Gaya von Schwarze was born in Jerusalem in 1994 and grew up in Tel Aviv. She has been developing her fingerprint as a filmmaker since childhood, both by making her own shorts with school friends and by working on professional film sets. Prior to her arrival in Berlin she has been volunteering in a school for disabled youth at risk, after being released from the Army for pacifistic reasons. Gaya has been studying directing at the DFFB since 2016. Her student film LEARN TO SWIM was premiered on Festival de San Sebastian. At the moment she is working as an editor of a feature film directed by Michael Klier.

Gay and a native of the Manila slums, Cristal is no stranger to the harsh realities of life. The human experience and its many complexities triumph through his stories. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Digital Filmmaking at the School of Design and Arts of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde as a scholar. He was nominated for Best Short Film in the Philippines' oldest award-giving body for cinema, the 68th Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS Awards).

Wanjeri Gakuru is a journalist, essayist and filmmaker. She co-wrote award-winning feature film, SUPA MODO (2018) which accrued 44 awards and nominations internationally and Kenya's first Netflix TV series, COUNTRY QUEEN. Wanjeri is the Partnerships Director of African film collective, Rogue Film Society and has worked as a curator on various literary, film and art projects including Love Letters to Cinema (2022) and Mengi Mengi Film Club (2022).

HILKE RÖNNFELDT, born in Northern Germany with Danish-Icelandic roots, graduated as screenwriter in Sweden and is a part of independent film collective Super16 in Copenhagen as a director. She is a Berlinale Talents (2021), European Short Pitch (2020), Screenwriting Lab Filmfund Hamburg (2019) alumna. Her films have screened at several international film festivals. Essential for her to make films: To be real and aim for the heart. She has a strong faith in the poetic capabilities of the image.

Bogdan Drumea is an aspirant filmmaker from Bucharest. He studies Screenwriting for MA Degree at UNATC and in 2017 co-founded a video production company called Matchbox Film. His short films - INTERFERENCE, DIM LIGHT and THE HOODS could be found on the CINEPUB platform. Bogdan maintains a keen interest for coming of age worlds and powerful stories of youth. He is in post-production with another short film called GOOD MORNING, a story about two estranged brothers.

Born into a German-Ghanaian family in the Blackforest, Judith Rose Gyabaah soon discovered storytelling as her means to build bridges between her cultures and expand boundaries. She studies screenwriting at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF since 2019. In her work, she focuses on social-political issues through the lens of genre and explores new narratives.

Veerle De Wilde is a Dutch-Belgian filmmaker based in Ghent. After studying psychology she worked as a psychotherapist for several years, while she continued to explore her love for cinema. In 2015 she enrolled in film school at KASK School of Arts. She graduated in 2020 with the short film SPACEBOY, which has since been selected for film festivals around the world and has won several awards. Currently Veerle is preparing her next short film ULTRAVIOLET, and is developing her feature film debut.

Mathilde Jouaud is a French writer-director. After doing her undergraduate studies in France in production management in cinema and TV, Mathilde moved to London to study filmmaking at the London Film School. Back in France, she now works as a production assistant in the film and tv industry. She directed POUR MON FILS (For my son) as her graduation project. CUTLERIES is her second short film project.