Stefania Casini

After graduating in Architecture, Stefania began a career in acting and worked with Pietro Germi, Bernardo Bertolucci, Peter Greenaway and Dario Argento. She moved to New York in the late 70s, where she acted in Andy Warhol's 'Bad'. While in New York she decided to move behind the camera, and became a director. With Francesca Marciano, she wrote and directed the film "Lontano da dove", presented at the Venice Film Festival (1983). In 1997 she wrote and directed another feature film "Un Paradiso di Bugie". Her career as director also includes the making of six feature films for the Italian television network MEDIASET. A passionate traveler, Stefania has made a great number of documentaries and reportages for RAI and MEDIASET. She focuses her attention on contemporary topics concerning women and young people. She has made many hard-hitting series including: "Islam: stories of women"; "Latin America: stories of women"; "To be 20 years old in..." (broadcast in ten European Countries 2004-2005); "So close so far :portraits in the suburbs". "Schiaffo alla mafia"(A blow to the Mafia) Between 2000-2002 , Stefania was the Artistic Director of Siena's Film Festival "Terra di Siena". In 2010 she was Managing Director of DGTV IESTV. Currently, Stefania writes and directs programs, reportages and documentaries for RAI, and for satellite channels: RAI Sat Cinema World, Gambero Rosso Channel, and Sky. She also works as a journalist, contributing to several popular women's magazines.

Electra Venaki is the founder of www.altcine.com, the web platform dedicated to the Balkan Cinema and of altcineAction! The 1st Online Short Film Festival for Balkan countries.  She is a researcher and lecturer in many Academic Establishments in Athens and former film editor.

Electra Venaki holds an M.A (D.E.A) in Cinema, Audiovisual, Television and an B.A (Maitrise) in Cinema Studies from University Paris I  Panthéon – Sorbonne. (1990)

She teaches Editing and Sound Design in private colleges and schools in Athens. (New York College, AKMI) and she is a longtime collaborator of University of Thessaly (Greece).

She taught for two years the course Editing Sound and Image, in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Film Studies. (2005-2007) and the course of Moving Image in the M.A programme of Aristotle University (Athens, 2009-2010).

Elektra Venaki has 25 years of experience in film and digital video editing in Greece. Among her collaborations, there are many awarded films in Thessaloniki International Festival, especially in the Documentary Section and she has been awarded for editing in Drama Short Film Festival twice.

She served as a chef of Audiovisual Production in Lambrakis Press Group and chef editor of the cinema site in the biggest portal in Greece, www.in.gr (1999-2005)

She was a columnist in HiTECH, a monthly magazine in Athens and for almost ten years  she has not stopped writing extended reviews on classic and modern cinema. Her writings present the new possibilities of sound diegesis and new technologies in the filming process.

Her papers have been published in many collective books, official editions and renowned magazines. As passionate about new technologies and film sound theory and practice, she has participated in numerous conferences about cinema, exploring technical and aesthetic issues.