Amir Reza Emamian is 31 years old and was born in Ahvaz,Iran. During a short film shooting where he acted he discovered his fascination for cinema. After that, he dropped his Engineering-Mechanics studies in order to follow his intuition: being a filmmaker. After some studies at the Hilaj Cinema School in Tehran, he filmed his first short “Alter Ego” in winter 2018. Currently, he is working on his second short “Helma”.
Born in the Philippines, Phyllis Grande is a filmmaker who had her roots in producing local independent and mainstream films. She ventured into writing and directing with her first short film, Kun' Di Man (English title: If Not), which garnered her an Audience Choice Award at the QCinema International Film Festival. That same year, she also made her first documentary feature, Haunted: A Last Visit to the Red House, for the Cinema One Originals Film Festival. Both films were well-received locally and abroad. She's currently preparing to debut her first narrative feature, Everybody Leaves, and her next short film, Before Christmas, which was developed in Interfilm Berlin 2019.
Thanos Psichogios studied Political Science at the University of Athens and Filmmaking (MA) at the London Film School. His films are adaptations of celebrated contemporary Greek literature and have been selected and awarded at international film festivals. His short film “Chlorine”, based on the short story of Eirini Margariti, was developed at the Interfilm Berlin Pitch and Script and the MFI script programs. It received production funding from the Greek National Broadcaster ERT. "Chlorine" had its national premiere at the Drama International Short Film Festival in September 2022. His next short film, "The Weekend Getaway", based on the short story of writer Panos Tsiros, was supported at the development stage with a writing grant from the Greek Film Centre and was selected to participate in the 2022 Co-production Market of the Brussels Short Film Festival. His first feature, “Circular Motion” (Argonauts Productions), based on the critically acclaimed first novel of Vassiliki Petsa, received an award at the 2018 Pack and Pitch program of Sarajevo Talents, a writing grant from the Greek Film Centre and the 2022 Co-production market Music & Cinema award at the BIFF. The film participated in the TIFF Pitch Stop, the Cinemed Development Grant, the My First Script Workshop of the Zagreb Film Festival, the TFL Next and the MFI programs. It was awarded the 2022 Music & Cinema Award at the Co-production Market of the Brussels International Film Festival. "Circular Motion" is currently at the financing stage.
Sameh Alaa is an Egyptian director, producer, and screenwriter. His first short film FIFTEEN premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2017 and won several awards in festivals around the world. His last short film I AM AFRAID TO FORGET YOUR FACE became the first Egyptian film to be awarded Palme d’Or in the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Competition 2020. The film continues its festival run at San Sebastian Film Festival, Cairo Film Festival , Cleremont-Ferrand International , Palm Springs Film Festival , Moscow International Film Festival and many others. in June 2021, he was named as one of the six jury members for the Cinéfoundation and short films section at the 2021 Cannes film festival. Sameh is currently developing his first feature film Whale Belly.
Lydia Matata is a filmmaker based Nairobi Kenya. Lydia wrote and directed Sungura (rabbit) a short film revolving around sexuality, disability and inclusiveness. The project has just been selected to screen at the Festival International du Film Panafricain de Cannes and was one of eight finalists of the Interfilm International Short Film Festival’s Script Pitch Competition. Her documentary short, Utapata Mwingine was released in August,2020. The film has been selected to various festivals including the UN Women’s Global Voices Film Festival where it won the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award. Her other fictional short film Millet won the Kenyan scriptwriting competition, Shorts, Shots & Shots in 2018. In addition, Lydia is one of the writer/creators of Country Queen, a Kenyan/German co-produced TV series which was recently optioned by Netflix.
Born in 1993, Abdelrahman and Saad in 2012 co-authored and directed the short student film "The Super Twins", which then was selected by the Ghetto Film School to screen in their section in Sundance Film Festival. Abdelrahman was the youngest director to win the Best Director Award in the Cairo 48 Hours Short Film Festival and the first to earn it for 2 consecutive years (2016-2017). His next short films were selected at various film festivals. During the past 6 years he worked in television and digital advertising as a creative director, cinematographer and editor.
A graduate of Applied Arts and Sciences in the German Unversity in Cairo Saad Dnewar started his career as a storyboard artist, working on commercials, before he landed a short career as a 2D lead animator and sequence designer for digital commercials. His first short live-action film “Hady” earned him the Masr Dot Bokra Film Festival 2016 production grant. His recent short script for the film „Traitors of The Eyes“ earned him and his brother a nomination to the Robert Bosch Stiftung Prize of 2020.
Rania Majed is a Lebanese producer and director with 16 years of international experience in film and TV production. She has produced and directed a variety of short films and documentaries and created video art “Truth or Dare” and “Point Mort”. She has worked as executive producer for a leading documentary production house, overseeing production across the Arab world for Al Jazeera. She has won the “Best Producer” award in 2013 by Creative Lab, twofour54 in Abu Dhabi. She holds a BA in Dramatic Arts from the Lebanese University.
James McNally Inappropriate [...]
