Signe Byrge Sørensen

CEO & Producer
+45 4118 4890
byrge@final-cut.dk

Signe Byrge Sørensen is a four-time Oscar® nominee for producing The Act of Killing (nominated Best Documentary Feature 2014), The Look of Silence (nominated Best Documentary Feature 2016) and Flee (nominated Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature 2022). She was nominated for the Producer’s Guild Award for The Look of Silence and Flee, and won Cinema Eye Awards for all three films.
Signe Byrge Sørensen has been a producer since 1998, first at SPOR Media, later at Final Cut Productions, and she then co-founded Final Cut for Real ApS in 2009. While at SPOR Media she was the Danish co-producer for Steps for the Future. She holds an MA in International Development Studies and Communication Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark, 1998 (1st). She is a graduate of EURODOC (2003), EAVE (2010), ACE (2018) and Inside Pictures (2022).
In 2014 Signe Byrge Sørensen received the Roos Award, which acknowledges an extraordinary contribution to Danish documentary film, and the Timbuktu Prize, which recognizes critical and investigative journalistic approaches. In 2016 she received the IB Award given by the Danish Directors’ Association.
She is a member of the Danish Film Academy, the European Film Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Anne Köhncke

Producer & Co-owner
+45 5354 6043
anne@final-cut.dk

Anne Köhncke, originally from Norway before moving to Copenhagen in 1997, has been a producer since 2009 when she co-founded Final Cut for Real. Prior to producing, she worked as Commissioning Editor of documentaries at DR2 and as Sales Executive at TV2 World, selling documentaries. She holds an MA in film from the University of Copenhagen, is an EAVE graduate and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Maria Kristensen

Producer / Post Producer / VR Producer
+45 4062 6690
maria@final-cut.dk

Maria has a Master’s Degree in Film (2010 – University of Copenhagen) writing her final thesis on ethics in satirical documentary film. She has been a producer, line producer, production manager and assistant director on both short films and fiction films since 2004. Since 2011, she has worked at Final Cut for Real, handling both production and post production. Recently Maria has worked with VR productions and installations alongside her work on Final Cut for Real’s documentary films.

FRANcESC SITGES-SARDÀ

Post Producer / Editor
+45 2234 3465
francesc@final-cut.dk

Francesc Sitges-Sardà has worked as a film and sound editor in documentary, commercial, feature film and theatre since 2004. He started as a post producer at Final Cut for Real in October 2019. He graduated in Film Editing in 2002 from ESCAC (Catalan School of Cinema and Audiovisuals) in Barcelona with a dedicated university exchange  stay in image and sound post production at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic University in Singapore. He has been skilled within a broad range of musical studies such as classical and jazz piano and musical language at The Music School of Barcelona, Taller de Musics and other specialized courses and stages abroad. Still playing. He’s been freelancing in Barcelona until 2012. Then he moved to New York City, also working as a freelancer, mainly at Harbor Picture Company (The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Dead don't die, The Wolf of Wall Street, ...) for 6 years. He's worked in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Milan, Munich, Madrid among others. He moved back to Europe in September 2018 to settle down in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Janus Billeskov Jansen

Editor & Co-Owner

Janus Billeskov Jansen entered the Danish film industry in 1970 and in 1973 he was the lead editor in charge on a feature film for the first time. He has edited a large number of internationally acknowledged feature films and documentaries, and directed numerous Danish documentaries. Since 1979 he has been teaching editing and narratology at The National Film School of Denmark. Janus has cooperated with most of the influential Danish directors in the past 30 years; most significant is the lifelong creative relationship with the Academy Award winning director Bille August.

ESTHER NISSEN

Producer
+45 2729 8807
esther@final-cut.dk

Esther Nissen holds a BA in Media Studies from Aarhus University and a MA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen, with a specialty in creative business processes. 

Esther has worked as a producer, production manager and as part of the production crew on various short films, tv series and feature films since 2014. She began her career working freelance on fiction projects and moved over to documentary projects when she joined Final Cut for Real in 2019. She wants to produce films that can make an impact on society and play a role in creating a more just world.

Alberte lyngbo nielsen

Junior Producer
+45 2670 2452
alberte@final-cut.dk

Alberte Lyngbo Nielsen has a mixed academic background in anthropology, culture and language studies. She holds a Master of Arts from Aarhus University specialised in indigenous cultures and how colonial power structures can be fought peacefully through artistic initiatives. She also holds a BA from the University of Copenhagen in Spanish language, literature and culture and has studied and worked in Mexico and Spain mainly within the fields of cultural anthropology, diplomacy and cross-cultural reconciliation. She has been working in the film industry since 2021 and aspires to become a creative producer of films that narrate the stories of those whose voices are typically left unheard.

Takahiro Kawana

Intern taka@final-cut.dk

Takahiro Kawana in the final year of BA in human rights at Malmö University in Sweden. He started his documentary filmmaking journey in 2023 as a way to spread awareness of global affairs in the world. His experiences are mainly in post production including two short films he edited, but also in development and production. He is originally from Japan and has lived in five different countries so far and holds international background.

LAURA LINDBLAD

Intern
laura@final-cut.dk

Laura has an academic background in arts, literature and language, and is currently in her final year of her Master's Degree in Danish language, literature and culture at the University of Copenhagen. Laura has been in the film industry since 2019, where she has been working at different film festivals. Laura has always been eager to learn about all aspects of life and to hear the stories from those, who don't have the voices to tell them themselves.  

Joshua Oppenheimer is a two-time Oscar® nominated film director born in the USA. His debut feature film, The Act of Killing (2014 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary), was named Film of the Year in the 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll, and won 72 international awards, including a European Film Award, a BAFTA, an Asia Pacific Screen Award, a Berlinale Audience Award, and the Guardian Film Award for Best Film. His second film, The Look of Silence (2016 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary), premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival, where it won five awards, including the Grand Jury Prize, the international critics award (FIPRESCI Prize) and the European film critics award (FEDEORA Prize). Since then, The Look of Silence has received 73 international awards, including an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, an International Documentary Association Award for Best Documentary, a Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and three Cinema Eye Honors. In 2015, Joshua Oppenheimer received a MacArthur Fellowship (popularly known as ’the genius grant’).

Camilla Magid is an award-winning documentary filmmaker born in Denmark. She studied Film at the University of Copenhagen, and Arabic Language and Culture at the Royal Danish Defense College. From this platform she made her first documentary The Black Lines (2006) which was shot in Syria. She has since made several documentaries in Denmark, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. Her film, White Black Boy, about a boy with albinism in Tanzania, was nominated by the Danish Critic Association and has traveled to many international film festivals. Camilla has directed the documentary Land of the Free that won Nordic DOX Award at CPH:DOX in 2017. Most recently Camilla directed the documentary Fighting Demons with Dragons (2024) which premiered in prime time on DR1.

Carl Olsson was born in 1984 in Kalmar, Sweden. He lives in Copenhagen where he graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 2013.  His graduation film Blessed be this place was Nominated for the Danish Academy Award, Robert 2014, and the prestigious Camerimage for its camerawork, has travelled to numerous festivals and won several international awards. His previous film from The Danish Film School, Mr. Magdy, room number 17 please, won Special Mention at Stockholm Int. Film Festival 2013. Carl Olsson looks with a sharp and loving eye on the human being, exploring oddities in our systems and cultures, where we humans always seem to peep through the cracks in its systemic perfection. His first feature documentary PATRIMONIUM premiered at Gothenburg Film Festival in 2019, and was awarded for “Artistic Excellence” at the Moscow International Film Festival. His latest film Meanwhile on Earth premiered at Rotterdam in January 2020.

Christy Garland is based in Toronto, but works partly in Copenhagen and the Nordic countries. Her award-winning feature doc The Bastard Sings The Sweetest Song was a Canadian/Danish co-production and premiered at Hot Docs and Sheffield DocFest in 2012. The theatrical premiere in Toronto garnered rave reviews: the Globe and Mail called it "unclassifiable, a love story between a filmmaker and her subjects, echoing the work of Bresson and the Dardennes"; Film Threat - "the most poignant true story ever told", National Post - "heart shattering" and Now Magazine called it "cinematic gold." Her second feature doc Cheer Up, a Finnish/Canadian co-production, was called "a biting portrait of young womanhood"  by VICE Magazine. Her latest film What Walaa Wants, a coproduction between Murmur Media, Final Cut for Real and National Film Board of Canada, premiered at the Berlinale 2018. It has since been at many festivals and was nominated for 3 Canadian Screen Awards.

Frida was born and raised in Sweden. She has a degree in Film Directing at the National Film School of Denmark (2005-2009). Her first feature documentary was Pervert Park (2014), directed together with Lasse Barkfors, produced by Frida and Lasse's Swedish company De Andra and Final Cut for Real. It won a Special Jury Prize for Impact at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and has been screened at over 30 festivals around the world. The Barkfors’ second feature documentary Death of a Child premiered in competition at Göteborg Film Festival 2017. Frida also works in fiction. Lasse and Frida are now in production with the third film in their trilogy on social stigma. 

Lasse was born and raised in Denmark. He graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Art in 2012. He is also a skilled cinematographer and editor, and works with fiction as well. His first documentary, together with Frida Barkfors, Pervert Park, won the Special Jury Award for Impact at Sundance 2015. It was produced by Frida and Lasse's Swedish company De Andra and Final Cut for Real. His and Frida Barkfors’ second feature documentary Death of a Child premiered in competition at Göteborg Film Festival 2017. Lasse and Frida are now in production with the third film in their trilogy on social stigma.

Jonas began his career as a film and radio documentary filmmaker at DR-television, debuting in 2006 with the acclaimed one hour documentary film Something About Halfdan, followed by a series of radio documentaries from around the world. He began directing fiction in 2008 after joining the Danish film collective Super16 at Nordisk Film, where he has written and directed three short fiction films. 
His feature film debut Searching for Bill, a mix of documentary and fiction, won him the Nordic Dox award at CPH:DOX and the international competition at DocAviv. His biographical documentary What He Did (House of Real) from 2015 won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Olso/Fusion International Film Festival. He is currently directing the animation documentary feature Flee which is expected to premiere in 2020.

Nitesh Anjaan lives in Copenhagen, where he is currently studying at The National Film School of Denmark. His debut as a film director Far from Home premiered at CPH:DOX '14. His second documentary Dreaming Murakami premiered at IDFA 2017. It won the Audience Award for Best Mid Length Documentary at Hot Docs 2018 in Toronto, and was the most seen film at CPH:DOX 2018.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Simon holds a BA degree in Japanese, with modules in Film and Science, and Visual and Audited Anthropology, and graduated as a Documentary Film Director from The National Film School of Denmark in 2009. As a director his films include Ramona's Journey (2004), Dormitory Master (2009, Gold Panda Award at the Sichuan International TV & Film Festival), Above Ground, Beneath the Sky (2008, Best Short Film at Vision Du Reel and Best International Documentary at Vienna Film Academy International Film Festival 2009), Travelling with Mr. T (2012, co-directed with Andreas M. Dalsgaard), Chikara - The Sumo Wrestler's Son (2013) IDFA and The Fencing Champion (2014) IDFA. His film, The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017), premiered on IDFA 2017, and was awarded the award for The Best First Appearance. It has since won several awards worldwide, among these the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at San Francisco's SFFILM Festival, as well as been named 1 of the 15 European Film Award (EFA) documentaries of 2018, the most prestigious awarding body in Europe. And simons most recent documentary A House Made of Splinters (2022) was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature 2023.

Camilla Nielsson was a Fulbright Scholar at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (NYU), and in the Dept. of Anthropology (NYU), where she studied documentary filmmaking and visual anthropology from 1997-2000. She has directed the documentary short trilogy Good Morning Afghanistan (2003), Durga (2004), and The Children of Darfur (2005), about children’s rights, and Mumbai Disconnected (2009), in the Cities on Speed-series. Since 2007, she has collaborated with Israeli video artist Yael Bartana on the trilogy We Will Be Strong in Our Weakness (Berlinale 2011, Venice Biennale 2011), and Demonstrators (2011), for the exhibition Re:Constructed Landscapes (Danish National Gallery / SMK). Camilla Nielsson’s first feature documentary Democrats (2014), has screened at more than 90 film festivals, and won 25 awards and nominations. Camilla’s latest documentary President (2021), which has won several awards including the Special Jury Price for Verité Filmmaking at Sundance Film Festival 2021.

Rami Farah is a young Syrian filmmaker born in 1980. From 2000 to 2005 he studied dance in Damascus at the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts. Then he graduated from The Arab Film Institute in Amman 2006 after a one-year documentary director’s course. He has also attended many training courses and workshops in contemporary film and dance. His first films and videos both use a blend of dance and audio-visual material. ZamKan, made in 2004, unfolds as a dialogue between a ceiling fan and a chair in a silent room. It was followed by Point, a short arts video that was screened in several exhibitions and festivals around the world. He also co-created the work Not a Matter of If, But When with Julia Metzer and David Thorne. In 2006 as a gradutation film in Amman Rami shot and produced a 35-minute documentary about the Golan Heights entitled Silence. Since the Arab uprising in the region, Rami is involved in the peaceful protest movement in Syria. He distributed cameras to young people all over the country and started shooting his own feature-length documentary. His most recent project as a director is the documentary A Comedian in a Syrian Tradgedy which is currently in post-production

Sun Hee Engelstoft is a documentary director based in Copenhagen. Born in Busan, South Korea 1982 and adopted to Denmark. Having attended several schools for photography, she was accepted at the prestigious National Film School of Denmark, from which she graduated in 2011. "Forget Me Not” is her debut feature length documentary which has already gained international interest from pitch forums at Sheffield Doc/Fest, IDFA and DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in Korea. Engelstoft has previously made several short docs, edited numerous acclaimed photo books and travelled the world with different documentary projects and widely renowned photo exhibitions.

Vibeke Bryld is a Danish filmmaker and writer, born and raised in provincial Denmark, and educated in Copenhagen and London. She holds a BA in literature and a Masters in documentary filmmaking. She has directed short documentaries for Al Jazeera, a few experimental documentaries, and a TV series, and her Bedtime Stories from the Axis of Evil (2011) was nominated for best documentary short by the Danish Film Academy. Other work include Pebbles at Your Door which toured the world and premiered at the Berlinale 2015. Besides directing documentaries she was the Editor in Chief of DOX, the European Documentary Magazine until September 2014. She has recently finished her first VR experience, Hush, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2020. She is currently in production with the documentary Thyland for Final Cut for Real.

Danish-Chilean Marianne Hougen-Moraga is a non-fiction filmmaker. Her films have been shown widely at international festivals, in Danish Broadcast Television and in venues such as BFI London and ICP New York. She did her MA studies in non-fiction film at Goldsmiths College, University of London and she also holds an MA in media science from University of Copenhagen. Among her previous works as a director are Sea of Sorrow – Sea of Hope (2017), Returned (2011), Little Revolution (2010), My Mother’s Promise (2007) and Songs of Repression (2020), which won the main competition at CPH:DOX and Politiken’s DANISH:DOX Award.

Estephan Wagner has worked as documentary director for more than a decade, always approaching his themes from the point of view of his protagonists. Estephan was originally trained as an editor in Germany and his edited work has won several international prices including at the Berlinale. He has edited both independent films and documentaries, and television for several international broadcasters (ARTE, ARD, BBC, DR). He later obtained an MA in documentary direction at the National Film and Television School in the UK.
His film Les Sauteurs premiered at the Berlinale in 2016 and has played at more than 60 festivals and won 15 awards. Other films: Waiting for Women (2008), The Finishing Line (2009), Vanishing Worlds (2011), Last Dreams (2013) and Songs of Repression (2020), which won the main competition at CPH:DOX and Politiken’s DANISH:DOX Award.

anders skovbjerg jepsen

Anders graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 2015 as a documentary film director. He holds a BA in film- and media science and was studying a master in journalism before he got accepted into film school. Anders has made several short documentary films and documentary styled commercials. His first feature length documentary A Silent Story (2023) has been shown at more than 10 film festivals around the world.

Nils giversen

Nils Giversen graduated from the Danish School of Media and Journalism in 2004, and holds a MA in Journalism. Since graduating, Nils has worked as a director for both DR, TV2 and Monday Media. Furthermore, he has worked as a journalist at Pause film and taught Journalism at Roskilde University. Most recently he has been working as editor at DR2, when not working freelance for Final Cut for Real. In 2006 he completed the documentary Den Hemmelige Krig (The Secret War), about Danish special forces sent to Afghanistan to participate in the war against terror. It won the TV-Oscar Award from the Danish magazine Billed Bladet that same year. In 2014 Nils received the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism Award for best investigative journalism on television for his documentary De Udviste Børn (The Expelled Children)

Cille hannibal

Cille Hannibal was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. She graduated as a Documentary Film Director from the prestigious Danish Film School in 2013. She also studied at the Danish School of Journalism (2007-2009). Since graduating Cille has been working as a director and editor on several tv-documentaries produced for Danish Broadcasting DR and TV2. She also directed commercials and music-videoes. “The night we fell” is her debut as a documentary film-director. The film was selected for CPH:DOX 2018 and nominated for a NORDIC:DOX award. The film was also nominated for BEST:SHORT at the prestigious festival “Visions du Reel” in Geneve 2018. She has previously directed the films “2.7” (2013) Nordisk Panorama 2013 “Enniberg” (2014) (in collaboration with Per Folkver) which was nominated for best press photo 2014.

MONICA HELLSTRÔM

monica@strompictures.dk

Monica Hellström was  a producer with Final Cut for Real from 2010-2022, producing among others Simon Lereng Wilmont’s Chikara - The Sumo Wrestler’s Son (2014), The Fencing Champion (2015), The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017) and A House Made of Splinters (2022), Sun Hee Engelstoft’s Forget Me Not (2019), Cille Hannibal’s He’s My Brother (2021) and Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee (2021). For her work on Flee and A House Made of Splinters Monica received a total of 3 Oscar® nominations in 2022 and 2023.

In Summer 2022 Monica started her own production company, Ström Pictures, where she will be helping artists transform their potential into features, documentaries and animated films with high artistic ambition.

HEIDI ELISE CHRISTENSEN

heidi@nordiskpanorama.com

Heidi was as a producer at Final Cut for Real from 2014 to 2024, where she produced Vibeke Bryld’s Pebbles At Your Door (2015) and Elsewhere (2021), Camilla Magid’s Land of the Free (2017) and Fighting Demons with Dragons (2024), Estephan Wagner’s Les Sauteurs (2016), Marianne Hougen-Moraga & Estephan Wagner’s Songs of Repression (2020) and Jon Bang Carlsen’s Dreaming Arizona (2023).

Before joining Final Cut for Real Heidi worked at Filmkontakt Nord as Manager of the Forum at Nordisk Panorama - and in 2024 she left FCFR to become the Managing Director of Nordisk Panorama.