new immersive experiences using new technology.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Margaux Missika

Margaux Missika (FR) joined Upian in 2010 to develop online productions, after her studies and various experiences in content development. She produced projects like Alma, a tale of violence, Génération What?, How to make a Ken Loach Film, Do Not Track, Art of gaming or Earn a living.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2020

Thomas Oberender

Since 2011 Thomas Oberender (DE) has been the Artistic and Managing Director of Berliner Festspiele/Gropiusbau. He was the founder of several new formats for performance, literature and cultural programmes, and created time based exhibitions. He is currently working as Artistic Director of the transmedial programme Immersion.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Opeyemi Olukemi

Opeyemi Olukemi (USA) is an interactive storytelling expert and Vice President of Digital Production and Innovation at American Documentary’s award-winning independent non-fiction film series POV. Before joining POV, Opeyemi was the Senior Director of Interactive Programs for Tribeca Film Institute and produced for ScrollMotion. Opeyemi has mentored through the IDFA’s Doc Academy, New Museum’s NEW INC and Oculus’ VR for Good.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2022

Francesca Panetta

Francesca Panetta (UK) is a Creative Director in the MIT Centerfor Advanced Virtuality. As an immersive artist and journalist, she uses emerging technologies to innovate new forms of storytelling that have social impact. Previous to MIT, she worked at The Guardian as Executive Director of VirtualReality where she pioneered new forms of journalism.

MENTOR

LAB 2020-2022

Gayatri Parameswaran

Gayatri Parameswaran (IND) is an award winning writer, director and producer of immersive works. She co-founded NowHere Media — a storytelling studio that views contemporary issues through a critical lens. Her work has been exhibited at the Venice International Film Festival, SXSW, Cannes Film Festival.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2020

Lucia Pietroiusti

Lucia Pietroiusti (IT) is Curator of General Ecology at Serpentine Galleries, London, as well as the curator of Sun & Sea (Marina), the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Publications include More-than-Human (with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier, upcoming).

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Oscar Raby

Oscar Raby (AU) is Creative Director at VRTOV, the Virtual Reality studio behind works Assent, The Turning Forest, Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel and A Thin Black Line. Works by VRTOV have been exhibited across the world, including Sundance, IDFA, Sheffield Doc/Fest and Tribeca Film Festival.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2022

Mike Robbins

Mike Robbins (DE) is a director, producer, and creative technologist at his studio High Road Stories, a creative studio for documentary VR, AR, and interactive content. Our experiences have been featured in venues like IDFA, DOK Leipzig, BIFF, and DocAviv, and in museums and exhibitions around the world.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Nicolas S. Roy

Nicolas S. Roy (CA) is the founder and creative director at Dpt., an award-winning studio specializing in immersive and interactive storytelling. He has worked with institutions such as the National Film Board of Canada, Ubisoft, France Télévisions, Autodesk, Samsung and ARTE. His most recent projects include The Enemy, Manic VR, Trinity, A Colossal Wave and Deprogrammed.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2022

Barnaby Steel

Barnaby Steel (UK) is an Artist and Creative Director of London based studio Marshmallow Laser Feast. This experiential art collective works in the liminal space between art, technology and the natural world. Barnaby’s art practice combines a wide range of disciplines including sculpture, installation, live performance, and mixed reality.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2020

Maude Thibodeau

Maude Thibodeau (CA) has been designing interactive projects for over ten years in Montreal. She creates experiences using strong immersive narratives at Dpt., an award winning immersive experience studio at the intersection of film and gaming, art and code, design and research.

MENTOR

LAB 2019-2022

Georg Tschurtschenthaler

Georg Tschurtschenthaler (IT) is an Emmy-nominated and Grimme-Prize awarded producer and showrunner forfilm and interactive projects at Gebrueder Beetz FilmProduction in Berlin. He has earned some 35 producer credits for his work. In addition he regularly teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Lucy Wood

Lucy Wood (UK) is creative producer specialising in art-science and climate change. She is currently a freelance Creative Producer and Development Consultant for a number of clients including ‘Invisible Dust’ and ‘The Arts Development Company’. Most recently Lucy was lead producer of ‘Under Her Eye: Women and Climate Change’ Summit and Arts Festival at the British library.

MENTOR

LAB 2018-2019

Paula Zuccotti

Paula Zuccotti (UK) is a leading expert in global consumption and a respected authority in consumer behaviour and product interaction. She is the founder of research and creative consultancy agency TheOverworld.