Mahtab Keramati (Iran)

PRESIDENT OF JURY

Mahtab Keramati (born October 17, 1970 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian actress. In 2006 she was appointed as UNICEF National Ambassador in Iran.

She was taking acting courses when she was chosen for the role of Helen in The Men of Angelos, which garnered her national recognition. She later went on to appear in films such as Mummy III and Rain Man for which she was nominated for a Fajr International Film Festival Crystal Simorgh. She then appeared in dramas such as Saint Mary and Crimson Soil and the films Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, There Are Things You Don’t Know, Alzheimer and The Private Life of Mr. and Mrs. M.. She won a Crystal Simorgh for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Twenty. In 2015 winner Best Actress Award Imagineindia International Film Festival. She was also featured in Dhaka Film Festival Jury.

Modhura Palit (India)

I studied cinematography from Satyajit Ray film and Television Institute; one of the premiere film schools of the country. I am also a member of Eastern India Cinematographers Association (EICA). I am also Alumni of Asian Film Academy (AFA), Busan. Also was part of Looking China Youth Film Project 2015. I have shot one of India’s first virtual reality short films. Watchmaker – experimental short film I shot is part of Dhaka University film studies curriculum. I love playing with light and images and try to tell a story with my craft. After all I deal with one of world’s most glamorous trick of the eye. Else than that, I like to enjoy myself and have fun. Take in all that life has to offer. I’m also a trained classical dancer and I paint. I like reading books, contemplating about random things and having a good time when I’m not busy in work.

Cinema is something I love and I want to spend the rest of my life with this ; getting closer; making it more intimate.

Hanna Polak (Poland)

Hanna Polak is a Polish director, filmmaker and producer. For her short documentary, Leningradsky’s Children, about a community of homeless children living in the Leningradsky train station in Moscow, she was nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award.

Leena Alam (Afganistan)

Leena Alam (born in Kabul, Afghanistan) is an award-winning Afghan film, TV and theater actress who has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Loori, A Letter to the President and “Hassan”. She has also been known as Shereen of Afghanistan after playing in the taboo-smashing feminist TV drama, Shereen, the first of its kind to have been made in Afghanistan, directed by Ghafar Azad and produced by Kaboora and Tolo TV.

In 1989, Alam and her family moved to America because of the civil war in her homeland. She began her acting and cinema career in 1998.

Bridget Ikin (Australia)

Bridget Ikin is a passionate champion of new and innovative filmmaking, having produced award-winning films, short films, documentaries and moving image projects over many years, in both Australia/ NZ: initially through Hibiscus Films and now through Felix Media.

Bridget has been the Head of SBS Independent (commissioning 400+ hours of distinctive Australian television programming), and was the Associate Director – Film, of the Adelaide Festival 2002, under its maverick artistic director, Peter Sellars (commissioning four new feature films). During 2005-2006 she was a feature film Evaluation Manager at the FFC (now Screen Australia). She was also a long-serving board member of the South Australian Film Corporation.

Anjali Monteiro (India)

Anjali Monteiro is a Professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Masters degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. She is involved in documentary production, media teaching and research. She teaches courses in documentary and video production as well as theoretical approaches to image making practices and has done pioneering and innovative work in critical media education with various groups including activists, school and college students, parents and teachers.

Olga Korotko (Kazakhstan)

Olga Korotko started to study filmmaking with a course of an arthouse director D. Omirbayev, in collaboration with whom she later created films-research on the history of cinema titled “Reverences”, “Sisters” and others. In 2011 she was selected for Asian Film Academy and in 2013 she shot a short film DOVE ON THE ROOF which was selected for more than 20 film festivals. In 2016 she was selected to Berlinale Talents Campus and in 2017 she shot a documentary film in support of women’s rights “House of mothers” about a shelter for single mothers. In 2018 Olga Korotko finished her first feature film BAD BAD WINTER which was premiered at Cannes Film festival 2018 (Acid Cannes).

Sandhya Suri (England)

Sandhya Suri is a British-Indian writer/director based in London. A graduate in pure mathematics, she received a scholarship to study documentary at The National Film and Television School. Her feature documentary I FOR INDIA premiered in the World Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, screened at over 20 international festivals and garnered several awards before being released theatrically to critical acclaim in the UK and the U.S. In 2016 she was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab with her first fiction feature SANTOSH, which Inflammable Films have come on board to produce and which the BFI are funding further development of. She’s currently writing an episode of Riz Ahmed’s series ENGLISTAN for the BBC and her she recently completed her first fiction short THE FIELD, which was produced by Thomes Bidegain and Balthazar de Ganay and which recently won Best International Short Film at TIFF.

Olga Khlasheva (Kazakhstan)

Since 1997 has worked in film industry: at Kazakhfilm Studios JSC (as head of international relations / promotion of Kazakh films), at Eurasia International Film festival (since its creation in 1998) and as film producer (including international promotion of full-length features by Adilkhan Yerzhanov, e.g. his recent film “The gentle indifference of the world” premiered at Un Certain Regard/Cannes IFF-2018).

APSA Academy Member (Best Producer Nomination for the films “Owners” and “The gentle indifference of the world” by Adilkhan Yerzhanov, in 2014 and 2018 respectively).

Daniela Creutz (Germany)

Born in Munich, she moved to New York in 1995, where she completed a two-year postgraduate course (Direction) at the University of New York. Then she founded her own production company “Blue Circe Filmproduction LLC”. Initially she worked for broadcasters such as ABC Networks and CBS Studios, but then produced independent film projects: commercials, image films, short films and documentaries. The development and creative realization, as well as the technical realization of different cinematographic projects, from research, script and writing to filming and final postproduction. Daniela has been a member of WGA-Writer’s Guild since 2000.

Kim Do Kyung (South Korea)

Born in Seoul, South Korea. MFA in film directing the graduate school of Advance Imaging Science, Multimedia & Film at Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea.
Director of the films Love is professional, Be My Guest, The First Day of Snow, Persona.
Screenplay for the films L’amour, The Storyteller, The Pen name, and producer of Cheoyongmoo.

Mehdi Rahmani (Iran)

Iranian director and producer who was born in 1979. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Iranian Cinema and Broadcasting university-Tehran as a director and made 18 short films and documentaries.

He started to make feature film from 2009 and made 4 feature films as a director and produced 3 feature films and participated in many film festivals around the world and won prizes such as Best Children Feature Film in Asia Pacific Awards, Best Film in Avanca Film Festival, Jury prize in IBBAF Film Festival, Best documentary in Noor Film Festival and many more.

Sougata Bhattacharyya (India)

Writer and filmmaker, is a postgraduate in Film Studies from Jadavpur University. He did academic research on studio system of Bengali Cinema, more specifically, 100 years of Aurora Studio, supported by SARAI, CSDS, NewDelhi. He is the writer of several research articles and also a story book titled ‘Sahanagarik’. At present he is the Film Research Officer of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. He is the editor of one annual research journal ‘SRFTI Taake One’. He produced several television programme from 1998 to 2003 and then nonfictions for NGOs. His documentary ‘Trash’ (2013) won best film, NETPAC Jury award in 13 ISIFF, Dhaka and also won ‘Special Jury’ mention in 7th IDSFFK. His recent film ‘An Iconic Genius’s (2018) won best science film in 16IFF, Jaipur.

Chandrashekhar Joshi (India)

Dr. Chandrashekhar Joshi has enjoyed a versatile career in cinema as a film critic, researcher, teacher, festival jury and a filmmaker.  A columnist for India’s national film weekly, ‘Screen’, author of book on legendary Marathi filmmaker Raja Paranjape, research project on the great actor Nilu Phule for National Film Archive of India, acting for plays and folk performances also highlight his career.  His Ph. D. thesis explored creative and sociological aspects of Hindi Noir films.

He has served the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune as film research officer, executive editor for an academic journal, Lensight and also headed the artistic Prabhat Museum for a few years.

Féliz Sabroso Cruz (Spain)

Screenwriter and Spanish film director, Felix Sabroso Cruz is known for his work for several television networks, as well as for the feature films directed along with the screenwriter and director, Dunia Ayaso.

José Luis Guerín (Spain)

José Luis Guerin (1960), is one of the maximum representatives of European author cinema, for the ability to create a unique, poetic work, in continuous renewal of filmic language and the same idea of ​​beauty. After a series of short films, directed between 1976 and 1981, he debuted in the feature film with The Motifs of Berta (1985), which obtained, among other awards, the Quality Prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture and the Sant Jordi Prize (RNE).

Pedro Hernández Santos (Spain)

Pedro Hernández Santos began his career as a producer with the film Here and There, by Antonio Méndez Esparza (Critics’ Week 2012), when the director of this film presented his script; at the same time he lost his job as an industrial engineer in a company and with that indemnity he set up his production company, Aqui y Hay Films, which produced the widely praised Magical Girl, by Carlos Vermut (Concha de Oro in San Sebastián 2014), Speak, directed by Joaquín Oristrell and Las furias, debut of the theater man Miguel del Arco.

Javier Aguirresarobe (Spain)

Obtained the diploma in Optics, initiated studies of Journalism. Later he entered the Official School of Cinema, where he coincided with Imanol Uribe, Ángel Luis Fernández and Julio Madurga, among others. He graduated in 1973.

His first feature was What does a girl like you in a place like this? by Fernando Colomo (1978). In his beginnings he worked a lot with Imanol Uribe and Montxo Armendáriz, which gave him great popular recognition in the Basque Country.

Andrés de la Torre (Spain)

Born and raised in Madrid, Andres started his career as a video editor in one of the leading production companies in Spain, MediaPro. His true passion, though, was always to compose music for film. His first feature as a composer, “Going Nuts” (2006), had a theatrical release and was the first film in the world to feature peanuts as the main characters. The score earned Andres national recognition with the Ateneo Coste Cero Award in 2008 for Best Soundtrack. Shortly after, Andres wrote the music for the Spanish-North American co-production “Disney: Through the Looking Glass” (2010), a score that earned him his first Jerry Goldsmith Award after 5 years of consecutive nominations.

Alberto Luchini Solano (Spain)

Alberto Luchini (Madrid, 1968) is Editor-in-Chief of the Metrópoli magazine and the metrópoli.com website, as well as director of the Metrópoli Comer y Beber Guide in Madrid. For more than 25 years, he has been a film critic. He has been an organizer and / or jury at various festivals.

He is a member of the European Film Academy and in 2014 he received the National Gastronomy Award for Best Journalistic Work.