ScreenCraft Works is delighted to announce the mentee-mentor matches for its Cross-Border Mentoring Programme 2025.
Film & TV people seeking safe places for freedom of artistic expression with international allies emerges as a key focus, along with a thirst for knowledge and for global work opportunities.
The 2025 cohort comes together for ScreenCraft Works’ fifth Cross-Border Mentoring programme, designed to support international career development and build global employment networks for under-represented film & TV professionals.
The 2025 Cross-Border Mentoring cohort comprises 80 people with heritage from or living in 36 countries: 40 mentees have been matched with 40 volunteer mentors from another country, based on their career aspirations. The nine-month career-development programme is based on the UK’s ScreenSkills (supported by the BFI) mentoring model. With a focus on jobs that can be conducted remotely or hybrid, the 2025 mentoring cohort includes the departments and roles of editor, audio post-production, composer, writer, animator, producer, production management, and filmmakers working across several roles.
Mentees include film & TV professionals who feel that their freedom of expression is restricted in the arts and societally, who wish to express themselves without fear with their mentor and the ScreenCraft Works community. Mentees also include people wishing to build alliances across borders for international co-productions, to form relationships with in-country teams for more sustainable filming, or to connect with partner organisations for new global perspectives and collaborations. Some mentors are returning and others are former mentees.
In a time of what many perceive as an increasingly insecure global industry, some mentees wish to explore using their considerable transferable skills differently, to widen employment opportunities. Mentees also include professionals experiencing local persecution or discrimination, or who have self-exiled for political reasons who seek international allyship, as well as people who have moved to seek work abroad and are trying to integrate into their new local film & TV industry. Mentees wish to explore fresh global perspectives to enrich their local work as well as seeking to develop their international careers, including through links with their diasporic and displaced communities.
Co-directors Rebecca del Tufo & Elizabeth McIntyre say: “The urgency to create spaces and opportunity for freedom of creative expression is clear. In the ScreenCraft Works mentoring community, we strive to strengthen global industry allyship for the exchange of knowledge, experiences and perspectives for better mutual understanding and inspiration. Where industry people feel vulnerable or isolated, strengthening creative and lived-experience bonds across borders can be transformative for individuals, and for unlocking new industry talent for the global industry. We are grateful to our volunteer mentors and supporters, who enable us to conduct our cross-border mentoring scheme.”
85% of the mentees identify as women or other marginalised genders. The mentee group includes people with a disability (28%), those from the LGBTQIA+ community (25%), work returners, those with caring responsibilities and people from rural areas without good transport and communication. The mentees describe a broad range of ethnic, cultural and belief backgrounds. They span all career stages.
The selected mentees and mentors are across the following 32 countries, nationalities or heritages: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, Uzbekistan, USA, Venezuela and Vietnam.
The Cross-Border Mentoring matches 2025
The following are the mentee-mentor matches for the nine-month career-development programme:
Editing
Abdul Rehman (Pakistan, Portugal) & Deniz Kavalali (Turkey, UK)
Farah Tawfilos (Egypt, Ireland) & Jack Goessens (The Netherlands, UK)
Holly Glover (UK) & Mark Hartzell (USA)
Lisa Drupsteen (USA, Canada) & Andrew McKee (UK)
Audio post production
Faith Abi Haydar (Canada) & Casey Dunmore (USA)
Grace Usleman (USA) & Gaston Ibarroule (Argentina, Germany)
Jasmine Hunjan (UK) & Eric Horstmann (Germany)
Nathaly Gonzalez (Venezuela, Italy, Ireland & Tim Harrison (UK)
Composers, lyricists, music producers & music supervisors
Cecilia Muylaert (Brazil, Portugal, France) & Giorgio Giampà (Mexico, Italy)
Kelsey Le Roux (South Africa) & Connor Cook (USA)
Lauren Finch (UK) & Alexa Borden (USA)
Melissa Axel (USA) & Kofi Owusu (UK)
Nontokozo F. Sihwa (UK) & Rivita Goyle (India, USA)
Nyla Smith (USA) & Ben Morales Frost (UK)
Rafael Vieira (Brazil) & Jon Chau (USA)
Sophian Alkurdi (France, Canada) & Pablo Anson (Spain, Italy)
Tammy Ari (Australia, USA) & Kathleen Wallfisch (UK, Germany)
Wonji Lee (South Korea, USA) & Jolene Khor (Malaysia, UK)
Animation
Miranda Peyton Jones (UK) & Natasza Cetner (Poland, UK)
Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume (UK) & Gaia Alari (Italy)
Writers, writer-directors & producers
Barbara Bargiel (Poland, UK) & Koura Linda (USA)
Danae Grandison (Jamaica, USA) & Jane Gull (UK)
Elizaveta Parshakova (Russia, Uzbekistan) & Dan Clifton (UK)
Farook Qais (UK) & Munzir Naqvi (India)
Hanane Zahrouni (Tunisia, UK) & Eric Stalzer (USA)
Ina Sotirova (Bulgaria, Jamaica) & Marcie MacLellan (Canada, UK)
Jahvar McLean (Jamaica) & Jeff Hanley (USA)
Joseph Raphael Akama (Cameroon) & Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen (Vietnam, USA)
Lada Kopytova (Ukraine, UK) & Lucas Fothergill (UK, Canada)
Leigh-Ann de Wee (South Africa) & Rachel Wood (UK)
Linda Wystemp (Germany, UK) & Mariano Baselga (Spain)
Mariana Vily (Argentina, USA) & Samantha Levine (Canada)
Marion Myrie (Jamaica) & Mark Williams (UK)
Payal Sethi (India, Germany) & Helmy Nouh (Egypt)
Renae Williams (Jamaica) & Christian Field (UK)
Rumina Awal (UK) & Stephen Gerard Kelly (Ireland, Dominican Republic)
Shania Wilson (Jamaica) & Nataylia Roni (UK)
Talia Woodin (UK) & Stephanie Palumbo (USA)
Tanya Kuruvilla (India, UK) & Roshanak Behesht Nedjad (Germany)
Tulasi Das (Netherlands, UK) & David Hamlin (USA)
We are grateful to our volunteer mentors and our supporters, who enable us to carry out the ScreenCraft Works Cross-Border Mentoring programme.