2025 Festival Program
The venue opens at 9:00 am.
Get ready for the day ahead and debrief the previous day’s sessions over a coffee with fellow delegates.
In production and advertising, presence is power and image is currency. Many of us learn to perform a version of ourselves to fit a role: the unflappable agency creative, the visionary director, the confident closer. But what happens to the parts of ourselves we don’t show?
Ali Brown (PRETTYBIRD, Ventureland), Alberto Ponte (Someplace), Sally Campbell (Somesuch), and Jason Kreher (DE-YAN) will unpack the tension between their public persona and private self. Expect a conversation that’s intimate, reflective, and affirming — a reminder that strength can come from vulnerability, and that leadership can be most powerful when it’s most human.
Enjoy conversations with industry peers over barista coffee at the venue.
In this session, Kamey Butler (Netflix), will explore how mindfulness is not just a wellness practice, but a powerful tool for unlocking deeper creative insight, better collaboration, and more courageous ideas.
Through stories, neuroscience, and practical techniques, you’ll discover how presence can sharpen your creative edge and sustain your work with greater clarity, purpose and impact.
Dive into the surreal world of bathtub theatre, with Hornbach’s No Project Without Drama; a cinematic homage to the beauty and chaos of DIY’s realities.
With a hand-built stage, a 30-member choir, and a soundtrack provided by an orchestra recorded in Berlin, this film celebrates not perfection, but perseverance. Not ease, but effort. Join CANADA director Lope Serrano, HEIMAT founder & CCO Guido Heffels, and TEMPOMEDIA partner & EP Vera Portz, for a peek behind the creative process-curtain of the dramatic spot.
Delegates are welcome to explore the many cafes and restaurants nearby – browse a list of our recommended spots in the area.
Please note that food is not permitted at the venue.
Academy Award-winning film editor Paul Rogers will delve into PARALLAX’s groundbreaking “swarm” editing methodology. Used on projects like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Beyonce’s Lemonade, it involves multiple editors working in tandem, transforming the traditional post-production workflow.
In this talk, you will learn how diverse perspectives are harnessed to foster unparalleled experimentation, leading to dynamic, unexpected, and emotionally resonant storytelling.
Enjoy conversations with industry peers over barista coffee at the venue.
As brands chase originality and audiences demand authenticity, the most exciting work is coming from the independent companies.
From breaking rules to breaking through, the co-founders of Untold Studios, Rochelle Palmer and Darren O’Kelly, will celebrate the pioneers who lit the spark and the new wave of start-ups rewriting the rules of creativity and technology. It will be a call to action for creators, makers, and visionaries who know that independence isn’t a limitation, it’s a superpower.
Steve Rogers (Revolver, Biscuit Filmworks) doesn’t do things by accident.
In conversation with Lynsey Atkin (Baby Teeth), this talk explores creative intent, problem solving and why the darkest work doesn’t happen without an optimistic mind.
Enjoy an open bar alongside industry peers, hosted at UdK by Compass Rose and its global network of production partners.