*****PRESS RELEASE*****
WHAT: CSA Casting Across Borders, Europe, and The Balkans, Panel Discussion
WHERE: Kranjska Gora Film Festival, http://kgiff.si
SPONSORED BY: CSA, The Casting Society of America
WHEN: 4 August, 2018
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: Ljudski dom
WHO:
Casting Directors
Nancy Bishop, CSA (National board member and head of the CSA Europe Chapter) London, Prague
Timka Grin, CSA, Sarajevo
Beatrice Kruger, CSA, Rome
Lucinda Syson, CSA, London
Agents:
Aleksandra Balmazovic, United Slavic Actors, Slovenia
Anila Gajevic, Zona Agency, Bosnia
Casting Across Borders, Europe, and The Balkans
The Casting Society of America hosts a special panel at the Kranjska Gora International Film Festival to discuss the unique role of the casting profession in Europe. The target audience is all film industry professionals, as well as those interested in pursuing casting as a career. Directors, producers, agents and actors are all welcome to attend this round table discussion that explores the history, growth and importance of the casting and agenting professions in European regions. Themes will include trends in ethnic diversity and authenticity, casting directors hiring actors across borders, and international opportunities for actors.
The growth of professional casting directors and agents in key former Soviet bloc regions and South-East Europe, has been instrumental to many European actors’ careers as well as to the diversity of casts across regions.
The Balkan region is developing in very positive ways both with its local film industry and also as a filming location. International casting directors are increasingly turning to the Balkans for casting as well. Whereas in many smaller European countries, the roles of casting director and agent are often conflated, Bosnia has held the high professional standard of separating these roles in a way encouraged by CSA and other professional casting associations.
The panel represents a broad range of experienced international professional casting directors and actors’ agents.
About the CSA
The Casting Society of America (CSA) was founded in February of 1982 with the intention of establishing a recognized standard of professionalism in the casting field and providing its members with a support organization to further their goals and protect their common interests.
CSA currently boasts over 800 members. CSA Casting Directors and Associates work around the world, with members based in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Africa.
The CSA is a global resource for producers, directors and creative teams seeking casting professionals, while promoting the image of casting directors and associates worldwide, engaging in a number of charitable activities, and supporting its members by sharing important and helpful professional information. For more information on the Casting Society of America, please visit http://www.CastingSociety.com
PANELIST BIOS
NANCY BISHOP, CSA, ICDN is an American born Emmy-nominated casting director working internationally with active offices in both London and Prague. She is the Chair of the CSA European Branch, as well as a national CSA board member. She has been retained as a casting director by dozens of major producers and directors, ranging from Matthew Weiner on his most recent series, The Romanoffs. Recent TV credits include 12 Monkeys for Sci-Fy, Knightfall, for A&E, and Lore for Amazon. Recent film credits include the soon to be released Ophelia, starring Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. Past credits include, Snowpiercer, Mission Impossible IV, and Bourne Identity. When she is not casting, she is educating actors and has written two books on acting, the most recent, “Auditioning for Film and TV” (published by Bloomsbury), is available on Amazon. She also founded the Acting for Film Program at the Prague Film School.
TIMKA GRIN, CSA, ICDN from Bosnia and Hercegovina works as a casting director since 2007. Her early credits are: “As If I Am Not There” by Juanita Wilson (the lead actress Nataša Petrović won a Shooting Star Award based on this performance); In The Land of Blood and Honey by Angelina Jolie; Circus Columbia by Oscar winning director Danis Tanovic, etc. Timka Grin is Executive board member of International Casting Directors’ Network, and a board member of Casting Society of America European branch. Over the last four years, she gave seminars, masterclasses and workshops about casting for actors, in Berlin, Ljubljana, several times in Zagreb as well as at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. She worked with regional directors such as: Aida Begic, Srdan Golubovic, Jasmila Zbanic, Una Gunjak, etc., but also internationally, with Ursula Meyer, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, Marco Bellocchio, Sam Mendes and many others.
BEATRICE KRUGER – Casting Director (ICDN, CSA, UICD). She grew up between Germany, Hong Kong, Italy and the USA speaks 5 languages, studied acting, anthropological theatre and travelled throughout Europe as a theatre actress in the 70s and 80s. In 1992 she founded FBI CASTING in Rome and has many cast Italian and international films ever since, such as: The Book of Vision (C. Hintermann), Grain (S. Kaplanoglu), The Cut (F. Akin), To Rome With Love (W. Allen), The American (A. Corbijn), Letters to Juliet (G. Winek), My Mother’s Smile (M. Bellocchio), Not of This World (G. Piccioni), El Alamein (E. Monteleone) Ten Winters (V. Mieli), Elvis & Meriljn (A. Manni); or she did the Italian or European casting, e.g. for The Divine Order, Spectre, Inferno, Dreamland, Nine, Casino Royale or the TV series Mozart in the Jungle and Borgia. Beatrice is based in Rome, a member of the AMPAS, the EFA, the Italian Film Academy and founder of www.e-talenta.eu, a multi-language platform for casting professionals and European actors.
Lucinda Syson (Casting Director – London Based) after graduating with a French and Linguistics degree and short lived career as a photographer Her first film – ‘a baptism by fire’ – as Casting Assistant was David Fincher’s Alien 3 shortly followed by the likes of City of Joy, 1492 and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .
She made her debut as Casting Director with Udayan Prasad’s Brothers in Trouble, and then went on to cast Luc Besson’s Fifth Element spending six months afterwards in Argentina working on location on Seven Year in Tibet . She returned to UK to work with Guy Ritchie on Snatch and was fortunate enough to work with Tony Scott on Spygame which was a benchmark in her career. She has since been incredibly lucky to have continued her career with such prolific film makers such as Alfonso Cuarón (Children Of Men/Gravity) Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins /The Dark Knight/Inception ), Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) and more recently Patty Jenkins (Wonder woman) and Producers like Iain Smith to name but a few. She received an Artios nomination for Matthew Vaughn’s 2010 film Kick-Ass. She is a member of the International Casting Directors Network and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
ALEKSANDRA BALMAZOVIC is a Slovenian actress who started the first actors agency in Slovenia, called United Slavic Actors. She received a number of awards for the role of Suzana in the film “The Gray Truck of Red”, She also earned a Shooting Stars award, awarded by European Film Promotion to young and promising actors.
ANILA GAJEVIĆ was born in Sarajevo where she graduated Bosnian literature and language. As former journalist and editor, in 2008, she founded ZONA, the first casting/talent agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina which is today the leading agency in Southeastern Europe and wider.
Her agency represents some of most prominent actors and young talents from Balkans, but also from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Kazahstan. As an agent she represented actors in numerous international projects such as „Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol“, „The November Man“, „Snowpiercer“, „Legends“ „Skyfall“ „Love, Lies and Records“, „Gomorrah“, „Game of Thrones“, „In Order of Disappearance“, „Der Pass“, „Success“, „Cold War“…Screen International listed her in 2016 as one of the „Future Leaders: Agents“. In her country received two awards „Lady Boss“ and „Woman of the Year“ for entrepreneurship. She is member of Association of filmmakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and European Film Academy.
DEREK POWER is a Producer and Talent Manager. Former clients include Sting, Robert Dornhelm, Iva Babiç, Ben Kingsley, David
Nykl, Stewart Copeland, Michael Nyman, and Nancy Bishop CSA. As Producer, Power helped mount Peter Weir’s The Last Wave, Dennis Hopper’s The Hot Spot and Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse and Claudio Faeh’s Sniper: Reloaded. Power also guided Ben Kingsley into Sexy Beast, Anne Frank, and The House Of Sand & Fog, securing Kingsley Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. A 30 year relationship with The Police brought Copeland’s Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out to its Sundance Festival premiere. As Music Producer, Power supervised films and series including The Equalizer and the iconic Highlander soundtrack with multiplatinum songs written and performed by Queen.
