Roman Balaian born in 1941 Nerkin Horatagh, Nagorno-Karabakh. He graduated from he Ivan Karpenko-Kary Institute of Theater Arts. During 1959-1961 he worked as a n actor in Stephanokertski theater. 1961-1964 – he was studying on film directing faculty at Yerevan Theater Institute of Karpenko-Karogo.

Balaian’s film directing carrier started in 1970 at Keiv Cinema Studio. His films Biryuk (1978), Keep me, my talisman 1986), Two Moon & Three Sun (1998) - were nominated and won several international prizes. His  films were screened on many international films festivals - Berlin International Film Festival,   KVIFF, Venice, Moscow, Molodist etc. 

A film curator for more than 25 years, Alissa Simon was named a 1999 Chicagoan of the Year for her innovative work as Associate Director/ Programming at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Simon began her career at the Film Department of Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the International Museum of George Eastman House in Rochester. In addition to her work as Senior Programmer at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, she reviews films and writes about festivals and filmmakers for the trade magazine Variety and has served on international film festival juries in Venice, Taipei, Gothenburg, Istanbul, Pusan, Belgrade, Amsterdam, Sarajevo, San Francisco, Torino, Ljubljana, Sochi, Cluj, Vancouver and Montreal. 

Graduated from the Saratov Theater School of Slonov, department "Actor". He graduated with honors from the Belarusian Theatre and Art Institute. Staged performances in the theaters of Russia and Belarus.

Worked as the chief director of youth programs at the Belarusian Television. Based on his scripts were shoot several serials and feature films in Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. Laureate of international competitions and festivals. 

Currently he is the Dean of the Faculty of Screen Arts in Belarusian State Academy of Arts, Professor of Department of Film and Television Directing, artistic director of creative workshop directing TV, Academician of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio.

Born 1938, Yerevan. After graduating from Yerevan Polytechnical Institute worked as  mechanical engineer. At 1968 graduated from VGIK, and then worked in Gosfilmofond USSR, Armenfilm studio, Institute of   Arts (Armenian  National  Academy  of  Science). From 1991-97 was Deputy Minister of Culture RA. At 2004 founded with Harutyun Khachtryan and Susanna Harutyunyan IFF “GoldenApricot”, and till now is the Program director of this festival.

Zaza urushadze was born in 1966 in Tbilisi.  He graduated from the Georgian State University of Theatre and Film in Tbilisi in 1988. His full-length debut "Here Comes the Dawn" participated in many international film festivals. He worked as a director at the Film Studio in Georgia until 1999. In 2002-2004 he worked as head of the Georgian National Film Centre.

In 2013 Zaza was elected as a chairman of Union of Georgian Cinematographers.

Film director and producer from Lithuania. Member of European Film Academy and European Documentary Network. He made 14 films as an independent filmmaker and producer. Films got many international film awards. Among them Public prize in Nyon, Grand Prix in Split, prizes in Bornholm, Gyor, Neu Brandenburg, Oberhausen and San Francisco.

1992 the film “Earth of the Blind” received European Film Academy award “FELIX” as the Best European Documentary film of the Year. 2004-2005 Documentary teacher in European Film College, Denmark. 2006 lectures in Tokyo Waseda University.

Film expert and art- publisher, member of Russian Guild of Film Critics. In 1997-98 he finished the Higher Courses of film experts at Saint Petersburg university of Film and TV – particularly at Sergei Dobrotvorskiy’s and further at Mihaila Trofimenkova’s. Since 2000 he has been involved in Russian-language media landscape.

He is the co-author of Russian-language Conceptual project – the site of intellectual extreme, countercultural portal of Azerbaijan "Kultura.Az". He took part in joint peace making film project “Step towards the Dialogue” of MFA of Great Britain and North-Caucasian center of peace making initiatives (Southcaucasus.com) “Days of Turkish films in Erevan”. As a lecturer-expert he gave lectures on Azerbaijanian and Turkish films.

As a publisher he cooperated with Russian Publishing – “Film art”, “Russian journalistic hall – literary magazine “Drujba narodov”, “Ria-novosti”, movie magazine “Seans”, Russian internet-publishing “Chastniy correspondent”. Herewith he published series of publications about development of contemporary art in Azerbaijan.       

Miroljub Vučković (born in 1952) from 1979 engaged on various researches and projects of the Yugoslav Film Institute, as retrospective of the Yugoslav films at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Cinematheque Royale in Brussels, Giornate del cinema muto in Pordenone,... Film critic and author of the monthly TV program (1995 - 1998) Cinema Art. Author and producer of several interviews made for TV - portraits of Nagisa Oshima, Peter Greenaway, Chantal Akerman, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Harvey Keitel, Simon Perry, Atom Egoyan, Sergey Bodrov, Tsai Ming-liang, Paul Morrissay, Hou Hsiao-hsien,...

Adviser to international film festivals (Busan, Thessaloniki, Venice, Rotterdam,..). Worked on realization of several projects, such as: After the Fall of the Wall  (Rotterdam), Yugoslav Black Wave (Sochi), Belgian Surrealism and Film (Karlovy Vary), East Side Story (Sochi), Easterns, City Life (Florence), Is it easy to breath in Belgrade and Letters from abroad (Klaipeda and Vilnius), Free Expression from Belgrade (Huesca), context:europe (Vienna), Red Westerns (Rotterdam).

Member of European Film Academy, since 2009. Representative of Serbia in Eurimages, 2008-2012. Acting director of Film Center Serbia, 2007-present.

Paweł Łoziński was born on December 4, 1965 in Warsaw, Poland. He is a producer, writer and director of documentaries. Paweł began his career in film assisting Krzystzof Kieślowski on the set of Trzy kolory: Biały (Three Colours: White). In 1988, he was accepted at the National Film School in Łódź and graduated in 1992, making his first full-length documentary, Miejsce Urodzenia (Birthplace) which was awarded a Grand Prix in San Francisco and Marseille.

Łoziński is well known for creating simple, intimate films, documenting ordinary peoples' stories, in which the smallest problems of his characters are shown against a background of wider social issues. Taka historia (The Way It Is) (1999), Siostry (Sisters) (1999) and Pani z Ukrainy (A Woman From Ukraine) (2002) were filmed single-handedly with his personal camera giving a sense of true intimacy with the subjects.

His filming style allows the camera to reveal the true motivations behind human behaviour with little outside interference. Paweł’s films comment on the ‘ordinary world’ finding situations that people can identify and relate with while subtly critiquing modern Polish society.

Anna Dziapshipa is an art manager and since 2009 has been working at Sakdoc Film as a producer. Before that for 5 years she was head of Film Export Department at the Georgian National Film Center being in charge of international relations, making contacts with international funds and organizations, as well as promoting Georgian films at international festivals and markets. In 2007, 2009, 2010 Anna was responsible for Georgian stand at Berlinale European Film Market. She was responsible for press-centre of the Tbilisi International Film Festival in 2005 and was appointed as the main coordinator of the festival in 2006 and 2007. In 2009 she organized first Documentary Film Pitching project Pitch.Doc as part of Tbilisi International Film Festival. Anna also works on organizing various trainings and workshops. She is one of the founders of production company Sakdoc Film.

Mikheil Kobakhidze was born on the 5^th of April in 1939 in Tbilisi. He graduated from VGIK, Moscow  (workshop of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova). 

In Tbilisi Mikheil Kobakhidze directed his first film “Rvanakhevari” (“Eight and a half”) for his diploma, the film was considered to be anti-Soviet and had been destroyed before sending to Moscow.  Another film for diploma of 1964 “Qortsili” (“The Wedding”) has got three prizes at Oberhausen international festival of short films (The Main Prize of the Festival, Prize of Film-journalists’ Association, “The International Evangelist Film Center Prize). In 1969 after the film “Musikosebi” (“Musicians”) under the order of Alexander Romanov – the Head of State Cinematography Committee of Moscow, Mikheil Kobakhidze was forbidden to make independent films. In 2001 he directed a short film “Gzaze” (“On the Road”) in France.    

Mira Staleva has been involved in different areas of audiovisual world in the last 18th years. She holds a degree in Psychology and Theology.  Mira Staleva started working with  Sofia IFF since the very beginning and she is a deputy director of the festival and head of Sofia Meetings, a coproduction market in the frame of the festival. She is involved in programing, consulting, production, distribution and exhibition, the main activities of Art Fest Ltd. Member of European Film Academy.

Ekaterina Cherkes-zade is a director of The Moscow Film School. She graduated from Moscow State University of Printing Arts (the faculty for publishing and journalism), worked on various projects in the media and publishing industries. Since 2009 Ekaterina Cherkes-zade has engaged in the education in the field of creative industries.

The Moscow Film School is a unique educational center aimed at training specialists for all areas of film industry — preproduction, production, postproduction and film distribution.  The school trains specialists, whose knowledge and skills match the requirements of modern film industry. www.moscowfilmschool.com

Andrew Vial is an independent Film, Television, and New Media producer who has directed/acted projects in many countries such as USA, Japan, India, Europe and Africa.

His work is highly regarded winning over 100 international awards, and as a film industry expert he has advised many governments on film policy.

In the last couple of years he has been on the Jury of the Jaipur International Film festival, Kish International Film Festival, and Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival, as well as producing new films and acting in Australian and Overseas Film and Television programs.

Latavra Dularidze