Team

Esther has been working in the European film industry in the fields of funding, training, professional development, and networking. Before joining the International Screen Institute in February 2024, she was head of the Creative Europe-MEDIA Desk in the Austrian Film Institute. Esther has developed and managed ProPro – The Producers Programme for Women – an initiative of the Austrian Film Institute to Empower Women Film Producers, together with Ursula Wolschlager. She has been a guest lecturer on the European film industry at the film, TV, and media production colleges Krems, St. Pölten, and Vienna, and a jury member at various film festivals throughout Europe. Committed to the professionalisation of the film industry and the facilitation of networking and collaboration opportunities, Esther took part in numerous workshops, congresses, and labs on topics such as screenwriting and project development, financing, pitching, production, co-production, film sales, and marketing.

Eva has been working as a curator, cultural manager,  and lecturer in the field of experimental media and immersive art since 2005. In 2007 she initiated sound:frame, which gained notoriety as Vienna’s festival for audiovisual art and has been active as a platform for immersive art and culture&technology. From 2016 to 2019, she directed the production of the Diagonale in Graz and realised an XR program at the festival. In recent years, she directed the media art festival CIVA – Contemporary Immersive Virtual Art in Vienna and hosted the framework program of the BMKÖS funding track Pixel, Bytes + Film. She has curated and implemented numerous international exhibitions and live programmes and has worked as a project manager at the Vienna-based agency Museum Booster. Since 2011 she has been working as a lecturer in the field of experimental media at various universities and colleges.

Dominika is passionate about connecting people through valuable content, encouraging sustainable collaborations that drive a meaningful change. Her journey led her to curate and produce programmes and educational initiatives for numerous cultural projects and institutions, including the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, Moravian Gallery Brno, Suteren Gallery and others.

Mike has been working in the creative sector since 2015, when he graduated as an actor from the University of Wales. He then went on to study his master’s degree in creative and cultural industries management from Northumbria University, where he has gone on to work as a director and production manager, directing and producing the UK’s first all-autistic cast musical production with a rendition of Bugsy Malone. Mike has gone on to set up an autism drama course in the north-east of the UK, as well as teach and perform around the world in Canada, Thailand and Spain, to name a few places. After moving to Austria in 2022, he has been involved with Theatre Initiative Burgenland, Vienna’s English Theatre, Musik Theater Tage Wien and Brut Nordwest. In various roles such as production manager, director and videographer.