Helsinki Script 2018

2018 Guest Speakers

Tony Grisoni

Tony Grisoni is a multi award winning British scriptwriter. He’s the creator of miniseries SOUTHCLIFFE (2013), the co-writer and executive producer of THE YOUNG POPE (2016) which Paolo Sorrentino directed with Jude Law in the title role. In the supernatural genre Grisoni’s recent work include the standalone episode CRAZY DIAMOND (2017) for the anthology series of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, a series adaptation of China Mieville’s THE CITY & THE CITY (2018) and the of screenplay THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE (2018), which Grisoni co-wrote with the film’s director Terry Gilliam. Grisoni and Gilliam earlier projects include FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998) and TIDELAND (2005). Grisonis first and award winning feature QUEEN OF HEARTS (1989) was directed by Jon Amiel. His three films based on David Peace’s “Yorkshire noir” quartet RED RIDING (2009) were directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker.  Grisoni co-wrote Samantha Morton’s directorial debut THE UNLOVED (2009) with Morton and co-created VANISHED – A VIDEO SÉANCE (1999) with performance artist and poet Brian Catling. He’s also collaborated with visual artists such as Oona Grimes and Dryden Goodwin.

Keren Margalit

Keren Margalit is an internationally awarded Israeli creator, screenwriter and director. Her works include the original version of HBO’s Emmy and Golden Globe awarded series In Treatment. She is the Executive Producer of the BBC series The A Word (2016-2017) based on the Israeli series Yellow Pepper (2010-2014), which she created and directed. The series was also selected for United Nations global Autism Awareness Day. Keren’s fantasy thriller All I’ve Got (2002) which won a Golden FIPA, is presently remade in USA as Kolma, starring Daisy Ridley. The series Sleeping Bear (2018) which she created, wrote and directed for KESHET Broadcasting premiered this spring at the Berlinale. Keren graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in 1998, winning the Script Award at the Munich Film School Festival the same year.

Adam Price

Adam Price (1967) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning screenwriter and playwright who has written a number of TV series that have reached global audiences. Price co-wrote the Emmy winning series Nikolaj and Julie (DR), before becoming the creator of the highly successful series Borgen (DR), which has been sold to more than 80 countries in five continents – and been awarded with a BAFTA Award, a Prix Italia Award, a Fipa d’Or Award, a Peabody Award as well as the Danish TV-award for best drama for three consecutive years. Price’s latest TV series, Ride Upon the Storm (DR Drama in coproduction with ARTE France and SAM le Français) premiered in Denmark in the fall of 2017 Price is currently finishing the 2nd season which will air on DR1 in September 2018. Ride Upon the Storm was voted Best Work in Progress at MIPtv in 2017. It won the Danish TV-award for best drama in 2017 and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize in 2018. Price was Head of Drama for the Danish TV 2 in the years 2001-2005 and has been a co-owner of SAM Productions ApS since 2014 with writer Søren Sveistrup (Forbrydelsen), producer Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen (A Royal Affair) and Studiocanal. Price functions as a writer and creative executive producer at SAM Productions ApS.

Camilla Hammerich

Camilla has worked in nearly all areas of production in the Danish TV and film industry. She began as an assistant producer and worked her way up to Head of TV2 Drama (Commissioning Editor/Director of Development). Currently she works as a Producer at DR Drama, Denmark’s acclaimed television development and production studio. Camilla is specialized in developing and bringing to fruition dramatic series for the Danish market, with an eye toward international marketability and award-winning appeal.

Camilla has been the producer of BORGEN. The Danish political series has been awarded a Golden Nymph, a BAFTA and a PEABODY as well as several other international nominations. At the moment Camilla is producing RIDE UPON THE STORM – a Danish series about faith and religion. She is also the author of the book THE BORGEN EXPERIENCE – Creating TV Drama the Danish Way.

Lars Lundström

Lars Lundström is a scriptwriter and producer based in Stockholm, Sweden. Lars has been active for over 20 yrs, mainly as a scriptwriter and creator of tv-series. He is most known for his works on Tusenbröder, Wallander and Real Humans. He is also executive producer for the brittish series Humans, which is a remake of his swedish Sci-fi hit Real Humans. Lars was a co-founder of the production company Matador Film, where he had a leading position as a creative Producer between 2009 and 2016. Lars is currently working in cooperation with the production company Nice Drama (Midnight Sun, Thicker than water).

Barbara Petronio

Graduating in Literature with a thesis on the History and Criticism of Cinema on Kathryn Bigelow, after university, she attended the RAI SCRIPT course for screenwriters and the MEDIASET course on television writing. She has worked as a screenwriter for over 15 years. She is currently Head Writer on Suburra, the first Italian TV series produced for Netflix. Her passion for writing began in childhood and soon moved to the cinema. In the ’90s, the Twin Peaks TV series sparked her desire to study TV series. She started with the TV series Distretto di Polizia 3 e 4 and RIS Delitti Imperfetti0  for Canale 5, then came Romanzo Criminale 1 and 2  for Sky, Donne Assassine  for Fox Italy and Il Mostro di Fierenze also for Fox Italy. She then returned to  work for Canal 5 with: Il clan dei Camorristii, Le mani dentro la città and Squadra Mobile. For cinema she has written Edoardo De Angelis’s directoral debut Mozzarella Stories , Stefano Sollima’s directoral ebut film ACAB  and  Edoardo De Angelis’ Indivisibili, for which she received the David di Donatello award and the Ciak d’Oro best original screenplay award in 2017.

Michel Zatta

Michel Zatta worked as a travel-guide, copywriter, lawyer and fiction editor before developing Italy’s first soap Un posto al sole (1996) with Australian writer Wayne Doyle. During 12 years Zatta worked as a writer and producer of long running series such as cop-series La squadra (221 x 100 minutes) and tv-movies. Zatta worked as head writer of Agrodolce in 2008, when he got his current position as an executive at Rai fiction department. He deals with editorial and productive processes of TV-movies, mini-series and long running series – keeping a strong focus on the narrative development. Among his recent works are: La porta rossa (a paranormal thriller in which the protagonist has to find out who killed him), Di padre in figlia (an intense family saga that takes place in Italy and Brazil), season 2 of Non uccidere (the first Italian ‘Nordic-noir’) and Il cacciatore, which was nominated as best Cannes series in 2018, and won prize for best actor.

Jeppe Gjervig Gram

Jeppe Gjervig Gram graduated from the National Danish Film School in 2007. Before his studies he worked for 6 years as a drama series consultant for Danish TV 2. As a film student Gram was employed by public broadcaster DR as a regular episode writer on the one-hour drama series ’Sommer’ (2008-2009), one of the highest rating shows on Danish television the last twenty years.  Fresh out of “Sommer” Gram teamed up with head writer Adam Price and fellow film school alumni Tobias Lindholm to create the three person writers room for the first “Borgen” series. Gram served as an episode writer on 10 of the first 20 episodes originally commissioned seasons 1-2 and worked on all episodes of season 3. Gram’s debut as a showrunner “Follow the Money” is a drama series about corporate crime. The series was selected for a Berlinale Special screening at Berlin Film Festival 2015. “Follow the Money” has been sold to numerous countries, among others UK, France, the Benelux countries, Poland, and Australia. The first season won three Robert awards and was awarded at C21 in London as best foreign TV series. Season 3 of the series is currently in production.

Cia Edström

Cia Edström is Head of Industry and the program manager for the Nordic Film Market and TV Drama Vision at Göteborg Film Festival, a post she took up in 2005.  Cia has a background as a producer of film/cultural events, industry seminars and editor of non-fiction books for the Swedish Film Institute and other organisations.

Kalle Kaivola

Kalle Kaivola has worked with games for two decades as a producer, publisher, journalist and business developer. His background is in games with strong, memorable IP such as Angry Birds, Star Wars, Transformers, The Walking Dead and Blade Runner that have been downloaded over 250 million times. His past employers include the home of Angry Birds, Rovio, the licensed game focused Next Games and the German developer network Remote Control Productions. He is currently based in Finland, working both as an independent game producer and an advisor to game companies working across a range of different media, platforms and genres. Kalle’s passion behind games is tying narrative into game design and using the strengths of the medium to create something engaging. He loves helping the team find the heart and soul of an IP, whether an existing one or something just being created and craft an accessible but deep experience around it.

Ronja Salmi

Ronja Salmi is an author, journalist, speaker and a tv-host, head of program of Helsinki Book fair and the CEO of her own company Ryöväri. Ryöväri is specialized in social media storytelling and recently launched the world’s first Instagram Stories drama series Karma. Salmi is passionate about creating content for young audiences and new forms for storytelling. Alongside Karma her company has produced Finland’s first chat-fiction series and various successful social media campaigns.

Salmi is currently working on her own television program Mitä mietit, Ronja Salmi? (What’s up, Ronja Salmi?). The show is going to air on Yle TV2 and it is directed to young adults. In the show, Salmi is pondering questions that are relevant to every millennial, such as how to live with a feeling of insufficiency or can one have children, if the globe keeps on getting warmer?

Alexander Lindh

Alexander Lindh, born in Helsinki in 1988, is half German, half Finland-Swede. After studying creative writing, cultural and media studies in Hildesheim, Germany, Lindh began to work as a staff writer in the writers’ room of the daily drama series “Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten”. In 2013 Lindh participated in the showrunner programme “Serial Eyes“ at “Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)” and the “London Film School (LFS)”. Since graduating Lindh has written for severals German shows: He was head writer of the second season of ARD’s fantasy series „Armans Geheimnis (Armans Secret)“, co-created and wrote for NBC Germany’s first in-house produced series „Culpa“, co-wrote the ProSieben political satire „Ein Mann, eine Wahl (One Man, One Election)” and is currently the writer of „DRUCK” the German adaptation of the Norwegian teen-drama „SKAM“.

Géraldine Gonard

Géraldine Gonard has worked for the audiovisual magazine VARIETY and for the media distribution firm SOGEPAQ in Spain. In 2001, she joined the international audiovisual distributor GRUPO PI as Sales Director. She was appointed Managing Director of GRUPO PI in 2004. From 2007 to 2015, she managed the international distribution platform IMAGINA INTERNATIONAL SALES. She was also responsible for pre-sales and for financing co-produced series. In 2016, she founded Inside Content, which organizes Conecta FICTION. This co-production and networking event takes place in Santiago de Compostela (Galice-Spain) and its objective is to promote the co-production of fiction content between America and Europe. She distributes Spanish films and series internationally and organizes funding for international co-productions content related to Hispanic culture. She graduated from a Master’s Degree in international Management. (IAE Bordeaux France)

David Jenkinson

David Jenkinson is an award-winning journalist, content technologist and multiplatform publisher. In the world of drama series Jenkinson is known as the Managing Director of C21 and especially of the Drama Summit in London. Having held senior editorial positions at Haymarket, International Thomson, EMAP and Cahners’ Moving Pictures International, Jenkinson created and co-founded C21Media in 1997, one of the world’s first digital publishing businesses.  C21 brands include FutureMedia, Channel 21 international, Drama Quarterly, Drama Summit, Drama Summit West, Content London, Schedule Watch and the mothership; C21Media.net. In 1997, alongside C21Media, Jenkinson co-founded creative agency Dri Riser, developing brand strategy for a variety of media and entertainment clients. He was a group editor at Haymarket from 1989-1991 having started his career at Reed Business Publishing. He has a degree in Communications and a post graduate diploma in periodical journalism. He moderates and speaks on television business, digital media and entertainment industry panels worldwide.

Tatjana Samopjan

Tatjana Samopjan is a Creative Development Consultant working on development of tv shows in Sweden and abroad. Previously she was the Head of Development at Palladium Fiction, a Stockholm-based production company. At Swedish Television she worked as a story editor and a coach to new writers. She grew up in Bosnia and Serbia. Her background is in linguistics, literature and interdisciplinary studies. She studied Scandinavian languages at University of Belgrade and she has a MA in Scandinavian literature from University of Helsinki. Combining her passion for tv-drama with experiences from diverse fields has equipped her with a fresh perspective on deep structure in serialised stories. Tatjana’s original lectures have been well-received all over Europe. They show unusual connections between life and drama in a way that makes storytellers realise both endless possibilities and serious responsibilities of their work.

Gerhard Maier

After working on the fringes of the film and TV industry for over a decade where he escorted movies and series through their life-cycles by scouting markets, consulting marketing campaigns, conceiving websites, writing press books and reviews as well as editing two of Germany’s biggest point-of-sale entertainment publications, Gerhard Maier put his life-long obsession with TV series to use by founding (with two colleauges) SERIENCAMP, Germany’s first festival dedicated exclusively to serial storytelling. Part industry conference where current and upcoming trends are spotlighted in keynotes, panel discussions and case studies while several pitching and co-production sessions bring together creatives, producers and broadcasters from Germany and Europe, part public festival where a hand-picked selection of international series is presented (and sometimes premiered), SERIENCAMP invites 2018 for its fourth edition.

Francesco Capurro

Originally from Italy, Capurro moved to France in 2005 to work in different positions for movie festivals such as Premiers Plans, Paris Cinéma, Le Festival
des Arcs … He worked for three years at the Marché du Film of the Cannes Film Festival. From 2013 is in charge of organizing the Series Mania Forum, professional arm of Series Mania festival, first in Paris and then in Lille.

Kirsi Porkka

Kirsi Porkka is a Finnish playwright and screenwriter. In 2018 her crime series Karppi (Deadwind), created and written with Rike Jokela and Jari Olavi Rantala, was nominated as the best Nordic Script at Gothenburg film festival. Porkka has written and directed several plays for stage and radio. Together with playwright/director Marina Meinander she founded the theater group IRTI in 2001. Their latest plays which opened at the Finnish National Theater are: Pysy hengissä vielä tämä päivä (Stay alive one more day) 2013, and Paha äitipuoli (Bad stepmother) 2016. For Lilla Teatern in Helsinki they wrote (and co-directed) the sci-fi cabaret Det ordnar sig, Sapiens (It will be alright, Sapiens) in 2017. Porkka has a Master of Arts from the Theatre Academy in Helsinki .

Ricardo Russo

Ricardo Russo graduated in 1997 in Economics and Business at “La Sapienza” University of Rome with the highest marks possible. Shortly after he finished a Masters UPA in Corporate Communication at “Ca ‘Foscari” University in Venice. Since 1999 worked at Rai, in the TV sponsorship field, and for several national and multinational advertising agencies as a strategic planner and customer manager. In 2006 he moved to Fox International Channels Italia to manage TV channels, such as: History Channel, Cult, Fx and Fox Retro, after which he became Head of Business Development and Co-productions for Lux Vide Spa and Associate Producer of the international co-production series “Medici”. Masters of Florence – 1 and 2 ” and an associate producer of the international Sky Italia series” The Devils “. In October 2017 he joined the Leone Film Group Spa as Head of International Tv Productions.

Samuel Kirkhope

Samuel Kirkhope is a final year screenwriting student at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences. He has worked on short films, as well as the first Virtual Writers’ Room series concept for Yle called Kypärämäki City. The concept is loosely based on Kirkhope’s own experiences growing up in Kypärämäki. He describes himself as talented, smart, good looking and above all, extremely modest.

Mylene Verdurmen

Mylene Verdurmen is born and based in Amsterdam , the Netherlands. She finished the Theater School in Amsterdam in 1986 and after that worked as an actress, writer and director. Since 2007 she is head of drama at the public broadcast company AVROTROS in the Netherlands and responsible for all drama productions . On average the AVROTROS makes per year: six big drama series and three smaller drama series and coproduces three to four movies. The drama team within the AVROTROS consist out of three people, they create together with writers, directors and production companies all drama productions. At the moment AVROTROS have 23 drama series in different stages of devellopment, under which several international coproductions, some online series and the second season of Licemother.

Miira Karhula

Miira Karhula is a Finnish screen writer, director and journalist. She has studied screenwriting at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. Karhula has worked as a head writer in many drama series in Finland. Karhula’s latest work as head writer is a crime family drama Welcome to Texas (second season premier on Cmore, 2019). In the virtual writer’s room project she mentored young writers to find local, strong and engaging stories rooted in their own experiences. The best of these stories are developed into tv series for Yleisradio. The first of these series is Kypärämäki City.

Andrea Reuter

Andrea Reuter works as a moderator and film producer. Amongst her regular customers are Göteborg Film Festival, where she for seven years co-edited and moderated the annual two day seminar TV Drama Vision, and the Swedish Film Institute (where she worked for the International Department 2009-2011). After 20 years in Stockholm she recently relocated to her home town Helsinki to work as a producer for Helsinki Filmi.

Liselott Forsman

Helsinki Script moderator and organizer

Liselott Forsman works as executive producer of international drama at Yle. She is the head of the Eurovision Fiction Expert Group and a long time Northvision co-producer. Her MA combines film, drama and TV studies. She has a background in fringe theatre and radio drama, in heading and producing fiction, culture and children’s programming. She’s been a speaker and moderator at film and TV forums on five continents and lectured at European master educations. She’s an advisory board member of French Series Mania and Swedish GIFF TV Vision and a recurring jury member or C21, Rose d’Or, Emmy and global Input. She is a founding member and the artistic director at Helsinki Script.