He is one of the outstanding figures of cinema in Japan. Was born in1945 in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture. Following graduation from the Waseda Univbersity drama Department, worked as a freelance assistant director with such directors as Shinoda Mashahiro and Urayama Hisao. Each of his films have won international recognition. His first, Muddy River, was released in 1981 and won a number of Japanese and foreign awards, including the Silver Award at the Moscow FF. For Kayako, won the Georges Sadoul Prize in France in 1984. And the Sting of Death was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes festival in1990.

Eric Bogosian is best known for writing and starring in the play and the film adaptation of that play, Talk Radio (1987). For this work he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and received the Berlin FF Silver Bear Award. He is also well known for his six solo performances Off-Broadway (Men Inside, Fun House, Drinking in America, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead, Wake up and Smell the Coffee) between 1980 and 2000, for which he received three Obie awards. In addition to Talk Radio which was revived on Broadway in 2007, Bogosian has written a number of full-length plays including subUrbia, Griller, Red Angel, Humpty Dumpty. He is the author of three novels, Mall, Wasted Beauty and the recently published Perforated Heart in addition to a novella, Notes from Underground. As an actor, Bogosian has appeared in numerous films and television programs, starring in Robert Altman’s The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Atom Egoyan’s Ararat, as well asUnder SiegeII and Wonderland. Most recently he was seen as Alan Freedin Cadillac Records with Adrian Brody and Beyonce Knowles. He currently stars in Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Captain Danny Ross.

Born in 1960 in Warsaw, Poland. After high school graduation in Denmark, he studied Art and Cinema History at the University Paris I Sorbonne. A trainee with 20th Century Fox International in 1985, permanently employed by 20th Century Fox Germany GmbH in 1986, first as an assistant in the Marketing Department, then as Head of Publicity. In 1991 he obtained the position as Head of Marketing. Moved to Hamburg in 1995 in order to become Managing Director of CineMarketing (Deyhle-BärMedienholding). He became Head of Marketing with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment when the company opened its German branch. After the takeover by Universal, Wiederspiel became Head of Theatrical Distribution until the company was closed down in 2000. Moved to Berlin in 2000 in order to oversee the theatrical distribution of Tobis-StudioCanal. He left Tobis-StudioCanal and became Managing Director of Filmest Hamburg in 2003. Wiederspiel is a regular lecturer at the German/French Masterclass in Ludwigsburg, and a member of the European Film Academy.

Born in Ukraine, in 1961, he is one of the biggest cinema and TV producers in Russia. Graduated from the Kiev Theatre and Art Institute. From 1983 to 1990 worked in the Documentary Studio Kievnauchfilm. 1990-1994 He was the general producer and the director of the Film production Company Innova-Film (Germany). A studied filmmaker, he is now the president of the Moscow media holding CTC and is a formative figure in Russia’s media landscape. His work as a director includes a series of documentaries about contemporary Russia, including 1992’s two-part Farewell USSR, which won numerous awards. Rodnyansky has many other films and series which include A Chef in Love (1996), Two Moons, Three Suns (1998), East-West (1999), Happy Birthday Bourgeois (2000) Poor Nastia (2004), The Cavaliers of Sea Star (2004), A Driver for Vera (2004), Viola Tarakanova (2004), Born not Pretty (2005), Half-Light (2005), Great Evil and Minute Mean Tricks (2005), The Sun (2005), My Personal Enemy (2005), Barbie’sWedding (2005), Soldier’s Decameron(2005), The 9th Company (2005), Piter FM (2006), The Madhouse (2006) Zhara (Heat)(2006), Starley, Victory and Spring (2007), Military School (2006-2007), 18-14 (2007), The Inhabited Island (2008).

Born in 1949, in Kassel, Germany. In 1968 he graduated from Wilhelm’s College in Kassel. 1968-72: student at Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München. Production manager and executive producer for movies of Wenders, von Trotta, Petersen, Hauff, etc. 1979-83: producer of movies, like Theo gegen den Rest der Welt– Theo Against the Rest of the World(1980), which won Golden Screen (Goldene Leinwand) award and was watched by 3 million people in Germany. 1986-2002: working at Filmbüro NW, Cultural Film Fund of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Managing director for Filmbüro NW since 1994.Head of department Production II of Filmstiftung NRW since 2003.Manager of Kinofest Lünen – the Festival of German Films since 2005.

Born 1948, Turkey. He started to be interested in photography, theatre and cinema in high school. At university, he became an actor and director, and staged several theatre plays with an independent theatre company called DOST. His works on photography have been exhibited in France and the USA. In 1969, he started his works on documentary and short films. He was among the founders and active members of Young Cinema movement in Turkey and organized several documentary film screenings and festivals in different regions of Turkey. In seventies, his feature and documentary films Another Sun, Hello, Mountain Flower, Turkey 1971 are recognized and successful abroad. During those years, he was also involved in the foundation of MTV (Milliyet TV), which was a documentary channel. He has also contributed in the creation of the archives of the institution, and realization of many documentary films. In 1987, he established VTR Film Directing Research & Production Company together with the producer Nalân Sakızlı and started producing films independently. In 1996, he was actively involved in founding of The Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey and was the spokesman and the chairman of the board for eight years. He works especially on social issues such as immigration, street children, and social history. His films have been screened in many festivals, organizations, and broadcasted on TV channels in Turkey and abroad. He is also a lecturer on documentary filmmaking at graduate and post-graduate levels. Recently, he gives courses on Cinema and Politics at Political Sciences and International Relations Department, and Documentary Cinema at Fine Arts Institute at Marmara University.

Born in 1954, Amsterdam. He became director of Artis Royal Zoo Amsterdam in 2003. Member of the European FilmAcademy. Before changing his complete professional life and country of residence, Balian has been a long time successful film business entrepreneur, managing director, expert and film producer. From 1975 to 1996 he was a major shareholder andmanaging director of one of Holland’s and Belgium’s leading integrated film companies involved in feature film and television production, as well as in theatrical, video and television distribution. After selling his shares to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in 1993, he became managing director of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in the Benelux and moved in 1996 to Hamburg to set up PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as managing director. From 1999 to 2002 he joined Canal+, first as a consultant and later as part of the management of the newly created European Film Studio Canal. In 2002 and 2003 he produced his last feature film with his wife Wiebke Toppel. He is a shareholder and co-director of one of the leading Dutch theatrical exhibition groups, Minerva Bioscopen. Balian was film adviser from 1999 to 2001 for SENTER and FINE, two institutions created by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and from 2005 until 2007 he functioned as Member of the Board of the Dutch Filmfund. Since 2008 he is a Member of the Board of the Dutch Filmmuseum. After he learned Natura Artis Magistra was searching for a new director, he decided to change his life and follow his childhood dream to become the director of the Zoo, enabling him to further develop his profound interest in the natural world.Natura Artis Magistra, founded in 1838, is a non-profit foundation and an inner city zoo in the centre of Amsterdam. Under his directorship a unique masterplan for the future has been developed and already partly implemented, substantially increasing the number of visitors and members.

Born in Armenia in 1976 and immigrated to Los Angeles with his family in 1981. After a four-year apprenticeship at his father Haik’s photo lab, Eric took up freelance photojournalism in college, covering stories about culture, film, immigration and sports in the Southern California Armenian community and Nagorno-Karabakh. His work as a freelance photojournalist and writer has been published in publications including Movie Maker Magazine, Written By, Ararat Quarterly, Armenian International Magazine (AIM) and The Armenian Reporter. He was the recipient of the New Century Writer’s Award for Shine and Shutter, a short story about a Nagorno-Karabakh landmine victim and the AFFMA Award for his screenplay, Land of Plenty. During his undergraduate years at University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, Eric studied directing, screenwriting and cinematography, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Production. During the summers he traveled throughout the Southern Caucuses, photographing post-war life in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2007 Eric wrote and directed The Blue Hour, his first feature film. The Blue Hour’s World Premiere took place at the 55th San Sebastian IFF in competition for the New Director’s Prize. At the 10th AFFMA IFF Eric was the recipient of the Best Director Award for his work on The Blue Hour. At the 5th Golden Apricot IFF in Armenia, Nazarian was awarded The Golden Apricot for Best Film in the Armenian Panorama section, The Ecumenical Jury Award, The Prime Minister’s Award and The Cultural Ministry’s Award for Directing. In 2008, Eric received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for his original screenplay Giants. Nazarian is the first Armenian in the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be awarded the fellowship.

Aneta Yerznkayn is a film critic, member of the Cinematographers Union of Armenia, Association of Film Critics and Cinema Journalists, Honored Art Worker and a professor. She was born in 1949 to the family of the famous film director Yuri Yerznkyan. In 1971, Yerznkayn graduated from the Philology Department of Yerevan State University and continued her postgraduate education at Moscow Art Studies Research Institute. From 1973-89 she worked at the Board Cinematographers Union of Armenia as the Chair of Creativity Chapters. In 1986, she was elected Secretary of the Cinematographers Union of Armenia. Since 1977, Yerznkayn has lectured at Kh. State Pedagogical Institute, Cinema Department, Cinema and TV Program. Since 1996, she has been teaching at Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema and since 2000 she has been leading the Film Critics Workshop at the same Institute. Yerznkayn is the author of articles and books on cinema and television. In 2006, she was appointed as Proctor of Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema for Instructional and Research Issues and now she is holding the position of the Dean of the Cinema, TV and Animation Faculty at the same Institute.

Born in Nimes, Jean-Max Méjean is an expert, Doctor in French Literature and author of Fellini, un rêve, une vie (1997), and many books about, for instance, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar and Emir Kusturica. He teaches film analysis, new technologies and documentation, and collaborates with the reviews Jeune Cinéma and www.iletaitunefoislecinema.com. He wrote with Francoise Onténiente a book about school, L’école au coeur, Allegro ma non troppo (2003) and directed many collective works on the cinema. He is also director of the collection Nouvelles Pédagogies for L’Harmattan publishing, and in charge of the blog on the books of cinema for the site of the newspaper Nouvel Observateur: http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/blog/cinelivres. Jean-Max Méjean now works on a joint book about Federico Fellini (Fellinicittà), due for publication in September 2009.

Born in Pavia (Italy) in 1954. He lives in Rome. He is a professional movie critic, and an expert of Brazilian and Argentinean Cinemain particular, Beginning from 1990 he writes movie reviews for cinema magazines in Italy, in Spain and in Brazil and he attends, every year, the major European Festivals (Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Venice, San Sebastian, London, etc.). Beginning from 2003 every month he writes reviews concerning Brazilian Films, screened at these festivals, for the site www.musibrasil.net. In 2008 he joined the FIPRESCI. He is an advisor and Festival programmer for the following international festivals: Mostra del Nuovo Cinema di Pesaro, in Italy; Festival International de Cine de Las Palmas de Gran Canária, in Spain; Festival International de Films de Fribourg, in Switzerland. He has conceived, planned and organized many Mostre and Cinema Retrospectives.

Film researcher, philologist, expert in Armenian Diaspora, Ph. D., vice president of the Armenian branch of FIPRESCI. Born in 1971 in Yerevan. In 1988-1993 studied at Yerevan State University’s department of Armenian Language and Literature. In 1996–1997 he was a guest researcher of Uppsala University, Sweden. Currently he works at the Institute of History of National Academy of Sciences at the section of Armenian Diaspora. Since 1989 he has been contributing to periodicals both in Armenia and abroad with articles on film, culture and various fields of Armenian studies, as well as with literary works and translations. Since 2004 he has been collaborating with Golden Apricot Yerevan IFF as programmer. Author and editor of more than 10 books. His most voluminous study is Armenians in World Cinema (in Armenian, 2004). He has participated in international conferences, festivals and meetings.

Born in 1956, Belgian. He has a degree in cultural History and social cultural Anthropology. He wrote his PhD on the history of cinema. He has published many books and articles about African, Asian, Latin American and European cinema. At the SIGNIS Secretariat he is responsible for professional contacts with the media world, the film festivals and is the editor of the magazine SIGNIS Media. Conventsis consultant for international festivals, secretary of the Belgian Professional Film Press Association (Brussels) and president of the African Film Festival in Belgium. Frequent member of juries at international film festivals worldwide in the past 25 years.

Born 1977, in the town of Masis, Saroyan is a graduate of the Gevorkian Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin. He studied English and Psychology at the Concordia College (USA). Saroyan received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Theology from the University of Leeds and the Oxford University in Great Britain respectively. Saroyan is the Dean of the Vaskenian Seminary.

Muller is the Pastor of Reformed Church of France and of the Protestant Church of Geneva. Spending her childhood in Cannes, and getting a university education in pedagogy and humanities, Muller graduated from the Protestant Theological University in Montpellier (France) and the Protestant Theological University in Chicago and Richmond (USA). She worked as a minister in different parishes in USA, France and Switzerland. Muller is a member of PRO-FIL (France), the WACC and the Vice-President of INTERFILM. An INTERFILM delegate, Muller has been organizing the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Festival with the SIGNIS since 2000. Muller is also a member of the Ecumenical Jury at the Locarno, Berlin, Montreal and Cannes festivals.