Esther van Messel, CEO

Born 1965 in Vienna, lives in Switzerland and holds a Bachelor’s degree in film & television production and in history from the University of Tel Aviv.

In 1990, she joined Warner Bros. Israel and became Head of Distribution. From 1992 she produced international feature films and documentaries as Head of Co-Production and Sales for an independent production company in Zurich.

In 1998, Esther van Messel founded her own company First Hand Films in Zurich and Berlin for world sales of documentaries and fiction films. First Hand Films acts as executive producer for selected projects.

Esther van Messel has been working as a lecturer and consultant for various organisations like EAVE Brussels, IDFA Forum Amsterdam, Cinemart Rotterdam, Eurodoc Paris, Avea Johannesburg, Eureka Warsaw and Tallinn, Another Finland, TV Media Business School Barcelona, Discovery Campus Munich, FÁS Screen Training Ireland, the Filmacademy Ludwigsburg, the Erich Pommer Institut and the Austrian Parliament, a.o. She was an appointed member of the Selection Committee for the Austrian Film Institute and served on several juries like Golden Link EBU and Nordisk Filmpanorama.

Since 1999 she co-owns Vertical Strategy Ltd. in Leipzig together with Björn Koll from Edition Salzgeber Berlin. Esther van Messel is fluent in English, German, French, Dutch, Hebrew, and not yet in Danish. Since 1992 and 1995 she is raising a daughter and a son. She rides a Hornet 900.

Gitte Hansen, Sales & Acquisition

Born on the rocky island of Bornholm, Denmark, Gitte Hansen lives in Switzerland since 2000. In Zurich Gitte worked with international distribution of feature films and started in 2002 at First Hand Films, where her work includes project development, financing & packaging, marketing strategy, executive producing, sales and acquisition.

Previously Gitte has worked with inhouse factual production at DR-TV, she was Head of Information and Promotion with Filmkontakt Nord for five years in Copenhagen, coordinator of the Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, and has worked for the former MEDIA project DOCUMENTARY, which included the first edition of the EDN TV Guide and a study on the European Documentary sector regarding co- production and film financing.

She has joined Vertical Strategies, Eurodoc session, Transmedia Next and is a consultant and lecturer at local and international workshops and events where she works for colleagues like EDN, Eurodoc, IDFA, Crossing Boarders and Ex Oriente. Gitte has served on several international film festival around Europe and holds a master in Film and Rhetoric from the University of Copenhagen.

Ayse Poffet, Finance & Administration

Born in Switzerland and raised in Istanbul (Turkey) and Switzerland, Ayse has a Masters degree in English Literature and Linguistics, Neurophysiology and Social Psychology at the University of Zurich where she also gave several tutorials in Neurophysiology.

She has independently advised German language publishers on American and Turkish literature. She has worked as a sous-chef responsible for first courses and desserts in a classic gourmet restaurant in Cambridge (England) where she also took a degree in English language at Cambridge University (Proficiency) and studied independently at Cambridge Technical College and Cambridge University. She participated at seminars on Feminist Criticism at Sylvia Plath’s college.

In 1998 she has successfully launched a public welfare organisation in her home town which she headed for two years. 1992-2001 She has co-organised a free kindergarten over which she also presided from 1999 to 2001.

Ayse who regularly travels to Turkey, is fluent in German, Turkish, English, and French. She lives near Zurich, is married, raises two unruly teenagers and a Catalan herding dog. She fully subscribes to the rule that "if you can manage a family, you can manage anything!"

Christiane Dankbar, Business Department

Christiane was born in the small town of Ochtrup on the German-Dutch border. With no great desire to stay there after graduation she moved to Paris to work as an au-pair, looking after five fairly spoilt children. She was then prepared to study Political Science at the Free University and completed her studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton with a MA in Culture, Race and Difference.

In 2001 Christiane moved to South Africa where she worked for various NGOs mainly in research into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission before following her passion for film in 2005. She worked as a Production Assistant on commercials and feature films. In the following years she worked as a Production Manager not only on film but also on cultural productions (for example for the Goethe Institute Johannesburg), and added a brief stint as a Commissioning Editor for the SABC.

Since September 2010 she lives in Zürich.

Eliane Nater, Executive Assistant & Materials Dept.

Born in Zurich in 1981, Eliane holds a Master of Arts in German Language and Literature, Cinema Studies and Art History from University of Zurich.

During her studies, Eliane did internships at Swiss Television as well as at Dschoint Ventschr Film Production where she worked as production assistant.

Eliane speaks German, English, French and Spanish. She is the only one who rides her bicycle to the office in the morning, and she likes all films by Werner Herzog, except Bad Lieutenant.

Bianca Wiedersich, Key Contact Berlin Office

Bianca is a financial and administrative crack. When she is not taking care of numbers and things, she likes to travel far and donate time and efforts to worthy causes around the world.