Industry Insights – The EFM Podcast is presented by the European Film Market of the Berlinale. Hosted by strategist, conference curator, moderator & speaker AC Coppens, it delves deep into the rapidly evolving film industry.

In this episode, an international group of forward thinkers will put their entrepreneurial instincts on display as we take a look at the new realities and unfolding opportunities for “smart producing” coming out of the intersecting worlds of tech and media. Join EFM Startups Alumni Maria Tanjala, Fiona Gillies, Max Hermans and Alex Serdiuk who discuss the innovative production tools they have developed and honed and the creative ways technology can be used to empower the future of film production.

Maria Tanjala, Co-founder, FilmChain

Maria Tanjala is a UK-based producer and entrepreneur, passionate about tech solutions that bring transparency and automation to the creative industries. She co-founded FilmChain alongside Irina Albita. The platform is transforming how producers, financiers, and sales agents get paid. With Digital collection agent (CAM) for indie films and royalties management solution for content distributors, FilmChain brings transparency to the process and modernises royalties. They have won awards such as ‘Startup of the Year’ London Business Awards 2020, Startup Challenge at San Sebastian Film Festival 2020, BAFTA’s Makers and Shakers 2020, Unchain Fintech Festival 2022, to name a few. Before co-founding FilmChain, Maria was producing for film, television and digital and was nominated ‘Rising Star’ Screen International 2018.

Fiona Gillies – Co-founder and CEO, SMASH

Fiona Gillies is an independent film producer and co-founder of My SMASH Media. Fiona produced The Beat Beneath My Feet which was in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Prior to producing, Fiona worked extensively as an actor in film, tv & theatre. She has been a mentor for Women in Film & TV and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. SMASH is an IP marketplace for film & TV which connects diverse, innovative content creators with decision-makers. SMASH provides creators with a Pitch Builder and an IP Pitch Protector enabling them to securely share and track their projects. SMASH was one of the European Finalists at this year's San Sebastian Zinemaldia Startup Challenge, as well as for Investing Women's Accelerator HER and in the Digital TV Group's TV Transformers competition.

Alex Serdiuk, Co-founder and CEO, Respeecher

Alex Serdiuk co-founded Respeecher in 2018. Respeecher is an Emmy-award winning voice cloning company, enabling one person to speak in the voice of another particular person (speech-to-speech voice conversion). A primary focus of the company is the democratization of the technology to allow sound professionals and creators worldwide have access to the tool. Respeecher is the only synthetic speech tech used in Hollywood studio movies, including in the Star Wars universe, creating the voice of young Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Max Hermans, Co-founder and COO, TheGreenShot

Max is a self-made entrepreneur who started his own company in 2012 focusing on organising events and promoting artists. In 2016 his career took a turn towards the film industry as he worked as a supervising location manager and production coordinator on many international productions across Europe. From his hands-on experience, he lived through wastefulness on productions which was the impetus to create a new solution involving crews in making productions greener. TheGreenShot is the 1st green production management app for films, TV Series, shorts and commercials designed to embed the CO2 footprint right inside the production process. It delivers a singular solution that empowers each crew member to act and decrease the environmental impact of a production. Its open interfaces, its capability to adapt to different carbon calculators and certification programmes delivers uniquely efficient workflows. This multi-awarded startup was the recipient of BAFTA’s 2021 Makers and Shakers Tech Production Innovation of the year.

The host AC Coppens is a strategist, conference curator, host, moderator & speaker. They founded THE CATALYSTS, an agency for innovative & creative players working at the crossing of Digital Tech, Film/XR, Music/Sound, Design & Culture, to turn conferences into sites of knowledge exchange and co-creation.

The Berlinale’s European Film Market is the first international film market of the year, where the film industry starts its business. Industry Insights - The EFM Podcast puts a spotlight on highly topical and trendsetting industry issues, thereby creating a compass for the forthcoming film year. The year-round podcast is produced in cooperation with Goethe-Institut and co-funded by Creative Europe MEDIA.