About the team
Daina Oniunas-Pusić (Director) is a Croatian multi award winning writer and director based in London. She learnt her craft while studying film and television directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb before relocating to the U.K. to study at the London Film School. In 2013 Daina was the recipient of the Jelena Rajkovic award for best Croatian filmmaker under the age of 30, which led to her making her first professional short film The Beast. The project was selected and won the NISI MASA European Short Pitch in 2014. The Beast premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2015 and has since screened at over 20 festivals picking up numerous awards including the Golden pram award at Zagreb Film Festival, Jury honourable mention in Slamdance and best short fiction at LA Film Festival. Her next project, a comedy short entitled Rhonna & Donna was selected from over 300 by Creative England to be produced as part of their Funny Girls initiative. The film had its world premier at FLICKERS’ Rhode Island and screened at Telluride film festival and many more.
Helen Gladders (Producer: Gingerbread Pictures) is a graduate of the National Film and Television School MA Producing for Film & Television course and has produced several award winning short films. Since graduating, Helen has worked at Dan Films, working with producers Julie Baines and Jonathan Taylor across their slate in development and production. She produced Creative England iShorts+ Funny Girls short Rhonna & Donna with writer director Daina Pusic in her time there, and in October 2016 she moved to her own company Gingerbread Pictures. Helen is working with a range of exciting emerging female filmmakers and has projects in development with BFI, BBC Films, Moonriver Entertainment, Wild Mercury and Protagonist Pictures.
Ivana MacKinnon (Producer: Stray Bear Productions) is a BAFTA nominated film producer whose most recent feature Beast won the BAFTA for Best Debut Film 2019. Between 2003 and 2011, Ivana ran development for first Celador Films and then Cloud Eight Pictures, working across films as diverse as Slumdog Millionaire and The Descent, before moving into producing with The Scouting Book for Boys and The Descent 2. In 2011, Ivana set up Stray Bear Productions and produced Kibwe Tavares’ Jonah, a hugely ambitious live action/VFX short which premiered at Sundance 2013 and has won multiple international awards. In summer 2013 Ivana executive produced War Book, a Jack Thorne-penned and Tom Harper-helmed political thriller starring Sophie Okenedo and Antony Sher which was released in cinemas and screened on BBC4 in summer 2014. Stray Bear Productions received a BFI Vision Award in 2013, and in summer 2016 produced Michael Pearce’s debut feature Beast, funded by Film4 and BFI. Beast was released internationally in 2018 and was nominated for 10 BIFAs and 2 BAFTAS, winning the BAFTA for Best Debut Film.
Oliver Roskill (Producer, Record Player Films) is a BAFTA-award winning producer of feature films including Under the Shadow (2015) and iBoy (2016) which was the first ever Netflix Original feature film produced in the UK. He is also an executive producer on the HBO series Run, starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge. He was a co-founder of Wigwam Films in 2012 and was named as one of Screen International’s “Future Leaders” in 2015. His extensive background in production has seen him travel the world for the past 12 years producing commercials and branded content for the likes of Panasonic, Adidas, Uber, Renault, Gillette, Toyota, Electronic Arts and Pepsi. He also works as producer for MasterClass on their UK productions. In 2018 he teamed with Patrick Howson to focus on a new slate of feature, television, documentary and commercial projects under their new banner Record Player Films.