Irena Taskovski - Managing Director

Irena Taskovski is the founder and Managing Director of Taskovski Films. As Taskovski Films’ leader, Irena has produced several short films and documentaries, including multiple award winners Village B, dir. Filip Remunda (Best Documentary at Karlovy Vary in 2002) and Czech Dream dir.s Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda (Best Czech Documentary 2004 Jihlava IDFF, FIRPESCI prize at IFF Ljubljana 2004, Best Documentary San Francisco Film Fest Denmark 2004).

Growing up in a country whose social and political issues culminated in war, and living in the post-communist Czech Republic, Irena gained rich life experiences. She is left with many stories that she wants to bring to the screen using the diversity of social and cultural forms of the East and the West. Currently based in Prague, Irena is developing a number of projects that are intended to be made as creative international co-productions.

Education

Originally from Bosnia, Irena studied in Prague, graduating from the Film Academy (FAMU). She has also studied at the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School in Jerusalem and obtained a Masters degree from the National Film & Television School in London, UK.

Work Experience

In addition to running her own film company, Irena has worked in development and financing at London based production company Autonoumus (UK producers of Bosnian film No Mans Land, D.Tanovic), and in the marketing and publicity department of Tartan Films Distribution London, focusing on independent foreign language films.

Festivals

In 2004, Irena worked as a scout for Eastern European films for the Venice Film Festival Biennale. She has also organised and programmed several film festivals, including a tribute to Stephen Frears at the 2001 Sarajevo Film Festival, Indies Film Festival in Prague 1999, and Festival of Czech Films in Bosnia 1998.

In autumn 2007 Irena founded the Film Institute in Banjaluka and initiated the Banjaluka International Film Festival – BLIFF 2008, acting as its artistic director.

Irena has been a jury member at the Festroja Inernational Film Festival Portugal 2005, the Trieste Film Festival 2008, the Krakow International Film Festival 2008, and ZagrebDox 2009.

Tutoring

Irena is a lecturer at the Prague Film Academy (FAMU), and tutor at the Prague Institute of Documentary Film, as expert on international film sales and distribution, with the focus on European creative documentary cinema. She has also lectured profesionals about Marketing and Promotional strategies and distribution for many festivals, including Krakow International Film Festival, Connecting Cottbus Germany, Baltic event Tallin Estonia, Sunny Side of the Docs, DocEdge Kolkata, as well as other events such as SOURCES 2 Script Development Workshop and different panels (EDN Meet the Distributors at Berlinale 2012).

She was also a jury member at : Festroja Inernational Film Festival Portugal 2005, Trieste Film Festival 2008, Krakow International Film Festival 2008, ZagrebDox 2009, Vilnius Int’l Film Festival 2011, DOK – Leipzig 2011