Hugo Dos Santos graduated in Contemporary History and Cinema. After a career in documentary where he worked on the audiovisual archives of films dealing with immigration, exile, colonialism or social struggles, he turned to journalism in parallel.

Awarded by the Portuguese Film Academy with the Sophia Award 2019 for best short documentary, amongst others before, I’m a storyteller at heart with a sharp eye for rhythm and emotions. I live to inspire others and take pride in the realisation that, from film to film, I'm becoming better at what I do.

Since 2010, José Oliveira signs several projects including Father Christmas (2010) and Faraway (2016, presented at Locarno Film Festival). In 2020, he finished two feature films: The Night’s Advices and War (co-directed by Marta Ramos). Paz, co-directed with Marta Ramos, is his last project. He regularly writes about films in Foco – Cinema Magazine and is the co-founder of Lucky Star – Braga’s Film Club, together with João Palhares. They are the authors of “A Voyage Through American Cinema”, a book that compiled their texts on the film they programmed. He is currently teaching Film History and Film Directing at Escola Superior de Artes e Design de Cascais.

Marta Ramos was born in Lisbon in 1984, studied in Fundão and Guarda and returned to the capital to graduate in Architecture from Universidade Técnica. However, singing was the expression that held her from within and it´s this calling that she wants to pursue. She has also collaborated in several independent films. Paz, co-directed with José Oliveira, is her last project.

Majid Al-Remaihi is a film-maker and programmer from Doha, Qatar. His short film “And Then They Burn the Sea” premiered at Locarno 2021. He produced it under the mentorship of Academy Award-nominated director Rithy Panh and with the support of the Qatari Film Fund. Currently, he is developing his next short film. He is also part of the Film Programming team at the Doha Film Institute.

Leila Macaire is a French director and photographer living in Paris. Identity and social diversity are two themes recurring most presently in her work. Both in film and photography she questions and defends human rights as much as women's rights, finding expression through visual and aesthetic research.

Mo Mo is a Burmese film director and a lens-based multidisciplinary artist based in Yangon. In 2014, she attended Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic in the US and in 2017, she finished her studies with Film Directing at New York Film Academy. In most of her works, she loves to explore the metaphysical, identity, femininity and personal aspects in storytelling through innovative use of visuals and sound.

Eliane Esther Bots (1986, The Netherlands) graduated cum laude from the Master of Film at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. Her films have been screened at ‘IDFA’ (NL) ‘Berlinale’, Berlin (DE), ‘Cinema du Reel’, Paris (FR), ‘New York Film Festival’ (USA), ‘International short film festival Oberhausen’ (DE), ‘Go Short’, Nijmegen (NL), Kassel Dokfest (DE). She works as a ‘Moving image’ lecturer at the University of the Arts in Utrecht (NL).

Mohammadreza Farzad (1978) Tehran, Iran. Poet, literary translator, and film- maker. His career in documentary film started with “Into Thin Air” (2011) and “Blames and Flames” (2012). Both short films premiered at Berlinale Forum Expanded. Farzad has been a PhD student at the Film Factory headed by the legendary Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr. He is currently working on his first feature film “A Gaze Long into the Abyss”.

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.

BA Graduated in Film, Tehran University of Art, 2016-2020. MA student in Directing, NFTS, 2021-2023. She concerns about children's and women's rights; Issues like child marriage, child abuse, neglect, or violence by parents, rape, women-against-women, and social inequalities.

Maythem spent his formative years in Iraq before fleeing with his family into exile. He has many years’ experiences creating award-winning film and photography projects. His films have been selected for major international film festivals, broadcasted, distributed in cinemas and won many accolades and prizes.