Born in 1973, Cosimo Santoro is an Italian distributor, former festival programmer, and film critic. During the years, he has served several juries (Berlinale Teddy Awards, Sofia Meetings, Tarragona REC and Madrid Margenes, among others) and gave industry masterclasses or participated at panels at several events including Bogota BAM, Curitiba Olhar de Cinema, Belo Horizonte Brasil CineMundi and Buenos Aires ABC Bafici. In 2012, he founded the World Sales Agency The Open Reel, focused on the the promotion, distribution and sales of long feature films, shorts and documentaries of all kinds of genre. Several are the talents scouted in these years: among them French Damien Manivel, Spanish Jaione Camborda and Diana Toucedo, Brazilians Daniel Nolasco and Rafaela Camelo and Italian Simone Bozzelli. He is a member of the European Film Academy and has been part of the experts committee for the 2024 EFA Awards. He has been also a consultant for the consultancy program First Lab Cut.
