Robert Guédiguian had got a PhD in Social Sciences at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes when René Féret in 1977 offered him to write a script for Fernand. In 1980, director Robert Guédiguian directed his first film, Last Summer with Ariane Ascaride and Gérard Meylan, in which Marseille and its social reality are already present. After several films public learned about him in 1997 with the success of Marius and Jeannette, which won the Louis Delluc Prize and the Ariane Ascaride César for Best Actress. Then he directed In the Place of the Heart, The City is Quiet, and At the Attack. Robert Guédiguian is also one of the founders of the producers' collective Agat Films & Cie/Ex Nihilo. This independent company has produced more than 400 documentary and fiction films. He returns to his paternal roots with The Journey to Armenia in 2006, which won the Prix Henry Langlois and then creates a film noir Lady Jane, selected at Berlin IFF. His 17th film Snows of Kilimanjaro, has been in the official selection at the Cannes IFF 2011, Un Certain Regard. His new movie A Crazy Story will come out in a few months.

He instituted the Akira Kurosawa Lifetime Achievement Award. Has been invited to become Directeur Générale of the Cinémathèque Française, the oldest and most celebrated film archive in Europe. In 2003 leaves for the US to serve as Artistic Director of NYC’s Tribeca FF. Later Scarlet moved to the UAE to take the post of the Executive Director of Abu Dhabi FF. Also helped in creating SANAD, a groundbreaking development and postproduction fund. He has served on juries at many film festivals including Almaty, Cairo, Cannes, Dubai, Geneva Human Rights, Karlovy Vary, Los Angeles, and many others. Also he is a Board member of Parajanov-Vartanov Insitute, Beverly Hills, CA.

Graduate in Film Studies from the High Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. As film critic he contributes to various film magazines, review outlets and newspapers. Lecturer of Film Distribution at the National Academy for Teatre and Film, Sofia, Film History at the SouthWest University in Blagoevgrad. Autor of many books, ralated to history of film, uncluding The Cinema in Bulgaria in 3 volumes. Founder and artistic director of the Love Is Folly IFF in Varna (1993). Executive Director of the Bulgarian National Film Centre (2004-2009). Member of the Union of the Bulgarian Filmmakers and the Bulgarian section of FIPRESCI. Jury member at numerous national and international film festivals.

He graduated documentary film studies at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts (FAMU Prague). His filmography includes 5 short or middle-length films. Festival Director of Jihlava Documentary IFF which was founded in 1997. In 1996 and 1997 he organized and hosted discussions with various representatives of Czech cultural landscape. JIDFF is a member of Doc Alliance - partnership of five key European documentary film festivals (CPH:DOX Copenhagen, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, Planete Doc Review Warsaw, Visions du réel Nyon). Is a member of advisory board of revue of documentary films called “do” and monthly magazine “dok.revue”. He was invited to several international juries at different festivals (e.g. Visions du Réel Nyon, Doku.fest Munich or Cracow IFF).

A director and producer who lives in Florence, Italy. Originally a photographer, turned to making documentaries after spending several months in Selva Lacandona, Mexico, where he shot a film about the outbreak of the Zapatista uprising. He published two novels and a photographic book. He's the founder of the company Altara Films, which produces his films and other authors as well, with a particular attention to the international coproduction. His works were screened in different international festivals. His last film, The Stone River, was awarded with the Poggiali Award at Rome IFF, the Young Jury Award at the Cinéma du Réel in Paris, the Golden Apricot at the Yerevan IFF and the Italian Golden Globe for best documentary.

Born in Lisbon in 1969, Nuno Sena is one of the founders and chief programmers of IndieLisboa Festival Internacional de Cinema Independente, now on its eleventh edition. He graduated in Communication Sciences with a specialization in Cinema. Formerly he has worked as an assistant to the Direction of the Portuguese Institute of Cinema and was responsible for the programming and publishing department of the Cinemateca Portuguesa-Museu do Cinema. He has also been a programmer of Doclisboa – Festival Internacional de Cinema Documental 2004-06. Currently, besides directing and programming IndieLisboa, he teaches film history and documentary film in the university.

Journalist, writer, filmmaker and film and TV industry expert in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. He is the Eastern Europe bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter, a former Moscow correspondent for the (London) Sunday Telegraph, the (London) Times Higher Education Supplement and Variety. As a film industry expert, he has hosted and moderated discussions on film and television at a range of international events, including the Cannes IFF (Russian Pavilion, 2012) New Horizons IFF (Wroclaw, 2012-14), the Berlin IFF (Cinema Total 6th edition - 2012, focus on coproducing films with Russia). Nick has also written and directed five documentary short films. His current project is drama-documentary work in progress Napoleon's Lost Imperial Gold.

Born and raised in Belgrade, Irena Bilić studied Philosophy and Anthropology at the Sorbonne and Film Directing under the guidance of Jean Rouch and Eric Rohmer. Since University she worked as a film critic and translator. Auteur of more than 20 documentaries and short features (including Maison Folle, Mystic Ships, Dervishes, Officer and It's Much Later than You Think) that have appeared at festivals in Creteil, Clermont-Ferrand, Stockholm, Belgrade, Kolašin, Moscow and Montpellier as well as at the Cinémathèque française, the Musée de l’homme, Documenta of Kassel, UNESCO, Film Museum in Oslo and at the Galerie of American Fine Art in New York. She is founder, producer and artistic director of "l'Europe autour de l'Europe","Europe by Europe" a month-long festival of art and auteur films from countries throughout greater Europe, which has been held in Paris and Normandy since 2006.

Filmmaker, scriptwriter, actress. An Alumni of the Film Institute of India, Pune with Diploma in Film Acting and a celebrated actress from Orissa and winner of the State Award for Best Actress. Has acted in feature films, TV Serials. Hakim Babu received the National award for the Best Oriya Film. Was on the Governing Council of the Film & TV Institute of India from 1992-95. Has been a jury member and received numerous awards in different festivals. Bijaya has also practiced herself in filmmaking. Is the producer, scriptwriter, director and actress of the award winner films Tara and Abhaas. The films received several awards.

Film journalist and film critic, currently responsible of the weekly cinematic page in the leading Arab daily newspaper An-Nahar, published in Beirut since 1933. He had started his career in 1999 as freelance journalist working with local and regional newspapers from the Arab world. He has also directed & produced documentaries about cinema for various televisions, namely the program The Arabic lens, a series of portraits about filmmakers. Moreover, he participated in many audiovisual workshops supporting young students. He is also a board member in Screen Institute which supports and promotes film in all its forms as an important means of expression of cultural, artistic and social values. Since 2005, he has been covering international film festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto), as film critic and also as jury member. He is also member of FIPRESCI and NETPAC.

Iranian film director and film producer. Was born in 1974 in Yazd, Iran. Saffary has been involved in film production since early 90’s and has directed many short films before starting his studies. He graduated from Tehran Art University in 2000. Won various international film awards and has worked for different foreign TV-Chanels such as Arte. Saffary has made his first feature film The End of the World in 2006, which has won awards at Golden Apricot IFF. From Tehran to Heaven is Saffary’s second feature film, which has been shown at different international film festivals such as Montreal FF and Rotterdam IFF. Just recently he has started the pre-production of his third feature film in Iran.

Born in 1962, in Yerevan. Graduated from Yerevan State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports as a trainer of water polo in 1995. Never working as a trainer, he started working as a silversmith, then painter. At last his pursuit brought him to the world of cinema, his childhood dream. In 1995, he made his first short movie, Silence. Hrant Vardanyan made many commercial videos, also videos of famous Armenian and Russian pop singers that won prizes at the National Music Awards. In 2011, he founded Arev Film Studio in Yerevan and where he works as a director. He is a co-writer of a feature film script 1+1=1 with the Russian scriptwriter Vadim Levanov. In 2014, Hrant Vardanyan’s film White Lambs Dream was awarded Best Short film at Hayak National Film Awards.

Born in New York, Stephen Locke has been living in Germany since the 1960s, currently in Berlin. After working for the MEDIA Programme and as a film and theatre critic, he was invited to found and edit the bilingual daily newspaper of the Berlin IFF and was on the selection committee for competition films for some 20 years. He still works for the Berlinale, currently as special consultant and film scout, primarily responsible for the Scandinavian countries. Besides film journalism, he does translation work in the areas of art, culture and history.

Film critic, poet, publisher, translator. Got a Ph.D. degree with Cinematography and Media (2008). Since 2010, she has been a cinema columnist at Ziarul Lumina newspaper. From 2001, Elena Dulgheru is a permanent cinema columnist in different Romanian reviews and newspapers. Books on cinema: Tarkovsky. Film as a Prayer. The Poetics of the Sacred in Andrei Tarkovsky's Cinema (2002), Speaking with Marina Tarkovskaia (2004), The Ladder of Heaven in Cinema. Kusturica, Tarkovsky, Parajanov (2011). Member of the jury at IFFs DaKino (2005), Bucharest IFF (2006), Karlovy Vary (2006), (Cottbus (2009). President of the Ecumenical Jury at Cottbus IFF in 2009. Accredited journalist at different IFFs (Zolotoy Vytiaz, Russia, FILM.DOK, The Black Sea FF, Moscow IFF, Astra Film, B-EST, BIFEST, Dakino). Has more than 15 published studies in collective volumes from Romania, Serbia, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Italy, Brazil (like Iskusstvo Kino, kinokultura.com, Kinoruss). Member of The Romanian Filmmakers’ Union (from 2002).

Doctor of Arts, film critic and historian. In 1991, graduated from Yerevan State Engineering University (Department of Technical Cybernetics), in 1999 - Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema (School of Film Criticism and Theory). In 2008, she has completed thesis Metaphors, Symbols and Allegory in Armenian Cinema at the Institute of Arts (National Academy of Sciences of Armenia). Since 1995, Siranuysh Galstyan has been contributing critical articles to various newspapers and magazines of Armenia. She has also publications abroad. Beginning 1999, she is a lecturer of the Cinema History at Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema and Yerevan State University since 2002, member of the FIPRESCI (2000) and the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia (2007), member of Armenian National Film Academy (2011). She has also participated as a speaker at international conferences, has been a screenwriter for documentary films, and has hosted programs on cinema on Armenian TV. In 2002, the selection of her short stories Pages from Someone Else’s Diary was published. In 2011, her monograph A Look at Our Cinema: The History and Present Times was published in Yerevan. She also has composed and edited books about Armenian directors Roman Balayan and Dmitri Kesayants (2011).

Studied protestant theology in Heidelberg, Tübingen, Chicago and Bonn. Main stations in his professional career are the Clinical training (Chicago, 1963), Industrial and social work in Berlin (1965-66), and Youth work in the Protestant Church in the Rhineland (1968-1972). Took part in the Ecumenical Conference of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order in Accra. Joachim Gollin has been a minister in the parish of St. John and a dean in the deanery (1990-2002, Frankfurt-Bornheim). Is a member of the staff of the Film Club Viewing and Understanding Films, member of Jury of the Protestant Filmwork and of Interfilm.

Father Ruben Zargaryan graduated from Vazgenian Spiritual School of Sevan, later continued his education in the Gevorgian Spiritual Seminary of Echmiadzin. He worked in the informative center of Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin departments of armenian studies and in the divinity center of "Garegin A". In 2004-06, he served in the Armenian army as a priest. In 2001, he was ordained deacon and in 2004 celibate priest. From 2006-09, he took master programme Faculty of Biblical Theology Pontifical University in Rome. From 2009-2011, he worked in the publishing department of Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Since 2011, he is working as spiritual servant in the penitentiaries. Father Ruben Zargaryan is a reporter in Shoghakat TV, also lectures in the Armenian School in Sevan and in the Gevorkian Theological Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin. He has undergone several researches and is author of various articles.

Jean-Jacques Cunnac is a director of several nominated fiction short films and documentaries. He works for the french public television France 3. He’s also worked for M6 in Paris, RTS in Geneva and NBC in Hong Kong. He is a member of SIGNIS France and Christian Festival for Cinema in Montpellier/France. He was a member of the Jury in several international festivals like in Nyon (Visions du Réel) and in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and in Torino, Italy.