FFKB Team

1978 in Kitzbühel geboren, mehrere Wirtschaftsabschlüsse, beteiligt an der Organisation verschiedener Großveranstaltungen in und um Kitzbühel. Sie spricht fließend Englisch, Französisch und Italienisch und hat in Italien, den USA, Australien und Österreich gearbeitet.
Nina Hipfl-Reisch ist eine der Gründerinnen vom Filmfestival Kitzbühel.

Josef Obermoser was born in Kitzbühel in 1985. After completing his studies at the Werbeakademie in Vienna he worked as a copywriter, designer and client consultant with various advertising agencies in Austria and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He now lives and works in Kitzbühel. Josef Obermoser has been part of the Filmfestival Kitzbühel since its beginnings, his main responsibilities include marketing and graphic design. Since February 2015 he is a partner of Filmfestival Kitzbühel GmbH.

Michael Reisch is a founding member of the FFKB. He is a cultural worker and lives in Vienna. Since 2012 he has been involved in various film and arts projects, specializing in concept design and production. From 2007 to 2012 he studied film directing in the USA. After taking his degree he worked as assistant director with Sharon von Wietersheim in Munich. In 2013 he co-founded the Filmfestival Kitzbühel; in 2014 he launched the Script

Patrick Winkler, born in Graz, studied journalism and theater studies in Vienna and Milan. He worked as a projectionist and did community service by looking after homeless people. In 2004 he moved to Berlin, where he received further training as a director and casting assistant and accompanied numerous film productions at Studio Babelsberg as a freelancer (including Inglourious Basterds, The White Ribbon and Homeland). Since 2018, Patrick Winkler has been working in online marketing and event organization at the Viennese film distributor “Filmladen”. He writes reviews and conducts interviews for the film magazines Deadline and Virus and lives in Vienna.

Born in Austria, Karol Martesko-Fenster has become a respected American entrepreneur who has made his mark in American independent film over the last several decades. Through his expertise in feature film, broadcast, publishing and the Internet, he is responsible in part for advancements in the media industry.

Karol is Managing Partner of Cinelan and Thought Engine / Media Group and works closely with Abramorama, Gull Gotham and Iridium One Entertainment.

In 2011 he joined S2BN Entertainment and was responsible for media interest, development, acquisition, production, licensing and distribution. In 2008, Karol Martesko-Fenster worked at Babel Networks as senior vice president and general manager, including the online and mobile distribution platform babelgum.com. He was previously a strategic advisor to various film and media companies including Arts Alliance, T5M/Rightster, Com, SBI Management and Tribeca Enterprise.

Karol acted as producer for Torno Subito – Maurizio Cattelan by Maura Axelrod and Homme Less by Thomas Wirthensohn. He was also executive producer on Phil Cox’ The Love Hotel (’14), The Bengali Detective (2013 Grierson Documentary Award, 2011 Sundance and Berlin Film Festival), Danfung Dennis’ Hell And Back Again (2013 Emmy nomination for Best Documentary). , 2013 Grierson Documentary Award, 2012 Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary, 2011 Sundance Winner of the World Documentary Grand Jury Award and Best Cinematography), Noel Dernesch & Moritz Springer’s Journey To Jah (Zurich Film Festival Audience Award 2013), Havana Markings Smash & Grab : The Story of the Pink Panthers (’13), Amy Benson’s The Girl who Knew Too Much, and Daniel McCabe’s This Is Congo.

Karol also managed all stages of production and distribution on various platforms of Emmett Malloy’s Big Easy Express (2013 Grammy Winner, 2012 SXSW Audience Award) and is collaborating with Leslie Iwerks on her film Citizen Hearst (’13), Sing Your Song with Harry Belafonte and Michael Cohl (winner of the 2012 NAACP Image Awards, 2011 Sundance US Documentary Competition). Karol was Executive Producer on James Smith’s Floored (’10), Jamie King and Peter Manns Dark Fiber (’10), Co-Executive Producer on Dean Budnick & Peter Shapiro’s Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Nightclub (’06), Executive Produced Rob Nilsson’s Frank Dead Souls (’06), produced Gordon Eriksen & Heather Johnston’s Scenes from the New World (’94), Myth or Reality – The von Trapp Family (’92) and worked with Richard Linklater on his Film Before Sunrise (’95), which opened the Sundance Film Festival and won the Silver Bear in Berlin.

Previously, Karol was General Manager of Film at Palm Pictures and Chairman of RES Media Group, also part of Chris Blackwell’s Palm business. During those five years he oversaw the strategic reorganization of the film division and was responsible for the Palm film projects Scratch and Sex and Lucia. Karol managed all activities and brand positioning for the RES department, including responsibility for the RESFEST Digital Film Festival, a digital arts and entertainment festival that has now spread to over 6 continents, 19 countries and 40 cities.

Prior to Palm, Karol was President and Editor of Rising Tide Studio, a unified media and convergence company, for three years, where he contributed to the distribution and development of Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter Magazine, as well as numerous media, finance and technology conferences.

In the early 1990s he produced Great Performances Music on PBS, as well as over 20 music TV formats and five live broadcasts including: Gala of Stars, Mozart in Salzburg by James Levine, Celebrating Gershwin: S’Wonderful & The Jazz Age, Don Giovanni with Herbert von Karajan, Madama Butterfly with Hal Prince, Pavarotti returns to Naples and From Vienna: The New Year’s Concert with Walter Cronkite.

Karol was Sales Manager during the Independent Film Market’s breakthrough in 1989 and Managing Director of the Independent Feature Project in 1990, during which he restructured the film services organization and helped initiate the Gotham Awards.

Throughout his career, Karol has always been at the forefront of new developments. This enabled him to launch Big Easy Express as the first global digital release of a feature film before its traditional iTunes release. Karol also accomplished the groundbreaking episodic mobile distribution of a feature film (Sally Potter’s RAGE), as well as web distribution of 9 prequels while making the award-winning documentary The Bengali Detectives. In addition, Karol was co-founder and initiator of conditionone.com, cinelan.com, indieWIRE.com, Filmmaker Magazine, RES Magazine and the Virtual Film Festival.

Karol has worked on the following Webby Award nominated and award-winning companies: FOCUS FORWARD – Short Films, Big Ideas ’12, Sally Potter’s RAGE ’10, epitonic.com ’03, indieWIRE.com ’01 & ’03 and sputnik7. com 2001. Karol has appeared in numerous international publications and is a regular speaker at film and media events around the globe focusing on transformative entrepreneurship and immersive, video-centric applications. Current and past platforms include Bella Gaia, The Collaborative Film, Rising Tide Studios, WorkBookProject and Hamptons International, as well as the LA Independent Film Festival.

Born in Vienna, Karol has lived in over 20 international cities and is fluent in German and English. He received a B.A. at SUNY Purchase and an M.F.A. Graduated from Columbia University with majors in Media Law, Theater Management and Film Production. When not working, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife Julia and their three children.

Stefan Arndt was born in Munich in 1961. Together with directors Tom Tykwer, Dani Levy and Wolfgang Becker he founded the creative union X Filme Creative Pool in 1994. Arndt is the producer of X Filme Creative Pool’s films (e.g. Lola rennt, Good Bye, Lenin!, Amour, Cloud Atlas, Das weiße Band) and, in his capacity as managing director, manages the company together with Uwe Schott.

In 2000 Stefan Arndt founded X Verleih AG together with Manuela Stehr. He was a co-founder of the Berlin Sputnik-Kollektiv, and a founding member of the Deutsche Filmakademie, for which he also acted as chairman until November 2009. Since 2016 he is head of the directing department of the HFF München.

FILMOGRAPHY

Producer of:

Tom Tykwer’s Die tödliche Maria, Winterschläfer, Lola rennt, Der Krieger und die Kaiserin, Heaven (in cooperation with Miramax), Drei, Ein Hologramm für den König

Wolfgang Becker’s Das Leben ist eine Baustelle, Good Bye, Lenin!, Ich & Kaminski

Dani Levy’s Stille Nacht, Meschugge, Mein Führer, Die Känguru-Chroniken 

Michael Haneke’s Das weiße Bank, Amour, Happy End 

Also: Babylon Berlin (written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten, Achim von Borries), Absolute Giganten (Sebastian Schipper), Agnes und seine Brüder (Oskar Roehler), Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Lana and Andy Wachowski), Quellen des Lebens (Oskar Roehler), Das finstere Tal (Andreas Prochaska), Jeder stirbt für sich allein (Vincent Perez), Vor der Morgenröte (Maria Schrader), Frantz (Francois Ozon) and Zwei Herren im Anzug (written and directed by Sepp Bierbichler)

AWARDS

1x Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1x Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, 7x Academy Award nominations, 2x Palme D’Or, 2x Golden Globe, 38x Deutscher Filmpreis, 10x European Film Award, 16x Bayerischer Filmpreis, 6x César, 1x Critics Choice Movie Award and more.

Dünker originally trained as a photographer. In 1990 he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked first as a set photographer and camera assistant, and then for two years as a production manager for independent productions. Back in Munich he enrolled at the HFF München to study production and media industry.

As a student he also worked as a freelance production manager for music clips and commercials. After graduating from the HFF in October 1996 he established the “Young Guns” business division within Roman Kuhn und Partner Werbefilmproduktion GmbH.

In July 1997 he joined Helkon Media AG as a producer and head of production, where he was responsible for productions such as Der Schandfleck or Nichts als die Wahrheit.

As a freelance producer for Helkon Media AG he realized the feature films Kismet and Der tote Taucher im Wald. In September 2000 he moved to Berlin, where he established and managed the Berlin storydevelopment department for TV60 Filmproduktion.

In April 2003 Nils Dünker became a self-employed producer; in July 2006 he founded Lailaps Pictures GbR. At the same time he signed a First Look Agreement with Monaco Film GmbH, for which he produced two Marcus H. Rosenmüller films, Beste Zeit and Beste Gegend. Dünker is the co-creator of the TV show bible for one of ZDF’s most successful primetime shows, Der Kriminalist. He also developed and produced the event film Westflug – Entführung aus Liebe for RTL.

In June 2010 Dünker, together with a silent partner based in Switzerland, transformed Lailaps Pictures GbR into a corporation. Within this new company structure Dünker co-produced Oscar winner Paul Haggis’ new film, Third Person, starring Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Olivia Wilde, James Franco and Adrian Brody. The following year shooting for Peter Bogdanovich’s comedy Broadway Therapy started in New York, starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson.

In collaboration with the makers of Stromberg he produced the award-winning satirical comedy Vorsicht vor Leuten, shot in Berlin and Mallorca for WDR. The production was awarded the Comedy Prize for best TV film and was nominated for a Golden Camera.

The award-winning artist portrait Our Last Tango was Lailaps’ first documentary production, realized in collaboration with Wim Wenders as executive producer.

In 2015 the film Die dunkle Seite des Mondes was produced, and shooting started for Eine unerhörte Frau, an FFF Bayern funded TV film produced for ZDF/arte and directed by Hans Steinbichler. It was distributed to German cinemas by Wild Bunch and received several awards, including the One Future Prize and the Deutsche Fernsehpreis 2018.

Together with first-time director Adrian Goiginger, Nils Dünker developed the script for Die beste aller Welten, a German-Austrian co-production that was top of the arthouse charts.

The founder and managing partner of Film-Line Productions GmbH in Munich, Vienna, Berlin and Eclypse Filmpartner in Vienna has been a successful producer of German and international motion pictures and TVfilms for many years. Arno Ortmair is an expert for international co-productions and film financing. In 1987 he established Film-Line in Germany and Austria as a service production company for American and English motion pictures (James Bond, Shining Trough, I SPY), gaining know-how and experience that came in useful when he later went on to developing and producing his own projects.

His own productions include motion pictures such as Klimt (Raoul Ruiz, John Malkovich), The Poet (Dougray Scot, Laura Harring), or TABU – Es ist die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden (Christoph Stark, Lars Eidinger), as well as major award-winning TV events such as Das Ewige Lied (Franz Xaver Bogner), Die Schwabenkinder (Jo Baier) or Margarete Steiff (Xaver Schwarzenberger).

In addition to his work as a producer, he also chaired the Verband Deutscher Filmproduzenten for six years,during which time he significantly expanded and rejuvenated the association and made it the most important representative body for independent producers. He represented the interests of the association as holder of the following honorary offices/member of the following panels:

• Chairman of the Verband Deutscher Filmproduzenten
• FFA board member
• FFA awards committee
• FFA Kiss innovation committee
• FFA work group German film heritage
• Presiding committee of Spitzenorganisation der Filmwirtschaft (SPIO)
• International Federation of Film Producers Associations(FIAPF)
• German Films
• VGF advisory board
• AGICOA
• CSU film commission
• Austrian producers union Film-Austria
• European Producers Club

In May 2017, Arno Ortmair handed over the chairmanship of the Verband Deutscher Filmproduzenten to a younger board. He is now focusing on the expansion of his company in collaboration with international financing and production partners and media companies.