Born in Moscow in 1949, he studied in the screenwriting faculty at the state film school VGIK in the same city and has worked as a film and television screenwriter since 1976. He has received numerous awards and international prizes, including a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for the "idea and adaptation" of the film  “A Play For A Passenger". His directorial debut, "Soaring", screened at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Second feature film written and directed by Alexander Mindadze INNOCENT SATURDAY was premiered at Berlin IFF in 2011. It was also presented at BIAFF film festival.

Christopher Goodwin has written about film and culture for more than 30 years. He was the editor of the film trade publications Screen International and Moving Pictures International and was the International Editor of The Hollywood Reporter. He has reported on film and culture for The Sunday Times (of London), The Times, GQ, Esquire and numerous other publications. He was on the jury of the Zagreb Film Festival 2012 and the Pula Film Festival 2015.

Born in Tehran, Niki Karimi began her work as an actress with films such as Sara by Dariush Mehrjui, for which she won the best actress award at the San Sebastian Film Festival and at the Nantes Film Festival in 1992. She then worked on more than 40 films which brought her awards both nationally and internationally, like at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy, the Cairo Film Festival in Egypt and the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, together with Best Actress awards from the Iranian film Society.

In 2001, she began her career as a filmmaker with a documentary about infertility: To Have or Not to Have. Her first feature film, One Night (2004), was in the Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" selection and subsequently shown at numerous international film festivals. In 2006, she made her second feature film, A Few Days Later which premiered at the Rome Film Festival.  Her film Final Whistle (2011) was awarded at several film festivals.   

Nicolas Ronchi started to feel concerned about movies when he was 13. 10 years later he left his hometown Bordeaux for Paris to become a post-production courrier for high profile French production company Les Films Alain Sarde.

Getting to know all the occupations needed on making a film, he quickly discovered a vocation for casting, getting to know actors & directors while driving them to editing rooms or post-synchro, and then on some shooting sets (« Place Vendôme », « Balzac », « 8 Women »...).

After working on 3 feature films as a casting assistant, he’s held one film after another for 15 years, working with filmmakers such as Tonie Marshall, Denys Arcand, Régis Wargnier, Brigitte Roüan, Claire Denis or Maïwenn on feature films, Bernard Stora & Josée Dayan for TV productions.

He recently worked on Jalil Lespert’s «Yves Saint Laurent », and the last films of Cédric Anger, Frédéric Beigbeder, Nicolas Pariser, André Téchiné and Daniel Monzón.

Presently he’s working on new productions of Daniele Vicari, Sam Karmann, Pierre Thoretton, Caroline Bottaro, Louise Archambault and John Malkovich, while both his collaborations with Julie Delpy on « Lolo » and Brady Corbet on «The Childhood of a Leader » were recently premiered at Venice International Film Festival. 

George Ovashvili (b. 1963, Georgia) studied at the Georgian State Institute of Film and Theatre (1996) and at the Hollywood branch of the New York Film Academy (2006). He is involved both in documentary and feature film work, which he frequently also produces himself. He has made several remarkable short films, with Eye Level (Mzeris Doneze) winning awards at Berlin and Odense in 2005. In 2009 KVIFF’s East of the West competition section screened his feature debut The Other Bank (Gagma Napiri, 2008), which garnered around fifty awards and was nominated for the European Film Academy’s European Discovery of the Year.  His last film CORN ISLAND was premiered at Karlovy Vary Film Festival where it got Major award. 

From the late 60s, Zelimir Zilnik  socially engaged films and documentaries in former Yugoslavia earned him critical accolades (The Unemployed, 1968, Best Documentary at the Oberhausen festival, 1968; Early Works,1969, Best Film at Berlin Film Festival), but also censorship in the 70s for his unflinching criticism of the government apparatus.

Low budget filmmaking and challenging political themes mark Zilnik’s prolific career that includes over 50 feature and documentary films and shorts.

His power to observe and unleash compelling narratives out of the lives of ordinary people is the common thread throughout his documentary and docu-drama work. More recently, his focus has shifted beyond the divided Balkans to question its relationship with the tightening controls of European borders, delving into the heart of issues of refugees and migrants.

Воrn in Feodossiya (Crimea), graduated from Saratov State University, majoring in journalism;  first gainfully employed in Kiev: translation & interpretation jobs (Serbian and Croatian) for Sputnik, a travel agency for youth, writing jobs for a few papers; started her TV career as  author and host to a  few popular shows on motion picture art, such as “Vse o Kino” (Everything on Movies) “Imia” (Name)   “Egoistka” (Ego-Tripper), “Svoia Rol” (One’s Own Part) while interviewing motion picture personalities, such as  Emir Kusturica, Oleg Yankovskiy, Jerzy Hoffman, Roman Balayan, Pierre Richard and Nikita Mikhalkov, Barbara Brylska and Armen  Jigarxanyan , Andrey Konchalovskiy and Yevgeni Mironov with a number of projects awarded at Ukrainian and international film and TV festivals and in particular: Grand Prix at  All-Ukrainian “Zolotaya Volna” Festival (Golden Wave) – for shows, such as “Bogdan Stupka” (film & theatre actor)  and ‘Igor Kostin’ ( one of  the first  photographers to have covered the Chernobyl nuclear disaster); the best host  award  at the Barkhatny Sezon -2001 (Velvet Season) TV Festival for “Valentina Talyzina” (film& theatre actress) , “Name” TV series, etc;  listed among the country’s best journalists in “Ukraine’s Personalities-2002” catalogue.  Iryna Gordiichuk was appointed programme director at the Kiev International  Film Festival (2009-2010); is a full-fledged FIPRESCI member, many a time a jury member at international film festivals in Kiev, Odessa, Yerevan, Minsk and Tomsk. 

Wojciech Szczudło, film producer of Film Studio Kalejdoskop. He has been Executive producer in the state Documentary Film Studio of Warsaw. In 1989 Wojciech and three other producers established one of the first independent film studio’s in Poland, KALEJDOSKOP which has gone on to produce many award winning films like that of “89 mm from Europe” directed by Marcel Łoziński, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1994. Since then Wojciech continues to produce some of Poland’s’ best films to date. Another Film „Anything can Happen”  1995 INUT Mexico and is in the list of Top Twenty  best documentary films on the world. Film “Tell me why” dir. By M/Imielska/ was awarded on the all world / abt. love in during Holocaust time. .In 1999 Film “Dady I Love You-”  It received INPUT Halifax –Canada. In 2007 in cooperation with Georgia was shot documentary film “In a horned hat a tiger skin” directed by Jerzy Lubach. In 2008 Film “If it happens” was on the short list to Oscar nomination

He made several documentary films  in coproduction with foreign station  as TV ARTE ,TV France .TV German, La Septe, TV Japan TV Finland and other.

Dennis Wheatley is a UK based documentary producer/ sound designer who’s award winning films (Grierson, BAFTA) have premiered at some of the most prestigious film festivals in the World including Sundance, LA FilmFest, Berlinale, Tribeca, HotDocs, Idfa, Sheffield DocFest, London Film Festival as well as many others. (Bengali Detective; Dir: Phil Cox. Black Out; Dir: Eva Weber. Lawrence of Belgravia; Dir: Paul Kelly. Love Hotel; Dir: Phil Cox/ Hikaru Toda)

He has a passion to produce better sound tracks for documentary films and has a background in writing and producing music before working in film. He studied architecture and film at London’s Architectural Association and Expressive Arts at Brighton University in the UK.

His ambition is to inhabit the world of Parajanov’s “Color of Pomegranates”

Lasha Khalvashi was born in 22.04.1977 in Georgia. 1995 - 2005 graduated with degrees in Law and Economics. From 2003 works in different fields of creative industry. 2011 – 2014 head of film studio “Millimeter Film”. Since 2014 – present head of film studio “Artizm”. Lasja is member of the Union of Georgian Filmmakers. He is also co-founder of the Film Producers Guild of Georgia.  

Lasha  worked for several feature and short films such as  - “Brides” (France, Georgia/2014) Feature, Director - Tinatin Kajrishvili; “Parajanov” (France, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia/2012), Directors - Olena Fetisova and Serge Avedikian. “Bolo Gaseirneba” (Georgia/2011) Feature, Director - Zaza Urushadze.  Currenly two films are in  post-production stage  -  “Now I`m Gonna Love You” (Ukraine, Georgia/2015) Feature, Director – Roman Shirman, and “The Summer of Frozen Fountains” (Russia, Georgia/2015) Feature, Director – Vano Burduli.

Nenad Dizdarevic (born 21 May 1955) is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and teacher of cinema from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is co-Founder of Sarajevo Film Academy and dean and professor of directing.  In past he has worked as Head of Studies and Head Professor within the International Department of EICAR, The International Film School of Paris (2004-2008), Head Professor at the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998-2002),  etc.

He directed several films (both feature and documentaries). His film “Magarece Godine (“The Tough Teens”) was the Bosnian submission to the Academy Awards in 1995.

Siegfried, also known as Sig, studied cello, percussion and piano. After long trips around the world, taking photographs, he became a filmmaker and composer. In addition to his own films, he has also scored several original soundtracks for films in Europe and Russia.La faim (1996),  C’est déjà Noël? (1997), Louise (Take 2) screened in official selection at the Cannes Festival in 1998  as well as at Sundance in 1999. Sansa (2003) shown at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2003. Kinogamma (2008) a cinematic experience shot in 2 parts screened Locarno in 2008. Kids stories (2011) screened at Rome film festival and many others. Between films, Siegfried gives concerts in many countries with various other musicians. In 2010 he release free speed sonata a classical hip hop sonata. Since then He is touring around the world on piano solo and some electro jazz trio with drummers and bass players from different countries and also two book of his black and white photos was publish in Europe.

Helen Yanovsky is a Jerusalem based documentary filmmaker with a BA from the Theatre and Film Georgia State university in Tbilisi, and an MFA degree in Film Directing from the Tel Aviv University.  Since completing her first short documentary in 2009, “Neve Sha’anan Street”, Helen has been working in the documentary film industry as a cinematographer, while shooting and editing her debut feature length film, “Jerusalem Boxing Club”. The film was screened at the 2015 Jerusalem Film Festival and was also broadcasted on Israeli Channel 8.

Helen is also currently the video archive manager at B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Tinatin Kajrishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia 1978. In 2001 graduated from State Theatre and Film University of Georgia with the qualification of film director. Directed several short films “Opus 1”, “Mysteries”.  Later she continued studies as producer (IFASC workshop for producers). In 2009 was selected to participate at EAVE as a producer. Since then has produced several short films, documentaries and feature films. Among them short films “Nest” (Dir: T. Bziava) and “Black Mulberry” (Dir: G. Razmadze) shown at Sundance, Cork, Palm Spring, Hong Kong film festivals, feature film “Parajanov” (Dir: S. Avedikian, O. Fetisova) premiered at Karlovy Vary IFF.  “Brides” is her first feature film produced and directed by her, premiered at Berlin Film Festival.