THE DIRECTORS

PHAM THIEN AN
Pham Thien An is a film director, producer and screenwriter, born in November 1989 (Lam Dong Province, Vietnam). After four years of undergraduate studies in Information Technology at Lotus University, Ho Chi Minh City, he realized his interest in cinematography and filmmaking. In recent years, he has won several film awards in Vietnam. In 2015, he moved to Houston, Texas (USA) and continued working as a freelance filmmaker.
​His short film The Mute (2018) has travelled across several film festivals (Winterthur International Short Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Encounters Film Festival). 
His latest short Stay Awake, Be Ready, official selection at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs 2019,  was produced with the support of CJ Short Film Making Project. He is currently working on his first feature film Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell.
YARA ATZ (JULIE-YARA ZIMMERMANN)
Yara Atz is a Swiss-Syrian artist, filmmaker & actress.
She studied filmmaking at the Geneva University of Art and Design from 2012 till 2017 and acting at the Giles Foreman Centre for Acting in London from 2017 till 2019. She loves mixing mediums and is often quite political in her work.
She directed in 2015 Ici, les avions (ou comment je vis la guerre) and in 2017 Leaving Syria : Long Live the Youth (Telluride Film Festival).
La guerre en elle (2019) is her latest short.
www.julieyara.com
SAULIUS  BARADINSKAS
Saulius Baradinskas (born on September 19, 1990) is a film, commercial & music video director from Vilnius, Lithuania.
​Saulius is noticed for directing music videos that already got recognition in the Baltic states. In 2018 annual music video awards Saulius was selected as a best director of the year and won best music video award for directing.
MÅNS BERTHAS
Måns Berthas was born in Sundsvall, a small town in Sweden.
In 2015 he directed Champion which debuted at Göteborg Film Festival and it has been screened in more than fifty film festivals around the world (among which Bogoshorts in Colombia, FlickerFest in Australia and Asiana International Film Festival in South Korea). 
​Bitchboy and Vila i frid (Rest in Peace)  are both from 2016.  Bitchboy  had the world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival 2016 where it was awarded with the Special Jury Mention. In 2017 he directed A Swedish Classic (Seattle International Film Festival 2017) and in 2018 Isle of Capri,  which was one of the winners of the Nespresso Talents - Cannes Film Festival 2018. Bottleneck (2019) is his latest short.
Måns is now working on the script of his first feature.
​www.filmuminati.com
​
Photo Credit: Anna Thors
SEBASTIÁN NEMO ARANCIBIA
Sebastián Nemo Arancibia was born in Santiago, Chile.
As a kid he started working as an actor on national television and then started working dubbing for tv series until now. In 2011 he enters to Film School, where he stands out in the direction of short films as Éxito (2011), El cómplice (2012), Terapia de pareja (2013), Vaivén (2014), short film that was selected by a few internationals film festivals, including Montreal and La Habana.
His latest short movie is Un cortometraje sobre educación, which was selected in the main competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2018.
FRANCESCA CANEPA
Francesca Canepa is a Peruvian filmmaker. She studied Cinema at the University from Montpellier and she holds a Master degree in Cinematography from the ESCAC, the Cinema School from Catalunya.
After studying a scriptwriting degree at the EICTV from Cuba, Francesca won a scholarship to study an MBA in film direction at the cinema school EFTI from Madrid witch she’s currently pursuing. 
She's a director who strives to tell stories with a socially conscious message.
Her first Short Film AYA (2017), shot in the Peruvian Andes, obtained the price of Best Iberoamerican Short Film at the Guadalajara’s International Film Festival (FICG) 2017 and gained international attention from the cinema critics.
​El Silencio del Río (2020), her second short, is shot in the Amazon river and it will have the world premiere at Berlinale Generation 2020.  At the same time, she works as a music video and advertising director while she works on the development of her first feature film script BELEN to be shot in 2022.
DOMENICO DE ORSI
Domenico De Orsi was born in Apulia (Italy) in 1978.
​He has directed three short movies and edited several shorts and documentaries. Co-founder with Efisio Scanu of Purple Neon Lights,
​a production company based in Rome.

​GAN DE LANGE

Gan de Lange was born and raised at upper Galilee in the north of Israel. Graduated with honors from the Sam Spiegel Film School, Jerusalem.
Her four short films participated in international film festivals in Israel and abroad and won a series of awards. Her graduation film Babaga participated in numerous film festivals, including the official competition of Cannes Cinéfondation 2013 and won 4 awards for Best Short. Revital is an Alien (2016, selected at Aspen Shorts, Palm Springs International ShortFest among others), Groundwater (2014, Vancouver, Jerusalem Film Festival), Nest (2011, First Prize at the International Film Festival in Kyoto, Japan. First Prize at the Jerusalem Children’s Film Festival).
ANTONIO DE PAOLI
Antonio De Palo was born in Molfetta, Italy in 1981.
After graduating in Communication Sciences at Università degli studi di Bari he got a diploma in film Direction at the Accademia Europea di Cinema e Televisione Rosebud of Rome.
His short films have been shown in over 50 countries and over 200 festivals, winning numerous awards. Some of the prestigious festivals in which he has participated: Bif&st Bari International Film Festival, Worldfest Huston Independent Film Festival, Cambridge Film Festival, Durban International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Festival International du Film Europeen de Lille, New York City International Film Festival, San Luis Obispo International Film Festival and many others.
In his works he have directed some Italians important actresses and actors: Valeria Solarino, Giorgio Colangeli, Michele Venitucci, Lidia Vitale, Valentina Carnelutti, Lino Guanciale e Claudia Potenza. In recent years he has dedicated himself to production by founding the production company "Assedio Film" with which he has already produced and co produced documentaries, short films and videoclips.
VALERIO FILARDO
Valerio Filardo is a director/screenwriter from Palermo, Italy.
After primary school in his hometown he moves to Bologna for graduate studies in Cinema and Media and then to Rome for attending the Cinema Academy in Cinecittà, where he specialised in Directing.
After a short experience as First Assistant in a small Tv production company in Rome he moves to London, where he lives for 5 years and he jumps into the audiovisual freelancing industry playing different roles.
In 2016 he moves back to Italy. 
In addition to several commercials and music videoclips (most of them broadcasted both in MTV  Italia and MTV UK), he directs two shorts L'Oro del Sud (2018) and Sarino (2019).

SAVINO GENOVESE

Director, playwright, actor. Savino Genovese trained under internationally renowned masters, and in 1995 he joined Compagnia Viartisti.
In 2008 he founded Compagnia GenoveseBeltramo. During his career, he has produced many stage plays which have won important national awards.
In 2017 he wrote, produced and acted in the short film Damaged Goods (Fatta Male) and in 2019 he directed his first cinematographic work The Man Who Didn't Want To Leave Home (L'uomo che non voleva uscire di casa).

MARCO JEMOLO

Marco Jemolo (1985) graduated in History of Cinema at Università La Sapienza, writing a final essay focused on parallel worlds in animated movies and attended a three months filmmaking workshop at the New York Film Academy in 2007. Since 2006, he has been working in films, theatre and TV as a Director and Assistant Director.
In 2013 Marco moved to London, where he lives and runs his video production company. His documentary Le città di Roma has been awarded with the Jury Prize at the ArtDoc Festival 2014 and has been screened at the MAXXI (Museo delle Arti del XXI secolo).
Framed is Marco’s first work of narrative fiction.
www.marcojemolo.com
VYTAUTAS KATKUS
Born in 1991 in Vilnius, Lithuania, Vytautas Katkus graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in cinematography from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He works as cinematographer in movies as well in video art projects. He won best young cinematographer award by Lithuanian Association of Cinematographers in 2014 and 2015. Since 2016 he is a member of Lithuanian Association of Cinematographers.
​Kolektyviniai sodai (Community Gardens), his debut short film, is selected at the 58th Semaine de la Critique.
FIRAS KHOURY
Firas Khoury is an award-winning upcoming Palestinian screen writer and director. He graduated from the University of Tel Aviv with a BFA in Film. Alongside his directorial activity, Khoury is committed to disseminating Palestinian films and training young people. He is a founding member of Group “Falastinema”, which develops film workshops and presents screenings throughout Palestine. He is currently working on his first feature film The Flag.
SHOKI LIN
Shoki Lin studied Digital Filmmaking at Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media in Singapore.
His thesis short film Adam was part of the Cinéfondation Selection at the 72th Festival de Cannes. His previous works include Chasing Paper which was in competition at the 2018 Busan International Film Festival and Changi which won best picture at the 2017 National Youth Film Awards.
GUGLIELMO LOLIVA
Guglielmo Loliva was born in Turin (Italy) in 1996. Author, director and producer of three short films, the first at sixteen years, winner of the Unicef prize at the national festival of the Sotto18 film festival, he was raised, cinematographically speaking, between Turin and Rome. While in the latter he studies at the “Tracce di Cinema” school with teachers-directors and others like: Daniele Lucchetti, Andrea Molaioli, Vladan Radovic ,Claudio di Mauro and Mario Sesti. On the other hand, in Turin he attends, since high school, courses like “History and Critique of film” (Storia e Critica del cinema) at the Università popolare and within the Distretto Cinema. In 2016 he is selected for the masterclass held by critic Francesco Alò at the Giffoni Film Festival, which counted amongst its guests Matteo Garrone, Alessandro Borghi and Claudio Santamaria.
​Author and director of commercials and videoclips, he played a role as an assistant director, a photographer and a videomaker.  His two works abroad consist in being the director of two documentaries in Palestine (2017) and Lebanon (So It Flows: Water, Refugees, Citizens, 2018 ) the former being centered about the syrian crisis.
AZADEH MOUSSAVI
Azadeh Moussavi is an Iranian independent director and producer. 
She graduated in directing in 2009 and soon after she directed the documentary From Iran, A Separation (2013) which won many prizes and appeared in well-known T.V. channels such as Cine+ (France) and Channel 4 (UK).
Her latest documentary "Finding Farideh" (2018) won many prizes in the international film festivals and it has been selected to be Iran’s official contender at Oscars. In 2019 she directed the short movie The Visit, based on her childhood memories.
LOIS PATIÑO ​
Lois Patiño was born in Vigo, Spain. His films have been screened in festivals as Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Viennale, Cinema du Rèel, Media City. While his video installation have been shown in arts center such as MACBA (Barcelona), Copperfield Gallery (London), CC San Martín (Buenos Aires), JIFF Art Gallery (South Korea) and art fairs like Paris Photo, ARCO Madrid or Unseen (Amsterdam).
With Mountain in Shadow (2012) he was awarded at Oberhausen, Clermont-Ferrand and Bucharest Experimental. In 2013 in Locarno he won the prize for Best Emerging Director for his first feature film Costa da Morte (2013), which was consequently awarded in Jeonju IFF (South Korea), FICUNAM (México), Valdivia IFF (Chile) and Seville European FF (Spain).
Specific focuses on his work have taken place in New York Film Festival (Views from the Avant Garde), Flaherty Seminar, BAFICI and Cali IFF.
​He has been invited to show his work at universities such as Harvard (Sensory Ethnography Lab), Cal Arts (L.A.), McGill (Montreal), FUC (Buenos Aires). From Harvard he received the Robert Fulton III Fellowship for emerging directors in 2016. 

Photo Credit: Julia Llerena​

CRISTINA PICCHI

Cristina Picchi is an award winning Italian director, writer and visual artist based between Italy and London.
Her films have been screened in festivals and galleries worldwide, winning prizes in festivals such as Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand and Thessaloniki. In 2013 she was nominated for Best Short Film at the European Film Awards, while her following work was selected at the 72° Venice International Film Festival. She is the recipient of the EMAN/EMARE residency program in Montreal and the Quartier21 residency program at the Museumsquartier in Vienna and a Berlinale Talents alumnus.
She holds a degree and an MA in European Literature from the University of Pisa and a master's degree in Screen Documentary from Goldsmiths University of London.
www.cristinapicchi.com
NADA RIYADH

Nada Riyadh is a filmmaker based in Cairo, Egypt.
Her debut documentary film (Happily ever after) premiered at IDFA (International Documentary Film of Amsterdam) in 2016. She is a winner of The Film Prize of Robert Bosch Stiftung 2017 to support the production of her short fiction film Fakh (The Trap) official selection at Semaine de la Critique - Cannes 2019. She also leads and mentors filmmaking workshops to empower distressed communities suffering from war, displacement, and difficult living conditions in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. Her work mainly focuses on exploring the depth and complexity of the human psyche and relationships through the visual medium. 

​
ANNE THIEME
Anne Thieme, born in the former GDR, is a film director and screenwriter. She studied acting in Vienna and film directing and screenwriting in Buenos Aires and Lisbon. She works in film productions mainly in Europe and Latin America. Currently she is about to finish her Masters in film directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Germany and is developing her first feature film. 
JURGEN UREÑA
Jurgen Ureña is a Costa Rican filmmaker with a master's degree in creative documentary at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His short films have been shown in the film festivals of Cannes, Trieste, La Habana, Clermont-Ferrand, Washington and Cartagena, among others. In November 2014 his first feature film, Russian Dolls, received the award for best director at the Icaro Film Festival of Central America.
His second feature film, Hold Me Like Before (2016), was premiered at the Costa Rica International Film Festival and won the Best Central American en Best Costa Rican Films. Ureña also received the Áncora Award to the Best Audiovisual Production for the biennium 2005-2006, and was selected for the meeting of Central American Visual Arts “Doubtful Strait” (2006-2007). Ureña currently teaches lessons in cinema history and documentary at the School of Cinema and Television of Veritas University.
ALBERTO VIAVATTENE
Alberto Viavattene was born on 1986 in Turin, Italy. He worked in the camera department of Paolo Sorrentino’s productions like “outh and the more recent The Young Pope”HBO tv series. As director he made music videos (like Rockin'1000 Learn to fly video, that reached more than 30 million views on YouTube), commercials and five short films released all over the world in festival circuits, video on demand and home video.
NELSON YEO
Nelson Yeo is a Singaporean filmmaker. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmaking from Nanyang Technological University in 2011. He participated in Berlinale Talents Tokyo in 2014, BiFan Fantastic Film School in 2015 and Locarno Filmmakers Academy in 2018. He is currently working on his debut feature film which was selected to participate in SGIFF Southeast Asian Film Lab 2017.