Not just a script: positioning stories—and writers—for the right buyers ​

Why do some strong scripts travel while others stall? Increasingly, the difference is not only the writing itself, but how precisely a project is packaged and positioned—and how clearly the writer’s own profile aligns with that positioning. This session moves beyond generic development talk to focus on the real mechanics of getting a project financed: understanding which stories belong to which markets, funds, or platforms, and how to shape them accordingly from the earliest stage.

In today’s landscape, financiers and decision-makers are not just evaluating stories—they are evaluating clarity of intent, market fit, and creative identity. This means thinking strategically about whether a project is festival-driven, co-production-friendly, or streamer-led; how cultural specificity translates across territories; and which attachments (cast, director, producer) genuinely strengthen a project’s credibility rather than simply “add value.”

Equally, the writer is no longer invisible in this process. Their voice, background, and track record are part of the package itself. This panel explores how writers can consciously align their creative identity with their projects to move from a “good script” to a clearly positioned, financeable film with a defined path to market and distribution—without losing narrative integrity. 

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Key Themes:

• Matching Story to Market:  Identifying where a project belongs (festivals, funds, streamers, regional vs global audiences)

• Packaging Specificity: Moving beyond generic decks to build targeted, strategic packages for defined partners

• The Writer as Part of the Package:  How voice, identity, background, and track record influence a project’s positioning

• Clarity vs Universality: When to lean into cultural specificity—and when (and how) to frame for international access

• Strategic Attachments: Choosing the right director, cast, or producer—not just any attachment

• Common Mistakes: Misaligned packaging, over-generalisation, and “one-size-fits-all” positioning

• From Project to Trajectory: Building a coherent path as a writer across multiple projects, not just one film

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Moderator:

Speaker:

1. Darwin Garcia, Founder, Winners Circle Group, USA + Honduras 

2. Darryll C. Scott, Film & TV  Producer, Founder, Evergreen Valley Productions, a subsidiary of Cedar Park Entertainment, USA

3. Speaker 3

Performance, Identity & Careers in a Multi-Format Film Economy

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Acting is no longer confined to the traditional screen. Today’s performers move across cinema, streaming series, vertical storytelling, short-form platforms, gaming, branded content—and increasingly, digital and AI-augmented environments. The result is a profession that is expanding rapidly, but also fragmenting: where visibility can grow faster than ever, yet control over image, voice, and career trajectory is becoming more complex. This panel explores how actors and actresses are redefining their craft and careers in this new landscape. It looks at how performance adapts across formats that demand different rhythms, tones, and emotional registers, and how casting is evolving in response to platform-native storytelling and audience-driven content. It also addresses the growing questions around identity, ownership, and long-term agency—especially as digital replication and synthetic performance tools enter the industry. At its core, the discussion is about how talent can not only survive but thrive across an expanding universe of screens and storytelling systems.

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Key Talking Points:

• Acting Across Multiple Screens: From theatrical cinema to vertical series, streaming, and short-form ecosystems.

• New Performance Languages: How rhythm, intimacy, and expression shift across different formats.

• Identity, Image & Ownership: Navigating control over likeness, voice, and digital representation.

• Casting in the Algorithmic Age: How short-form platforms and audience data influence casting decisions.

• Career Expansion Beyond Film: Acting opportunities in branded content, gaming, social media, and hybrid IP.

• Agency in a Fragmented Industry: How performers can build sustainable, cross-platform creative careers.

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Moderator: TBD

Speakers:

• Rayan Hamda, Actor, France + Algeria

• Fatlume Bunjaku, Actress, Kosovo + Albania

• Yasmine Holness-Dove, Actress, UK

• Speaker 4

Training, Residencies & Creative Labs for a Short-Form, Multi-Format Industry

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The pathways into filmmaking are no longer linear, institutional, or confined to traditional film schools. Today’s emerging creators are learning inside a hybrid ecosystem of residencies, online labs, platform-driven workshops, creator incubators, and short-form production environments. The industry itself has become the classroom—fast, global, and shaped as much by TikTok-native storytelling and vertical series as by cinematic tradition.

This panel explores how training and education in filmmaking are being radically redefined to reflect current industry realities. As short-form content, serialized digital storytelling, and transmedia formats become central to audience engagement and financing strategies, new questions emerge: what should filmmakers actually be trained in today, and who defines the curriculum? The conversation looks at how residencies and labs are evolving beyond development support into production engines for new formats, while also examining how access, geography, and industry networks continue to shape who gets to enter and scale within the global screen economy.

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Key Themes:

• Training for Short-Form & Vertical Storytelling: Why new formats require new narrative, visual, and production skills.

• Residencies as Production Engines: The shift from development support to content creation and industry packaging.

• Platform-Led Learning Ecosystems: How creators are being trained inside social and streaming platforms themselves.

• From Learning to Monetisation How education is now directly linked to financing, visibility, and career acceleration.

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Moderator: TBC

Speakers:

• Nicole Fortuin, Student, Konrad Wolff University, Babelsberg, South Africa

• Speaker 2

• Speaker 3

Animating Worlds: Expanding IP Universes from the Global South

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Step inside the evolving universe of animation as a launchpad for stories, culture, and commerce. This session explores how creators across the Global South are building IP ecosystems that transcend the screen, leveraging short-form and vertical animation for mobile-first audiences. Participants will gain insights into creative strategies, technological innovations, and distribution models that make local narratives accessible globally—proving that culturally rooted stories can thrive in fast, dynamic formats without losing identity or impact.

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Moderator: TBC

Speakers:

• Speaker 1

• Speaker 2

• Speaker 3​

A Documentary Screening, Live Q&A & Book Signing Event

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This special spotlight session presents Beth Powell’s documentary on Bessie Coleman, the pioneering aviator who became the first African-American and Native American woman to earn a pilot’s license. Her story—marked by ambition, resilience, and global pursuit of freedom—finds renewed cinematic expression in a film that reconnects audiences with a legacy too often underrepresented in mainstream historical narratives.​

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Part 1 : Film Screening

​The session opens with a screening of Beth Powell’s documentary, offering an immersive exploration of Bessie Coleman’s journey across continents, aviation history, and cultural barriers. The film blends archival material, research-driven storytelling, and cinematic reconstruction to bring forward a figure whose impact continues to resonate in conversations around representation, access, and historical visibility.

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Part 2 : Live Q&A with Beth Powell

​Following the screening, Beth Powell joins the audience for a live conversation unpacking the creative process behind the film. The discussion will explore the challenges of historical research, narrative construction in documentary filmmaking, and the responsibility of telling stories that bridge past and present. It also opens dialogue on how documentary cinema can reshape public memory and cultural understanding.

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Part 3 : Book Signing

​The event concludes with a book signing session with Beth Powell, offering audiences the opportunity to engage further with the research, themes, and expanded narrative universe behind the documentary project.

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Key Themes:

• Reclaiming Early Aviation History Through Film: Bringing Bessie Coleman’s story into contemporary cinematic focus.

• Documentary as Narrative Reconstruction: How film reshapes fragmented or overlooked historical records

• Women, Mobility & Global Identity: The cultural significance of Bessie Coleman’s transatlantic journey and legacy.

• From Screen to Page: Expanding storytelling through both film and publishing.

• Audience Engagement with Historical Cinema: How documentaries activate dialogue between past and present.

• Representation, Access & Cultural Memory: The role of film in reshaping who is seen in history.

Moderator: TBD

Speaker & Host: Captain Beth Powell, Pilot, American Airlines, Producer, Screenwriter, USA + Jamaica | TBC

Beth Powell Cocktail Reception & Book Signing