SAMANTHA LANG (Australia) CHAIRWOMAN
Samantha Lang is a filmmaker and visual artist who directs, produces and writes. Over the last twenty years her films have screened at major international festivals including Sundance, Toronto, Locarno, and have received international recognition at the highest level, her film ‘The Well’ competing at the Cannes Film Festival for the prestigious Palme D’Or. She has directed across feature films, TV drama, as well as commercials and most recently several VR films.
Hanna Polak (born 1967) is a Polish director, cinematographer and producer. For her short documentary film, The Children of Leningradsky, about a community of homeless children living in the Leningradsky railway station in Moscow, she was nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award. In 2003, she was awarded Best Producer of Documentary Movies at the Kraków Film Festival for Railway Station Ballad.
Eulàlia Ramon is an actress, photographer and film director.
Currently, she is immersed in various projects, highlighting her work as a director. In 2023, she directed her first short film, Divine Accounts, written by María Zaragoza, which has achieved more than 30 festival selections and a nomination for the Goya Awards in the category of best fiction short film. In 2024, she will present Agonía, her second fiction short film, which will premiere at the Closing of the International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia.
As a photographer, she has collaborated with the artist Xavier Mascaró, with the painter Pepa Poch and in the selection of works for Carlos Saura’s Fotosaurs collection. Her work has been exhibited in various exhibition centers and galleries, such as the Andalusian Center of Photography in Almería, the Antonio Gala Foundation in Córdoba, the Casa del Cine in Saint Petersburg, the Cervantes Institute in Moscow, the Casa Zavala in Cuenca, the Spain Now in London or the Spanish embassy in Abu-Dhabi.
She wrote Divine Accounts (dir. Eulàlia Ramon, produced Atrece Creaciones, a short film that closed the Sitges International Festival in 2022 and which has been nominated for the 38th Goya Awards in the category of best fiction short film. This short film continues his successful journey through national and international festivals, having already participated in some as important as the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF) or the Imagineindia International Film Festival.
Susana Fialho Mota, born in Lugo (Galicia) of Portuguese origin. She trained as an actress at the Colegi del Teatre (Barcelona) and at the William Layton Theater Laboratory (Madrid). She began working in Theater when she was only 16 years old and at 18 he formally enrolled in these two Dramatic Arts schools, which are among the most important and prestigious in Spain. Upon finishing her studies she began to work in TV series and in Theater at the same time that she debuted in Cinema with Albert Boadella, a renowned theater director who was carrying out a daring cinematographic project with his theater group (Els Lloglars). Shortly after, she would work again with another well-known director, Sigfrid Monleòn, in a film about the poet and writer Jaime Gil de Biedma.
An ensemble film where Susana would have an important role
ANA MARÍA VICO (Spain)
Ana Vico was born in Huelma, a small town in Andalucía (Spain). At 18, she moved to Madrid to study Audiovisual Communication at the Complutense University. Very interested in intimate cinema, she shot a couple of short films of this style with her group of friends from college, both with a very limited budget. After finishing her degree, she began the Directing Diploma at ECAM to continue learning and developing her films. “Un amor” is her short film from Diploma Graduation, which was selected at this festival, Imagine India International Film Festival. After finishing Film School, she began working on directing and editing documentaries with archival images, showing what rural life was like in many towns in Spain from the 80s to the 2000s. She continues at it and, at the same time is in charge of the script and direction of a documentary about how certain people in a town in Jaén (Andalucía) experience a traditional festival there, scheduled to be filmed in April 2025. Likewise, she participates in the Imagine India festival as jury in the international short films section.
SHOMA CHATTERJI (India)
Shoma A. Chatterji is an Indian film scholar, author and freelance journalist. She has been the recipient of a number of awards including the National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 1991 and the National Awards for Best Writing on Cinema for her study of the works of Aparna Sen in the publication, Parama and Other Outsiders: The Cinema of Aparna Sen (2002). Notably, she is the only woman to have won both the national awards. She is the author of several biographies including those on Pramathesh Barua, Ritwik Ghatak and Suchitra Sen.
She has won two National Awards —for ‘Best Film Critic’, in 1991 and for ‘Best Book on Cinema’, in 2002. She won the Bengal Film Journalists Association’s ‘Best Critic Award’ in 1998 and the ‘Bharat Nirman Award’ for excellence in journalism in 2004. In 2009-2010, she won a Special Award for ‘consistent writing on women’s issues’ from UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards (Eastern region). In 2010, she was bestowed the ‘Kalyan Kumar Mitra Award’, for her remarkable work in film scholarship and contribution as film critic.
Born in Afghanistan and raised in Canada, Muska Stanakzai embodies the harmony between two worlds — one rooted in resilience and tradition, and the other in freedom and possibility. Growing up in Canada, Muska recognized her privilege early on and felt a deep sense of responsibility toward her Afghan roots. She has since dedicated her life to bridging cultures, amplifying Afghan voices, and creating understanding between communities.
As a prominent member of the International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA), Muska played a pivotal role in curating and promoting South Asian cinema, with a special focus on Afghan films. Her work introduced powerful Afghan stories to Canadian audiences, allowing people to see Afghanistan through art, emotion, and humanity rather than headlines.
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.
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.
Pooja Gupte studied cinematography from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, India. Pooja was selected as an Indian cinematographer in Berlinale Talent Campus 2012, Germany. She was also invited to present her work in Stuttgart, Germany as part of series Making of Indian Cinema at Stuttgart-Indian Film Festival 2019. Pooja has recently become a member of Imago’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Her first feature film as a Director of Photography “Crossing Bridges” won at 61st National award as best Sherdupen film which she also had produced under her production house Easel Films. She was awarded Best Cinematography for feature film “Rukh” in 5th AIFF 2018. Pooja was awarded best cinematography for the short film “Water Demon” at Feel the Reel International Film Festival 2021 Glasgow UK. Pooja is also a very active member of IWCC (Indian Women Cinematographers Collective).
A distinguished alumnus of the SRFTI Cinematography department, class of 2006, Manas Bhattacharyya not only topped his class but also received multiple scholarships — a testament to his extraordinary talent.
His journey in the Bollywood industry began as an Assistant Cinematographer, contributing to notable films such as Laga Chunari Mein Daag (YRF), Antardwand (YRF), and Aamir (UTV). During this time, he gained valuable experience working with renowned cinematographers such as K. U. Mohanan, Alphonse Roy, and Sushil Rajpal.
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.
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).
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 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-Founder and Director of Rough Edges, which enables, mentors and produces feminist and queer documentary films, foregrounding the distinct voices of women, trans and queer artists. She draws on almost two decades of experiences at the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, India’s largest documentary body, co-leading the commissioning, creative realisation, curation and outreach of close to 700 films, diverse in artistic form, subject and authorship. These films have had – 2000 festival selections, 350 awards, thirty national film awards, screenings and honours at Berlinale, Rotterdam, Oberhausen, Yamagata and Busan, among others, and continue to be used extensively across local and domestic contexts. She co-directed the annual Open Frame Film Festival, curating films, conversations, installations and trainings for fourteen editions. Over the last five years, she has also been involved with commissioning and mentoring projects across multiple media on gender, from writing, performances and graphic narratives to mixed media works, podcasts and installations.
KIM DO KYUNG (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, 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.
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.
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… up to end 2025. 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.
Hassan Fazili is an award-winning Afghan filmmaker who has developed theater plays, documentaries, short films, and several popular television series in Afghanistan and abroad.
At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, he premiered his acclaimed feature documentary “Midnight Traveler”, which won a Special Jury Award. The film has screened at over 100 festivals worldwide — including the Emmy, Berlinale, Sheffield, HotDocs, IDFA, and Yamagata — and has received more than 30 international awards.
María Jurado is a Spanish actress with a solid international career in film, television and theater. She has worked with directors such as Abel Ferrara, Daniele Vicari, Miguel Littin and Cédric Kahn, participating in films selected at festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Rome, Sitges, Málaga and Miami. On television she has appeared in numerous prime time series in Spain and France, and in theater she has worked under the direction of Jack Garfein at the Actor’s Studio in Paris.
Trained between Madrid, Paris, Los Angeles and New York – with teachers such as JC Corazza, Susan Batson and Eric Morris – she speaks English, French and Italian. And has written, directed and produced the short film Del Retiro a Sol, selected at the ImagineIndia Festival, and has more than 19 films and 7 series in her career.
RUBÉN SÁNCHEZ TRIGOS (Spain)
Rubén Sánchez Trigos (Fuenlabrada, Madrid), doctor in Audiovisual Communication with a thesis on the living dead in Spanish fiction, has published the novels The Guests (2008), Finalist for the Drakul Prize for Novels, Bajo el Barro (Planeta, 2020), La noche de Venus (Dolmen/Plan B, 2024), finalist for the Celsius Prize at the Semana Negra in Gijón 2025 and for the Kelvin Prize at the Celsius Festival for Best Novel, and Come back to me (Grijalbo, 2025). He is co-writer of the shorts Cambio deturn and El intruso (David Cánovas, 2005 and 2006), nominated for the Goya for Best Short Film, and screenwriter of La luz (Iago de Soto, 2021), Best Short Film at Screamfest in Los Angeles, Syfy Award for Best Short, Audience Award at San Sebastián Fantasy and Horror Film Week, among 30 other international awards.
Director, screenwriter and film writer.
He is currently developing several projects and in full distribution of his new film, the Mexican The Partner of Death, released in Mexico in commercial theaters, winner of the Best Film Award at the León International Film Festival (Guanajuato) and presented internationally in Hollywood, at the Los Angeles Fantasy Fest.
Born and regularly resident in Madrid, he studied at TAI, the film and arts faculty of the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid. Next, he would pursue a master’s degree at Metrópolis, a renowned school in the Spanish capital.
Among his most notable works are his short films Videotortura, Asalto de Navidad and the internationally awarded #pornovenganza or Killer Brownie!. His debut in the world of feature films was The Nanny’s Night, filmed in English and which enjoyed a wide tour of international festivals and awards such as Best Film at the New York festival. He collaborated in the anthologies Dark Girls, writing and directing the Nightmare segment, and in Vampus Horror Tales, where he was the scriptwriter of the piece titled Cumpleaños.
In addition, he is one of the owners of the Madrid independent and reference movie theater Artistic Metropol, author of two books Manual de survival para cinéfagos and The last days of video club terror, he writes in different media, among which the digital magazines Scifiworld and Almas Oscuras stand out, and he frequently collaborates on the radio programs “Tiempos de videoclub” and “La Butaca Asesina”, where he comments on current events and other issues about cinema.
ALEJO MORENO (Spain)
Alejo Moreno represents one of the most unique voices on the contemporary Spanish audiovisual scene, which may be due to a kaleidoscopic personal training that is not limited to film production. Not in vain, for 18 years he was editor of the TVE 2 program “Días de cine” for which he was recruited by the legendary presenter Antonio Gasset and even went on to found and direct the curatorship of an art gallery in the heart of Madrid.
As a director, producer, screenwriter and editor, Alejo Moreno has demonstrated exceptional versatility in the world of fiction and documentary cinema. His work has enjoyed a strong impact both in specialized critics and in the political and social press. The media highlight their ability to address complex social issues from an unprecedented perspective
EVA DÍAZ IGLESIAS (Spain)
imagineindiafestival.com 