BIOGRAPHY

Ryszard Brylski a film director and screenwriter. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Polish National Film School in Lodz, where he was invited to teach in 2004.  His award-winning work includes feature films, television series, and numerous commercials.  

Filmography 

-       Debora /Deborah/ - 1995 writer, director; 4th Terlicke Filmove Leto, Czech Republic, 1996 - Main Prize

-        In Bad Time, 1988, writer

-       Zhoorek - 2003 writer, director’ Awards - 35^th Giffoni Film Festival 2005, 3^rd International Dubrovnik Film Festival 2005, Los Angeles 7^th. Annual Polish Film Festival, 2005,  5^th Polish Eagle Awards 2003, 11^th  National Film Festival Września - Poland 2004 

-       Friday`s Weather - 2007/8 TV series director

-       A Wonderful Summer/ - 2010 writer, director;  Awards - 18th Annual Seattle Polish Film Festival. 2010 , Chicago 22^nd Polish Film Festiwal in America. 2010, 39th Lubuski Film Summer Festival, Łagów Poland. 2010, Toronto Ekran 2011 PFF 

BIOGRAPHY

Eldar Shengelaya  was born in 1933, Tbilisi, Georgia. A Georgian film director and scriptwriter, People’s Artist of Georgia (1979) and of the Soviet Union (1988). He graduated from the Directing Department of the All-Union State Cinematography Institute in Moscow (VGIK, master class of S. Yutkevitch, S. Skvortsova), in 1958. Worked at Mosfilm Studio, starting from 1960 was a director at Georgia Film Studio. Ran a Directing Master Class at the Tbilisi Theatre Institute after Rustaveli (1975-1980). He was the First Secretary of Filmmakers’ Union of Georgia (1979 - 1990), since 1990 - the Chairman of the same Union. In 1992, he was elected a member of the Parliament of Georgia. A member of the Jury at Venice IFF in 1986 and at Berlin IFF in 1992.

Filmography 

The Legend of the Icy Heart (1958) A Snow Fairy Tale (1959), The White Caravan (1963), Miqela (1965), An Unusual Exhibition(1968), The Eccentrics (1973), The Stepmother of Samanishvili (1977), Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story (1983), Expres-informatsia (1993), Dog Rose (1996)

BIOGRAPHY

György Pálfi was born in 1974, Budapest, Hungary. He is a film director and screenwriter who, from the outset of his career, was hailed the great promise of contemporary Hungarian cinema, owing to his unique and bold style. Whilst studying at Budapest’s Theatre and Film Academy (1995-2002), Pálfi made two short films, both of which won awards during Hungarian Film Week and went on to be shown in festivals worldwide.

His debut feature-length film, Hukkle (2002); a film that is almost entirely devoid of dialogue has earned over 20 international awards, including European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards and Best New Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. His second feature film, Taxidermia (2006), which showcased a bizarre, original script alongside a breathtaking aesthetic, was screened in over forty international festivals, where it received scores of awards, including Best European Film Project at the Sundance Film Festival. Pálfi next went on to make I Am Not Your Friend (2009), a docu-feature film based entirely on improvisations by a cast of amateur actors and Pálfi himself, earning him a special award during Hungarian Film Week.

BIOGRAPHY

Nick Holdsworth, 50, writer and journalist with 20 years’ experience of covering Russian and Eastern European affairs. He is the Eastern Europe bureau chief for Variety a former Moscow correspondent for the (London) Sunday Telegraph, the (London) Times Higher Education Supplement and the Hollywood reporter. He has also written for most other British daily and Sunday newspapers, a wide range of international outlets and produced radio programmes for the BBC and television reports for WTN.

He currently divides his time between Moscow and Bristol, UK. A fluent Russian speaker, he has also lived in Prague and London. He is author of: “Moscow The Beautiful and the Damned – Life in Russia in Transition”, published by Andre Deutsch, London, 2000 and co-author with Russian Army of Liberation veteran Sigismund Diczbalis of “The Russian Patriot: A Red Army Soldier’s Service for his Motherland and Against Bolshevism (The History Press, Stroud, 2008).

Nick has also written and directed two documentary short films for the European Training Foundation, Turin and is co-author of a screenplay telling the story of World War Two’s highest ranking traitor.

BIOGRAPHY

Sergey Lavrentiev was born in 1954. Began his career as a theater actor in 1970's.After graduation prestigious VGIK,Russian State film institute he joined Gosfilmofond, one of the world biggest film archives. During perestroika he went on to become a leading film critic known as one of the founders of "new wave" of Soviet film criticism. Sergey has written about Central and Eastern European cinema for numerous publications including Sovietsky Ekran, Iskusstwo kino,Kultura. After his article "Newer ending story" (April 1987) Soviet censorship stopped to cut foreign films in national distribution. In 1990's Mr. Lavrentiev was an anchorman for number of television programs named "Kinomarathon“.

 Since 1999 - program director of Sochi IFF, IFF "Faces of love", Children Film Festival "Kinotavrik" in Sochi, festival “Zerkalo” in Ivanovo, East-West festival in Orenburg , IFF in Cheboksary.  From 2002 till 2012 - member of Russian "Oscar" committee. Wrote a book "Clint Eastwood. Furious and Handsome"(2001). The new book "Western under the red banner" was published in 2009.  He coordinated RED WESTERN retrospective program very successfully screened in 2011 - 2012 in Rotterdam, Geteborg, Linz, Wroclaw,Kaunas,Bratislava, Tromso etc.

In 2012 finished the book “About Schmidt.From Russia with love” telling the biography and analised the films of prominent Croatian film director Branko Schmidt.

BIOGRAPHY
Fardin Saheb Zamani was born in  1963, Tehran. He  graduated from Tehran’s University of Art. He has shot three short films and established himself professionally as a sound designer. The drama There Are Things You Don’t Know is his writer-director debut, which was nominated at  45th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and got Jury Special Mention.

Filmography 
As Film Director: There Are Things You Don’t Know 92 min. 35 mm. 2010Silence 20min. DVCam. 2005Quartet for Three  18min. 16mm. 1988Cold Season 12 min. 16mm. 1987
As Editor:Last Step (Ali Mosaffa) 90 min. 35 mm. 2011Eve and Adam, 52 min. DVcam 2008 - DocumentaryMy Boats, 26 min. 35 mm. 2005Silk’s Dream, 45 min. DVCam. 2003Behesht-e Zahra,  45 min. DVCam. 2003Looking For Shehrzad, 2002, Documentary

BIOGRAPHY

Gulen Guler, after establishing Yalan Dunya Ltd in 2002 officially, she produced Carnegie award winning video installation ‘Kuba’, Turner nominated ‘12’ with the contemporary artist Kutlug Ataman. She pursued her ambitions by producing the first digital film ‘2 Girls’, which  received 14 national and international awards. In addition to co-producing various European films, she produced ‘My name is red’, radio drama for BBC R 4 in English, based on world acclaimed novel by Orhan Pamuk. She has produced various doc films as well as a TV program for FoxTurkey along with a theatre play ‘Faust Strolling Trough Turkey”.  She served as a sub-board member of Arts/Culture at the Open Society Foundation focusing on arts in CA and Caucasus and Roma. She is in the process of shooting a doc about 'Istanbul Dogs' and developing a feature film.

BIOGRAPHY

Nino Orjonikidze is a documentary film director and producer. Nino started her career as a TV reporter at Rustavi 2. After graduating from Goldsmiths, University of London, she worked as a Producer and Director of Documentary Films for Rustavi 2 and, later, for Internews Georgia. 
In 2008, Nino established independent production company Artefact Production, since then she is prodicing and directing documentary films including “English teacher” (2012) and Altzaney (2009), which was nominated for a number of international film festivals including DOK Leipzig, Krakow Film Festival and others.  Nino is a faculty member of the Caucasus school of Journalism and Media Management, teaching MA students documentary film and TV reporting. 

BIOGRAPHY
Sergey Bukovsky was born in 1960 in Bashkiria, the autonomous republic of the former Soviet Union. Sergey Bukovsky studied directing in the Film Department at the Karpenko-Karyi Kiev State Institute of Theatrical Arts. After serving in the Soviet Army, he worked at the Ukrainian documentary film studio for more than a decade. During his 25-year film career,  Bukovsky made approximately 50 documentary films.  Some of them received awards at prestigious international film festivals. They include:  “Tomorrow is a Holiday” (1987), "Roof" (1990), “Dislocation” (1992), “The Hyphen” (1992), “To Berlin!” (1995), “Vilen Kalyuta. Real Light” (2000), “Terra Vermelha. Red Land” (2001), and the 9-part documentary series for television “War. The Ukrainian Account,” which was awarded the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine in 2004. From 1998 to 2003, Bukovsky taught courses in documentary directing at the Karpenko-Karyi Kiev State Institute of Theatrical Arts. His student Igor Strembitsky got Palm D’Or in Cannes in 2005 for his short documentary.

BIOGRAPHY
Radoslaw Piwowarski Graduated from State Film School in Lodz (alma mater of Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieslowski). In 1972 – 1980, he directed documentary films. Since 1982, script-writer and director of ten parts of series "Mr. Lonely Heart" (the most popular ever series in a history of Polish TV). From 1984 to 2004, he made nine feature films, including "Yesterday" awarded Grand Prix in San Sebastian and Venice (FIRESCI), "Train to Hollywood" (Grand Prix Orlean, France), "March Caresses",  "My Mother’s Lovers" and "The Sequence of Feelings" which won Grand Prix at the Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk. His poetic movies have been not only widely awarded, but also brought him popularity among local and international audiences as well as considerable commercial success. In 1999 – 2010, he created and directed several mini-series for public television.He discovered a great number of future Polish movie stars. The director says: “The most imported for me in my film work is creating opportunity for young people to become brilliant actors and actresses, film professionals”. 

BIOGRAPHY

Dato Janelidze (1958, Tbilisi, Georgia) studied at Georgian Institute of Theatre and Cinema. He worked for many years at the film studio 'Georgia Film'. Later on he has been working for Georgian television and teaching at Georgian Institute of Theatre and Cinema. His films have been shown  and got awards at various festivals.

Filmography
Absurd Story, 1982,17 min., Feature;Deduna 1987 – 63min., Feature (Grand Prize Mannheim; Lodgers 1990 - 80 min., Feature.Grand Prize Montpellier. Co-scriptwriter and directorThe Castle 1994 –108min. FeatureTsilkani 1998,  46 min. documentary.Script and directorGeorgia- last 10 years 2001 ,  46 min.documentary . DirectorMaidan Nave of the World 2004, 52 min. Documentary Atagenus  2006 TV serial.  Feature,8X 46min. DirectorJacko`s Lodgers  2009  Feature, 86 min. Tallin, Black nights IFF(2009),Tbilisi IFF(2009),RoIFF(Bucharest 2010),Yerevan IFF(2010),Baku IFF(2010)

BIOGRAPHY
Iryna Romanchenko born in Kiyv. She is Theatre and film critic, director, scriptwriter. Graduate of the Kyiv National University of theatre, cinema and television. Many years she has been working as an editor and television director. Author of program  “Magic of cinema”. Since 2006 she has held the post of the Head Editor in “Kiyv“ television’s film department. She loves Polish culture and European cinema. She was on the jury of  lot of international festivals, such as: International Documentary Films Festival “Crossroads of Europe” , “The Unusual Film Festival” and Summer Film Academy in Poland. Founder and director of a International Film Festival “ The European Express” in Kiyv. 

BIOGRAPHY
Krzysztof Kopczyński (PhD) is film producer, director, scriptwriter and author. An associate professor at the University of Warsaw and media and film adviser. President & CEO of Eureka Media Ltd.He has produced over 150 audiovisual works, including more than 40 documentaries which won 125 festival awards. Stone Silence, his directorial documentary debut, won multiple awards and was officially selected for more than 90 festival screenings, including BIAFF.Winner of several film awards, including Locarno Critic’s Week Award in 2008, Best Polish Film Producer Award at the Krakow Film Festival in 2006 and 2007. Member of the European Film Academy and European Documentary Network.

BIOGRAPHY
Born in Dushanbe. Made her film debut as actress at the age of 7. In he following 9 years played about ten roles in art and television films. In 1987 graduated from the scriptwriting and film history department of the Film Institute VGIK (course of E. Surkov and L. Mamatova). From 1987-88 expert of the Culture Fund. From 1987-91 senior film-editor at the studio “Tadjikfilm”. Since 1991 lives and works in Moscow. From 1991-93 editor at the Fund for Cinema Support. From 1994-96 assistant to D. Dondurei, editor-in-chief of the journal Film Art, at the same time film program coordinator of the International Film Festival in Sochi held by “Kinotavr” Company Group. From 1999-2005 director and member of the selection committee of the IFF Sochi, the IFF “Faces of Love”, and the International Children’s Arts Festival “Kinotavrik Since 2005 programme director of the Open Russian Film Festival “Kinotavr”.Served in jury of following festivals: Hyderabad International Children Film Festival (International Jury), Tallinn IFF  “Black Nights” (NETPAC jury), Mar del Plata IFF (jury of “Woman in Film” section), Film Festival of East European Cinema in Cottbus, Berlinale (Generation section Jury), Karlovy Vary IFF (East of the West Jury), Venice IFF (Corto Cortissimo Jury).