FRANCE

Caroline Poggi was born on January 31st, 1990 in Ajaccio, France. She studied at Paris IV and Paris VIII University and finally at the University of Corsica Pasquale Paoli. Jonathan Vinel was born on April 26th, 1988 in Toulouse, France. Jonathan studied editing at La Fémis. Each of the two separately directed several short films (Dogs for Caroline, Our Love is Powerful Enough for Jonathan), before directing together. Their short film As Long As Shotguns Remain won the Golden Bear at the 2014 Berlinale and they are presently finishing their first feature film: Jessica Forever.

NETHERLANDS

In 2008 artist Arjan Brentjes stopped painting and began making short films. This change came because the medium of film was closer to his interest in modern communication and media.

In his films Arjan experiments with different ways to bring something across to the viewer. In this way, Arjan often takes the viewer back to a movie style from the past in order to look at our future from there. This thereby wittily comments on the development of our technological society. Perspective is the key to ‘Sand’, his second fully animated film.

Films by Arjan Brentjes are well received by international festivals. His most recent work, the film 'Hybris', has already received eleven awards.

DENMARK

August Aabo (1994) is a director and writer from Copenhagen, studied at the European Film College. August is known for Nattebarn (2015), On Violence (2012), Yisrael (2016), Fucking Killas On Speed Dial (2017).

GERMANY

Carmen Gray was born in the New Zealand countryside, and now lives in Berlin. She is a freelance film programmer, critic and journalist with more than a decade of experience. Carmen has written for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, Sight & Sound, Screen, Senses of Cinema and The Calvert Journal.

She has served on juries more than forty film festivals, including the East of the West jury in Karlovy Vary, FIPRESCI critic juries in Berlin, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro and more. Besides work for the news industry, Carmen has spoken on panels about the future of Romanian cinema, how to promote your shorts. Carmen has lectured on Tarkovsky at GRAD in London, and has hosted the music video awards at Viena Shorts. Now Carmen Gray is on the selection committee for the International Short Film Festival Winterthur in Switzerland.

АUSTRIA

Gerald Weber was born in 1965 in Vienna, Austria. He studied history, geography, philosophy and film studies in Vienna and Barcelona.Gerald is co-founder of "projektor — discussion forum on film, video and new media" and co-organizer of the international symposium filmSUBJECTtheory. Since 1997 he is permanent staff member of sixpackfilm, international distribution & sales agency of Austrian short and experimental films and videos. He is curator of numerous film programs in Austria and for Film Festivals, Cinematheques and other venues worldwide.

Occasionally lectures, hosting of filmtalks, independent film programming and publications.

AUSTRALIA

Greta Nash is an award-winning filmmaker from Melbourne, Australia. Her short film “Locker Room” premiered at the 2017 Melbourne International Film Festival and won the REBEL8 Award for Outstanding Emerging Female Director at Flickerfest 2018. Her latest film “Two Piece” was recently awarded Best Film at Tropfest 2018, as selected by a jury led by Academy Award Winner Susan Sarandon.

HUNGARY

György Pálfi studied at the Film Academy of Budapest and directed many awarded films such as “Hukkle”, “I Am Not Your Friend”, “Final Cut” or cult “Taxidermia” that was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes. Also he won the top prize at Karlovy Vary with his latest feature “Freefall”

György just finished the shooting for his next film, a free adaptation of Іtanislaw Lem's “His Master's Voice”.

SPAIN

Ignacio F. Rodó always wanted to be a troubadour. Unfortunately, he was born several centuries late for that, so he had to resign himself to being a filmmaker instead.He has directed more than 25 short films that have won more than 80 awards and have been selected for more than 500 international film festivals (including several Oscar qualifying). His short film «Tuck me in» (2014) is an internet hit, where it has more than 15 million views. It also got 30 awards and more than 240 selections in film festivals.

Ignacio combines his experience in cinema with more than 10 years working in the film industry, where he has focused in directing and producing commercials. As a screenwriter, he has written several short films and 7 feature films.

FRANCE

Laurence Reymond has worked for various film distributors in Paris : Ad Vitam as programmer and Le Pacte as film acquisition assistant and production executive. Since 2002, she’s kept a regular activity as film critic for various magazines (Score, Cinéastes) and websites. She joins the selection team of the Directors' Fortnight in September 2011, in charge of the short films. From 2012 to 2014, she’s the programming coordinator for the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, and since 2015 she’s a member of the ENTREVUES – Belfort international film festival selection committee. In 2017, she becomes a producer in the company Providences.

BELGIUM

Maël G. Lagadec was born in 1984 in Paris, France. He began with analog photography. Obtained his diploma in audiovisual engineering in Bayonne. Maël begins his career as cameraman in Bangalore, India, and co-writes a book on handicap in Indian countryside.

In 2005, he shoots his first documentary in Dakar during a humanitarian organization’s exchange. He settled in Brussels and became visual engineer for a cultural Belgian TV show. Then he left the television industry to get closer to his true passions. He directs in 2016 and at the initiative of the association Human Acts, “GIRL FACT” a short fiction story, which denounces sexual violence at the East of DRC. This story, adapted from a novel by Eve Ensler, is currently shortlisted in several festivals around the world.

Today, Maël co-directs in 2017 with Jeanne Debarsy the Radio drama “the first time I went crowdzy”, a subjective and immersive piece, which questions extreme lucidity while being at a certain state of madness.

CANADA

Nata Metlukh was born in Ukraine, and now is an independent filmmaker based in San Francisco. She studied animation in Canada at Vancouver Film School, and her graduation film Fears got numerous awards at animation festivals. Actually, Nata is specializing in editorial and children’s illustration. Her work is a thrilling world of fantasy comprising of giants sleeping on mountains, a doctor coming out of a can of Spam, and other delightfully random concepts.

Currently she resides in Estonia earning her Master's degree in animation in Priit Pärn's program.

NORWAY

Per Fikse was born in 1965. He is the Director of Minimalen Short Film Festival in Trondheim from 1999 to date, a festival he has programmed for since 1994. Minimalen had its 30th Anniversary Edition this year, screening 250 films over six days. Per Fikse holds a Master of Management degree from NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and also works as a Software Development Manager in the private sector.

CANADA

Serge Abiaad is the general director of La Distributrice de Films. It is an independent distributor and sales representative of auteur short and feature films, based in Montreal, Canada. La Distributrice’s films have been selected to more than 400 festivals from Cannes to Sao Paolo, Berlin to Melbourne.

He has a masters degree in film studies and has published his master’s thesis entitled: The Poetic of the Off-Screen in Tarkovsky’s The Mirror. He has been working as consultant to filmmakers and producers in terms of strategical festival submissions and sales representation. He has participated in many festival markets like TIFF, Cannes, Berlinale, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand. He lives and works in Montreal, Canada.

POLAND

Szymon Stemplewski is the originator of multiple cultural and artistic projects, who specializes in the promotion and presentation of short films. He also is founder and director of Short Waves Festival, an international short film festival organized in Poznań since 2009.

Szymon is film programmer, jury member of film competitions in Poland and abroad.

NETHERLANDS

Wouter Jansen holds a master's degree in Cultural Policy. He started working as the head of the program department of Go Short — International Short Film Festival Nijmegen (NL) in 2009. In his current position he is in charge of all competition programs. In 2013 he started the festival strategy and distribution company Some Shorts, which specializes in visually powerful and daring short and feature films and documentaries.

With Some Shorts Wouter tries to support upcoming talented filmmakers and follow their work throughout their career. This has lead to a small catalogue of films premiering at prestigious festivals and winning multiple awards over the last few years.

DENMARK

Asta Stuhr is a Danish film producer placed in Copenhagen. She studied film at Station Next and The European Film College, and has been producing short films and music videos since 2010.