Alexander Mindadze was born in Moscow in 1949 and is considered as one of the most acclaimed scriptwriters and directors in Russia. More than 20 of his screenplays have been filmed since 1975. Early in his career he teamed up with acclaimed Russian director Vadim Abdrashitov, with whom he collaborated on eleven films over several decades. The film Plumbum was awarded with golden medal at the Venice IFF in 1987, and the Mindadze-Abdrashitov duo won the Silver Bear at the Berlin IFF in 1995, for the film A Play For a Passenger. In 2007, his feature film debut as director, Soar, was premiered at Venice IFF. This film received two awards, including the Film Critics’ Award for Best Debut Film in Russia. Second feature film written and directed by Aleksandr Mindadze Innocent Saturday was premiered at Berlin IFF in 2011. The third Mindadze’s feature film My Good Hans took part in Competition at Moscow IFF 2015 and received Nika - the main award from the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts for the Best Film and The White Elephant Award from the Russian Guild of Film Critic in five categories. Mindadze is the unique Russian scriptwriter who was awarded with prestigious Ennio Flaiano Prize and the Silver Pegasus from the Italian Academy of Culture for Literature's contribution to the cinema.

Born in Tehran in 1966, Reza Mirkarimi is a graduate of Graphic Arts from University of Fine Arts in Tehran. He began his career in cinema as director, writer and producer in 1987 with a short film and two TV series. His directorial debut, The Child and The Soldier (1999), won national and international awards in Isfahan, Nantes and Zlin. His second feature, Under the Moonlight (2000) won the International Critics Week Best Feature Award at the 2001 Cannes IFF. It went on to win the Best Director Award and the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo IFF in 2001, and the Golden Peacock Award at the IFF of India. Mirkarimi has so far won seven Golden Simorgh Awards at the Fajr FF. Three of his films were selected as Iran’s submission to the Oscars for the Best Foreign Language Film category: So Close, So Far (2005), A Cube of Sugar (2011), and Today (2014). His fourth and fifth feature films, As Simple as That (2007) and Daughter (2016), won the Golden George Award for Best Picture at the 30^th and the 38^th Moscow IFF respectively. His latest film, Castle of Dreams (2019), won big at Shanghai, receiving three Awards for the Best Picture, the Best Director and the Best Actor. He has served two terms as managing director of Khaneh Cinema (Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds). Reza Mirkarimi has been also the festival director of Fajr IFF for the last 4 years.

Amy Hobby has served as the Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute for the past two years. In addition to her role identifying, engaging and supporting emerging underrepresented filmmakers from around the world through TFI, Hobby is an Academy Award-Nominated, Emmy and Peabody Award-Winning producer in her own right, who has been producing award-winning scripted and documentary films for the past 20 years. In 2013, she co-founded the film production company Tangerine Entertainment, the first production company to produce and cultivate audiences solely for content created and directed by women. In 2017, Hobby was nominated alongside her Tangerine partner Anne Hubbell for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry by the Alliance of Woman Film Journalists.

He was born in 1952. He spent his chilhood in a working-class suburb. He studied History in Clermont-Ferrand University where he was involved in the Cineclub. After a meeting with Jacques Tati, he creaded in 1979 with others students, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, which is nowadays the world’s most important event in the short film circuit. With his colleagues, he established the Short Film Market that runs along the festival and the Auvergne Film Commission. He is still a member of the festival team as volonteer, which also became bigger and is still working as a collective group without a leader. He is working in the international selection committee and he manage the special section Court d’Histoire about the relationship between history and cinema. He directed the short film Lointain, which earned an honourable mention in Oberhausen IFF in 1986.

Norayr Kasper is a cinematographer and a visual artist based in Toronto and Venice. His work stems from a diverse cultural background and multidisciplinary art formation. Kasper has lensed over 40 feature and television films and garnered multiple international recognitions. His art photography installations have shown in various exhibitions including the Venice Art Biennale. He also teaches cinematography workshops and masterclasses in visual storytelling. Member of Canadian Society of Cinematographers, IATSE 667 – International Cinematographers’ Guild.

Pippo Mezzapesa was born in 1980. He got a diploma in classical studies and a degree in law at the Università degli Studi di Bari. He started his career as a screenwriter and filmmaker in 2001 with the short film Lido Azzurro. He went on directing more short films among the most awarded ones in recent history. In 2004, Mezzapesa directed Zinanà, the touching story of a man who plays the cymbals. The film won the David di Donatello Award. Two years later he was awarded with a Special Mention at Nastri d'Argento for the short film Come a Cassano, the story of a little boy and a football star that share the same name. In 2005, he made the documentary Produrre consumare morire that shed some light on the disasters and the casualties caused by the petrochemical industry in Brindisi. In 2008, Mezzapesa directed the documentary Pinuccio Lovero - Sogno di una morte di mezza estate, which had its premiere at the Venice IFF. In 2009, he directed one of the short movies part of a project called Per Fiducia: the title of the film is L’Altra metà, a mini road movie focusing on an elder woman fleeing from a retirement home. His work as director got a Special Mention at the Nastri d'Argento and the Michelangelo Antonioni Award at Bif&st. In 2011, he wrote and directed the feature film Il Paese delle spose infelici based on the novel by Mario Desiati. In 2012, he produced, wrote and directed the documentary Pinuccio Lovero - Yes I Can, the story of an undertaker running for mayor. He went on making another short-documentary called SettanTA, the portrait of a particular day at the ILVA steel industry in Taranto. The film won at the Nastri d'Argento. In 2017, he made another short film called La Giornata: it was based on a journalistic investigation and on official documents in the trial against the new forms of illegal employment. La Giornata  won a Special Prize for social commitment at Nastri d’Argento. In 2018, Mezzapesa wrote and directed the feature film Ilbene mio (My Own Good).

György Báron is a professor habil at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest and is president of the Hungarian Society of Film Critics within FIPRESCI. Staff-critic of weekly magazine Élet és Irodalom and monthly film periodical Filmvilág. Since the 1980s, he has published more than thousand reviews, essays and studies, both in Hungarian and other languages. He has made educational documentaries for various television channels, radio programs on film topics and he is the author of the books Hollywood and Marienbad and Descent to the Underworld.

Since 2009 she directs the IFF of Uruguay, organized by the Uruguayan Cinémathèque where she is also the artistic director since 2005. The Uruguayan Cinémathèque is a cultural institution and film archive based in Montevideo that has a monthly program of approximately a hundred movies between cycles, retrospectives, exhibitions and premières in its four theatres in the capital city. She has been a jury member in several film festivals such as Berlinale, Karlovy Vary, BAFICI or ZINEBI, and is programmer and programme advisor to other important festivals. She collaborates as a film critic with the weekly Brecha and the daily newspaper La Diaria in Uruguay.

Born in 1988, he graduated from the Film Studies department at the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema. He has published articles in local and international press.