Born 30 September 1943, Bourgas, Bulgaria.GeorgiDjulgerov graduated the VGIK Film School in Moscow in 1970. He has directed 14 feature films, two full-length andseveral shorts documentary films that took part in the Berlin, Locarno, Oberhausen, Avelino, Palermo, Rotterdam, Montreal, San Francisco, Batumi (Georgia), Mons, Mannheim-Heidelberg, and Saraevo film festivals. His film "The Camp" was part of the Cannes "Quinzaine des réalisateurs" program in 1990. Djulgerov has also staged theater productions and has directed several TV projects. He has been Head of the jury of the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival, member of the Jury of the Moscow International Film Festival, the Molodist International Film Festival, Kiev, Ukraine etc.

At the New Montreal Film Fest the latest GeorgyDulgerov film "Lady Zee" received many awards such as the Audience Award Toyota Canada Award for best film,  Best Film Award at Sarajevo Film Festival, Trieste Film Festival, the Awards of the Executive Agency "National Film Center" for best film of the year. Lady Zee was selected among the 49 films competing for the European Film Awards 2006, given by the European Film Academy. His last film is GOAT based on on short stories by YordanRadichkov, which won the Audience Award at the Sofia International Film festival.

GeorgiDjulgerov is a full-time professor in Film and TV Directing at the Academy for Dramatic and Film Art in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a voting member of the European Film Academy.

As an Iranian New Wave cinema icon, Mehrjui is regarded to be one of the intellectual directors, who introduced realism, symbolism, and the sensibilities of art cinema.

Dariush Mehrjui was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1939. As an adult, he moved to the United States and entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Department of Cinema. He switched his major to philosophy and graduated from UCLA in 1964. His second featured film, Cow (1969), brought him national and international recognition. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and submitted to the Venice IFF, where, without programming or subtitles, it became the largest event of that year's festival. The film was a turning point in the history of Iranian cinema. In 1973 Mehrjui began directing what was to be his most acclaimed film “The Cycle”. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin IFF in 1978.

 In 1981, he traveled to Paris and remained there for several years, during which time he made a feature-length semi-documentary for French TV. In film “Hamoun” (1989), Mehrjui sought to depict his generation's post-revolutionary turn from politics to mysticism. The '90s also found Mehrjui releasing films dealing with women's issues. Leila (1996) was all Mehrjui's own and the first to receive any sort of wide theatrical release in the West. His last films include Santoori (2007), Tehran, Tehran (2010). 

Filmography

Diamond 33 (Almaas 33, 1966), The Cow (Gaav, 1969), The Postman (Postchi, 1970), Mr. Naive (AghayeHallou, 1970), The Cycle (Dayereh mina, 1978), The School We Went to (HayatePoshtiMadreseyeAdl-e-Afagh, 1980), Voyage au pays De Rimbaud (1983), The Tenants (Ejareh-Nesheenha, 1986), Shirak (1988), Hamoun (1990), Sara (1993), Pari (1995), Leila (1996), The Pear Tree (DerakhteGolabi, 1998), The Lady (Baanoo, 1999), The Mix (2000), Tales of an Island (2000, segment "Dear Cousin Is Lost"), To Stay Alive (Bemani, 2002), Mehman-e maman (2004), Fereshtevafarsh (2006), Santoori (2007).

Ira studied social sciences, dramatics and Russian in Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin. She is translator/interpreter for Russian and English, expert on Russian film (especially documentary film). Working with festivals for more than 20 years, among others Message to Man (Petersburg, Russia), Grenzland-Filmtage (Selb, Germany), International  Film festival (Philadelphia, USA).

Olena Festisova is a Ukrainian producer, scriptwriter and director, the founder and the head of the Interfilm Production Studio which produces an internationally recognized documentaries and fictions and has a successful story of international co-production.

Olena Fetisova actively participates in various international panels, seminars and co-productions workshops and has been a member of several juries. She also lectures on film producing at Ukrainian Film and TV Schools. Besides Olena is the expert of the Selection Committee for the Ukrainian Film Agency.

Olena has directed and written a number of films which received a lot of awards at International Film Festivals. In 2009 Olena has got the Ukrainian State Film Award for the best feature film.

Gogi gvaxaria was born in 1957. He is art and film critic, professor of Shota Rustaveli state theatre and film university, Radio Liberty correspondent and  author of TV program  "Red Zone”.

He explores language of cinema and the film. During His career, he has devoted a significant part of the promotion of art of cinema via television.He was  an author of the popular TV program  "Psycho” on Rustavi 2 TV company, which first aired on TV dubbed films and during discussions about the film, it was the first time on Georgian TV viewers can make phone calls during Live broadcast.

He was at jury member at  Oberhousen, Tbilisi film festival. He is recipient of Didro’s scholarship from France.

Paweł Pawlikowski (born 1957) is a Polish-born, Oxford-based, BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker and academic. In the late 80's and 90's Pawlikowski was best known for his documentaries, whose unique blend of lyricism and irony, won him many fans and awards around the world. "Moscow Pietushki" was a poetic journey into the world of the Russian cult writer Vyenedikt Yerofeyev, for which he won an Emmy, Royal Television Society Award and others.

The multi-award winning "Dostoevsky's Travels" was a comic road movie with a St Petersburg tram driver and the only living descendant of Fyodor Dostoevsky, as he travels rough around Western Europe haunting high-minded humanists, aristocrats, monarchists and the Baden Baden casino  The absurdist "Tripping with Zhirinovsky", a surreal boat journey down the Volga with the Russian would-be dictator has won Pawlikowski the Grierson award for the Best British Documentary in 1995.

Pawlikowski's transition to fiction occurred in 1998 with a small 50 minute hybrid film Twockers, a lyrical and gritty love story set on a sink estate in Yorkshire, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Ian Duncan. He garnered much acclaim for his BAFTA Award-winning Last Resort which he wrote and directed in 2000 and My Summer of Love, loosely based on Helen Cross' novel, which also won a BAFTA and a string of other awards at festivals around the world.

Filmography  

Feature films

1997 The Stringer

2000 The Last Resort

2004 My Summer Of Love

2011 The Woman in the Fifth

TV documentaries

1988 Extraordinary Adventures

1989 Vaclav Havel

1990 Moscow Pietushki

1991 Dostoevsky's Travels

1992 Serbian Epics

1993 The Grave Case of Charlie Chaplin

1995 Tripping with Zhirinovsky

1997 Lucifer over Lancashire

1999 Twockers

Bulgarian producer. A graduate in film direction from Sofia’s National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, she went on to direct shorts and documentaries. After establishing KLAS Film, she produced IglikaTriffonova’s Letter to America, which competed in Karlovy Vary’s East of the West competition in 2002, and Crayfish (2009) by Ivan Cherkelov. She also producedChristmas Tree Upside Down (2006, dir. Ivan Cherkelov, VassilZhivkov), which screened in the main competition at the 41st KVIFF, winning the Special Jury Prize. Her most recent production is DragomirSholev’s debut effort, Shelter. She is a member of the European Film Academy.

Nosir Saidov was born in 1966 in Tajikistan. He graduated  Faculty of film directing atTajik State Institute of Art named after M. Tursun-Zaden.  He was involved in several films as second director. True Noon was his first feature film. It has won awards at film festivals in India, Iran, Japan and Russia. Saidov was assistant director on Luna Papa 1999 andThe Suit 2003.

 Salome Jashi is a documentary filmmaker based in Georgia. She was born in Soviet Union (1981) and grew up during struggle for Georgia’s independence followed by civil wars. After Graduating from Tbilisi State University in 2002 and Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management in 2003, Salome Jashi worked for Georgian Broadcasting Company Rustavi 2 as a journalist. She later completed an MA in Documentary by Practice, department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London.

 She was invited as a member of jury at Norwegian Short Film Festival, 2007, and Lessinia International Film Festival, Italy, 2009, and her short documentary Their Helicopter toured international film festival and received four awards. In 2009 she was a participant at Doc Station of the Berlinale Talent Campus and Ex Oriente Film Workshop with her documentary film project Restaurant Bakhmaro and Those Who Work There. The film was finished in 2011 and was premiered at “Silverdocs” film festival in USA. Salome is a founder of production company Sakdoc Film.

She is currently working on a short for a documentary film series 15 Young by Young – an individual perception of the 20^th anniversary of freedom after the collapse of the Soviet Union

 Filmography 

1. Bakhmaro and Those Who Work, 2011
2. Leader is Always Right, 2010
3. Speechlessi, 2009
4. A Mr. Minister, 2008 
5. Their Helicopter, 2006  

Kristina Trapp has worked in the film industry in Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg since 1999 – amongst others at the German regional film fund MFG-Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg, as free-lance producer for ARTE, heading the Film Commission Strasbourg and with the European training programmeMaster class Ludwigsburg / Paris.

She joined EAVE in 2004 as Programme Manager. In 2007, she became Deputy Chief Executive and was appointed Chief Executive in 2009.

Kristina has been closely working with several European festivals and production companies in her career. She has been matchmaker at the Berlinale Co-Production Market for the last few years. She is member of the documentary commission of the French regional fund Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

Born in 1966, Azerbaijan. He graduated in theater direction from the Azerbaijan State Institute of Arts and Culture, and in theater science from Moscow’s State Institute of Theater Arts, where he studied under Mark Zakharov. He has shot nearly 50 documentaries and features, many of which have been screened at world festivals, including Oberhausen, Leipzig, and Berlin’s Interfilm festival.

Elchin Musaoglu is a member of the Azerbaijan Cinematographers Union and a founder of the Society for Support of the Development of Documentary Films and Authorial Programs.

Born in 1962 in Tehran. He has BA in English Literature from Tehran’s Azad University (1985-1989) as well as BA in Stage Directing and MA in Film Studies from Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Mohammad Attebai was freelance writer and translator; collaborating with Iranian periodicals since 1987. Senior Editor of Film International 1997-2001; Analyst of international film marketing for Iranian media; representative of Cinemaya in Iran etc.    

During 1989-1997 collaborated with state-run Farabi Cinema Foundation. In 1997 founded   IRANIAN INDEPENDENTS and started taking the first steps in Iranian private sector on international promotion and marketing of films; involved in co-production and fund-raising as associate producer and producer; marketing of more than 200 feature, documentary and short films internationally; giving lectures in international seminars in Spain, Armenia, Japan and USA on Iranian cinema. He was as a jury member at national and international film festivals since 1995. Organized numerous Iranian film weeks throughout the world and holding international film weeks and festivals in Iran. Appointed as Director of International Affairs of Dramatic Arts Center of Iran from June 2004 to September 2010 and director of international affairs of 15 international theater festivals in Iran.

Iranian member of European Documentary Network (EDN); Iranian member of  Independent Film Network (IFN); Board Member of  NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) in Iran etc.

Tamara Tatiashvili has worked in the audiovisual sector since 2002. As commercial director, she headed production on TV projects for StudiaAudientsia. Since 2004 she has been actively involved in joint film projects in the South Caucasus and for two years headed the Independent Filmmakers Association of the South Caucasus.

In 2007-09 she was based in London where she worked as consultant for the creative sector for the UK's leading consulting company, BOP Consulting.

She has a master's degree in film and TV production from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Currently Tamar is Director of Georgian National Film Center.

Rezo Chkhikvishvili was born in 1957 in Tbilisi. He graduated Tbilisi ShotaRustaveliInstitute of theatre. His debut was in Rustavi theatre: “Spring behind the windows” (best actor-1980), and his debut in movie was in 1981 “I will return” as MirzaGelovani.

In 1980-93 he was an actor of Marjanishvili theatre. Major roles include: as Ferdinand in “Treacherous and Love” by Schiller, as Velski in “Guards of Graal” by GrigolRobakidze, as Caligula in “Caligula” by Albert Camus (Award for best actor in 1993).

From 1994 till now he lives in Germany and acts in Essen’s “Grillos” state Theater (the city, which was the “cultural Capital of Europe” in 2010).

He acted in more than 100 theater  performancesand in more than 40 feature and TV films, both in Georgia and Germany. He is a honored artist of Georgia and Marjanishvili Prize recipient. Currently he is a citizen of Germany. He is married and has two sons.