Rituparna Sengupta (India) PRESIDENT

Rituparna Sengupta is Indian actress and producer who is known for her work in Bengali, Odia and Hindi cinema. One of the most successful actresses of Bengali cinema, she rode the crest of her box office success in the late 1990s. She has won a National Award, two Filmfare Awards, four BFJA Awards and four Anandalok Awards.

Rituparna was born on 7 November 1970. She was interested in the arts since a young age and learned painting, dancing, singing and handicrafts at a painting school, called Chitrangshu. She studied at Carmel High school, and later graduated in history from Lady Brabourne College. She began studying Modern History for an M.A. at University of Calcutta, but had to interrupt studies to concentrate on her career as an actress.

Mahtab Keramati (Iran)

Born on October 17, 1970 in Tehran, Iran, in 2006 she was appointed UNICEF National Ambassador in Iran.

She was taking acting courses when she was cast for the role of Helen in The Men of Angelos, which earned her national recognition.  She later appeared in films such as Mummy III and Rain Man, for which she was nominated for the Fajr Crystal Simorgh International Film Festival.  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’s 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 of the Award for Best Actress International Imagineindia Film Festival Madrid.

RUCHIKA OBEROI (India)

Ruchika Oberoi is a Film Director and Screenwriter. Her debut feature film ISLAND CITY premiered at Venice Days, 72nd Venice Film Festival (2015), winning the FEDEORA Critics Award for Best Debut Director. The film traveled to over 30 International Film Festivals, including Karlovy Vary, Tallinn Black Nights, Stockholm, Cairo, Warsaw and Beijing. She won the Best Screenplay award at the New York Indian Film Festival and the Best Director award at ImagineIndia Film Festival, Madrid. She was nominated for the Transilvania Trophy at Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania and for Best Film at Bratislava, Slovakia. She was also nominated for Best Debut Director at the Filmfare and Star Screen Awards in India. The film stars Vinay Pathak, Amruta Subhash and Tannishtha Chatterjee.

SEPIDEH ABDOLVAHAB (Iran)

Sepideh Abdolvahab is a prominent film editor from Iran. She has edited more than 70 feature films, short film and TV shows since the beginning of her career in 2002. Her films have screened in festivals around the world, such as Berlinale, Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Busan International Film Festival, Shang Hai International Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival and Asia Pacific Film Festival.
Sepideh started her journey as an assistant editor to her mother, the world-renowned Iranian editor Hayedeh Safiyari (A Separation, The Salesman). Soon after she was hired to edit her first feature film, Friday Evening, by Mona Zandi Haghighi. The film earned her the first of 7 nominations and 2 wins for Best Editing at Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran. Sepideh has a history of working with auteurist Iranian filmmakers and edited more than 70 feature films, short films and TV shows. She has also served as a juror on several film festivals, such as Fajr International Film Festival , Globe Internatinal silent Film Festival and Nahal International Film Festival. Sepideh teaches editing frequently. Her recent teaching experiences include Asghar Farhadi’s film workshops in Tehran and Guest Film Workshop at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Sepideh lives in Los Angeles.

SANTIAGO RACAJ (Spain)

SANTIAGO RACAJ has more than thirty years of experience as a director of photography. He has directed the photography of hundreds of advertising spots, several documentaries and video clips, and more than twenty-five feature films, including Josefina by Javier Marco, La vida era eso by David Martín de los Santos, The Virgin of August by Jonás Trueba, A Trip to a Mother’s Room by Celia Rico, Estiu 1993 by Carla Simón, I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye by Lino Escalera, The Wound by Fernando Franco, Magical Girl by Carlos Vermut or The Dead and Being Happy by Javier Rebollo.

He currently combines film photography direction with the coordination of the specialty and the Master’s Degree in Photography Direction at the Film and Audiovisual School of the Community of Madrid ECAM.

KIM LONGINOTTO (Great Britain)

Kim Longinotto (born 1952) is a British documentary filmmaker, well known for making films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Longinotto studied camera and directing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, where she now tutors occasionally.

Longinotto went on to Essex University to study English and European literature and later followed friend and future filmmaker, Nick Broomfield to the National Film and Television School. While studying, she made a documentary about her boarding school that was shown at the London Film Festival, since when she has continued to be a prolific documentary filmmaker.

She has received a number of awards for her films over the years, including a BAFTA for her documentary PINK SARIS.

Among her more than 20 films, she has followed a teenager struggling to become a wrestling star in 2000’s GAEA GIRLS, challenged the tradition of female genital mutilation in Kenya in 2002’s THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET, and told the story of an Indian Muslim woman who smuggled poetry out to the world while locked up by her family in 2013’s SALMA. In 2015’s DREAMCATCHER Longinotto looks at the life and work of a former sex worker who rescues Chicago girls from the street.

Her new film SHOOTING THE MAFIA, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

LALIT MOHAN JOSHI (India)

Lalit Mohan Joshi is a film historian, documentary filmmaker, critic, former BBC journalist and founder Director, South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF), a not-for-profit film education organisation aimed at highlighting meaningful cinema from South Asia in London.

SACF has been working in collaboration with UK’s British Film Institute, various universities and the Nehru Centre in London to organise film festivals, film workshops and exhibitions and also hosts the Dadasaheb Phalke Memorial lecture on cinema.

He was the first to invite and introduce to London audiences a number of outstanding (but less well known filmmakers in the West) like MS Sathyu, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Shyam Benegal, Girish Kasaravalli and Vishal Bhardwaj.

BRIDGET IKIN (Australia)

Bridget Ikin has worked in New Zealand and Australia as an independent film producer for 30+ years. She is passionately committed to innovative filmmaking, and to telling stories by and for women. Her award-winning films include Jane Campion’s AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE; Sarah Watt’s two feature films LOOK BOTH WAYS and MY YEAR WITHOUT SEX, Clara Law’s FLOATING LIFE, and the BAFTA-nominated documentary SHERPA (dir. Jen Peedom).

As well as her short films, features and documentaries, Bridget also produces exceptional moving image works with artists . In particular, she has produced many multi-screen works for artist Angelica Mesiti – including Mesiti’s multi-screen work ASSEMBLY for 2019 Venice Biennale.

She was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate for distinguished services to the film industry; she’s a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures; she’s also been a curator for the Sydney Film Festival, and has served on a number of boards.

LEENA ALAM (Afghanistan)

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.

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.

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.

Ridhima Mehra (India)

Ridhima Mehra is Co-Director of Rough Edges Arts and Media, a nascent initiative that seeks to enable, mentor and disseminate documentary films that explore diverse, intersecting and complex realities, boldly informed by queer feminist politics and a commitment to social justice. She was Executive Producer at the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, where she led the commissioning, creative realisation and outreach of non-fiction films, having mentored over 500 films over seventeen years, diverse in artistic form, subject and authorship. These have travelled around the world – 2000 festival selections, 350 awards, screenings and honours at Berlinale, Rotterdam, Oberhausen, Yamagata, Busan and Sheffield, among others. She was Director of the Open Frame Film Festival, curating films, conversations and trainings. She is part of the reFrame Institute of Art and Expression, involved with commissioning and mentoring projects across multiple media.

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.

Therese Malvar (Philippines)

Therese Malvar is a film and television actress. She was only 12 years old when she starred in her first feature film, “The Last Cha Cha of Anita” and won the Best Actress at the Cine Filipino Film Festival. At the age of 16, she won the Silver George for the Best Actress at the Moscow International Film Festival and the Screen International Rising Star Female Award from the NewYork Asian Film Festival for “Hamog” (“Haze”). In 2018, she made history at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival for winning the Best Supporting Actress award for two films, “Distance” and “School Service”. At present, Therese is a contract artist of GMA Network in the Philippines and
is a full-time film student at the Meridian International College.

Mikel Z Castells (Spain)

Mikel Z. Castells is a sound designer and re-recording mixer with many years of experience for the audiovisual industry.

He has supervised, designed and mixed worldwide succesfull TV series like “MONEY HEIST”, “LOOCKED UP”, “THE BARRIER” OR “THE PIER” and international films like “LA FOQUITA: EL 10 DE LA CALLE” (PERU), “LA CONDESA” (HONDURAS/EEUU) or “THE NANNY´S NIGHT” (SPAIN) among many others.

In addition to being a Higher Level Technician, obtaining a degree from the CEV School of Image and Sound, in Madrid, he studied between San Sebastián and the United States, so he can handle both Spanish, English and Basque without any problem.

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, New Delhi. 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.

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).

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.

Guillem Oliver (Spain)

Guillem Oliver was born in Valencia in 1985, studied Audiovisual Communication and later a Postgraduate and Master in Photography Direction from the ESCAC (Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya). Since then he has worked as a cinematographer and camera operator shooting spots, fashion films, video clips, short films and feature films such as “El Lodo” (Iñaki Sánchez Arrieta), “Visitante” (Alberto Evangelio), “Amor en Polvo” (Juanjo Moscardó, Suso Imbernón), “Assembly” (Álex Montoya), or “El Club del Paro” (David Marqués). He also usually performs the grading of his works.

Óscar Sánchez (Spain)

He studied Higher Production Technician at CEV in 1998. Later he worked as editor for Antena 3 news programs and also as Mediaset editor for Tele5 news programs and as Production Assistant at Videozapping production company, in the Mundo Mundial program for Vía Digital.

He then began his career as a teacher at CEV’s Superior Technician for Performing Shows and Audiovisuals, giving classes in Film and Video Production, ENG Camera, Television Set, editing in Avid and Premiere… At this stage he participates as Assistant Director in short films like Mate and Princesa. Since 2013, he has directed the Audiovisual Association Next Project, which carries out a multitude of non-profit projects, with the direct participation of students and former students of the school, such as spots, video clips, reports or short films. Some of his works are short such as Sola, Vuelve, Recuerdos para mi padre, or Abatido. His short films Sola y Recuerdos para mi padre have participated in many festivals, reaching the final at the Zaragoza Festival and also at the 6th International Festival of Curtas-Metragens in Faro (Portugal), at the Festivalico de Caravaca in Murcia, the Festival de la Concordia in Argentina or the Inclús Festival in Barcelona, ​​winning the audience award at the Festival Cortos con Ñ con Abatido.

Dov Hassan (USA)

Dov Hassan is an American actor, director and teacher for film and theater. He received his B.A. in Theater Arts from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing in a conservatory training program at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.
As a professional actor, Dov Hassan has appeared in a number of independent films, as well as working with many theater companies in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
He is a college professor and also teaches privately. The subjects Dov teaches include acting for film and for theater, directing, film history and theory, text analysis, and voice over technique. His current and former students include many award winning actors who work extensively in film, television and theater.

MARIO CORTEZ GENTIL (Spain)

Graduated in Art History from the University of Seville. Master’s degree in film criticism from ECAM. Creator and director of testigodecine.com Young film critic with presence in numerous festivals throughout Spain.