Lavrente Indico Diaz (born December 30, 1958) is a Filipino filmmaker and former film critic.[1] He is known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement, having made several of the longest narrative films on record. Although he had been making films since the late 1990s, Diaz didn't attract much public attention outside of the Philippines and the festival circuit until the release of his 2013 film Norte, the End of History, which was entered into the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. His three subsequent films have received much critical attention and many awards, with 2014's From What Is Before earning him the Golden Leopard at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival as well as a nomination for the Asian Film Award for Best Director, 2016's A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery competing for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival and winning the Alfred Bauer Prize, and 2016's The Woman Who Left competing at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival and winning the Golden Lion. His penultimate film (so far), Season of the Devil, competed at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival and it won Best Film (Gems Section) at the Cartagena Film Festival.

He has won several international awards such as the award for Best Picture at the Singapore International Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Brussels and Gawad Urian in 2002 and Netpac Jury Prize and Best Acting Ensemble (2001 Cinemanila International Film Festival) for his film Batang West Side (including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Music, Best Sound at the Urian), in Gawad Urian in 2005 for the film Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino (Evolution of a Filipino Family), and Special Jury Prize at the Fribourg International Film Festival in 2006 for Heremias, Book One.  His films often tackle the issues regarding the current social and political state of the Philippines. His film Kagadanan sa Banwaan ning mga Engkanto (Death in the Land of Encantos), the Closing Film of the orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival 2007, was awarded with a Golden Lion Special Mention. Death in the Land of Encantos was also in competition at the Artistic Innovation Award (Visions) of the Toronto International Film Festival 2007. He received several awards at the Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. His film Melancholia won the Orizzonti Grand Prize at the 65th Venice International Film Festival in 2008. In January 2011 he joined the board of directors for Cine Foundation International.[2]  He went back in 2011 at the Venice International Film Festival for his film Siglo ng Pagluluwal (Century of Birthing)[3] and which earned the Grand Jury Prize at the 13th Cinemanila International Film Festival. The following year, his film Florentina Hubaldo, CTE won Best Asian Film at the Jeonju International Film Festival[4] and gained the On-Screen Award at the Images Festival.[5]  His 2013 film Norte, the End of History was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 66th Cannes Film Festival.[6] He received the Golden Leopard at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival for From What Is Before. At the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, his film A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery was awarded the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize. In the same year, he also received the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival for The Woman Who Left.  Diaz has made crime stories, ghost stories and a musical. On the topic of genre Diaz has said, "it’s nice to dwell on genres because there are formulas there and you can work with them. But at the same time you’re free to break them."[7]  Diaz has an economics degree from Notre Dame University in Cotabato City.  He is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, the Prince Claus Award of the Netherlands in 2014 and The Radcliffe Fellowship of Harvard University, 2016-2017.  Diaz was invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to join as a member on July 2017.

In 2003, Jude graduated from the Film Directing Department of the Media University of Bucharest. He worked as an assistant director for feature films including Amen, directed by Costa-Gavras and Moartea domnului Lazarescu, directed by Cristi Puiu. He directed several short films, among them Corp la corp (2003), Marea Neagră (2004), Lampa cu căciulă (2006) – the most awarded Romanian short film of all time, winner of grand prizes at Sundance, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Grimstad, Hamburg, Bilbao, Huesca, Trieste, Montpellier, Cottbus, Aspen, IndieLisboa, Brussels, Mediawave, Kraków, Almería, Valencia, Uppsala and selected, among others, at Toronto, Telluride, New Directors/New Films Festival, Tampere, Rotterdam. His short films Dimineața (2007) and Alexandra (2007) were selected in over 30 festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand, San Francisco, Cottbus, and Oberhausen (where he won the Grand Prix). Jude also directed over 100 commercials. Cea mai fericită fată din lume is his feature debut. Before the theatrical release in Romania, Cea mai fericită fată din lume won the CICAE Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Award ( International Federation of Film Critics ) at the Sofia International Film Festival, the Prize for Best Screenplay at the Bucharest International Film Festival and FIPRESCI Prize at IndieLisboa. The film was selected in ACID Programme at 2009 Cannes Film Festival.  In 2011, he directed and produced the independent Film pentru prieteni. His feature film Toată lumea din familia noastră (2012) premiered at the Berlinale Forum and received the Heart of Sarajevo Award and the Bayard d'Or in Namur, among other awards. Jude's Aferim! won the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival. The movie was also nominated at Tribeca Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, AFI Fest, London Film Festival, and Berlin International Film Festival. The film was selected as the Romanian official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards reaching the short list but was not nominated.  Jude returned to the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020 with his new film Uppercase Print, the story of Mugur Călinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote protest graffiti messages against the communist regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was subsequently apprehended and interrogated by the secret police. The film screened in the Forum section of the Berlinale as a world premiere.  Jude had double presence at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival presenting Uppercase Print along with his documentary film Ieșirea trenurilor din gară, co-directed with Adrian Cioflâncă.

Hayk Kirakosyan was born in USSR in 1962. His father was an engineer-designer and his mother was an electronics engineer. His interest in cinema started at age of 11 when he began to study photography at Art school and subsequently continued his education in Cinematography department at State Institute of Cinema (VGIK.Moscow). He graduated from Vladimir Monakhov’s class as a valedictorian student when he was 22. As a student, he was employed as a trainee camera assistant with famous cinematographers such as Leonid Kalashnikov, Albert Yavuryan and Levon Atoyants. After completeing education at VGIK (MFA), he started to work as a cinematographer on several short and full-length documentary, feature and animation films bout. At the same time, between 1987 and 1991, he was a lecturer at the Cinema Television Department Faculty of State Pedagogical Institute (Yerevan, USSR). Since 1991, Kirakosyan working both in Armenia and Russia. In addition, between 1994-1999, he was a cameraman MPS TV, editor In Paradise Production and director in VKT TV in Moscow. In 2000, he moved to Istanbul, Turkey. Keeping to work on both feature projects, commercial films and music videos in Turkey, Russia and Armenia. Kirakosyan nine times has been awarded as a “Best Cinematographer” at different International Film Festivals. Since 2006, teaching “Cinematography” and “ Advanced Cinematography” courses at Kadır Has, BAU universities and Plato College of Higher education. Kırakosyan has several of workshop experience at the Marmara (İstanbul) and Bılkent (Ankara) universities, 6.45 Art Club (Eskişehir), Bursa International Film Festival, Atif Yilmaz Turkish National Film School between 2007 and 2010. In 2008 he was a jury member at the Adana «Golden Cocoon», in 2014 at the Antalya «Golden Orange» and in 2017 at the Malatya International Film Festivals. Since 1991, Kirakosyan is a member of the Filmmakers Union of Russia and member of the Guild of Cinematographers of Russia (R.G.C). Since 2005 member of European Federation of Cinematographers from Russia (IMAGO). Since 2014 member of the Turkish Society of Cinematographers.

François D’Artemare established the production company Les Films de l’Après-Midi to support filmmakers from all over the world. His credits include Aida Begić’s Snow (Grand Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week 2008) and Children of Sarajevo (Special Distinction of the Jury in Un Certain Regard 2012), Made in Bangladesh by Rubaiyat Hossain (Toronto IFF 2019), Noura’s Dream by Hinde Boujemaa (Toronto IFF 2019) and three features by Manoel de Oliveira, among others. He now develops French projects as well, such Claire Simon’s new feature.