Born to Scottish roots and raised in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Ashleigh grew up by the lakeside of Neuchâtel. She studied Festivals & Events Management at Edinburgh Napier University, where her passion for film and culture took shape.

Over the past few years, she has worked in promotion and marketing with independent distributors, as well as in operations for international film festivals.

At First Hand Films, Ashleigh has been part of the promotion team for the past year and is now expanding her role to include marketing, thrilled to be joining the team on a long-term basis!

Alongside her work at First Hand Films, she is the creator and curator of Queer Film Swiss, a platform dedicated to showcasing the latest queer film releases across Switzerland. Together with First Hand Films, she is developing a new queer cinema initiative, bringing the best of queer cinema to the big screen.

Outside the film world, Ashleigh is a passionate singer-songwriter and ukulele player, who recharges her batteries at the beach, ideally long-boarding into the sunset.

Hansjürgen Schmölzer studied law and media science at the University of Graz. He is founder of the Austrian film- & mediaproduction group BSX-Schmölzer GmbH and joined First Hand Films with his company as partner, aiming to strengthen the international co-production competences of both partners and to jointly develop new documentary films from promising talents on an international level.

With his company group in Austria and Croatia he produces documentary films, cultural-publications and -projects. He is manager and editor of the Austrian cultural network platform CREATIVE AUSTRIA and author and director of documentary films focussing on topics of human rights, political conflicts and cultural- and contemporary-history.

He was awarded with the Globe Award for the worldwide best marketed cultural project (Graz 2003 Cultural Capital of Europe).”

Born in a tiny village, with a name more complicated than the plot in TENET, Sebastian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and English. Ever since TREASURE ISLAND in 2002 he has been interested in the world of film.

Currently, Sebastian is in the midst of his exciting and hopefully not perilous journey as an intern in the dog eat dog world of film distribution. With wise and experienced superiors to teach him the ways of the profession, Sebastian hopes to hone his skills, meet great people, and become one with the film industry.

Born and raised in a small village outside of Zurich, Danika holds a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Film production. Before following her passion for filmmaking she worked for several years in a pharmacy.

To put her skills and learnings from her studies into action, Danika is assisting Esther van Messel in Distribution, World Sales and Production. Hopefully she won’t have to use her medical knowledge too often.

Daniel strives to create playful work that doesn’t compromise on meaning. He holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of Zürich. When studying complex datasets and abstract economic models, he became fascinated by the power of visual communication and that of a good story, translating buck naked information into something relatable and joyful. 

He previously worked as creative director and COO of a small creative agency in Switzerland for 3+ years and is now synchronizing creative and economic aspects of a colorful palette of film projects as a Junior Producer at FHF. He is currently based in Zürich. 

Born and raised in Switzerland, Shiran studied film and television at Tel Aviv University. After completing her Bachelor’s Degree, she got an international MBA while also certifying for the international Skipper’s license. She speaks seven languages and is learning the eighth now, Arabic.

Shiran is a passionate analogue photographer, co-created an online space to break taboos around sexuality, is a co-operative member of a language school teaching Arabic and Hebrew through a critical lens, and recharges her batteries in the sun like a lizard. At First Hand Films, Shiran is in charge of the company’s financial controlling with a focus on international online sales, growing its digital offering. She loves working in offline-deep-focus-mode and yet couldn’t work one day without the fantastic women surrounding her.

Born and raised in China, lives in Germany, works in Zurich. She studied Communication and Cultural Management, Media Management in Germany, East Asian Art History, Film Studies and Japanese in Zurich. She worked as a journalist in German as well as in Chinese media industry, such as SWR 4 Bodensee Radio, Deutsche Welle and CCTV News Channel; and also worked as a technical coordinator assistant for an international film distributor in Germany.

Film is her passion, she believes film has a special magic – a freedom of expression, when filmmakers express their attitudes toward life and the world through their art. Shan is fascinated by this attractive magic of film. She loves to share good films with people worldwide, films that make people laugh, cry and think.

Born 1971 to a French speaking mother and a German father, lives and works in Zurich. Nicole spent some significant years of working and wandering in London and Paris.

She holds a Master of Arts and studied in Zurich at the Media Art department where she focused on interactive video, film, text, sound and experimented at the Film Department with 16mm essay film. At the University of Arts & ZKM in Karlsruhe it got even better, and she focused on experimental, essayistic documentary film. 2008-2010 Nicole researched at the Master class of Fine Arts within the field of expanded cinema.

Throughout all of that, Nicole earned her living in a number of well-known international companies with administrational work. She used the knowledge gained in such an economical environment for her production work within the arts. Since 2000, Nicole has been developing and conducting many works in the field of art, theatre or film. Her projects have been exhibited and screened internationally. At the same time she was teaching and mentoring at the Universities in Bern and Zurich.

Since June 2015 Nicole is part of the team at First Hand Films. She is happy to say goodbye to a time where earning money consisted of having 7 jobs or projects simultaneously and has many ideas for a fruit- and colourful future at the firm.

Esther van Messel, born 1965 in Vienna, lives in Switzerland and holds a BfA in Film & Television 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.

Since 1998, Esther van Messel runs her own company FIRST HAND FILMS in Zurich and Berlin. FHF represents around 300 hand-picked films and 200 producers from all over the world and acts as Executive Producer for selected projects. FHF is present at all major festivals around the year, produces, sells and also distributes films theatrically in Swiss cinemas.

Today, First Hand Films have been seen by hundreds of millions of people.