Solmaz Haddadian is an artist and screenwriter who graduated from the Tehran Young Cinematographers Film School. She has collaborated in writing several short films and feature screenplays, including Things (2017), Tehran at Once (2019) and Dolphin Girl (2022). She also has an MA in English literature and has translated various books in the field of art and literature. The books "Shooting Under Fire", "Slightly Out Of Focus" and "Letters of JRR Tolkien" are among her translations that have been published in Iran.

Omid Abdollahi is a director, screenwriter and editor who has participated in many international festivals with his short and documentary films. His short film Glimmer (2012), after receiving special mention of the jury in the 35th International Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France, has been displayed in more than twenty international festivals including the 15th International Short Shorts Film Festival in Japan and the 21st International Short Film Festival in Arcipelago, Italy. In 2015, he was award the Grand Prize for best filmmaker at Sapporo International Festival in Japan for his three short films Bandage (2011), Glimmer (2012)and Hostess (2014). In 2016, he won two supporting awards in the script development and production sections for his documentary project Winners from IDFA Bertha Fund in Amsterdam. His works deal with social issues, especially the relationships and conflicts between human and society or family. Omid Abdollahi is currently a member of the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA).

Vincent van den Ouden is a 35-year-old filmmaker and novelist from Rotterdam. As a child, his favourite stories took on a life of their own in his imagination, and he fantasized about being spirited away to his favourite tales. When he grew old enough to realize those chances were slim, he decided to become a storyteller himself. His short film Hopsa Heisasa - a Dutch Children's Myth (2020) has been shown at several festivals, and 2025 will mark the debut of his Dutch fantasy novel The Realm Where Worlds Start Anew at Godijn Publishing. Recurring themes in his oeuvre are existential loneliness and transcience within narrative forms of magic realism.

Nicolas Fattouh is a visual artist and film director. In 2018, his debut film How My Grandmother Became a Chair received the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung as German Lebanese co-production during the Berlinale. This award-winning film was selected in more than 125 prestigious festivals around the world. today, Nicolas works in parallel on his films, exhibitions and performances in Lebanon and abroad. In 2023, Nicolas created Beirut Animation Nights, in partnership with Cinema Royal, to showcase animated short films from all over the world with a focus on author films from the Mediterranean region.

Inspired by the aesthetics and narrative style of east European animation as a child growing up in Iran, Neda makes films through paintings. She studied stage design for theatre in Tehran and later animation in the UK. Her passion for visual storytelling found tools through experimentation with different techniques and her interest shifted from mythology and folklore to sociopolitical issues. With her short animated documentary in development "Stranger Than Home", she ventures into the realm of scriptwriting further.

Khanyo Mjamba is a writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. His stories are inspired by the everyday skirmishes, the unexpected alliances and, occasionally, the absurd. His educational background in communication science has seen him working in a motley mix of industries includingpublishing, pathology and journalism. "Home Affairs" expresses Khanyo's undying optimism about human nature in the midst of political, social and technological upheaval. He considers the directors Steve McQueen, Damien Chazelle and Denis Villeneuve as some of his most important filmmaking influences. When he isn't telling stories, he is getting his hands dirty in the complex affairs of his two toddlers.

Kate Morrison is a filmmaker from Liverpool currently based in Leeds, UK. She has written and directed three commissioned short films - The Derealisation Dinner Party (2023) for BFI Academy x HOME Short Fund, Anatomy of a Crooked Spine (2020) for BBC New Creatives North, and The Affluence Injection (2017) for Channel 4's Random Acts. She has a 1st class degree in BA Film, Photography and Media from the University of Leeds, and is interested in telling stories that resonate with her own personal experience of the world.

George Varsimashvili is a Georgian director born in Tbilisi in 1986. After graduating from university in Georgia, he went on to study filmmaking in Paris. His graduation feature film Particulier a Particulier (2013) was released in film theatres in France and Georgia. His short film Iko Erti Katsi (2014) had a festival run of 9 years from 2013 to 2022. In 2019, he was invited by Bela Tarr to direct a short film in Switzerland, which was premiered at Locarno Film Festival. In 2014, he made a feature documentary Hotel Metalurg which was premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest and Thessaloniki FF. The film was also theatrically released in London.

Paprika Chan is a self-taught independent animation filmmaker and visual artist born in China and raised in Hong Kong. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a bachelor's diploma in Cultural Studies (Visual Culture), started her career as a freelance animator in 2019, and created several music videos for independent musicians from Hong Kong and the US. Her debut work is an animated music video of the song "Dopamine", written by indie singer / songwriter Shingaling, which was selected for Animafest Gdansk in 2020.