THE DIRECTORS
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AHMED ABDELSALAM
Ahmed Abdelsalam is a Cairo based director of films, commercials, and music videos.
Ahmed graduated from MetFilm School London with a master’s degree in Film Directing. Previously he had received a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Media Arts. His debut short CAI – BER has been officially selected at El Gouna Film Festival 2021. Currently, Abdelsalam’s time is divided between his native Cairo and London, working on a variety of projects; including films, music videos and TVCs. |
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TOMMASO ACQUARONE
Tommaso Acquarone was born in Savona (Italy) on December 24, 1992.
He graduated at IULM University Milan with a thesis, supervised by Professor Gianni Canova, about the filmmaker Claudio Caligari. Soon after Tommaso attended the “Holden School” in Torino. In 2021 he wrote and directed his first short film I miei occhi (My Eyes). In the same year Tommaso Acquarone directed a short film for the Italian designer Emilio Pucci. He lives in Roma and he is working on the script of his first feature film. |
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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. |
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DIMITRIS ANAGNOSTOU
Dimitris Anagnostou was born in Athens, Greece.
He studied Chemistry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and filmmaking in Athens at the Hellenic Film and Television School L. Stavrakos and in Paris at the University Paris 1 Sorbonne and at the University Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (I.K.Y). Since 2016, he is teaching “The Aesthetics of Cinema” and “Theory of Montage” at the Hellenic Film and Television School L. Stavrakos. Mare Nostrum (2020) is his first short film. |
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TRISTAN AYMON
Tristan Aymon was born in 1986. He graduated from the Ecole
cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) in 2010, directing his graduation fiction short film Ultima Donna, which received various European festival awards. In 2012, he co-founded the filmmakers’ association Terrain Vague, which has produced all of his short films: Off the Road (Sortie de route, 2013, co-directed with David Maye), The Lesson (La Leçon, 2016) and Trou Noir (Black Hole, 2020). They all premiered in the “Pardi di Domani” section of the Locarno Film Festival. |
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SAULIUS BARADINSKAS
Saulius Baradinskas is a film & music video director from Vilnius, Lithuania (born on September 19, 1990). In 2013 Saulius graduated Architecture in Vilnius Arts Academy. In the 2018 annual music video awards Saulius won "the best director award” and "the best music video award”.
In 2019, Saulius premiered his debut short film Golden Minutes. This short film was filmed on one take and the main role was created by famous Scottish actor Billy Boyd, who starred in Lord Of The Rings. The short film won various awards and traveled to more than 40 film festivals around the world. In 2020 Saulius was selected as one of the Berlinale Talents in the 70th Berlinale Film Festival. His second short film Techno, Mama premiered at the 78th Venice Film Festival in 2021. |
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IAN BARLINGA native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Ian Barling toured the eastern United States as a drummer in various punk rock bands in his youth.
His last short film, Safe, premiered at the Semaine de la Critique - Cannes Film Festival 2021. He currently lives in New York City, where he is preparing his first feature-length film, titled Francis, with which he is currently participating in the TorinoFilmLab. |
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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 |
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FRANCESCA CANEPA
Francesca Canepa is a Peruvian filmmaker who recently completed her second film, the award-winning short El Silencio del Río.
The filmmaker studied cinema at the University of Montpellier and holds a Masters degree in Cinematography from the ESCAC, the Cinema School of Catalunya. The ambitious filmmaker strives to tell stories with a socially conscious message and El Silencio del Río is her second short film shot on the Amazon River. The film is currently in distribution following its world premiere at Berlinale 2020 and its Grand Jury Prize-winning run at the Calgary Film Festival where it also became eligible for the Academy Awards 2021. Her first Short Film AYA, shot in the Peruvian Andes, garnered the honor of Best Ibero American Short Film at the Guadalajara’s International Film Festival (FICG) 2017 and enjoyed strong praise from international cinema critics. Following studies for a scriptwriting degree at he prestigious EICTV in Cuba, the Filmmaker is now penning her first feature film script titled BELEN, while also directing advertising and music videos in Madrid. |
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NICHOLAS CLIFFORD
Nicholas Clifford is a graduate of the directing program at the Australian Film Television & Radio School in Sydney, Australia.
He is the writer and Director of the AWG Monte Miller award winning screenplay The Handyman, and the Story Pros Grand Prix award winning feature film screenplay Bella & The Bear (2017). In 2013 Clifford wrote and directed the Tropfest Winning short film adaptation We’ve All Been There (2013). He is also the writer director of Tropfest finalist and award winning short film Kitchen Sink Drama (2012). He is a founding partner of Melbourne based production company, Truce Films. |
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ANNA ROSE DUCKWORTH
Anna Rose Duckworth has worked in film and television for almost a decade in both New York City and Auckland. In the past few years Anna wrote and directed three self--funded short films including Mum Jeans (2017) which screened at the 2018 New Zealand International Film Festival. Anna has twice won Best Director at 48Hours Competition, with her team being three time National Finalists and has directed music videos for a range of different artists.
Anna directed web series Psusy, which went on to screen at New Orleans Film Festival, Seattle Webfest, DC Webfest, Melbourne Web Series Festival and won the Best Episodic Jury Prize at the 2018 LA Film Festival. In 2018, Anna was granted production funding for two projects as writer/director. The first was a New Zealand Film Commission Fresh Short film Pain, a naturalistic character drama. The second was TVNZ’s, Butt Dial, a six part web series showcasing toilet--stall phone calls between two friends. Anna has also produced a myriad of award- winning music videos which garnered accolades such as multiple Show Me Shorts Best Music Videos, nominations at both NZ Music Awards and UK Music Video Awards and multiple vimeo staff picks. |
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LINH DUONGLinh Duong is a Vietnamese filmmaker who is extremely fascinated with sad, angsty and naggy women. She has just completed a series of shorts that tackle this topic with a rather quirky sense of humor.
Her films have been competing and winning award at various festivals around the world. Linh previously attended Berlinale Talents in 2020, Asian Film Academy in 2016, Locarno Summer Academy and Bucheon Fantastic Film School in 2015. She is developing her first feature, Don’t Cry, Butterflies, which recently won the Moulin d'Andé-CECI Award at Locarno Open Doors 2019. A Trip to Heaven (World Premiere at Locarno Film Festival 2020) is her latest short. |
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OSTIN FAM
Ostin Fam (Pham Quoc Dung) is an independent filmmaker.
His work seeks to elevate underserved narratives, but rather than attempting to capture the existential pain that comes with underrepresentation, he tries to hone in on the specifics of experience. The notion of cultural fluidity has become a focal point in his work; how we reconcile our identities in different lands with different customs. Born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam, Ostin Fam attended a Documentary Workshop at The Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents in 2012 with a graduating film The Journey which earn the center’s Silver Lotus Bud Award. For undergraduate studies, Ostin received Freeman Asian Scholarship to attend Wesleyan University where he earned a BA in Film Studies and a minor in East Asian Studies. In 2017, in addition to graduating with High Honors, he was the recipient of the Steven J. Ross Prize, awarded to the best senior film thesis for his project short/cut. He spent the past two years working on different film projects of his own and other filmmakers in New York and Vietnam, many of which have travelled various international film festivals. Ostin is a member of Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the first and largest collective of independent filmmakers in New York and one of four recipients of Sony Pictures' IFP Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film in 2017. His last short film project, Bình is funded by CJ Cultural Foundation, Singapore International Film Festival and TPD Center. |
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MEHDI FIKRIMehdi Fikri grew up in the northern suburbs of Paris and was a journalist for ten years, including for the newspaper L’Humanité. He wrote about social struggles, drug trafficking and police violence. He is now working as a screenwriter and director and is developing his first feature film.
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KATARINA JAZBEC
Katarina Jazbec is a visual artist working in film and photography. She was born in 1991, Slovenia, and has been living in Rotterdam since 2015. She received her BA from the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana and her MA in Photography from the AKV | St. Joost art academy in Breda (NL).
In her work, which is based on long-standing participatory research, she builds heterotopias and looks for new forms of storytelling while exploring the urgent questions of ethics, identity, agency, and pitfalls of our current dominant economy. Her recent works have been shown among others at the FIDÉ Festival International du Documentaire Émergent in Paris, the International Festival of Contemporary Arts City of Women in Ljubljana and the TENT Platform for Contemporary Art in the Netherlands. She is a current grantee of the Mondriaan stipendium for emerging artists in the Netherlands. For her film Permeating Hearts, which is about reading with prisoners in Belgium, she was given a Tënk Award at FIDÉ Paris 2019. She is the first recipient of the RTM Pitch Award 2020 by the International Film Festival Rotterdam. |
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BIRUTĖ KAPUSTINSKAITĖ
Birutė Kapustinskaitė is a playwright and screenwriter for cinema, theatre and audio projects. In 2018, she received Lithuania’s national Golden Cross Award for best playwright.
Birutė also won the Best Screenplay award at the 2019 Aubagne Film Festival for the screenplay of the feature film Sasha Was Here. She teaches screenwriting at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and at Vilnius University. The short film Mothers is her debut as a director. |
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SERHAT KARAASLAN
Serhat Karaaslan, from Kurdistan (Turkey), has directed one feature film and several shorts.
His short films were screened and awarded in major festivals like Toronto International Film Festival and Locarno Film Festival. His debut film Passed by Censor (Cannes Cinéfondation Residence), premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2019 where it received the Critics Award, and was shown at festivals around the world winning several awards along the way. His latest work is The Criminals, World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2021. |
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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. |
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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.
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CASPER RUDOLF KJELDSEN
Casper Rudolf Kjeldsen is a Danish director born in 1994. His cinematic obsession is the grotesque and his films deal with the metaphysical and bizarre. As a director he has taken part of several international film festivals (Cannes Film Festival, RIFF, Odense Film Festival, Morbido Fest, Nightmares Film Festival and many others) with his short films: Red Lipstick, Blue Lips (2015), The Mare (2018), In the Soil (2021). |
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ÁKOS K. KOVÁCS
Ákos K. Kovács was born in 1991 in Senta, Yugoslavia.
After he finished high school in Subotica he moved to Budapest (Hungary), to study Cinematography in the Metropolitan University. His BA diploma work, Away (directed by Roland Ferge) debuted at the Berlinale Generation in 2014 where it won Special Mention of the Generation Kplus International Jury. His other collaborations as DOP include Szabolcs Hajdu’s It’s Not the Time of My Life. Since then Ákos started to work in films also as writer and director. Branka is his first short film. |
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LUO RUNXIAO
Luo Runxiao, born in 2000, is a Chinese director and screenwriter. Knowing early where his true passion lies, Runxiao began learning filmmaking on his own and shooting documentaries at the age of 16. Currently, he is an undergraduate student studying film production at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
His debut short film, Hair Tie, Egg, Homework Books, is selected into the 78th Venice International Film Festival - Orizzonti Short Film Competition. Runxiao is the youngest Chinese filmmaker in history, at the age of 21, to enter Venice International Film Festival. Runxiao seeks to make realist films that revolve around one's search for true-self and explore themes such as the destructive nature of hyper-masculinity, as well as the roots and effects of violence. |
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ALIOSHA MASSINE
Aliosha Massine (born in Italy, 1991) coming from a family of choreographers and dancers.
He studied philosophy at the University of Roma Tre while acting with the touring company formed by Fiorentini. In 2019 he directed Il posto della felicità (The Place of Happiness), a short film produced by Marcello Fonte and Quasar film srl and selected in many important Italian and international film festivals. His second short Holy Son (2021) is produced by Quasar film srl, Timshel Films. |
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GVANTSA MEPARISHVILI
Gvantsa Meparishvili is a Georgian film and TV director.
Graduated in Cinema criticism and film directing at Theatre and Film University, Gvantsa started working as TV journalist, producer and host. She worked at Georgian Public Broadcasting for more than 10 years directing concerts and music videos. In 2017 Gvantsa took an enthusiastic interest in Cinema. After attending Mamalia’s film laboratory, she started her career as independent script writer and film director. Number 26 is her first short movie. |
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MORAD MOSTAFA
Morad Mostafa is an Egyptian Director, born in 1988 in Cairo, Egypt.
He worked as an Assistant Director in several independent films; he collaborated as an Executive director in Souad by Ayten Amin (official selection at Cannes Film Festival 2020 and Berlinale). Morad wrote and directed Henet Ward (2020) and What We Don't Know About Mariam" (2021); both movies had their world premiere at Clermont-Ferrand Festival du Court Métrage and they have been selected in other major festivals winning more than 30 international awards. Khadiga (2021) is Morad's latest short film. |
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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 2020 she completed the short movie The Visit, based on her childhood memories. |
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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 |
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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. |
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GIACOMO SEBASTIANI
Born in 1984 in Teramo (Italy), Giacomo Sebastiani soon left the birtplace to undertake university studies in Rome where he graduated in Sociology at the Sapienza and worked as a social researcher. He directed several shorts, including Behind the Mirror, selected at several international film festivals including the 63rd Sydney Film Festival.
Zheng (2020) is his latest work. |
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OR SINAI
Or Sinai is a film director, writer and editor.
She was born in 1985 and currently lives in Tel-Aviv. She graduated of the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School, Jerusalem and is an Alumna of the Berlinale Talents 2015. During her studies, she wrote and directed a few shorts and a 50 min documentary, Violeta Mi Vida, which won prizes at festivals in Israel and Russia. Her graduation film, the fiction short Anna, won the Cinéfondation First Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2016, as well as The Israeli Academy Best Short Feature Award 2016, an honourable mention at TIFF 2016 and other important awards in festivals around the world. Sinai worked as an editor for different TV series and documentaries. Among them is Mr. Gaga by the director Tomer Heymann. She is currently working on her first feature script. |
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CHANRADO SOK & KONGKEA VANN
Chanrado Sok grew interested in the relationship of media, public opinion, and freedom of expression. After high school, he chose to study film and work at Bophana Center, the audiovisual resource organization founded by filmmaker Rithy Panh. He has also joined filmmaking and photography courses with the Institut Français in Phnom Penh, and the Busan Film Commission’s 2018 FLY program in Singapore. He has primarily worked as a documentary filmmaker, and he has made four short documentaries since 2015.
Documentary and social realism in his fiction filmmaking allow him to engage with society and develop the stories of the real characters he finds around him every day. Sound of the Night (World Premiere at Locarno Film Festival 2021) is his first short fiction. Kongkea Vann graduated with his degree in film from the department of cinema at the School of Media of Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE) in 2016 in Phnom Penh. Shortly after, he has been involved as a camera assistant in certain international projects, such as First They Killed My Father by Angelina Jolie in 2017 and the Australian feature film Buoyancy by Rodd Rathjen in 2019. Ever since, he has been sought after by local production companies as a director of photography on many feature films, short films, and TV commercials. Pursuing his filmmaking dream in directing. Sound of the Night (World Premiere at Locarno Film Festival 2021) has become his first short film as co-director and cinematographer where he could shape his artistic approach further than just in the field of technician. |
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SEBASTIÁN VALENCIA MUÑOZ
Sebastián Valencia Muñoz is born in Pereira (Colombia).
He studied media communication and philosophy at the Javeriana University and he attended the 14° Berlinale Talents Buenos Aires. Sebastian has directed the following short films: Mañana piensa en mi (2006), official selection at Nuevos Creadores FICCI47, La transeúnte (2007), official selection at Bogoshorts 2007, Un día volverás (2013), official selection at Panorama Bogoshorts 2013. He recently completed the short films Montañas (2018) and El Remanso (2020), both winners of the FDC award (Proimágenes Colombia). Sebastian was also the DOP for the feature film Hombres solos (Francisco Schmitt, 2015), official selection at 37 Habana film festival and FICCI55, and for Los asesinos (Rodrigo Dimaté, 2013) official selection at Clermont Ferrand Film Festival 2013. |
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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.
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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.
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