RENO ANTONIADES

Reno is a partner and head of the firm’s Film Group.
Reno trained at the City firm Herbert Smith and spent the first two years of his career in their corporate department. Reno then joined Olswang where he began his career in the film and television industries acting principally for independent production companies, sales companies and distributors.
In 1994 Reno joined Lee & Thompson to work with Jeremy Gawade in building up the firm’s Film and Television practice and is now head of the firm’s Film Group.
Reno has for many years been acknowledged by the industry as one of the leading film and television production lawyers in the UK and represents an extensive list of film and television production companies.
Reno is a regular speaker at industry events and seminars both in the UK and Internationally.
The new UK edition of Chambers and Partners ranks Reno as a Band 1 leader in his field.

ISABEL DAVIS, BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Isabel is a senior executive in the BFI’s Film Fund, specialising in international. She manages the UK’s co-production relationships from a practical and strategic perspective, providing expert structural and financial advice to producers working with the UK and internationally. She represents the UK in the international production arena and provides advice to government on co-production and related matters.

CHRIS CURLING & PHIL ROBERTSON, ZEPHYR FILMS

Chris Curling is a respected independent producer based in London with excellent connections throughout Europe and North America. In 1990 he founded his own company, Zephyr Films, which he runs alongside Phil Robertson and specialises in the financing and production of feature films for the international market. In the last ten years, the Zephyr team has acted as producer, executive producer and co-producer on over twenty films with combined budgets of over $275,000,000.

Chris completed Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station, which Zephyr produced with Jens Meurer’s Egoli Tossell, nominated for 2 Oscars in 2010. The film stars Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy. He worked as executive producer on Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, shot in London, and on Black Death from director Chris Smith, shot in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

2008 saw the release of Gillian Armstrong’s Houdini film Death Defying Acts, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce, and Penelope, with Christina Ricci, James McAvoy and Reese Witherspoon.
Other recent releases include a trio of films that Chris and Phil co-produced with The Dino De Laurentiis Company and Tarak Ben Ammar’s Quinta Communications. Hannibal Rising, The Last Legion and Virgin Territory had combined budgets in excess of $150,000,000 and were shot in the Czech Republic, Slovakia/Tunisia and Italy respectively.
Chris was also executive producer on David Mackenzie’s Asylum for Paramount, and associate producer on Mike Binder’s film The Upside of Anger for Media 8 and Fine Line. In addition, Chris was a co-producer on Richard E. Grant’s directorial debut Wah-Wah.

Chris is a member of the British and European Film Academies, the European Producer’s Club and ACE. He also serves on PACT’s film committee and BSAC’s Co-Production working group.

Phil has raised finance for and successfully delivered a host of British and European qualifying International co-productions working with the likes of Film Four, BBC Films, the UK Film Council, Miramax, the Weinstein Company, Canal+, RAI, RTL, Filmax, Arte Cinema, and France 2 and 3

Hosted by:

Gina Fegan

CEO, South East Media Network &  D-Media , former CEO, Screen South.

Gina started as a cinema manager, going on to become a producer in her own right (Devil’s Playground, The Tournament). Appointed MD at Screen South, she headed up the allocation of UKFC funding for productions in the South East. Now CEO at SEMN and D-Media, Gina is at the forefront of UK international media marketing and promotions and will kindly facilitate our panel.