Who does what?

Manager
Pierre Agthe
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
info@focal.ch

Born in 1954, Pierre Agthe studied psychology in France and Switzerland, after which he worked for fifteen years in the social field, education and child psychiatry. He was in particular charged to lead a day hospital for psychotic children.
In 1990, the Swiss film branch asked him to direct its public funded training institution for all professionals of the cinema and audiovisual businesses, FOCAL.
Since then he has developed this unique structure in Europe. He has also established long term cross cultural training and production programs for screenwriters, directors, producers and lawyers in Central Europe, Western Africa and South Caucasus.
Partly due to his education, Pierre Agthe is particularly interested in script development topics.

Foundation President
Thomas Geiser
Tél. +41 71 224 28 23
info@focal.ch

Thomas Geiser was born in Basel in 1952, where he grew up, went to school and graduated with a degree in law. An internship in the canton of Solothurn brought him into contact with the Solothurn Film Festival, which is when he caught the film bug. He was asked by Federal Councillor Ruth Dreyfus to chair the commission introducing the performance-based film support fund Succès Cinéma. Thomas Geiser is a professor at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) teaching private and commercial law. He also serves as a federal judge. He is the chairman of the FOCAL Foundation, a member of the board of management and the management of the Solothurn Film Festival and also a member of the Swiss Federal Film Commission.

Anne Perrenoud
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
info@focal.ch

General administration; administrative coordination of the European training programs.

Cécile Verpoorten
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
info@focal.ch

Muriel Rieser
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
info@focal.ch

Sandrine Oberli
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
info@focal.ch

Translations, Stage Pool Administration
Katja Schudel
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
info@focal.ch

Lea Gerber
stage@focal.ch

stagepool.focal.ch

Nicolas Monguzzi
Tél. +41 21 312 68 17
webmaster@focal.ch

Websites administration, webdesign, graphic design.

Benjamin Veillon
webmaster@focal.ch

Websites administration.

Animation / ANIMA PLUS
Fred Guillaume
Director
Tél. +41 26 401 30 32
fred.guillaume@focal.ch

Fred Guillaume was born in Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1976. After obtaining a Baccalaureate in Literature in 1998, he turned to the animated film realm, producing a first film, jointly with his brother Samuel, in 1998: Le petit manchot qui voulait une glace [The little penguin who wanted an ice cream]. The two went on to fulfill several film orders, advertisements, scientific films and shorts for "Cinemagination", their own production company. From 2003 to 2007, they embarked on their first full-length feature film Max & Co (Switzerland, France, UK), which travelled to over 20 countries and won, most notably, the Audience Award at the Annecy Festival. In parallel with their movies, Fred Guillaume collaborated on several projects for shows and installations; he also invited public interest through a children's film club, La lanterne magique, setting up various workshops and lectures as well. He is highly interested in the latest technologies, for which he has developed several tools and joined various research projects in a narrative vein.

Jessica Hefti
Tél. +41 79 523 83 33
jessica.hefti@focal.ch

Jessica Hefti was born in Zurich in 1989. During her apprenticeship with a publishing house in Zurich, she worked as a freelance culture journalist for several regional newspapers. Because of her interest in telling stories, she studied Documentary Film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany). At that point she came to realize that as much as she loved working on films, she enjoyed even more following through on other people's good ideas and lending support to filmmakers. She obtained a Master's in Arts Management from the University of Zurich for Applied Sciences in 2013. Working today as a production manager and an assistant director in films, Ms. Hefti also has served as an event manager, and has as well been active in various other fields of planning and communication.

Directing Fiction Film
Anna Luif
Director
Tél. +41 79 373 91 19
anna@niece.ch

Anna Luif is of Hungarian descent. She was born in Zurich in 1972.
After passing the higher education entrance qualification in 1991, she visited India, where she worked in Mother Teresa's children's home.
In 1992 she worked as a trainee with filmmaker June Kovach.
She completed her film studies at the HGKZ (today called ZHdK), where she made several short films. She also worked as a trainee with the artist Pipilotti Rist and played in the women's band Rosebud.
In 1999 she wrote the screenplay for her short film SUMMERTIME. The short was completed in 2000 and won 20 international awards.
In 2003 her first feature LITTLE GIRL BLUE was released and has meanwhile been screened at more than 30 film festivals.
In 2010 her second feature MADLY IN LOVE was released.
Anna Luif is currently working on new film material.

Head of the Acting Department for French-speaking Switzerland / Assistant in the Department Directing Fiction Film for French-speaking Switzerland
Nicole Borgeat
Screenwriter, director and dramaturg
Tél. +41 76 615 67 46
nicole.borgeat@focal.ch

Born in 1966. After her film directing studies at INSAS (Brussels), she initially worked as a production assistant and as a first assistant.
In 2003, she wrote and directed Demain j’arrête, which received an award in Locarno and was nominated for the Swiss Film Award. She then co-wrote two TV comedies: Pas de Panique (2006), directed by Denis Rabaglia, and Sauvons les Apparences! (2008), which she directed herself. She is about to start shooting her first feature called Le vaste monde.
In the theatre she has worked together with Yan Duyvendak, Omar Ghayatt, Alexandra Bachzetsis and Guillaume Béguin. She co-authored the staging of several performances which toured for a long time in both France and Switzerland.

Directing Documentaries
Edgar Hagen
Documentary filmmaker and author
Tél. +41 61 681 48 82
edgar.hagen@focal.ch
edgarhagen.com

Born in Basel in 1958. He studied philosophy and German philology at the University of Basel and at the Free University of Berlin. In 1987 he obtained a Master of Arts from the Free University of Berlin. He then worked as a journalist and dramatic advisor. He has been an independent documentary filmmaker and author since 1989. He made the cinema documentaries Zeit der Titanen (2001), Someone Beside You (2007) and Journey to the Safest Place on Earth (2013). Since 2000, various teaching activities in the field of cinema and documentary narration. He has been a member of the Board of the Swiss Filmmakers Association (ARF/FDS) since 2010.

Technique
Vanja Baumberger
Tél. +41 79 921 11 50
vanja.baumberger@focal.ch

Born in Geneva in 1962. After completing her studies in the film department of the École Supérieure d'Art Visuel (currently: HEAD) [graduate school] film, she continued mainly in the production field. She participated in the Sputnik art-house movie theater's collective build-up and programming. She also coordinated and managed the Festival Black Movie '91 tour; was a location manager trainee on a film by Claude Goretta and on one by Moshé Mizrahi. She worked as a production assistant for Alhena Films (Roi Blanc, Dame Rouge by Sergei Bodrov), for Apsara Productions (Stairs by Peter Greenaway),and New Morning Productions (HD recordings of the 1994 jazz concerts). Further still, she was Production Director for a short-film series for the M6 TV channel, and for La Rencontre by the Swiss film director Irène Lichtenstein.
Ms. Baumberger went on to work for the ICRC over a fourteen-year period, serving as an interface between the film directors and technicians and the humanitarian experts. As such, she was in charge of the filmmaking logistics, supervising the postproduction stages and managing the stock of audiovisual equipment.
She is particularly at ease with the technical side of the subject, and thus with the ever-evolving technological tools of the trade.

Head of the Acting department for German-speaking and Italian-speaking Switzerland
Franziska von Fischer
Actress, speaker, trainer
Tél. +41 43 233 83 94
franziska.von.fischer@focal.ch
franziskavonfischer.ch

Franziska was born in 1973 and grew up in Zurich. From 1993 to 1997, she studied acting at the University for Music and Theatre in Hamburg (Master of Arts). In 1995 and 1996, she received a study award at the acting competition organised by Migros-Kulturprozent. After completing her training, she worked full-time at the Landestheater Tübingen for three years. She has been working as a freelancer since 2000 and has appeared in numerous premieres of contemporary drama performances. She currently plays the role of Emmi Rothner in Gut gegen Nordwind and also appears in Alle sieben Wellen by Daniel Glattauer at the Theatre of Winterthur. She has participated in various radio plays and regularly works as a speaker for the Swiss television. Trainer (Federal Professional Certification Level 2).

Head of the Acting Department for French-speaking Switzerland / Assistant in the Department Directing Fiction Film for French-speaking Switzerland
Nicole Borgeat
Screenwriter, director and dramaturg
Tél. +41 76 615 67 46
nicole.borgeat@focal.ch

Born in 1966. After her film directing studies at INSAS (Brussels), she initially worked as a production assistant and as a first assistant.
In 2003, she wrote and directed Demain j’arrête, which received an award in Locarno and was nominated for the Swiss Film Award. She then co-wrote two TV comedies: Pas de Panique (2006), directed by Denis Rabaglia, and Sauvons les Apparences! (2008), which she directed herself. She is about to start shooting her first feature called Le vaste monde.
In the theatre she has worked together with Yan Duyvendak, Omar Ghayatt, Alexandra Bachzetsis and Guillaume Béguin. She co-authored the staging of several performances which toured for a long time in both France and Switzerland.

Distribution
Carola Stern
Tél. +41 44 450 41 86
carola.stern@focal.ch

Scriptwriting
Jacqueline Surchat
Screenwriter
Tél. +41 79 245 44 39
jacqueline.surchat@focal.ch

Jacqueline Surchat began her career with the 7-minute feature Au bout du fil, which obtained the school’s best film award in 1989. Her Utopie hors-jeu received the 1992 Award of the Public at the International Comedy Festival in Vevey. Her 30-minute feature Le bonheur à cloche-pied (1994) received the Golden Unicorn at Bludenz and the Best Short Film Award at Upsala.
In 2004, Jacqueline Surchat started focusing mainly on screenplay writing. Between 1991 and 2013, she contributed to the screenplays of some dozen shorts and features. She created Marilou, a series of 24 episodes for RTS and acts as a script consultant for many Swiss, French and Quebec films.
Together with Madeleine Denisart, she published Le cigare et les fourmis, which explores the life of women working in the industry of Canton of Vaud from 1850 to 1950.

CrossFOCAL / Miscellaneous
Nicole Schroeder
Tél. +41 44 557 17 26
nicole.schroeder@focal.ch

Born in Zurich, Nicole Schroeder studied law but soon changed to creative studies to receive an M.A. 
She began working in the film industry as a short film prize organizer and as an open-air cinema programmer. On set, she started as a script supervisor and was 1st AD in national and international productions, continuing to produce corporate films and commercials.  She has been a board member of the «Zürich für den Film» association. Since 2008, she teaches part-time at the Zurich School of the Arts ZHdK's film department.
In 2012, she started to work regularly for FOCAL, with topics ranging from film technology, VR, transmedia, scriptwriting, diversity and new ideas. She is the coordinator of DrehbuchWerkstatt München/Zürich. In 2016, she took over the new department CrossFOCAL which creates events for all film and audio-visual sectors, address current challenges and be open to future-oriented topics in the industry.
In her work, Nicole is particularly committed to developing and sharing ideas, finding new approaches, cooperation and thinking ahead. She is a profound believer in equal rights and opportunities.  

Séverine Barde
Camerawoman
Tél. +41 22 344 11 29
sbarde@bluewin.ch

Born in 1966 in Geneva, Switzerland.
After obtaining her higher education entrance qualification (Latin section) from Collège Sismondi in Geneva, she studied film between 1987 and 1989 at the “Institut des Arts de Diffusion” (IAD) in Belgium.
She worked first as second and then as a first assistant camera in Switzerland, Belgium and France. From 1998 she has been as a director of photography in feature and documentary projects.
Among these projects are: Feature documentaries: Made in India; Fiction feature films: Attention aux chiens.

Valerie Fischer
Tél. +41 44 252 05 52
v.fischer@cobrafilm.ch

Grew up and went to school in the canton of Aargau. Linguistic studies: Neuchâtel, England, Italy. Assistant editor, University of Zurich, journalist internships, freelance journalist for Tages Anzeiger, Annabelle, Voilà, Magma, among others. Publicity manager at SSR. Short training course as a TV journalist at Swiss Television in 1978.
Production assistant with Schilten (1979); Sie konnte nicht anders (1980) and Die Liebe am St. Gotthard (Heimatfilm) ZDF, with co-directed and co-produced by Thomas Geser; Tessiner Fieber (1988). EAVE 1992. Freelance film technician (unit manager, line producer).
Founder and producer of Silvia Filmproduktion AG (1980) and of Cobra Film AG (2001).
Some of the films produced: Der Onkel vom Meer; Dilemma; Flammend Herz; Katzenball – First prize in Berlin (Panorama Audience Award) in 2005, Zurich Film Award, Berne Film Award, etc., Tulpan, first prize (Un certain regard); Tandoori Love, My Generation.
Has been in the FOCAL foundation committee since 2010.

Président de la Fondation
Thomas Geiser
Tél. +41 71 224 28 23
info@focal.ch

Thomas Geiser was born in Basel in 1952, where he grew up, went to school and graduated with a degree in law. An internship in the canton of Solothurn brought him into contact with the Solothurn Film Festival, which is when he caught the film bug. He was asked by Federal Councillor Ruth Dreyfus to chair the commission introducing the performance-based film support fund Succès Cinéma. Thomas Geiser is a professor at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) teaching private and commercial law. He also serves as a federal judge. He is the chairman of the FOCAL Foundation, a member of the board of management and the management of the Solothurn Film Festival and also a member of the Swiss Federal Film Commission.

Gianclaudio Meyer
Animation director and producer
Tél. +41 71 223 78 08
megi@swissonline.ch

M.Sc.ETH, M.A.HSG. Born in 1960. Studies in electronics, marketing, communication, and finance at ETH Zurich and the universities of St. Gallen and Klagenfurt. Partner of the digital animation studios Animagination Sàrl in Lausanne, director and producer of animated films. Long-term instruction in telecommunications, image and sound techniques at the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen. Member of the Board of the Swiss Animation Film Group. Expert of the Swiss Federal film fund’s grant committee for seven years. Specific interests: animation and experimental films, film financing.

Bettina Oberli
Director
Tél. +41 44 241 47 28
b.oberli@bluewin.ch

Bettina Oberli was born in Interlaken in 1972 and studied filmmaking at the Zurich University of the Arts. Her graduation film Supernova was awarded best newcomer movie of the year.
She has been working in New York for the directors Hal Hartley and Steve Buscemi.
After her awarded debut Im Nordwind (2004) she wrote and directed Late bloomers in 2006. The film became the most succesful Swiss film since 30 years and was sold all over the world. It was the official entry at the academy awards 2008.
In 2009 she directed Tannöd – the murder farm in Germany. The film was shown in theatres and at festivals around the world and won several awards.
In 2013 she directed her first theatre play, Anna Karenina, at the Theater Basel.
Her film Lovely Louise (2013/14) was succesfully released in theatres in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and shown at film festivals all over the world. Stefan Kurt and „the grande dame“ Annemarie Düringer play the leading roles.
Bettina is currently working on a TV Series for Swiss National TV and developping her next feature films Le Vent Tourne, with co-writer Antoine Jaccoud, and Wanda, with co-writer Cooky Ziesche.
Bettina Oberli lives with the DOP Stéphane Kuthy and their two sons in Zürich.

Michael Steiger
Producer
Tél. +41 44 286 79 90
steiger@turnusfilm.com

Michael Steiger was born in Berne in 1965. After receiving his degree (Matura) at the Ecole de Commerce in Neuchâtel, he studied business at the European Business School in Reichhartshausen (D) and enjoyed various exchange semesters in London as well as in Paris. In summer 2005, he became general manager of C-FILMS AG in Zurich and co-owner since 2006.
In July 2015, Michael Steiger and Anita Wasser joined Turnus Film as producers and partners. They are known for many box office hits like: nighttrain to lisbon by Bille August, youth by Paolo Sorrentino, i am the keeper by Sabine Boss, the foster boy by Markus Imboden as well as many TV Movies, like tatort, die akte grüninger by Alain Gsponer and upload by Tobias Ineichen. The productions rascals on the road, grounding – the last days of the swissair and the foster boy and night train to lisbon count among the biggest Box-Office Successes in recent Swiss film history.

Sven Wälti
Head of Coproductions SRG SSR
Tél. +41 31 350 94 60
sven.waelti@srgssr.ch

Sven Wälti has been in charge of SRG co-productions at a general management level since April 2012. He coordinates all of SRG's film funding activities within the framework Pacte de l'audiovisuel and represents SRG's interests in collaborations with ARTE. Previously he was the managing director of Cinésuisse, the umbrella organisation of the Swiss film and audiovisual sector, and a collaborator of SUISSIMAGE. He read law at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and completed further training in political communication and cultural management. He is a member of the Federal Film Commission. He is in the Steering Committee of the Prix Europa and on the board of directors of the Ciné-Bulletin.