International Matchmaking

© ContrastFilm

Anke Beining-Wellhausen

Film producer, managing director at Contrast Film

Anke is the commercial managing director and one of the producers of Contrast Film in Zurich and Bern - one of the leading production houses in Switzerland. She is a former Disney executive, managing director of world sales Global Screen and was part of the management team of German distribution and production companies Senator Film and Kinowelt. As CEO and program director of Teleclub, a Swisscom - now Blue Entertainment - subsidiary, and with her company Utofilm she co-produced over 70 features, docs and series (e.g. HEIDI, THE LITTLE WITCH, QUARTIER DES BANQUES, BLUE NOTE RECORDS: BEYOND THE NOTES).

Anke studied law and political science in Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. and holds a Ph.D. in international copyright law. She serves on the board of Trustees of FOCAL, is a lecturer in film law at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and a member of the "Feature Film" Expert Commission of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC) and the Swiss Film Producers’ Association SFP.

Nis Bøgvad

Music Supervisor

Music Supervisor and CEO/Founder at Copenhagen Film Music. Co founder Europe in Synch. Director Act in Synch.
With 27 years experience as a music professional, Nis Bøgvad has worked in all aspects of the music business. From Multi-Platinum selling Songwriter, Recording Artist (EMI) and Producer to Head of A&R (EMI Music), Creative Director (Music Sales Group) Executive Producer National TV to Music Supervisor.
Nis has synchronized music to more than 150 commercials, TV series and Films, lately he has been working on "Follow The Money" season 3 and upcoming series for HBO Nordic.
He’s been a returning keynote and panel speaker at A&R Worldwide/Musexpo L.A., Midem Cannes, Sync summit Paris, Spot Festival Denmark; Les Arcs European Film Festival, Sync summit Helsinki, MaMA Conference Paris, London Sync Session, an Artist Mentor at Music Estonia VOLÜÜM mentoring program, Berklee Global Career Summit in Valencia and is among the founding partners of Europe in Synch.

Mara Deuschle

Sync Manager

Mara Deuschle has been working in the music industry for over a decade as a concert promoter and artist manager around Switzerland, during her business studies at the University of St. Gallen. Eager to develop her perception of the music industry on an international level, Mara moved to Denmark for her master’s degree in Management of Creative Industries at Copenhagen Business School.

Currently based in Copenhagen while still working with Swiss artists as a manager, Mara started working in music licensing in 2021 and she is now the global sync manager for APL Publishing. Her main focus at this Nordic music publisher is representing their catalogue for all types of visual media on an international level, working together with broadcasters such as ARD, SRF and the BBC, and acquiring placements on programs like VICE on Showtime in the US.

Milena Fessmann

Music Supervisor, Radio host, Film producer, DJ

Since 1991, Milena Fessmann has worked as a full-time DJ (2001-2014 Radio Eins After Work Lounge, Trompete/Berlin, European Film Awards 2015 etc.) and has worked for various radio stations. Since 1997 she works for Radio Eins/RBB with her own weekly show called "Free Falling".

In 1989 she founded CINESONG and has been working as a music supervisor on more than 500 films and series.

She is moderator of several national events and panels such as Reeperbahn-Festival, c/o pop Cologne, Soundtrack Cologne/Zurich and many more. Milena Fessmann teaches music supervising and copyright clearing at film schools such as DFFB Berlin, KHM, FFF and is advisory board member of the World Soundtrack Academy and Member of the European Filmacademy.

She founded a film production company called Sugar Town Filmproduction Gmbh & Co.kg in 2011. Its first project was "The Potential of Noise- Conny Plank" by Stephan Plank and Reto Caduff. Fessmann is executive-producer of "When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit", directed by award-winning director Caroline Link.

The newest documentary project “Don't talk! Do it- She-punks from 1977 until now” about female punk and the new wave in german speaking territory from 1979-89 is in pre-production.

© Gabriel Hill

Stefan Haupt

Director, producer, script writer

Born in Zurich in 1961, Stefan Haupt has been working since 1989 as an independent film and theatre director. In 1998 he founded his own production company, Fontana Film. His feature film debut UTOPIA BLUES (2001) was honored with the Zurich Film Prize and the Swiss Film Award.

ELISABETH KÜBLER-ROSS (2003) is one of the most successful Swiss documentary films to date, with some 300,000 viewers throughout Europe. THE CIRCLE (2014) won the Teddy Award and the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlinale, four Swiss Film Awards and was the Swiss entry at the Oscars that year.

For his feature film ZWINGLI (2019) he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zurich. His latest work is going to be STILLER (2025), based on the novel by Max Frisch.

David Luisi

Producer

Born in 1973 David started a successful career in 1997 in the Digital Communication field. Together with his brother Peter Luisi, and working with the company Spotlight Media Productions, he has produced several feature films; among them BON SCHUUR TICINO, PRINCESS, STREAKER, THE SANDMANN; TV series such us ADVENT, ADVENT, and the late-night show DEVILLE.

Since 2017, he is managing the production company billionwords GmbH for commercial productions.

www.mauricehaas.ch

Susanne Regina Meures

Film director

Susanne Regina Meures is a German/Swiss filmmaker known for making films about rebels and pioneers who dare to stand up against systemic political and social repression.

She holds a Master's in Photography and History of Art from The Courtauld Institute in London. She also has a Master's in Film from the Zurich University of Arts. 

With RAVING IRAN (2016), her first feature-length documentary, Susanne Regina Meures launched an international festival and box-office success. The film portrays two Iranian Djs who rebel against the regime and escape. The documentary was screened at over 130 film festivals worldwide (including Berlinale, Hot Docs, IDFA...), where it won numerous awards. 

In 2020, SAUDI RUNAWAY premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film documents a young Saudi woman's escape using her own cell phone footage. At the European premiere at Berlinale, the film won the Audience Award. National Geographic / Disney Ltd acquired the world rights to the film. SAUDI RUNAWAY was nominated for the European Film Award and won the EUFA 2020. 

GIRL GANG is Susanne Regina Meures' third feature-length documentary, which premiered in competition at CPH:Dox and Hot Docs in 2022. The film is an intimate portrait about a 14-year-old influencer and her family and takes us backstage of the claustrophobic social media world.

Susanne Regina Meures is a member of the Swiss Film Academy, the German Film Academy and the European Film Academy. 

Neeltje Mooring

Music Consultant

Since 2007, Neeltje Mooring runs her own company SOLID as a rock and operates internationally as an independent publisher (in collaboration with BMG Rights), sync agent and music supervisor. The core business is bringing music and images together in for instance: TV-series, adds, films and games. Clients include: V2 records, CTM  Publishing, NPO (National Dutch Public Broadcasting Company), Dox Records, The Film Kitchen, Kaap Holland Film, NTR, Key Film, Willy Waltz Noord B.V. and Oak Motion Pictures.

Neeltje is also jury member at the yearly Buma Music In Motion Awards (BMIM) Categories: Best Sync, Best Music in Film, TV Series and Commercials.

Besides this she is a parttime lecturer at Inholland University. She developed the mutual study program: International Music Publishing & Licensing together with Berklee College of Music, Boston (U.S.) She also teached the course: Publishing, Licensing and Distribution, part of the master program at the Faculty Global Music Business at the Berklee campus in Valencia, Spain.

In the past Mooring achieved great success working as a product manager, label manager, and a&r manager for several world known and respected record companies such as Sony Music Entertainment, Epic Records, Double T Music, Idol Media and Flow Records.

She is a 1994 graduate in Design & Communication at the University in Rotterdam and accomplished an associate master degree in Media Psychology & Advertising at NCOI (2016).

Beda Senn

Music consultant at Swiss Television and producer and conceptual designer of production music for Tonangeber GmbH.

Music consultant at Swiss Television since 2006 and involved in over 600 documentary film projects.

Since 2018 conception & production for new library/production music under Tonangeber GmbH, he is expert in the implementation of new sounds for current and future topics:
What does today's modern urban environment sound like? (Sounds Of Urbanity). What does music have to sound regarding sustainability, the new food movements, healthy and sustainable nutrition and lifestyles? (Organic Food Sounds). How do you create a sound image that depicts the regions of the world in a new and timeless way? Without all the clichés and stereotypes, but with the by integrating the traditional sounds of the regions concerned. What are new alpine sounds? What is the new sound for stories in today's alpine region (including Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and the north of Italy and France). Creating sounds that make the colours ring. And much more.

Another important motto: Modern Modular Motif-based Production Music. The goal are minimal and modular structured mood tracks, which have unique and modern sounds as core element and thus on the one hand perfectly underscore fitting and not overloaded but on the other hand have strong motif expressiveness. For each track there are several variations, which may differ in instrumentation of the motif, tempo, time signature etc., but which play around the central element (the leitmotif) in some form. And all this under the aspect of making it as close, touching, high quality and timeless as possible for all kinds of audio-visual productions and suitable for stories in the here and now.

Although music is his life, he never learned to play an instrument well. He spent a few years as a drummer, but never really gained a foothold as a musician. Despite, or perhaps because of it, he has immersed himself (associatively), in what kind of images does music create, which images need which music. He finds the exploration of music exciting. And he has immersed himself in it.

He also sees himself as a diver for musical pearls in the playlists of Tonangeber. He curates and mixes them together.

Andreas Suttner

Cellist, music manager, music consultant for TV, founder of music label Klangidee

Andreas Suttner has studied Violoncello and music tuition and has been awarded as a cellist at several well-known contests.
After completing his MA in Arts Management at City University of London he has turned his attention to music management.

From 2004 he is also working as a music consultant for the film department of Bavarian Television.

In 2007 Andreas Suttner founded the production music label KLANGIDEE and since then is focusing on his work as a composer and producer for filmmusic in TV, radio and web.

James Varghese

After completing his MA in Jazz studies at the Zurich school of fine arts (ZHdK) James toured in various bands and projects through Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom, Israel, China, India and Japan. He also produced different artists of various genres anywhere between pop, jazz, experimental and electronic.

In 2018 he founded Quiet Love Records with an adjacent publishing edition and has released artists with international acclaim such as Rosa Anschütz, Robot Koch and Egopusher among others.

Since 2023 he is part of the music supervision team at the Swiss national radio and television corporation SRF, consulting and curating all things music for various formats on radio, TV and online.

Julien Wagner

Writer and Director

Julien Wagner is a Swiss-born writer, director, and former actor. After starting his career in the entertainment industry as an actor, with a notable guest appearance on a Swiss television show, Julien shifted his focus to writing and directing. His debut as a screenwriter came with the acclaimed short film "Weekend Tide," which premiered at the Bogo Shorts. Following this success, Julien continued his journey with the gripping short film "Quarantine," premiering at the La Shorts. In addition to his directorial work, Julien showcased his production skills as a coproducer of the feature film "Soul of a Beast," which premiered at Locarno in 2020, earning recognition for its powerful storytelling and artistic vision. Julien’s debut feature film, "September Babies," premiered at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and has since been sold and distributed around the globe. Driven by his passion for storytelling, Julien is actively involved in financing several projects and is gearing up to direct his second feature film.