Workshop Experts

Two other industry members have joined our first edition of SEAPITCH (Southeast Asian Project Pitch) to conduct online workshops for the 8 selected projects. They are experts in film development and have played key roles in the international scene:

• Deepti DCunha from India
• Paolo Bertolin from Italy

DEEPTI DCUNHA

Deepti DCunha is a Mumbai-based film programmer specialising in contemporary Indian cinema. She has been working on Indian and international film festivals for the past decade. In 2018 she was appointed the India Correspondent for the Director's Fortnight, Cannes and is now their South Asia Correspondent. She is the India Consultant to Artistic Director, Marco Mueller, since 2011 for the Venice Film Festival, the Rome Film Festival, and several film festivals in China including the Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), China. She sources and is sole curator of films for Viewing Room section and the Work-in-Progress Lab for NFDC Film Bazaar since 2011. She has been in the Selection Committee of Locarno Open Doors since 2016, choosing projects and participants for the Co-production Hub and Producers Lab from South Asia, South East Asia and Mongolia. Her earlier assignments include programming for the Indian Selection at the Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival with Star from 2015-2019, the Chicago South Asian Film Festival (CSAFF), the International Children's Film Festival of India (ICFFI) and the Osian's Cinefan Film Festival.

Paolo Bertolin

Paolo Bertolin is a film programmer, film writer and producer. He is part of the programming team of the Venice Film Festival since 2008. In 2019, he joined the selection committee of Cannes' Directors' Fortnight. Since 2016, he is the Artistic Consultant of Locarno Open Doors. He has worked for several international film festivals and institutions, including IFFRotterdam, the Doha Film Institute, Udine Far East FF, Mumbai IFF and Beijing IFF.

As a film critic and journalist, he wrote articles for Italian and international publications, including “Il manifesto”, “The Korea Times”, “Cahiers du cinéma”, “Positif” and “Senses of Cinema”.

Furthermore, he has production credits on such films as Phan Dang Di’s “Big Father, Small Father And Other Stories”, Lav Diaz’s “A Lullaby To the Sorrowful Mystery” and Amit Dutta’s “Chitrashala", all entries in the Berlinale Competition.

He is a member of the European Film Academy and of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Academy.