María Alché is an Argentine director, script writer and actress. She studied filmmaking at ENERC, where she teaches. She wrote and directed the feature film Familia Sumergida (A Family Submerged), which won Best Film in the Horizontes Latinos section of the San Sebastián Film Festival and Best First Feature Film at the Gothenburg Film Festival, and was presented at the Locarno, Havana, Jeonju and Viennale festivals, among others. Currently, she is developing her new project Te amo y hoy todo es hermoso (I Love You and Today Everything Is Beautiful) and she is writing the documentary Chocobar.

Benjamín Naishtat studied film at Universidad del Cine, Buenos Aires before being granted a Radcliffe / Film Studies Center Fellowship from Harvard. In 2014, he wrote and directed Historia del miedo, which premiered in Competition at the Berlin festival. Benjamín wrote and directed El movimiento (The Movement) in 2015, which premiered at the Locarno festival and won both the Best Argentine Film at the Festival de Mar del Plata and the Jury Award at the Valdivia Festival. He wrote and directed Rojo (2018), which was selected in Competition at the San Sebastián Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Concha de Plata for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Actor. Currently, he is working on an adaptation of Los Siete Locos by Roberto Arlt.

Andi Nachon began making TV documentaries before scripting the fiction films, Esteros, Los Adoptantes, and Fefa Beba. Since 2012, she has been a member of the production company Hain Cine. She is a poet and a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and the Universidad Nacional de las Artes. León is her first feature film.

Papu Curotto graduated with a specialization in Image and Sound Design from the University of Buenos Aires after acquiring a background in theatre and dance. Since 2012, like co-director Andi Nachon, ha has been a member of the production company Hain Cine. Esteros (2017) was his debut and it won the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Gramado festival. León is his second feature film.

Born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran, Parviz Shahbazi made his first feature, Traveler from the South, in 1997. This debut screened at countless international festivals, bringing Shahbazi worldwide recognition and several awards along the way, including the Golden Award at the 1997 Tokyo IFF. His second feature, Whispers (2000) likewise won much international acclaim. In 2002, his third film, Deep Breath, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes IFF. The movie also won a FIPRESCI award at the Pusan IFF, the Jury’s Special Award at the Turin IFF and the Best Film Award at the Belgrade Author Festival. Karat 14, made in 2007, and Trapped, 2013, are Shahbazi’s fourth and fifth features. Malaria, his sixth movie, was selected for the 2016 Venice Film Festival and the same year won the Grand Prix at the Warsaw IFF.

After working as an assistant in theatre and film, Eva Trobisch began studying directing at the HFF Munich, where her short films won several awards. She attended the summer school in film dramaturgy at NYU Tisch in New York and began a master’s degree in screen writing at the London Film School in 2015. Her feature film debut Alles ist gut (2018) won the First Feature Award in competition at the Locarno International Film Festival, the New German Cinema Award – Best Director and Best Actress – as well as the FIPRESCI Award at the Munich Film Festival, and many other awards. Ivo is her second feature film.

Shuchi Talati is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and South Asia identity. Her short film Mae and Ash (2013) won numerous awards while her short A Period Piece (2019) was selected for the SXSW festival. Shuchi is an alum of the Berlinale Talents Campus and a graduate of the American Film Institute. She lives in NYC and is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the Bitchitra Collective, and the Freelance Solidarity Project.

Born in 1975 in Petrosani, Romania, Călin Peter Netzer is one of the most acclaimed of Romanian directors. In 2003, his first feature film, Maria, was screened at many prestigious festivals, won awards in Locarno (Grand Prix, Leopard for Best Actor and Leopard for Best Actress) and was nominated for the European Film Awards. In 2009, his second feature, Medal Of Honor, was selected for more than 30 international festivals and awarded in Thessaloniki, Turin, Miami, Durres, Los Angeles and Zagreb. In 2013, Child’s Pose won the Golden Bear for the Best Feature Film at the Berlinale, thus becoming the first Romanian film to ever receive this prize. In 2017 Călin returned to the Official Selection of the Berlinale with Ana, Mon Amour, which won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. Familiar is his fifth feature.

Kaveh Daneshmand is a Prague-based Iranian writer, director, and producer. He is the artistic director of ÍRÁN:CI Film Festival that he founded in Prague in 2011. Daneshmand also teaches film directing at Prague Film School and Iranian Cinema at Charles University. His first short, Occasional Showers, received the Best Short Film Award in 2016 at the Writers and Critics’ Awards in Iran. His second short, Alula, premiered at the 65th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in 2019. Daneshmand’s debut feature, Endless Summer Syndrome, (2023) won the Karlovy Vary Works in Progress award in 2022, and had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in the First Feature Competition.

Shahab Fotouhi (b. 1980, Yazd, Iran) is an artist and filmmaker currently living and working in Tehran. Between 2008 and 2010 he studied fine arts at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. His exhibitions and video works have been shown worldwide in various prestigious institutions, including New Voices at the Barbican Centre, London, 7th Taipei Biennale and 11th Istanbul Biennale, Apeirophobia/Aporia at Human Resources, Los Angeles. From 2010 to 2015, Fotouhi was co-founder and co-organiser of the artist initiative and collective ‘Kaf’ in Tehran. In 2014 he was part of the artist residency programme at the Queens Museum of Art in New York. Boomerang is his first feature film.