A free mentorship initiative connecting Ukrainian film and theatre artists with working international professionals — actors, directors, casting professionals, and producers from the US, UK, Spain, Germany and beyond.
"The people who can change the direction of your career are often outside your current circle. This program exists to close that gap."
Ukrainian creative talent is serious, trained, and hungry for international work. What's often missing isn't ability — it's access. Access to the people who can explain how markets actually work, what casting directors really look for, how to walk into a room in Berlin or London or Los Angeles and be taken seriously.
Mriia Mentors exists to close that gap. Not with theory, not with generic advice — but with live sessions where Ukrainian actors, directors, and filmmakers sit down with working professionals and ask the questions that actually matter to their career right now.
Every session is free. Every recording is shared with all program members.
Live Q&A sessions with international actors, casting professionals, and directors. Each guest comes from a specific market and shares what they know from the inside — how casting works there, what a competitive showreel looks like, how to get on the radar of the right people.
Sessions for directors and filmmakers who want to bring their projects to international markets. Guests from production companies and development teams share honest insight into how projects get selected and what makes a pitch land.
The people who can change the direction of your career are often outside your current circle — in a different city, working in a different language, inside an industry you haven't had a way into yet.
Not a course, not a recorded lecture. A live conversation where you can ask the question that's actually relevant to your career right now.
Every session puts you in the same room as someone who has built the kind of career you're working towards — across different markets and different perspectives.
What casting directors in Germany expect. How a UK development executive reads a pitch. Knowledge that's genuinely hard to find unless you know someone on the inside.
Showing up, asking good questions, being present — that's how people start to know you exist. The ones who move internationally are often the ones who found themselves in the right conversation at the right time.
Started directing his own short films because nobody would cast him. Used festival prize money to fund the next film, then the next — building 175 awards and 700+ selections before his first professional acting role. Now one of Spain's most versatile screen actors.
30+ years navigating the German film industry, first from behind the camera then in front of it. Trained at HB Studio in New York when German state schools said he was too old. Creator and lead of The Bee, a 34-episode comedy series.
New York and Los Angeles based actor with an MFA from Rutgers. Has worked across major US drama and prestige television, including a Spielberg/Hanks HBO production and recent work opposite Colin Farrell.
British actor with deep roots in both stage and screen. Stage credits at the National Theatre and RSC sit alongside a screen career spanning 30 years — from 90s British film classics to recent BBC/Netflix productions.
Works on the development side at Pure Fiction Television, one of the UK's leading independent drama companies. Brings a producer's perspective to the question every filmmaker eventually has to answer: how do you make someone on the other side of a desk say yes?
One application gives you access to all sessions — past, present, and future.
Sessions run online, roughly 90 minutes. Ask questions directly in the room.
Every session is recorded and shared. Miss the live event — watch it when you can.
The program is entirely free for participants. Always has been.
Serious about working internationally. Willing to do the work. Not necessarily experienced yet — just committed.
Directors and writers who want to bring their work to international markets and need a clearer picture of how to get there.
Stage performers building the tools for screen — self-tape, showreel, the different demands of the camera versus the audience.
Apply once and get access to all sessions, all recordings, and the program community. Free, always.