The Story Room is a cosy virtual hub open to all DAE filmmakers working on a project and eager to engage and share with other DAE filmmakers across the world.
Join us for our DAE Story Room and the DAE Story Room Shorts, a dedicated space for short film projects.
An off-the-stage space where filmmakers meet, present projects and discuss challenges during development or post-production, seek advice before going into the open or listen in to other projects, collecting and sharing resources
Find out more about the Story Room and Story Room Shorts, our format dedicated to short films!
THE STORY ROOM
Next up on Friday, July 3
(15 CEST Berlin/Paris Time)
The Story Room welcomes projects in any stage to present themselves to a group of peers, two projects per session, to work on creative challenges together. New in 2026: every session will also be accompanied by an expert from the field with a keynote and to provide guidance on certain subjects.
The Story Room is led and facilitated by DAE Senior Consultants Laura Kloeckner, Mariia Ponomarova and Bronte Stahl.
Our next Story Room session will be July 3, 15 CEST (Berlin/Paris Time). Following our new approach it will feature a new keynote speaker.
Members only, to register, please fill in this form and send an email to storyroom@dae-europe.org with a short description of your project to arrange for a slot.
NEXT Story Room’s Focus: Archive Research
Our keynote in July will focus on archive research.
More information will follow. Stay tuned! ´
THE STORY ROOM SHORTS
Next up on Friday, July 10
(16 CEST, Berlin/Paris Time)
Looking for feedback on your short film project? Curious to learn more about the short film community? This is your place to be.
The Story Room Shorts is facilitated by our short film experts Sanne Jehoul and Vincent Foerster. The Story Room Shorts will run every few months on a Friday afternoon.
Our next Story Room Shorts session will be on July 10, 16 CEST (Berlin/Paris Time). Please note the new time.
To participate (with or without a project) and be informed, please fill in this form. If you register with a project, we will get back to you to arrange for a slot. Please do reach out to storyroomshorts@dae-europe.org if you have any questions.
We have created a Community Agreement that all participants agree to when they enter this space. Please find it here for review before joining.
About Sanne Jehoul:
Sanne is a film and culture worker with experience across programming and curation, distribution, facilitation, talent development, and editorial, with a particular focus on short form moving image. She has previously managed the short film slate at Square Eyes (AT), was programme director at Glasgow Short Film Festival (UK), led the talent development programme for the BFI Doc Society Fund (UK), and has worked for several UK and European festivals in programming and production. She has also led and collaborated on various community-focused events and projects, including work with incarcerated audiences and participants, fundraisers for Palestine, and events in partnership with unions and grassroots organisations. She is interested in work and collaborators that think beyond traditional film and arts spaces, in cross-sector solidarity and support networks, and in improving working practices across the field.
She has recently launched onzer films, through which she distributes and supports new, innovative, and politically engaged moving image works and artists. She is part of the editorial team at Talking Shorts, on the selection committee for Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, and on the board of yanco. She has served on various international festival panels and juries as well as facilitating conversations and masterclasses, and was a curator-in-residence at Q21 in Vienna.
About Vincent Förster:
Vincent is a festival programmer, filmmaker, and moderator from Berlin. His studies of International Relations, Arabic, and Documentary Film Directing took him to Scotland, Egypt, Morocco, and Sudan, where he worked in cultural and educational institutions and realised film projects. He’s been part of the selection committees of Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and Filmfest Dresden, and serves as Programme Manager Short Films at Berlinale Generation.
About Laura Kloeckner:
Laura Kloeckner is a film producer (SEERA Films) and curator based in Berlin. She previously worked for DOX BOX, where she produced two documentary films The Dream Continues (60min / Tunisia, Germany 2021) and Do Flowers Bloom After the Spring? (25min / Tunisia, Germany / 2021).
Between 2016 and 2019 Laura worked for the DOK Industry Department of DOK Leipzig and the Berlinale/EFM. Laura is part of the Berlin based art space SAVVY Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form Ideas. For SAVVY she recently co-curated the Berlinale Forum Expanded exhibitions The Wind In Your Body Is Just Visiting, Your Breath Will Soon Be Thunder (2022) and Letters From A Guarani Women to the Land Without Evil (2020). Laura holds an MA in Politics and Postcolonial Studies from SOAS, University of London.
About Mariia Ponomarova:
Mariia is a film director, creative producer and film industry professional. Mariia studied directing at Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Ukraine and completed the Master of Film artistic research programme at the Netherlands Film Academy. She is an alumna of IDFAcademy, Ex Oriente Film, Emerging Producers and B2Bdoc workshops.
Fiction and documentary films Mariia worked on (Three Windows on South West, The Diaper Cake, Fragile Memory, Nice Ladies) were screened at such acclaimed festivals as HotDocs, DokLeipzig, IDFA, Sarajevo FF, Sheffield DocFest, Chicago IFF, Krakow FF, Clermont-Ferrand ISFF, DokuFest, and Palm Springs SFF, among others. Mariia is a frequent industry events moderator, programmer and panelist, collaborating with DocudaysUA, Movies that Matter, IDFA, Netherlands FF and DAE. She has been a reader for the BFI Doc Society Features Fund, works as a project manager for the CineCoPro Conference at Munich IFF and is a member of the Documentary Film Association of Ukraine and the European Film Academy.
About Bronte Stahl:
Bronte Stahl (1993) is a filmmaker from Westerly, RI, USA. He graduated from the European itinerant MFA program DocNomads and is an alumnus of the Flaherty Seminar Fellowship, IDFA Project Space, Eurodoc and Points North Fellowship. The films he directs including Puiet (2022), Terril (2019) and Lungs (2017) have premiered at festivals such as Venice Critics Week (Best Short Film), Rotterdam and DocLisboa, respectively. As a producer, he is compelled to elevate emerging international voices in non-fiction cinema. This work has been supported by the Sundance Documentary Fund, DocSociety US, British Film Institute, and LEF Foundation, among others. His first feature as a producer, Rejeito (2023) by Pedro de Filippis, premiered at Cinéma du Réel and screened at HotDocs, Camden, IDFA and many others. Currently he holds a Fulbright scholarship to Romania in the field of filmmaking.
