20 – 25 June 2018, HOME, Manchester
July – October online sessions
14 – 18 November 2018, Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival, Florence
directed by Leonardo Bigazzi and Sarah Perks

Lo schermo dell’arte and HOME, Manchester’s art centre, present the 4th edition of the European intensive training programme for visual artists developing and producing their first feature film

www.featureexpanded.com

Feature Expanded is the first training programme designed to support visual artists who want to make a full-length film. The project is developed by Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival and HOME and directed by Leonardo Bigazzi and Sarah Perks.

Feature Expanded provides a uniquely tailored set of activities responding to the important trend of visual artists pairing new vision and strong innovation with feature film production. This new generation of filmmakers expands the terrain of the traditional audio-visual industry, attracting new audiences, partnerships and structures with a different take on feature film.

Across two locations and a six-month duration, this programme is a combination of masterclasses, case studies, workshops, screenings, one-to-one meetings and pitching sessions for directors developing their first feature film.

Feature Expanded takes the form of two residential workshops in Manchester and Florence, between these the participants work on project development, respond to set tasks and use online consultancy on the specific topics. After this, participants are directed to collaborations with relevant festivals, markets and other partners. Training activity is peer-led by industry experts working currently in this field with several feature film credits. The course covers script development, non-script rsed production, project pitching, co-commissioning and financing, working with actors and participants, distribution and exhibition involving digital platforms.

Feature Expanded is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme.

programme

The six-month Feature Expanded programme combines:
• A week intensive residential at HOME in Manchester that mixes masterclasses, case studies, workshops, networking opportunities and screenings alongside individual tutorials and group work.
• Online tutorials with the Feature Expanded experts.
• A four day residential at Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival in Florence to attend the festival and continue tutorials before pitching films to a jury and a selected group of industry professionals.

Prize:

Feature Expanded Distribution Award: One of the 12 film projects is selected for the FEx Distribution Award. The award provides one of the film projects with a theatrical distribution in the UK and Ireland by HOME Artist Film and in Italy by Lo schermo dell’arte.
Feature Expanded Development Award: The award provides one participant with a 4-day intensive residency in Stockholm to work with script consultant Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten on the script development of his/hers film project.
Ottod’Ame Film Award: a research cash prize.
SUB-TI Award: consisting in the subtitles in one European language for the awarded film, offered by SUB-TI.

Each of the twelve participants is assigned an experienced producer as a tutor who will work with them in developing their Film project throughout the Programme both on a one-to-one basis and in groups of four artists.

Feature Expanded Tutors are: Jacqui Davies, Samm Haillay and Yorgos Tsourgiannis.

staff and tutors
Leonardo Bigazzi
Project Director

Leonardo Bigazzi is a curator based in Florence, Italy. He is been working at Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival since its first edition in 2008. For the Festival he curates VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Cinema and Notti di Mezza Estate. He is also the co-director of Feature Expanded, a training programme for visual artists working on their first feature film developed together with HOME in Manchester. Beside collaborating to the selection of films for the main program, in the past edition of the Festival he has been responsible for special projects with the artists Hito Steyerl, Omer Fast, Melik Ohanian and Hiroshi Sugimoto.
From 2014 to 2016 he worked as a curator at Museo Marino Marini where he curated the exhibition 30/60 Opere dalla collezione del Frac Champagne-Ardenne, with a selection of over 40 works from the collection of the French institution (co-curated with Florence Derieux); the solo show of Pablo Bronstein Studies in mannerist decomposition (co-curated with Alberto Salvadori); Alfred Jarry Archipelago ‘Ha ‘Ha, a programme of performance, installations and screenings; the solo show of Rayyane Tabet La Mano De Dios. In 2016 he co-curated the first edition of La Nuite blanche de Monaco.
Since 2014 he has an on-going collaboration with the artist Petrit Halilaj and he has worked for the research and production of his exhibitions at the 57ª Biennale di Venezia (Special Mention of the Jury), New Museum (New York), Fondazione Merz (Turin), Bundeskunsthalle (Bonn), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Koln) and Palazzo Grassi/Punta della Dogana (Venice).

Sarah Perks
Project Director

As Artistic Director of the Cornerhouse’s visual arts section she has co-curated some major solo exhibitions such as Pakistani artist Rashid Rana’s Everything is Happening at Once, and It’s Cool I’m Good by performance and video artist Stanya Kahn. In 2011 Sarah structured Cornerhouse Artist Film, socialised into the production and distribution of artists’ feature films, starting with the UK and Irish theatrical release of Self Made, the directorial debut of Turner Prize winning artist Gillian Wearing. In June 2012 the second release was Swandown by Andrew Kotting and Iain Sinclair. Most recently Sarah has produced Rosa Barba’s first 35mm feature commission, Subconscious Society, and also Rough Cut film accompanying Jamie Shovlin’s solo exhibition Hiker Meat.

Jacqui Davis
Tutor

Jacqui Davies is a London-based producer and curator. Since 1997, she has worked internationally with artists on projects involving film and video. Working independently across all platforms – producing, commissioning and curating – Davies has facilitated projects for television, galleries, site-specific, stage, cinema and online.
Davies is the Producer of Ben Rivers’ Artangel/ BFI funded film The Earth Trembled and the Sky Was Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, Ray & Liz: a feature film by artist Richard Billingham, and a feature-length documentary-fiction project by filmmaker Louis Henderson. She was the Associate Producer on Phillip Warnell’s feature film, Ming of Harlem, which won the George Beauregard Prize at FID Marseille 2014. She is currently developing feature projects with Redmend Entwistle and Louis Henderson. Davies also works with Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, to curate exhibitions of artists working with moving image. She is also a consultant on film and art for Dazed and Confused.

Samm Haillay
Tutor

Samm Haillay founded independent production company Third with Duane Hopkins in 2001. He produced Hopkins’ multi-award winning short films and his feature debut Better Things, which premiered to critical acclaim at International Critics Week, Cannes in 2008. Samm also produced Hopkins’ multi-channel film installations series Sunday, which played at Baltic Centre of Contemporary Arts and as part of Abandon Normal Devices. Samm’s short film productions have won over 45 awards, including some at Berlin, Venice, Edinburgh, and Chicago. In 2010 he co-produced Gillian Wearing’s feature debut Self Made. A member of EAVE and ACE, Samm sat on the short film jury for the 2010 Berlinale (Berline Film Festival). As well as producing all of Hopkins’ film and gallery work Samm produces also a number of other talented directors feature work through Third including the BAFTA winning Esther May Campbell, renowned critic and writer Mark Cousins, Sundance winning Simon Ellis, Silver Bear winning Daniel Elliott, and the Venice screening Joseph Bull & Luke Seomore.

Yorgos Tsourgiannis
Tutor

Yorgos Tsourgiannis is a independent film producer and the founder and managing director Athens based production label Horsefly Productions. His credits include: Norway (2014, Yiannis Veslemes, Fipresci Prize Thessaloniki FF, five Hellenic Film Academy awards including Best First Feature), Luton (2013, Michalis Konstantatos, Best First Feature Athens IFF), Dogtooth (2009 Yorgos Lanthimos, Cannes Grande Prix Un Certain Regard, nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film in 2011).
Yorgos Tsourgiannis began producing films and numerous TV commercials in various capacities, both independently and with other production companies after graduating with an MBA from the University of Southampton in 2001 and a Masters in Audiovisual Management (EMAM) from Rome in 2002. Yorgos Tsourgiannis was selected to participate at EFA’s 2010 Producers On The Move, held at Cannes and is a member of the ACE network of producers, the Hellenic Film Academy and the European Film Academy.

Sibylle Kurz
Pitch Expert

Sibylle Kurz specializes in pitching training, project presentation, proposal development and dramaturgical doctoring. She also offers communication skills, negotiation training and personal coaching for companies and individuals. With an academic background in media & communication science, sociology and psychology; she has a postgraduate education as a communication skills trainer and is a certified NLP Trainer (INLPT Associational standards). She works as a Pitching Trainer and consultant for film schools and film institutions all over Europe. Her experience in The Art Of Pitching is a result of more than 15 years experience in the acquisition, distribution and co-production of theatrical, video, and TV films in the German-speaking market at a distribution company that she co-founded in 1981. She left the organisation in 1995 to start her own company. Kurz’ intensive workshop sessions enable producers to hone and time-tune their projects prior to pitching as well as gain insight into their own professional practice. In 1995, she co-founded d-net-work, an alliance of young European producers (feature & documentary) to help find co-production and distribution partners for their projects. She is a member of the European Documentary Network and the author of two books.

Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten
Script Expert

Creator of MotherofSons (MOS), development/film production company based in Stockholm. Related areas: art and music, theatre, and television drama (screenwriter, script consultant, director, creative producer). Marietta worked as commissioning editor for SVT Drama Sweden, and also as staff writer/editor for Pearson/Freemantle Drama before becoming an international feature film script consultant. Marietta wrote and co produced the film Call Girl (Fipresci Award in Toronto 2012 and shown in many festivals world wide, directed by Mikael Marcimain). Since 2007 Marietta is connected as script consultant with Torino Film Lab, Binger Film Lab, Venice Biennale College Cinema, on films such as the BabadookDjeca/Children of SarajevoHi-SoLos HongosLes Quattro Volte; Beyond /SvinalдngornaH; The Sky above us and so on. She has also been involved as script advisor for Tiff STUDIO Toronto, Boost Rotterdam, Rutger Hauer Masterclasses, Generation Campus Moscow, Script Lab Russia, Balkan Film Fund Athens, Talent Campus Sarajevo and Berlinale, Irish Film Board, Filmpool Nord, B3 Media London, Lux UK, Doha Film Institute, and does extensive private project consultation. Marietta is a member of the Swedish Drama Union and the European Film Academy.

PARTECIPANTs
Loukia Alavanou
Greece

Is a visual artist who has been working with film and exhibiting her work internationally for over a decade. She completed an MA in photography at the RCA in London in 2005. In 2007 she won the DESTE Prize. Alavanou recently held a retrospective exhibition at State of Concept, Athens (2018). Other solo exhibitions include Kanelopoulos Cultural Centre, Elefsis, Rodeo, Istanbul, Haas & Fischer, Zurich, The Breeder, Athens, upstairs berlin. Group exhibitions including BOZAR – Brussels, SMFA – Boston, Palais de Tokyo – Paris, The Benaki Museum – Athens, State Museum of Contemporary Art – Thessaloniki, The Museum of Cycladic Art – Athens, New Museum – NY, The ikob Museum of Contemporary Art – Eupen, Moscow Biennale, Fiorucci Art Trust – Stromboli, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens. Recent festivals participation include: Kasseler Dokfest (2017), 62nd Oberhausen Film Festival -international competition (2016), Viennale (2015), KINO DER KUNST (2015). Alavanou’s work has been included in numerous publications and has been addressed extensively by writers such as the acclaimed British psychoanalyst and art critic Darian Leader or the American artist- historian Carol Mavor.

www.loukiaalavanou.com

Josefin Arnell and Natasja Loutchko
Netherlands/Sweden

Visual Artists Josefin Arnell and Natasja Loutchko practises shares themes of trauma and taboo. Their new film project HorseGirl blatantly uses socio-politics and addresses subjects like feminine rage and female stereotypes, boredom and rebellion.
Additional to their own practices both artists are involved in multiple collaborations and self initiatives focusing on feminism practices that includes performance productions and critical conversation events.
Arnell’s work floats between aspects of documentary and fiction film, she methodically navigating the space of unattainable desires, perfectionism and control. Her work have recently been shown at: International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Kunsthalle Münster, Palais de Tokyo (Paris, Beursschouwburg (Brussels). Arnell participated in the two year residency program Rijksakademie van Beeldende kunsten, (2015/2016) Amsterdam.
Loutchko’s trash aesthetic and film work captures an emotional rawness that reflects both tenderness and rage as it navigates a complex layering of emotions. Loutchko’s work has been shown at MMK Zollamt (Frankfurt), Deutsche Filmmuseum (Frankfurt), Dox (Copenhagen), SMK (Copenhagen) Natasja Loutchko graduated from Städelschule, (2014) Frankfurt, with a Meisterschule in Film.

http://josefinarnell.se 
www.natasjaloutchko.se

Mark Chapman
United Kingdom

Is a moving image artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His work has been screened internationally across narrative, documentary and experimental contexts, including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, IKFF Hamburg, Encounters, Tabakalera, São Paulo International Short Film Festival & Jihlava International Documentary Festival. He is also an alumnus of industry development programmes at Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale Talents) and BFI London Film Festival (Network@LFF).
His photographic work has appeared in numerous group gallery shows and magazines such as ID and Aesthetica. He previously worked at Third Films where he collaborated on feature films and installation projects.
He currently teaches at Northumbria University, where he is also working towards a PhD in film practice.

Rebecca Digne
France

She graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, during two years (2010-2011) she was a resident at the Rijksakademie Van Beelden Kusten in Amsterdam then follow the residency program of the Palais de Tokyo: Le Pavillon, in Paris (2013-2014). In September 2018 she will start one year residency at Villa Medici, Rome.
Among her recent exhibitions: 100 years later (2014) at The Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Climats Artificiels (2015) at the Fondation EDF in Paris, Visio : Next Generation Moving Images, at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Au-delà de l’image (II) Escougnou-Cetraro gallery in Paris (2015), Les pieds dans le plat, La Forme in Le Havre, France (2016), La Ville au Corps, Carreau du Temple in Paris (2016), L’Eternité par les astres, Les Tanneries, Amilly, France (2017). In 2018 Tracer le vide Solo Show at Galerie Escougnou-Cetraro and À la hauteur de la Terre Solo show at Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Vassivière in 2018.
Her work is part of the collections of the Centre National D’art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Seven Gravity Collection and other private collections in Europe.

www.rebeccadigne.com

Bettina Eberhard
Switzerland

Born in Zürich, Switzerland. She studied Fine Arts at Goldsmiths’ College, Institute of London. After graduation she continued her artistic investigations in London and Madrid. In 2008 she graduated from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne with distinction. Since then, she has worked as a visual artist focusing on multi media installations and experimetal filmmaking. Her work has been shown and awarded at renowned festivals: Berlinale, Oberhausen, Locarno etc. She is a co-funder of the artist collective Ulbe, with whom she investigates artistic and multilyered interventions in public space. She focuses on the intermixture of art and everyday life. She works as a lecturer and facilitates workshops in art education. Bettina lives in Zürich and Cologne.

Gabrielle Le Bayon
France

Graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2012 with an MA in Photography and lives and works in Paris. Gabrielle Le Bayon is a filmmaker, who’s work is centered upon the relationship between myth and landscape as the trace of History. Her films engage with language and territory, exploring areas of resistance within our everyday environment and interactions in the process.
Recent screenings of her work include MOCA Hiroshima (solo show); W139 Gallery, Amsterdam; International Film Festival Oberhausen Seminar with LUX (UK) & Flaherty Seminar (US); Visions du Réel, Nyon CH, The Book Society, Seoul. In 2017, she was awarded a Visual Art Fellowship with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (US/ IT) and she was shortlisted for the Loop Barcelona Discover Award. In 2018 she has been a resident at the G.R.E.C. (Groupe de Recherches et d’Essais Cinématographiques). Her films are represented by 6×6 Project (UK) and Videocloop Archive (SP).

www.gabriellelebayon.com

Gabriel Lester
Netherlands

Lester works across various disciplines including cinema, music, performance, installation, sculpture and architecture. Atmospheric and perceptual, many of Lester’s works evolve around the very nature of the media of our time. Strongly inspired by music and cinema, Lester’s works challenge the reality of perception and draw on collective imagination through his dramatic theatrical illusions.
Recently he had solo shows at: The Groninger Museum (2017) Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius (2016), de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam (2016), Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai (2014). He has also exhibited at many major museums and biennales, for instance, 19th Biennale of Sydney (Sydney), Nam June Paik Art Center (Yongin), Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam), Centre Pompidou (Paris),, Performa 09 (New York), Artists Space (New York), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Liverpool Biennial (Liverpool), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Busan Biennial (Busan), Baltic Triennal, PS1 (New York), Witte de With (Rotterdam), Rijksakademie (Amsterdam), etc. Lester’s work has been placed in many prestigious collections. In 2012 Lester participated in the dOCUMENTA (13). He was also shortlisted for the 2013 Absolut Art Award.

http://gabriellester.com

Sophio Medoidze
UK/Georgia

Is an artist and filmmaker. Medoidze was born in USSR, brought up in the Republic of Georgia and lives in London. She works with film, photography, text and sculpture, and for a time, she worked anonymously as part of the Clara Emigrand collective. Her work has been shown, amongst others at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Whitechapel Gallery, Arnolfini,Pekhamplex+Serpentine Cinema(Upcoming). She is the current recipient of Tyneside cinema artist film commission.

www.medoidze.com

Ann Oren
Israel

Is a visual artist and filmmaker. Born in Tel-Aviv 1979, received a BFA in Film and an MFA in Fine Arts, both from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her works screened at Moscow Biennale for young art, WRO Media Art Biennale, B3 Moving Image Biennial, The Hammer Museum, The Tel-Aviv Museum, The Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, PS122, Anthology Film Archives, Apexart, Dok Leipzig, New Horizons Film Festival, Locarno Festival and Ann Arbor Film Festival,
Oren is an award recipient from The New York State Council on The Arts, The National Board of Reviews, New York, The Jerome Foundation, The School of Visual Arts, The Rabinovich Foundation, B3 Moving Image Biennial, Doker International Documentary Film Festival Moscow, and Seoul International New Media Festival.

www.annoren.com

Ryan (Reynir Freyr) Parteka
Iceland

Is an Icelandic-American artist who began working in photography and film before transitioning to immersive interactive installation and narrative sculpture at the turn of the millennium. After receiving a BFA in Photography and Film, he completed a two year research residency at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His work has been shown internationally at galleries, film festivals, and museums.
Parteka’s work explores how man understands and perceives himself and the world through experiences with nature, often with landscape as a paradigm of human fate, using forms of nature in an allegorical manner to accentuate impermanence, and transcend scientific rationalisation and mastery over nature while in search of the sublime or the miraculous amongst the ordinary.  
After a decade of producing cinematic installations, Parteka’s work has come full circle.  He has returned to filmmaking and is currently in development on his first feature 35mm film.

Floris Schönfeld
Netherlands

Is a visual artist currently based in Amsterdam. He works mainly with film and performance. The focus of his work in the last years has been the relationship between fiction and belief. In his work he is constantly trying to find the line between defining his context and being defined by it.
He holds a BA in Time Based Arts from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and an MFA studio practice degree from the California College of Art in San Francisco. He was a graduate fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts in the San Francisco and has done residencies at Rupert in Vilnius and most recently at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Schönfeld’s work has been shown at many film festivals and exhibitions including the Amsterdam Film Biennale, Rencontres International Paris/Madrid/Berlin, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the 12th International Shanghai Biennal the International Ghetto Biennale Port-au-Prince, the Haus der Chiltern der Welt Berlin, the Kassel Documentary & Film Festival and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts San Francisco. His work has the subject of a solo shows at di Rosa Napa, the Kadist Foundation in San Francisco, Nest The Hague, CAC Vilnius and most recently at the Oakland Museum in Oakland California. Floris is currently developing PUK*; a new neuro-diverse form of artificial intelligence.

www.florisschonfeld.com

Cecilia Stenbom
UK

Is a Swedish artist filmmaker based in North East of England. Employing both documentary and fiction conventions her work explores how filmmaking complicates and blurs the fluctuating boundaries between reality and screen-based representation. Her work is centred on the construction of identity and rules of interaction, often using real life testimony and referencing familiar cinematic and televisual narrative constructs. The work is deliberately staged and stylished and offering a cinematic treatment to the mundane and everyday.
Stenbom studied at Academy of Fine Art, Helsinki, Finland and Glasgow School of Art. projects include: Rules of Engagement, screenings at Regent Street Cinema, London, CCA, Glasgow, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, and Tetley, Leeds; Video Umbrella. CONNECT/EXCHANGEresidency at Chapter, Cardiff; The List, solo exhibition at BALTIC39, Newcastle; Everyday Collateral, solo exhibition, Workplace Gateshead; iShorts, commission by Creative England; North By North East, commission and residency at Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival; MAWAresidency Winnipeg, Canada.

www.ceciliastenbom.com

Promoted and organized by
Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival and HOME

Supported by
Creative Europe-MEDIA, programma dell’UE