First Time on Film is a new programme closely related to Pula PRO professional platform, intended for debutant actors whose first time on film is seen in this year’s festival selection, and will take place on 12 and 13 July. Katarina Madirazza’s workshop Audition as Networking, which will be run by Sanja Drakulić, with mentoring from renowned talent agents Anila Gajević and Timka Grin, will offer participants an opportunity to learn how to prepare for auditions and castings in a quality manner, present themselves to directors and producers in a professional manner, and how to create a compelling self-tape. Other than practical knowledge, the programme will also include participation from renowned foreign film professionals and offer opportunities for direct talks and networking. The programme also includes a media-visible event, where the Festival’s PR office will help participants to present themselves to the public through the media, further strengthening their professional visibility and positioning on the film scene. First Time on Screen provides young actors with a unique opportunity to gain practical knowledge, connect to the industry, and strengthen public presence at a key moment of their careers.
AUDITION AS NETWORKING
Katarina Madirazza, actress and workshop founder
Sanja Drakulić, casting director and host
MENTORS: Timka Grin, Anila Gajević
Sanja Drakulić is a Croatian actress, casting director, and CEO of Duart, the first online platform for connecting film professionals in Southeast Europe, bringing together more than 800 freelancers and around 50 companies. She worked on a number of international projects as casting director, such as The Dark Tower (Amazon), Ibiza (Netflix), The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (Lionsgate), The Weekend Away (Netflix), Faraway (Netflix), Camino (Viaplay), Master and Margarita (Universal), Momo, and Canary Black (Prime Video), which will be released in October. She has been working as a drama teacher for many years (Zagreb Youth Theatre, Luda kuća), and is a member of the European Film Academy.
Katarina Madirazza is a Croatian film, TV, and theatre actress. She studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and Prague Film School. Since 2011, she has been in numerous awarded films, series, and plays, both in Croatia and abroad. In parallel with her career, she founded the Petit Theatre in 2014, where she produced her own projects, and started the well-known Audition as Networking workshop for actors, which will be held at Pula Film Festival for the first time, and the seventh time overall. The concept of this workshop is very unique, and it has been received very well as an excellent opportunity for networking and a place for actors to get roles and expand their knowledge. She is herself an actress and used her knowledge from workshops she attended abroad to create this workshop, combining it with what she thinks is missing from this market – auditions.
Anila Gajević was born in Sarajevo in 1979 where she graduated in Bosnian literature and language. As a former journalist and editor, in 2008 she founded ZONA, the first talent agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina which is today among the leading agencies in Southeastern Europe and beyond. Her agency represents some of the most prominent actors and young talents from the Balkans, but also from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Spain. As an agent she has represented actors in numerous international projects such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The November Man, Snowpiercer, Skyfall, Gomorrah, Game of Thrones, In Order of Disappearance, Cold War, Jack Ryan, Munich Games, etc. Screen International listed her in 2016 as one of the Future Leaders: Agents. In her country she received two awards – Lady Boss and Woman of the Year for entrepreneurship. She is a member of the Association of filmmakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and European Film Academy.
Born in Sarajevo, Timka Grin had an intense experience of working as a casting director on numerous feature films, shorts and TV series, many of them awarded. Today she is a member of Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), European Film Academy (EFA), International Casting Directors Association (ICDA) and Casting Society of America (CSA). She gained the most valuable professional lessons through working with some great directors, just to mention a few: brothers Dardenne, Jean-Luc Godard, Danis Tanovic, Marion Haensel, Ursula Meier, Aida Begic, Marco Bellocchio, Jasmila Zbanic and many others. Timka also owns T.G. Casting working in a region of ex Yugoslavian countries, as well as internationally, for TV and film, for awarded projects and awarded directors, with awarded actors, but also very often looking and discovering new upcoming talents as well as those great quality actors who work but have not been widely seen and discovered as such.
