Speakers

Séverine Abhervé

Film composers agent

Séverine Abhervé is an agent for film composers (Glaz Composers Agency).

In addition, she is the Music Project Manager for SPOT THE COMPOSER, a program she launched for the Cannes Film Festival's Marché du Film.

She began her career as Executive Director of the French Union of Film Music Composers (2002-2008). She is the originator of the Centenary of Film Music in France celebration (2008) under the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Republic. She also participated in the launch of the International Pavilion of Film Music at the Cannes Film Festival (2005-2007) where she welcomed renowned composers such as Antoine Duhamel, Eric Serra, Alberto Iglesias, John Powell, Howard Shore and Maestro Ennio Morricone.

Between 2007 and 2014, she shared her expertise in university-level teaching positions (Paris 1, Paris 3 and Paris 8) and worked in the programming department of the Lumière Festival in Lyon alongside Thierry Frémaux (2011).

Séverine Abhervé is a musician, sound engineer, Doctor of Cinema (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and author of several books and articles specialising in film music and the film composing profession (Ph.D.: Film composers within the French film industry: definition, characterisation, and issues of a career in transformation).

Yevgeni Birkhoff

Composer, Music Producer, Sound Designer

Yevgeni Birkhoff is a composer, music producer, and sound designer working across media productions, international large-scale events, song production, and acoustic sound art. His musical language ranges from authentic EDM productions and Musique Concrète soundscapes to cinematic orchestral scores.

Over the course of his career, Birkhoff has created tailored music and sound design for internationally renowned brands and organizations, including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Electronic Arts, the Chinese Ministry of Tourism, and Emaar Properties. His sound installations have been exhibited at prestigious institutions worldwide, including the German Rock and Pop Museum in Gronau, Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

In 2010, Birkhoff received the Peer Raben Award at SoundTrack_Cologne for Best Music in a Short Film. In addition, numerous large-scale events featuring his music have received international recognition within the event industry, including the BrandEx Award (2019), the German Design Award (2016), and The Special Event Gala Award (2015).

In recent years, Birkhoff has expanded his artistic and technological spectrum into the fields of game audio and artificial intelligence. He regularly gives lectures and workshops, sharing his expertise and innovative perspectives on the application of these technologies in music and audio post-production. Since 2025, he has served as Advisor on Artificial Intelligence to the Executive Board of the State Music Council of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesmusikrat NRW).

Alex Black

Music producer, CEO of Sonoton

Alex Black is CEO of Sonoton Music and a highly experienced executive in the global production music industry. He previously spent seven years as Global Director at EMI Production Music (Sony Music Publishing), where he worked with management teams worldwide and led the development of renowned brands including KPM, MusicHouse and Juice, as well as overseeing sub-publishing interests.

Prior to joining EMI in 2013, he was Managing Director of Imagem Production Music, where he drove the transition from Boosey & Hawkes Production Music, created its classical library label, and expanded the company’s media catalogue, including work on major productions such as BBC News and Strictly Come Dancing / Dancing with the Stars.

Earlier in his career, Black founded the PR company Rocketscience Media, worked with artists such as Basement Jaxx, Carl Cox and Radiohead, produced music for West One, and collaborated with producer Trevor Horn at Sarm Studios in London.

© Heike Ulrich

Noah Bohnert

Film producer

Born 1991 in Switzerland. Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Media and Cinema at University of Zurich.

2015 – 2016 further education in European Co-Production and Distribution with the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and la Fémis).

Works as creative and service producer for his own company and since 2021 for hugofilm features, where he produced the Netflix film EARLY BIRDS and two Zurich TATORT episodes for SRF.

Member of the Atelier Alumni Network and the German-French Film Academy. He is also a board member at Zurich for Film and co-president of the producers association Independent Swiss Producers (IP, formerly IG).

Maria Brendle

Film director and screenwriter

Maria Brendle is an award-winning director and screenwriter known for her powerful films that explore complex women's issues. She received an Academy Award® nomination in 2022 for her short film ALA KACHUU - Take and Run and is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Maria holds a bachelor's degree in film from Zurich University of the Arts as well as a master's in cognitive neuroscience from the Academy of Neuroscience (aon) Cologne. She is also a graduate of the Drehbuchwerkstatt Munich screenwriting program. Her nuanced, character-driven films that tackle challenging social topics have garnered widespread critical acclaim, earning her numerous awards and honors at top international film festivals. Her feature film debut FRIEDAS FALL (Frieda's Case) was released in 2025.

Stefania Burla

Film director

Stefania Burla is a Polish-Swiss filmmaker. In 2019, she did an exchange year at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2022, she completed her bachelor's degree in film at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

Her graduation film MACIERZ (2023) was screened at several international festivals and won an award at the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival.

In 2023, she started her Master's in fiction film directing at ZHdK. Her short film NEST (2025) celebrated its world premiere in the 'Pardi di Domani' section at the 78th Locarno Film Festival. She is co-founder of rumor filmkollektiv GmbH and is currently developing her first feature film, SEZON (AT).

©Yvonne Hartmann

Antonio Cárdenas

Artist manager

HEARTFELT MANAGEMENT was born of Antonio Cárdenas’s desire to help artists tell their stories and realize their respective visions. With a background in music technology, he is a natural connector and weaves both technical and industry knowledge with empathy to amplify and solidify the talent that inspires him. His approach with everyone he chooses to work with is, well, heartfelt.

HEARTFELT MANAGEMENT represents the following artists: Viktor Orri Árnason, Donata, Simon Goff and Benyayer.

Antonio Cárdenas studied physics at the Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, specialising in particle physics with a project done at Paris 11 and CERN. He holds a master degree in Acoustics, Signal Processing and Informatics Applied to Music (ATIAM) from IRCAM and Paris 6. He has worked at ABLETON and NATIVE INSTRUMENTS, and in different projects with artists like Peaches, Jean-Michel Jarre, Max Richter and Austra, among many others.

Antonio has been a Reeperbahn Festival Delegate (2018, 2019, 2020), Berlin Music Ambassador (2022, 2023), and German Music Export Delegate (2023, 2024).

HEARTFELT MANAGEMENT is a member of the BERLIN MUSIC COMISSION (BMC).

Lucile Delrieu Alauzy

Music supervisor, sync agent

With nearly a decade of experience as both a Music Supervisor and Sync Agent, Lucile has developed a hybrid approach that brings together two sides of the music-to-picture industry often kept separate.

Combining creative music supervision with sync expertise, rights negotiation and catalogue representation, she has built a distinctive way of working across international markets, bridging creative vision with the realities of the global music business.

Her work spans film, TV, advertising and branded content, connecting directors and producers with artists, composers and rights holders worldwide. This dual perspective places her at the heart of the evolving role of music supervision in Europe, exploring new ways to connect music, storytelling and sync.

Hannah Dobbertin

Film director

Hannah Dobbertin (1999) loves colorful stories and a good punchline. After completing internships, spending countless hours on film sets, and realising over a dozen of her own short films, she brings both of these passions to life as a freelance director.

She has directed commercials for Swiss Post, SBB, Raiffeisen, Betty Bossi, and others, in both German and French. In 2024, she won silver and gold awards for two commercials at the Cannes Corporate Media Awards, and in 2025, her music video SCHÖN won two awards at the Edi. Her latest short film, RABE, was screened at the 2025 Cannes Indie Shorts Awards. 

She is currently working on her first TV series screenplay as part of the writing workshop LA SALLE DE SPORT. What all her projects have in common: precise theatrical timing, close collaboration with the art department, and the belief that a film can always be a bit more colorful.

Greta Cozzani

Sync and licensing consultant

Greta Cozzani is a sync and licensing consultant at Sonoton Music with eight years of experience across music licensing, catalogue management, editorial curation, and digital music platforms.

She specializes in connecting music with creative projects across advertising, film, television, and digital media. Fluent in Italian, German, and English, she brings an international perspective shaped by living and working across Europe.

Beyond her professional work, she has spent years DJing and engaging with independent music scenes, particularly within indie rock and post-punk.

Ben Galler

Music manager, publisher

Renato Horvath

Music Supervisor

Renato Horvath (Hungary) founded Eastaste, Eastern Europe's first sync licensing agency, in 2012. Its main focus is music licensing, music supervision, and consulting for rights owners and filmmakers alike. Over the years, he has licensed songs for 300+ commercials and films from domestic and foreign performers and authors, and his speciality is licensing well-known foreign compositions and covers as well as difficult-to-find works. He is also building Music Oracle, a self-built tool that answers sync fees and rights questions before picture lock.

Affiliations: UK & European Guild of Music Supervisors member; partner in the Europe in Synch and Artistic Futures Creative Europe consortia.

Claudia Kempf

Head of Members Department at SUISA

After studying sociology and anthropology, Claudia Kempf worked in film production as a production manager and assistant director. Alongside her professional work, she also studied cultural and media management.

From 1999 onwards, she took on various roles within SUISA. Since 2011, she has headed the Members Services Department which supports SUISA members across all areas of rights administration, from member onboarding and works registration to handling distribution inquiries in Switzerland and abroad.

Andrea Lässig

Music supervisor, musician

Andrea Lässig has studied music tuition and french horn in Munich, followed by music journalism at the National Academy for Music and Theater.

She has been working in music consulting at BAYERISCHER RUNDFUNK for 14 years and has been part of the Sync & Licensing team at SONOTON Music - the world’s largest independent production music library - since November 2025.

Alun Meyerhans

Alun Meyerhans completed his Bachelor's degree in Cast Audiovisual Media at Zurich University of the Arts in 2016. In his filmmaking, he experiments with different formats – from mockumentaries to classic documentaries to essayistic works. He is particularly drawn to the documentary form as a way of showing people and their stories from unfamiliar angles, thereby revealing underlying social dynamics.

His film ROGER FEDERER: THE REUNION is available on Netflix, and his most recent work, AIMING HIGH, premiered at the Zurich Film Festival in 2024. In his latest documentary project, MAI BODY YOUR CHOICE, he turns his attention to the world's largest sex doll manufacturer, exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping ideas of intimacy, femininity, and desire. 

Since 2022, he has been teaching in the Cast Audiovisual Media program at Zurich University of the Arts.

© Four Flies / Sync Flies

Elena Miraglia

Licensing manager

Music sync and licensing was somehow written in the stars for Elena. With a lawyer father and a fashion designer mother, balancing the legal and the artistic has been in her blood since birth.

A former university lecturer (with a PhD in English poetry), songwriter, and musician, she transitioned from Shakespeare and Fiona Apple to a decade of high-level legal translation, before finally finding her ultimate calling at the intersection of music and the law.

As Licensing Manager at Four Flies and Head of Licensing at Sync Flies, she manages the complete sync journey. Whether she is digging for the perfect track or navigating the fine print of a contract, Elena can rely on her multifaceted background, her creative intuition, and her rigorous attention to detail. And yes, she genuinely loves every single part of it.

Florian Prengel

Music supervisor

Jeanette Rehnstrom

Music supervisor

Jeanette Rehnstrom is the lead Music Supervisor and Director of Avant Music Port, an Irish independent boutique music sync and music supervision agency started in 2015. Avant Music Port specialises in providing, sourcing and licencing music for creative projects in film, television, advertising, and games, through an extensive ready-to-use Irish focused catalogue of contemporary music, a collection of great artists/composers/producers/editors, as well as through an award-winning music supervision service.

Jeanette won the Best Music Supervision BIFA for her work on the Oscar-nominated feature film KNEECAP, and joined the BIFA voting panel in 2025. Currently she is working on a number of TV Series and Film projects, such as, for example, the Cannes Winning documentary TIN CASTLE, numerous Marvel and Disney projects, the seventh season of the A&E/PBS TV Series MISS SCARLET (with Kate Phillips, of PEAKY BLINDERS, in the lead), as well, as the second season of the new TV series  THE PUZZLE LADY, also on PBS in the US (led by BAFTA winner Phyllis Logan of SECRETS & LIES and DOWNTOWN ABBEY).

Giulia Rocca

Sync manager

Giulia Rocca works in music synchronization and catalogue exploitation, helping music find new contexts and audiences across film, television and advertising. As Sync Manager at Sync Flies, the synchronization division of Four Flies Records, she works across a diverse catalogue that spans both contemporary music and the rediscovery of overlooked Italian recordings, from rare 1960s and 1970s soundtracks and archival material to newer artists and releases.

Drawing on previous experience across film festivals, international sales, and streaming platforms, she works at the intersection of music, storytelling, and visual media.

© Michel Gilgen

Beda Senn

Music consultant, music curator, producer

Freelance music consultant and founder of the new production music label Motif Works. From 2006 to January 2025, Beda Senn worked as a music consultant at Swiss Television (SRF), where he was involved in up to 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.

Sonia Afsar Shafie

Film director

Afsar Sonia Shafie is a Swiss-Iranian filmmaker based in Zurich. She studied philosophy at the University of Tabriz in Iran. After completing her BA, she studied filmmaking at the Young Cinema Society in Tehran. In 2000, she moved to Switzerland to further her education in filmmaking at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL).

Drawing on her lived experience in Iran and her life in exile in Switzerland, her work brings the cultural and emotional realities of these two worlds into dialogue. Informed by her background in philosophy, she explores themes of identity, belonging, and women’s struggle for emancipation and self-determination through deeply personal and often autobiographical narratives shaped by her experience of growing up within Iran’s political and ideological realities.

She has written and directed several documentaries and short films, including CITY WALLS - MY OWN PRIVATE TEHRAN, which received multiple awards.

Mirjam Skal

Composer

Bigna Tomschin

Film director, producer, editor

Bigna Tomschin studied film at the Zurich University of the Arts and graduated in 2014. With an interest in experimental forms and innovative collaborations, she enjoys working at the intersection of documentary and fiction. Her first feature film A Donkey Called Geronimo was a hybrid documentary that she co-directed with her partner Arjun Talwar. While moving between Switzerland, Germany, Poland and India, she has since edited and co-written over a dozen feature films. Her work has been screened at festivals such as the Berlinale (Letters from Wolf Street, 2025), Locarno and IDFA.

She is the founder of the Zurich-based production company lo-fi films where she is currently developing Der Rutsch as producer and director.

2028 DER RUTSCH – Fic 95 min / CH / R: Bigna Tomschin (in development) – director, producer
2026 SWEET BELONGING – Doc 83 min / CH / D: Benjamin Bucher (in postproduction) – editor
2026 KALARI KID – Doc 93/52 min / CH, IN / D: Maria Kaur Bedi, Satindar Singh Bedi – editor
2025 LETTERS FROM WOLF STREET – Doc 97 min / PL, DE / D: A. Talwar – editor, co-writer
2025 NORMA DORMA – Fic 86 min / CH / D: Lorenz Suter – editor, co-writer
2023 DICIASSETTE – Doc 17 min / CH / D: Thomas Horat – editor
2022 POLISH PRAYERS – Doc 86 min / CH, PL / D: Hana Nobis – editor
2019 WIR ELTERN – Fic 94 min / CH / D: Eric Bergkraut, Ruth Schweikert – editor
2019 LETTERS TO A.– Doc 50 min / PL, CH / D: Wiktoria Szymanska – editor
2018 A DONKEY CALLED GERONIMO – Doc / 80 min / DE,CH / D: A. Talwar, B. Tomschin – director, producer
AND MORE

Borja Torres

Music supervisor

Borja Torres is part of Lovemonk, an independent music supervision company working across television, film and, primarily, brands and advertising.

Over the course of his career, he has worked on more than 500 projects for clients in Spain and across Europe, from finding the right song for a campaign to shaping the musical universe of a film or the identity of a brand. His work combines creative judgement, cultural awareness and a deep understanding of the music industry.

His approach to sync draws on a broad knowledge of the music business and audiovisual culture, while retaining the curiosity of a DJ and a digger, always looking for new sounds and keeping a close eye on the currents shaping subcultures.

Lovemonk also runs a fiercely eclectic record label, releasing music by artists including Gecko Turner, Linda Mirada, ZA!+Perrate, Daga Voladora, Chip Wickham and Pajaro Sunrise. They also make an almost decent cup of coffee.

Jonas Ulrich

Writer, director, editor

Born in Zurich and working as a writer, director and editor since 2012. Co-founder of the production company DYNAMIC FRAME.

His short film PEOPLE ON SATURDAY won the Golden Leopard at the 73rd Locarno Film Festival.

His feature debut WOLVES premiered in the feature competition of the 21st Zurich Film Festival was selected for the Mostra São Paulo, Göteborg Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, and more. The film deals with toxic masculinity and political extremism in the underground music world and features a striking mix of professional and non-professional actors, in the lead Polish actor Bartosz Bielenia (from the Oscar-nominated film CORPUS CHRISTI). A fictional metal band was formed just for the film. 

James Varghese

Music supervisor and music consultant at Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF)

After completing his MA in Jazz studies at the Zurich school of fine arts (ZHdK) James Varghese 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 James Varghese 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.

Daniel Welbat

Film producer, director, musician, author