FUTURE LEADERS AGENTS
Meyash Prabhu US WME mprabhu@ wmeentertainment.com
Clients include Robert Eggers, Martin Zandvliet, F Javier Gutierrez, Timur Bekmambetov, Pippa Bianco
Meyash Prabhu believes strongly in being first out of the gate and, once out, staying attuned to standout qualities that will define potential clients. “With the level of information exchange, it’s rare that you come across a great film in a festival that nobody is talking about and the artist is unrepresented,” says Prabhu. “[To do so] requires working extra hard to listen to that podcast, or watch that proofof-concept short online that nobody has seen yet.” By going the extra mile Prabhu has come to represent the likes of The Witch director Robert Eggers, Martin Zandvliet, the Danish writer-director of Land Of Mine, and F Javier Gutierrez, whose Rings remake is due out later this year. Championing distinct voices and staying positive, tenacious and entrepreneurial through inevitable setbacks is key. “There are so many platforms the artist can express themselves through, the most important criteria becomes a uniqueness and clarity of perspective. In addition to seeing as many movies and reading as many scripts as possible, storytellers can come in the forms of a designer, playwright, blogger or podcaster.”
Anna Rozalska POLAND Match & Spark ✆ +48 600 302 202 Clients include Lukasz Zal, Monika Lenczewska
Anna Rozalska describes herself as a manager as well as an agent. She set up Poland-based company Match & Spark last autumn together with business partner Tarik Hachoud. “It’s a young generation of film-makers who have big potential to work internationally,” Rozalska says of her initial list of 20 or so clients. It includes writers, directors, production designers and cinematographers, among them Lukasz Zal, DoP on the Oscar-winning Ida, and Monika Lenczewska, DoP on Fabrice Du Welz’s Message From The King. Rozalska began to think about establishing Match & Spark last year after steadicam operator Adam Mendry approached her. At the time, she had also been helping her friend Zal go to Los Angeles and meet with US agents. “He came back and said, ‘Anna, you’ve been dealing with everything as a friend, maybe you should consider being my agent.’” Rozalska was previously in charge of the production and development department at Alvernia Studios. “After being responsible for international production, I was looking for a way to use all the contacts I’d built over the years,” she says. The aim at Match & Spark is to work with film-makers, writers and technicians who want to “grow internationally”.
58 Screen International at Cannes May 12, 2016
Trine Ryaa
DENMARK
All That Management trine@allthatmanagement.dk Clients include Sidse Babett Knudsen, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Carsten Bjornlund (all shared with All That CEO/founder Anette Vendelbo)
After working in theatre for more than a decade, Trine Ryaa started working with Anette Vendelbo’s Copenhagen-based All That Management with small, part-time projects in 2007. She joined the agency full time three years ago and now serves as an agent in her own right as well as assisting Vendelbo in working with top Danish clients including Borgen and The Duke Of Burgundy star Sidse Babett Knudsen. Ryaa is interested in discovering rising talents and “to be able to present a wider range of age and talent to the casters, producers and directors”. She adds: “I love to see them grow and see how they deal with the challenges given to them, casting by casting.” Watching Vendelbo closely over the years has been hugely valuable for her. Ryaa has learnt from “seeing her negotiate and watching her close important deals, taking it to the limit, but in fairness without being pushy”. Of her own skills, Ryaa notes: “I always try to see the possibilities within the person before me, without promising gold at the end of the rainbow.” But when that gold comes, that’s the best part of her job. “Calling a client to say they got the dream job, that’s the greatest part.”
Jaya Saha
INDIA
CAA Kwan jayanti@caakwan.com
Clients include Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin, Shraddha Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput, Mahesh Babu, Radhika Apte, Kriti Kharbanda, Deeksha Seth
Based in Mumbai, Jaya Saha is talent head at CAA Kwan, which handles actors, musicians, directors, writers and sportspeople. She is praised by local producers for her work with actors such as Kalki Koechlin, Radhika Apte and Sushant Singh Rajput, who have become stars in India’s fast-growing indie film-making sector, as well as mainstream stars including Deepika Padukone and Shraddha Kapoor. When Saha graduated from college eight years ago, professional talent management did not really exist in India. But sports management had just started to emerge and she took a job at GloboSport, one of the first professional agencies. “A friend recommended this career to me. It sounded interesting and I took the plunge,” Saha says. When Anirban Das Blah left GloboSport in 2009 to set up Kwan, she followed. Saha says she finds new talent through producers, directors, casting directors and other industry professionals and works with her clients to create a sustainable brand image. “You have to adapt to what is being consumed by the audience and be ahead of the curve.”
Andreas Schlieter
GERMANY
Gipfelsturmer Talent Agency kontakt@agentur-gipfelstuermer.de
Clients include Toini Ruhnke, Tom Bottcher, Salah Massoud, Delio Malär, Michaela Spanle
The idea of launching his own talent agency was born when Andreas Schlieter ran the in-house extras and bit-player agency for Hamburgbased production company Network Movie. “I saw how much fun it can be to work with young talents,” he says. “I love the fact the job is so diversified. As an agent, you need many skills to do a great job. You are CEO, PR agent, best friend and caring dad in one person. And it really makes me happy to see when one of my clients is successful.” One way to find new clients is to keep an eye on the talent coming out of the local acting schools. Schlieter’s work as a stills photographer for the youth wing of Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus theatre has also served him well. Sometimes, though, it is pure chance that leads to him to a gem. “I was in the U-bahn one evening and noticed a young man with huge charisma and a really extraordinary and memorable voice,” he says. “It turned out that he’d just moved to Hamburg from Switzerland to study acting — and Delio Malär is now one of my busiest talents.” Representing 15 actors, Schlieter sees himself as “a personal manager who knows exactly what’s going on in his talents’ lives and careers”. He points out that at the beginning of an actor’s career, the talent and the agent both have to work hard at gaining recognition. “You get that through a great showreel and really good portraits,” he explains. “You have to make the casting directors curious to cast the talents without being too pushy.”
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