Late September 2026
Sant Mori Castle,
Girona,
Spain
Have you dreamed of writing a screenplay and seeing it come to life on the silver screen?
Or written a TV show or play that you long to see produced?
Or maybe you’ve published a book and are wondering about how to turn it into a film script?
Seems impossible, right?
Mentors
Judi Levine
Judi Levine has had an extensive producing career in feature films and documentaries, and has been associated with award-winning film projects since her first short feature PLEAD GUILTY, GET A BOND won an AFI award for Best Screenplay in a Short Film.
Her work has led her to projects around the globe, including features in Australia, England, Scotland, the Czech Republic and the USA. Levine produced the feature film THE SESSIONS starring Oscar-winner Helen Hunt, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the film and Oscar-nominees John Hawkes and William H. Macy.
THE SESSIONS won numerous international awards including Audience Awards at the Sundance, San Sebastian and Mill Valley Film Festivals, a Sundance Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast, and acting nominations and awards at the 2012 Independent Spirit, Golden Globe and Academy Awards.
In 2017, Levine co-produced the WWII drama THE CATCHER WAS A SPY starring Paul Rudd, Paul Giamatti and Guy Pearce, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and opened internationally that same year.
In 2020, Levine completed the romantic comedy FALLING FOR FIGARO starring Joanna Lumley and Danielle Macdonald, which was released globally in 2021, followed by the feature film HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN starring British comedienne Sally Phillips, due for release in 2022.
Most recently, she has partnered with Keshet International to produce the feature film SYLVIA AND THE PRESIDENT, about a young woman in the 1930s who led the first movement for the rights of people with disabilities at a time when President Roosevelt was concealing his own disability.
Levine’s documentary experience includes work on the six-hour television series THE MIGRANT EXPERIENCE and as producer on the feature documentaries HOLLYWOOD GOLD for the Discovery Channel, and two documentary projects currently in development including OUTSPOKEN! IDA LUPINO – HER LIFE IN PICTURES and an ABORIGINAL TEEN DOCUMENTARY about a group of teens who, over 20 years ago, saved up to go to Hollywood, and now talk about that experience and how it changed not only their lives but those of their whole community.
In addition to producing, Levine tours with the seminars JUMPSTART HOLLYWOOD, aimed at helping aspiring artists find an easier path to establishing themselves in the toughest filmmaking town in the world.
Chris Deckard
Prior to co-founding the management/production company Fictional Entity in January 2017, Chris Deckard spent over seven years working with and representing talent at major agencies such as ICM Partners and WME. He has worked closely with traditional and new media buyers to find and develop content for domestic and international audiences. In addition to helping cast and package numerous features and series, he has evaluated thousands of scripts for actors and directors. Chris graduated from Cornell University and earned his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.
Fictional Entity’s clients have been named to The Black List, The Hit List, The Young & Hungry List, The Blood List and been lauded by the PAGE Awards, the International Emmys and placed as finalists in The Heath Ledger Scholarship and the Academy Nicholl Fellowship The Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Awards, the AWG, ADG, SPA, and AACTA. Clients have written, directed, starred, and produced in numerous formats, including features, TV, virtual reality, and podcasts, independently and for companies like Netflix, NBCUniversal, AMC, Legendary, Meta, Marvel, Fremantle, SyFy, the CW, Warner Bros., Amazon, Blumhouse, Comedy Central, BBC, the ABC Australia, Foxtel, TruTV, Super Deluxe, Hallmark, CBS, Lifetime, E!, and MSNBC.
Chris has advised clients through multiple successful series pilot and pitch sales. He and his business partner were non-writing Executive Producers on a series pilot that sold to a major US network in 2021. In 2024, Fictional Entity client highlights include: a book-to-series pitch sale to Netflix, a first-time writer/director’s feature film entering production, the release of three series from first-time writing Executive Producers, and a feature film release.
Kirsty Bell
Kirsty Bell, founder & CEO of Goldfinch and co-founder of DREAMTOWN, initially qualified in law, then became a chartered tax adviser and strategic tax partner for a top ten firm before the age of 30. Now recognized as one of the UK’s leading filmmakers, Producers and Executive Producers of well over 100 feature films, including the 2023 Best Short Film Oscar and BAFTA winner ‘An Irish Goodbye’.
As the founder of Goldfinch in 2014, Bell demonstrates the viability of private investment in the independent film sector, pioneering new avenues for creative visionaries. She has facilitated the financing of over 300 film and TV projects, guiding more than 20 first-time directors in bringing their cinematic visions to life and is co-founder of Goldfinch’s First Flights programme. Her directorial debut feature film “A Bird Flew In,” starring Jeff Fahey and Sir Derek Jacobi, was selected for over 30 festivals, accumulating an impressive tally of 28 award wins and 30 nominations to date.
Niall Johnson
Niall Johnson has been writing and directing movies for over 30 years.
He came to Hollywood’s notice in 2003 with his spec supernatural script WHITE NOISE, starring Michael Keaton, which opened in January 2005 at #1 in the UK and #2 in the US, where it broke the box-office record at the time for the biggest January opening for a non-sequel.
In that same year, 2005, Niall wrote and directed the black comedy classic KEEPING MUM, starring Rowan Atkinson, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas (winning the London Film Critics 2006 Best Actress Award award), and Patrick Swayze. Niall adapted the script from an original by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo (Nobody’s Fool, Empire Falls)—winning them the 2006 HBO Comedy Festival Best Screenplay Award.
Niall’s other credits include: wife-swapping comedy-drama THE BIG SWAP (1996); traditional haunted house TV-Movie THE GHOST OF GREVILLE LODGE (1999), starring Prunella Scales and George Cole; MUM’S LIST (2016) the critically-acclaimed true story weepie romance based on St John Greene’s best-selling memoir, starring Rafe Spall and Emilia Fox; and the Western-styled adventure story THE STOLEN (2017) set in New Zealand’s 1860s Gold Rush, starring Alice Eve, Jack Davenport, Graham McTavish and Richard O’Brien.
Niall was a writer on the visually-striking animated drama-documentary feature ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE, based on the memoir by Ryszard Kapuscinski about the Angolan civil war of the mid-1970s. It received its World Premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was voted Best Animated Film at the European Film Awards.
His most recent work is the Family Fantasy Adventure movie LEGEND HAS IT, starring Rupert Everett, Tamsin Grieg and Emilia Fox and an array of up-and-coming British acting talent. Niall has also been lead director on the new comfy-crime British-Greek TV show THE SUNSHINE MURDERS for Paramount+, debuting on the UK’s Channel 5 in Summer 2025.
Born and raised in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, Niall’s passion for movies is a result of a childhood spent producing epic remakes of the likes of PLANET OF THE APES, STAR TREK, DOCTOR WHO and BATMAN with his brother and a silent Kodak 8mm film camera—the most notable recurring feature of these being his mother’s laundry hanging on the washing line in the back-yard!
Niall has been a Rocaberti mentor since 2019.
The Retreat includes...
Partners
PAGE Awards
MWP



