Dito Tsintsadze was born in Tbilisi (Georgia), in 1957. From 1975 to 1981 he studied at the Film and Theatre Institute in Tbilisi where he was taught by Eldar Shengelaya and Otar Iosseliani. In the eighties and nineties he worked in Georgia as director's assistant with various filmmakers and in 1984 he directed his first short film, White Nights. For Georgian television he made Dakhatuli tsre (The Drawn Circle) in 1988, and the short films Stumrebi (Guests) in 1990, and Sakhli (Home) (TV movie) in 1992. The short film still interests him as can be seen from the fact that in 2002 he shot a new short film called Eine Erotische Geschichte (An erotic tale). In the late nineties he moved to Berlin, where he currently lives. He has directed three full-length films, Zghvardze (On the border), 1993, which won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Festival and the Golden Eagle at the International Black Sea Nations Film Festival in 1993; Lost Killers, 2000, shown in the "Un certain regard" section at Cannes in 2000 and at Zabaltegi in the same year. Lost Killers took part in festivals like the East European Youth Cinema Festival in Cottbus (Germany), and at the Salonika Festival where it won the Award for best director and best actor. Schussangst won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Festival.

Mahtab Keramati (Persian: مهتاب کرامتی‎‎, born October 17, 1970 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian actress.[1] In 2006 she was appointed as UNICEF National Ambassador in Iran.[2] She was taking acting courses when she was chosen for the role of Helen in The Men of Angelos, which garnered her national recognition. She later went on to appear in films such as Mummy III and Rain Man for which she was nominated for a Fajr International Film Festival Crystal Simorgh. She then appeared in dramas such as Saint Mary and Crimson Soil and the films Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, There Are Things You Don't Know, Alzheimer and The Private Life of Mr. and Mrs. M.. She won a Crystal Simorgh for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Twenty.

Dr. Gulnara Abikeyeva, known Kazakh film critic and film researcher. Since 2005 to 2013 she was an artistic director of the International Film Festival Eurasia in Almaty. During different years she made film magazines Asia-kino, Territoriya Kino as editor-in-Chief, TV programmes about Kazakh cinema. In 2001-2002 she was a Fulbright scholar at Bowdoin College, read lectures in Pittsburgh University and made presentation in Harvard, Yale, Tafts Universities in USA. She is the author of ten books about cinema, mostly about Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries. First book was New Kazakh Cinema (1998), next - Cinema of Central Asia: 1990-2001 was awarded by “White Elephant” award of  Gild of film critics of Russia as the best book about cinema of the year published in CIS. The book Nation-Building in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian States, and How This Process is Reflected in Cinematography’ (2006) was awarded by national prize “Kulager” as the best book of 2007 in Kazakhstan. As a member of FIPRESCI and NETPAC she was jury member on different international film festivals. Now she is a professor in Turan University in Almaty were she gives lectures on film history and film theory. In 2013 she has three international publications: in Great Britain -  Cinema in Central Asia. Rewriting Cultural Histories, co-edited by Michael Rouland and Birgit Beumers, in South Korea - The Unknown New Wave of Central Asian Cinema, co-edited by Kim Ji-Seok and in Russia in one of the best publishing houses (New Literary Observation, Film texts series) Mahmalbaf’s Film House.

Воrn in Feodossiya (Crimea), graduated from Saratov State University, majoring in journalism;  first gainfully employed in Kiev: translation & interpretation jobs (Serbian and Croatian) for Sputnik, a travel agency for youth, writing jobs for a few papers; started her TV career as  author and host to a  few popular shows on motion picture art, such as “Vse o Kino” (Everything on Movies) “Imia” (Name)   “Egoistka” (Ego-Tripper), “Svoia Rol” (One’s Own Part) while interviewing motion picture personalities, such as  Emir Kusturica, Oleg Yankovskiy, Jerzy Hoffman, Roman Balayan, Pierre Richard and Nikita Mikhalkov, Barbara Brylska and Armen  Jigarxanyan , Andrey Konchalovskiy and Yevgeni Mironov with a number of projects awarded at Ukrainian and international film and TV festivals and in particular: Grand Prix at  All-Ukrainian “Zolotaya Volna” Festival (Golden Wave) – for shows, such as “Bogdan Stupka” (film & theatre actor)  and ‘Igor Kostin’ ( one of  the first  photographers to have covered the Chernobyl nuclear disaster); the best host  award  at the Barkhatny Sezon -2001 (Velvet Season) TV Festival for “Valentina Talyzina” (film& theatre actress) , “Name” TV series, etc;  listed among the country’s best journalists in “Ukraine’s Personalities-2002” catalogue.  Iryna Gordiichuk was appointed programme director at the Kiev International  Film Festival (2009-2010); is a full-fledged FIPRESCI member, many a time a jury member at international film festivals in Kiev, Odessa, Yerevan, Minsk and Tomsk.

Liza Antonova was born in Sevastopol, has graduated from theatre studies faculty of the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts. She has worked as an editor of NIKA Awards ceremony held by Russian Academy of Cinema Arts, as a programming director at Sevastopol IFF and the festivals of Russian Films in Germany and Finland, as an editor at the film company Central Partnership and Studio IV. Since 2005 Liza Antonova is a co-founder (with Alexander Mindadze), a creative producer and since 2012 a managing director of the film company Passenger Studio in Moscow.

Filmography (Selected) - 2015 Dear Hans, Lovely Peter. Feature, full-length. Written and directed by Alexander, 2014; Ch Brothers. Feature, full-length. Writer: Yelena Gremina, director: Mikhail Ugarov.  2014; Comic life. Oleg Popov. Documentary, full-length. Writer: Alexander Annenski, director: Andrei Annenski; 2013 Combat boots. Feature, full-length. Written and directed by Katya Shagalova Mindadze; 2011 Innocent Saturday. Feature, full-length. Written and directed by Alexander Mindadze.

Nargiz Baghirzade - scriptwriter, writer. Born in Baku (Azerbaijan). In 1996 - 2000 graduated with a degree in Law - Economist, Western University Baku.

Since 2004 year she has published her stories in  the “Literary Azerbaijan” journal, literature collectors and in the literary anthology of modern Azerbaijani and Russian prose. In 2008 she graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. Gerasimov, faculty of scriptwriting.

In 2010 she published the storybook «The day after tomorrow». In 2011 «The day after tomorrow» entered the long-list of Azerbaijan National Book Prize. In the same year Nargiz became president scholarship holder of young Azerbaijan writers.

In 2013 - 2016  year her play «Face Book.Post Scriptum» has been staged in Riga, Latvia and then in Saint Petersburg, Russia («Face Book. Life»). Scriptwriter of several feature and shot films - «One step» (participate on BIAFF), «Crazy Jubilee», «Baku, I love you», «Zaman adlı qatar»

Her scripts have won grants in Azerbaijan and Russia. Presently Nargiz writes for the Azerbaijan and Russian cinema and TV companies.

He worked as a photojournalist before studying film direction at the Theatre Institute in Kyiv (1979). Yanchuk began working at Dovzhenko Film Studios in 1984 as an assistant film director. Since then Yanchuk has directed and produced award-winning historical dramas that have been featured at international film festivals: Famine '33 (1991), Assassination: An Autumn Murder in Munich (1995), The Undefeated (2000) and The Company of Heroes (2004). His latest film is Metropolitan Andrey (2008).

 Now Oles Yanchuk is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Dovzhenko Film Studios, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Elhum Shakerifar is a BAFTA nominated producer and programmer. Her most recent BAFTA nominated production A Syrian Love Story (Sean McAllister, 2015) won a Cinema for Peace Justice Award, nominated for Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards and European Film Awards. Her work has been broadcast internationally and at festivals including Berlinale, IDFA and of course in BIAFF. Elhum is now a programme advisor for London Film Festival and Associate Curator Film for Shubbak, festival of contemporary Arab culture. 

Graduated from the Kazan University as a philologist. Was a teacher at a village school, later a reporter in republican newspapers. In 1989 Marina Razbezhkina started writing and shooting documentaries. She wrote and directed more than 30 documentary films which participated in competition at the festivals IDFA, DOK Leipzig, ARTDOCFEST  and many others. In 2004 Razbezhkina made her first feature film “Harvest Time”.  It was nominated for the Fassbinder Award of the European Film Academy.

For the past 8 years Marina Razbezhkina has headed the School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theatre, which she founded together with Mikhail Ugarov. This is a unique educational project which arouses a lot of interest in film school in Europe and the USA. Films by the School graduates invariably participate in Russian and international festivals.

 Marina Razbezhkina is a member of the European Film Academy.  Lives in Moscow.

Born in 1953, Tbilisi. In 1979-1981 completed Moscow’s 2-year screenwriting and directing courses. In 1982-2002 worked at Georgian Film Studio as a screenwriter and director. In 2002-2004 worked at Channel 9 as a screenwriter and director. In 2007-2014 was an editor at Georgian Public Boadcaster.

Since 1994 he teaches at the University of Theatre and Film and reads lectures in Film Dramaturgy. Since 2014 he works at GPB’s documentary film studio as a screenwriter and director. He wrote scripts for many films, including - “Birdie” (1985), directed by N. Nenova, G. Tsulaia; “Painted Circle” (1989), directed by Dito Tsintsadze; “Ramini” (2011), directed by Aundrius Stonys; “Double Strangers” (2015) directed by Ugis Olte.

David Muradyan was born in Yerevan in 1951. In 1973, հe graduated the Department of Philological Studies of Yerevan State University. He teaches Film History and Script Mastership courses in Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema. He is the author of a number of articles, as well as the scriptwriter of several short feature and documentary films. In 1971-73, he worked at the National Radio, in 1976-91 and 1997-2001 - in Hayfilm Studio as a member of script and editorial council, then as general editor, and deputy director of artistic programs. In 2003, his play, Our Old Piano, was awarded Levon Shant Prize as Best Play of the Year. He is published in the media since 1969. Muradyan’s first book was published in 1976; afterwards, he published another 8 books. His works were translated in Russian, Ukrainian, Tajik, Georgian, Romanian, French, German, Hungarian and English. In 1994-1996 and 2001-2008, he was the Deputy President of Armenia’s Union of Writers, in 2008-2010 - Deputy Minister of Culture of Armenia. From 1993 he is the director of Cineology and Scriptwriting Courses of Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema, from 2014 - the Rector of the same Institute.

Dilyara Tastbulatova – film critic, journalist, blogger. She graduated VGIK (State Institute for Cinematography) with specialization of film critic/film theory. She is the author of more than three thousand articles, interviews with famous film directors and actors (Michael Moore, Matt Damon, Lars Von Trier etc.). She was awarded by the prizes – Best film critic of the year (2000, 2003).

She published three books of he stories, which are acknowledged as best editions in Russia for 2015. 

Julia Sinkevych is a festival director of Odessa International Film Festival. Odessa International Film Festival is one of the biggest audience film festivals in Eastern Europe, a showcase of art mainstream films (International, National and European documentary competition programs) as well as film industry networking platform Film Industry Office, Summer Film School and Film Market.

Working previously for several years for distribution and production company Arthouse Traffic Julia was in charge of festival promotion of the selection of short films “Angry Ukrainians” and feature films produced by the company as well as for promotion of young Ukrainian filmmakers and international cooperation between film industry professionals from Ukraine and abroad.

Since 2010, she is working for Odessa International Film Festival. Besides the general management of the festival organization, programming, management of the team and organizational processes, liaisons with international partners and organizations and the promotion of the festival inside and outside of Ukraine are part of her profession.

Over the years, she established a network of professional contacts in cultural and audiovisual sectors in Ukraine and abroad.Julia has also co-produced a documentary film "Rodnye" by Vitaliy Mansky.

Julia’s career has included management of cultural projects connected with different spheres of arts (e.g. music, theatre, films) as art manager and producer. The most prominent cultural events Julia Sinkevych has been involved in are International Music Festival The Koktebel Jazz Festival, International Festival of Contemporary Arts GOGOLFEST, Odessa International Film Festival.

Julia Sinkevych graduated from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, faculty of law. 

Zaza Khalvashi was born on April 17, 1957 in Batumi (Georgia). In 1979 he graduated from the Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Philology. In 1982 - from Tbilisi Theatre Institute, Faculty of Film Directing, Tengiz Abuladze and Rezo Chkheidze's Studio. From 1977 to 2004 he worked as a director at Film Studio "Georgian Film". Since 1997 he teaches film directing at Batumi Art State University and is the Head of Film-TV Arts Department of Batumi Art State University.  In 2015 he shoot the film “Solomon” which was premiered at BIAFF film festival and later screened at various festivals including – Tbilisi (prize for best Georgian film), Iran etc.

Filmography - “Time” (1981) 30’, “Echo” (1985)  30’, “There , where I live…”  (1990)  75’, Miserere“ (1996)  82’, “Roud-Dance  of  Wolves“  (TV - 12 series, 2003), “Solomon”  (2015)  70’

He was born in 1962. In 1984 he graduated from Tbilisi Rustaveli. State University of Theatre and Film, Faculty of Drama. Since 1985 he is wokring in Marjanishvili State Theatre (Tbilisi). Zurab Sturua is a laureate of Gogebashvili award. He performed in many films including Aleko Tsabadze’s, Zaza Khalvashi’s films.