Vanda Vaz

Vanda Vaz was born in Mértola, Beja, Portugal as Vanda Cristina, her baptism name. She is a creative executive and producer, known for Serenata Monumental da Queima das Fitas (RTP) (1995), Serenata da Festa das Latas e Imposição de Insígnias (RTP) (1999) and One Hundred Steps (2000). She has been a long collaborator of the producer Emanuel AG since mid 80s, having worked throughout different media from Radio to TV and film industries. Vanda Vaz finished a 5-years degree in Law with specialization in Economics plus the postgraduate diploma in Communication Law (Audiovisual, Advertisement, New Technologies and Copyright Law), both from Law school / Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In 1997, as an European Commission's MEDIA program scholarship winner, she attended her Master in Audiovisual Management with specialization in Film Production (EMAM / MAGICA, Rome, Italy), finished in 1998, where had as her instructors the producers Fernando Ghia and Antonio Saura, the screenwriting guru Christopher Vogler, the TV executive Claudio Di Persia and the finance expert Linda Beath, among others, and as colleagues Emanuel AG, Laura Luchetti, Attilio Moro, Jurgen Proschinger, Antonella Di Nocera. A program supported and financed by the Dipartimento dello Spettacolo della Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri of the Italian government, sponsored by the European Union in partnership and promoted by ANICA - Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive Multimediali (UNPF/UNIDIM) in Rome (Italy), with participation of RAI (Italy), Fininvest Comunicazioni (Italy), New Line Cinema (USA), among other key players of the media industry. A year later, working as script reader/analyst in the production company of the famous Spanish producer Elías Querejeta and the year after, in charge of the adaptation of One Hundred Steps (2000) along the co-production process of such milestone of the Italian Cinema at the turn of the century and multiple award-winning in La Biennale di Venezia - 58th Venice International Film Festival including Best Screenplay. In addition to earlier studies in Film History and Aesthetics a few years before, during the law graduation in the local University (Coimbra, Portugal) where she also attended classes in its influential department and their full academic program dedicated to the Film Studies. Later on, in the early 21st century, she also attended the Master's Degree in Communication Sciences - Media Studies in the NOVA School of Social and Human Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon, where she was student of the owner of the Portuguese TV network SIC & Impresa Group, former Portuguese Prime-Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, the film director João Mário Grilo and the screenwriter and actor Paulo Filipe.