Residents

Born in Athens, Greece, June 1989. Grew up in Thessaloniki from 1996 onwards. Her work revolves around coming of age stories, family structures, intimacy, loss and love. Graduated with distinction from London Film School (2013), with film “Thirteen Blue”. Sarajevo (2014) and Berlinale (2015) Talents Alumna. In 2018 she won Best Short Film Award at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique with the film she was editing at the residence, “Hector Malot – The Last Day Of The Year”. At the Pop Up she worked on her first feature “Selene66”, that was released with the title “Moon, 66 Questions” with the premiere at the Berlinale 2021, Encounters section.

Oliver Adam Kusio is a German and Polish director, based in Berlin and Warsaw. He has collaborated with many film and theatre directors such as Rosa von Praunheim. In 2017 while he was studying at the Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF film school, he directed Ela-Sketches on a Departure. Selected by La Semaine de la Critique, the film gives a melancholic and radiant portrayal of a woman as she is about to leave to find a better life. At the Pop Up he worked on his first feature “Pax Europa”. 

After completing his film studies at the Royal Institute of Theatre, Cinema and Sound in Brussels, Koen Mortier made several short films and music videos. In 1999 he established CZAR in Brussels with fellow director Joe Vanhoutteghem. Koen has directed two feature films: ‘Ex Drummer’ and ‘22nd of May’. Both were selected for international festivals and won several prizes. His third feature ‘Un Ange’ (based on a novel by Dimitri Verhulst) was selected for Toronto International Film Festival ans as released in Belgium and in France. At the Pop Up he worked on “Skunk”.

Troilo moves between the world of cinema, television, publishing, and advertising. He began filming and taking photographs at a young age. Troilo’s work has been published in Newsweek Japan, Der Spiegel, D magazine (La Repubblica newspaper), GQ Italy, CNN, Wired Italy, Wired UK, Wired Corea, Wired Germany, Ventiquattro, Wallpaper, GQ Spain, Io Donna, Flair, Sport&Street, Velvet and Urban. In 2011 he directed Fan Pio, his first feature length film, and published in Germany his first book, Apulien, awarded as best photographic book at the International Photography Awards in 2012. At the Pop Up he worked on “Le Paradis, C’est Ici”, together with co-writer & co-resident Gaia Baldini.

Marija Kavtaradzė studied film directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her short film “I’m Twenty Something” won best student film at the Lithuanian Film Academy Awards in 2015. Her debut feature « Summer Survivors » made a splash at the Toronto Film Festival. This road-movie across Lithuania moved audiences due to its unique tone to portray mental illness – light-hearted, humorous and ultimately radiant. At the Pop Up she worked on “Slow”. 

Beatriz’ 2nd feature film “Los Silencios” premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2018, and was distributed internationally by Pyramide. The film received enthusiastic critical and audience appraisal internationally, for example reaching more than 30 000 admissions in French theaters. “While They Sleep” is in development stage. It will be produced in Brazil by Seigner’s company Miriade Filmes, together with Erica de Freitas’ Encantamento Filmes. Thierry Lenouvel will continue collaborating with Seigner as French co-producer. At the Pop Up she worked on “While They Sleep”.

Alan Holly is an artist and filmmaker from Dublin, Ireland. Alan has been working in the industry for the past ten years, as an animator, director, writer, editor and background artist. In 2010, he was one of the founders of the studio And Maps And Plans, where he has been working closely with a group of friends to produce artistically driven animated film projects, including several award winning films. His short film Coda was the short animation winner at SXSW and also shortlisted for the Oscar’s. At the Pop Up he worked on his debut feature “Piece”, together with producer Carla Vulpiani and co-writer Rory Byrne. 

Carlota Pereda has spent her career working in TV fiction. She has been a screenwriter and script supervisor for series such as Periodistas and Motivos Personales, has directed series,”El secreto de Puente Viejo”, LEX and Lalola. Her first short, The Blondes, was selected in over 137 festivals worldwide and/or awarded in prestigious festivals such as Medina del Campo, La Semana del Corto, Certamen Internacional de Cortometrajes Ciudad de Soria or CortoEspaña. This project is the leap to feature film of Pereda’s short ‘Piggy’, which notably won the Goya Award for Best Short Film. At the Pop Up she worked on “Piggy” that is now completed and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2022, Midnight section. 

Yona Ronzenkier’s debut feature “The Dive” premiered in Locarno competition in 2018, whereas the Israeli director was present in Cannes Film Festival with two shorts: “The Sign”, co-directed with Eleonora Veninova and presented at the Directors’ Fortnight as part of the SEE Factory, and “Parparim” presented in the Cannes Film Festival Official Competition. His 2nd feature film “Decompression” is in pre-production. “Siberia” received development support from the Israeli Film Fund, with Kobi Mizrahi producing in Israel and Dominique Welinski in France. At the Pop Up he worked on “Siberia”. 

Kaleena Kiff developed & produced the BAFTA Scotland award-winning feature The Legend of Barney Thomson. The black comedy stars Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson and BAFTA winners Robert Carlyle & Ray Winstone. Additionally, Kaleena produced the comedy feature No Men Beyond This Point (TIFF 2015), released by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recently, Kaleena and her partners premiered documentary feature film Stuffed in competition at the SXSW Film Festival. Kaleena is an alum of the EAVE, Toronto Producers Lab, Rotterdam Lab, Berlinale Talent Project Market, and an ACE Producer. At the Pop Up she worked on “Until I Find You”. 

Anita Doron’s latest script was The Breadwinner which was nominated for Best Animation Feature in the Oscars 2018, an Annie Award for best screenplay and a Canadian Screen Award for best adapted screenplay. Anita Doron was born in the former USSR but later fled to Canada where she attended Ryerson University studying filmmaking and scriptwriting. At the Pop Up she worked on ” Sweetwater”.  

Cristina Grosan is a Hungarian- Romanian filmmaker and visual artist. Since graduating from university, she has directed 6 short films, among which award-winning short “Holiday at the Seaside” exploring a mother-daughter relationship. She is developing her second feature, “Ordinary Failures” together with Czech writer Klára Vlasáková. The film’s development is supported by a grant from the Czech Film Fund. At the Pop Up, Cristina worked together with the scriptwriter Klára Vlasáková on Ordinary Failures.

Born in 1982 in Algiers, Yasmine Chouikh studied human arts and sciences and graduated in psychology and educational sciences. She worked as an actress in La Citadelle (1987) by Mohamed Chouikh, in a television film by Djamel Bendedouch in 1990, and then in Hamlet of Women (2004) by Mohamed Chouikh. She wrote in the cultural page of the daily newspaper l’Autentique and works as a journalist and presents a cinematographic television program on the national Algerian television since 2005. She has written and directed several shorts films, e. g. The Door and The Djinn.

She is the art director of the International Taghit Short Film Festival (Algeria) and has been in charge of short films at the International Arab Film Festival of Oran (Algeria).

Her first film, the romantic drama Until The End Of Time (2017) was selected as the Algerian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. At the Pop Up, Yasmine was working on Only God.

Born in 1987. Living in Munich, Germany. Studied directing at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). His graduation film La Palma was released in German cinemas in 2020 and is now available on Netflix Germany. He finished his first documentary Who we will have been in 2021 and participated in the 31st Drehbuchwerkstatt Munich 2019/2020, as well as the talent development programs ZFF Academy (Zurich Filmfestival 2020) and Berlinale Talents (Berlinale 2021). At thePop Up, Erec was working on Lightness and Weight.

Loïc Hobi is a French-Swiss filmmaker born in 1997. He studied directing at Luc Besson’s film school École de la Cité in France, graduating in 2019 with L’Homme Jetée. He has recently released The Life Underground, a coming of age short. Focusing on his identity growing up in a digital world, he has made more experimental films like New Gods. Merging his narrative and experimental sides, Loïc has just finished shooting Alexx196 & the pink sand beach. He is now developing his first feature Crypto Lover which he was working on at the Pop Up Film Residency.

Cyrielle Raingou is a Cameroonian filmmaker passionate about the concept and development of a certain African cultural identity, its promotion on an international scale and the economic interest it raises. She very often uses legends, metaphor, the symbolism of certain animals, to support human stories in their complexity, and the mystery of life. She holds master’s degrees in law and in film directing. At the Pop Up, Cyrielle was working on I`m Coming for you.

Pratik Thakare is a filmmaker based in Mumbai, India. Pratik went on to study Film Direction & Screenplay Writing at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata. His short film Salana Jalsa premiered at Shanghai IFF and was part of film festivals such as Dharamshala IFF, Filmschoolfest Munich, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). Having written a screenplay for an upcoming sports drama series, Pratik is currently developing the script for his debut feature. At the Pop Up, Pratik was working on A Midnight Meal.

Šimon Holý was born in Prague in 1994. He graduated from the Department of Feature Film Directing at FAMU. During his studies, he directed five short films that premiered at several film festivals.

He was a jury member at NEST section in San Sebastian Film Festival in 2017 as well as in Queer Film Festival Mezipatra or Prague Film Festival Febiofest.

Holý also served as a film composer for many films of up-and-coming Czech filmmakers. The film score he composed with Monika Midriaková for Olmo Omerzu’s Winter Flies was nominated by the Czech Film and Television Academy for the Czech National Film Award. He is also a radio host of the weekly pop-culture show Kompot and a daily afternoon On-Air Show on the Czech National Radio channel Radio Wave.

In 2021, he is developing two feature films (Thinking David and Chica Checa), a mockumentary TV series Persona and directing the second season of the popular podcast series Zkouškový (“Exams of life”).

His feature debut Mirrors in the Dark premiered in 2021, in the Karlovy Vary IFF East of the West Competition, and his most recent, And Then There Was Love in the Karlovy Vary IFF 2022 Proxima Competition.

During Pop Up Visegrad 2022, Šimon was working on his project “Thinking of David”

Anna Gyimesi is a Hungarian film director, born in 1985, based in Budapest. After receiving her degree in medicine, she turned to filmmaking. She graduated in film directing at the University of Theater and Film Arts in 2019 and from documentary film directing in the Docnomads Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Course in 2021. Her interests are taboo social dilemmas represented through personal dramas, especially connected to motherhood, womanhood, and social marginalization. With her latest short Affricate she won Cinelink-award for the best pitch at Talent Sarajevo Pack&Pitch 2020 and took part in European Short Pitch Works-In-Progress Co-production Forum in 2022. Her debut film project Bearwoman continues the line of showing a current social phenomenon by going around the topics of social exclusion, marital violence, and personality cult from the side of a young adult girl moving to a small Transylvanian village and becoming a victim of rape.

During her Pop Up Visegrad Residency, Anna was working on her project Bear Woman.

Marlene Grinberg is an Argentine director and screenwriter. Her short films Todas mis Lolas and Mi Reina participated in festivals in Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Italy and the USA. She is currently developing the feature Tres Tiempos (Bal Lab Biarritz 2019), the documentary Me Gusta cuando Hablas (Docs Lab Mx 2020) and the feature La Sirena de Monterrey (Blood Window Lab 2020).

During her Pop Up Film Residency, Marlene was working on The Mermaid of Monterrey

Carine Khalaf is a writer/director from Beirut. She completed her cinema studies in 2011 at ALBA university. Her graduation film Troubled Water premiered at BIFF (Lebanon). She worked at Metropolis Art Cinema and MC Distribution as Head of Communication. During that time she was involved in various film festivals such as Beirut Animated and Beirut Cinema Days and in films such as “The Valley” by Ghassan Salhab and Academy Award-nominated The Insult by Ziad Doueiri. At the moment, she has two short films in development: La7za, Jayi and The Other Side of the Lens which were nominated for the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and were selected at the Doha Short Film Script Lab. She is also developing her first feature film Re-Birth which was selected at the Hezayah Feature Film Script Lab.

During her Pop Up Film Residency Carine worked on Re-Birth

Nastia is a Moscow-based filmmaker.

Having graduated in philology from the Moscow State University, she learned directing at the Moscow School of New Cinema with Bakur Bakuradze and being a documentary soldier with Werner Herzog in Cuba.

Her documentary films were screened at Venice Film Festival, DOK Leipzig, True/False, Sheffield DocFest, Metropolitan Museum, NY, and a cosy little place down the riverside of the Amazon, among others.

During her Pop Up Film Residency she worked on Short Summer

Ismaël is developing a “cinématière“, a hybrid artistic practice that expands cinema to the field of contemporary art. His work questions technologies, memory, the virtual and explores the porous worlds of the image. His films Swatted and Dark Waves received several awards (Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, IndieLisboa, Guanajuato…). Ismaël is also the winner of the ADAGP Digital Art Revelation Prize and the Emergences Prize. His feature film DEEPFAKE is currently in development. 

During his Pop Up Film Residency he worked on Deepfake

Thomas is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He directed and wrote the short film Austral Fever, which not only had its world premiere in the official competition of La Biennale di Venezia 76, but also obtained a special mention in the NEST competition of the San Sebastian Festival and participated in the official selection of the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) 2019.

He was director of photography for The Summer of The Electric Lion, a short film that won the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 and the Panavisión award at the NEST competition of the San Sebastián Film Festival 2018. It was also shown in the official short film competition at Sundance 2019.

In the 2019 edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival, Thomas was part of the jury for the Mexican feature film competition.

During his Pop Up Film Residency he worked on Erratics

Tetiana Symon is a Ukrainian director, an actor coach, a casting director, 1AD. She studied at Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, majoring in directing. In 2015 she made her debut short film TRASH. After that, she started to work as an actor coach and casting director with famous Ukrainian directors, such as Valentyn Vasyanovych, Roman Bondarchuk, Iryna Tsilyk and Maryna Er Gorbach. She specializes in working with non-professional actors in feature films. Tetiana is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy.

During her Pop Up Film Residency Tetiana worked on F**king Sensitivity.

Joseph is a multi-award winning filmmaker and animator based in London. Upon graduating from the National Film and Television School he was featured in Screen International’s “Stars of Tomorrow”. His short films have toured internationally, winning over 40 prizes. He’s worked extensively in theatre and live events, including collaborations with the Met Opera NYC, Royal Opera House and the National Theatre. His latest short Scale, which premiered in Cannes 2022, has screened in over 100 international film festivals, winning a number of awards including the Prix du Public at Clermont Ferrand, the Jury Prize at Bucheon Animation Festival, Best Animation at Hollyshorts and the Meilleur court-métrage at Les Arcs Film Festival.

During his Pop Up Film Residency Joseph worked on How the Dead Live

Charlotte is a Scottish documentary producer based in Edinburgh. After doing an MA in English Literature at the University of St Andrews, she gained experience in drama, TV and commercial production. In 2012, she began working with Victor Kossakovsky on Aquarela. She founded Hailstone Films in 2018, and they collaborated again on Gunda. She produces short documentaries with the Scottish Documentary Institute and up-and-coming directors. Charlotte is an alumna of their New Voices talent programme.

During her Pop Up Film Residency Charlotte worked on WW

During his Pop Up Film Residency Omar worked on Firehouse

Lina Lužytė was born in 1985, in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2011 she’s completed her Film Directing studies in the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her graduation short film “It Would Be Splendid, Yet…” was awarded in many film festivals. Later, Lina went to Belarus to shoot IGRUSHKI, a documentary about toy makers, that won The Best Documentary Film Award at International Documentary Film Festival CineDOC Tbilisi. In 2016 Lina shot her first feature “Together For Ever” that premiered in Karlovy Vary Film Festival and in 2020 she’s completed her second feature “The Castle”. Since 2010 Lina is also a part of a documentary project called “199 Little Heroes”. Currently Lina’s second documentary “BLUE/RED/DEPORT” was released in cinemas in Germany. The film portrays an Afghan filmmaker living in Moria, the biggest refugee camp in Europe that in 2020 has burnt down. At the moment Lina is developing KOPEC, a tragicomedy about a very old and poor lady fighting a rich New Lithuanian as well as working on her TV series “C” FOR CANCEL, which tells a story of a celebrity, who gets cancelled after an inappropriate statement.

During her Pop Up Film Residency Eurimages, Lina worked on KOPEK.

Genovéva Petrovits has followed theatre studies at La Sorbonne, later had a diploma of French Language and Literature and Master diploma of Design and Art Management at Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest. Alumna of Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris, Berlinale Talents, Emerging Producers. She has produced award winning films of Hungarian auteurs. As a producer and cultural manager, she is dedicated to contribute to the constant progress of the auteur-driven Hungarian contemporary cinema and theatre, constantly seeking for private and public fundings.

Berna Yıldız is a stop-motion filmmaker based in Istanbul, Türkiye.
She loves to learn different techniques to get as creative as possible and interested in hybrid techniques.  She is in the early stages of development with a short animation project about a Turkish guest worker family in 70s Germany based on her mother’s memories. Her first film The Void(2021), a cut-out shadow animation made during the pandemic, was selected for 14 festivals. This empowered her to keep creating new projects.  She graduated during the pandemic, with a short stop-motion film project “THINGS YOU KNOW” adapted from a feminist play written by Vala Thorsdottir, an absurd comedy monologue about a recently divorced woman.
She is also working on a hybrid mockumentary as a co-director for Animist Animation Directing Program.

During her residency Berna worked on “Outsider.”

I belong to the generation of Iranian young filmmakers who are exploring the least discussed aesthetic and thematic issues in Iranian cinema.

A Vietnamese woman filmmaker who cares to explore the transnational female identity in relationships with family dynamics and grief. With a morbid sense of humor, occasionally.

Soham is an Indian born, London based Writer-Director, an alumna of University of the Arts London (Directing), NFTS (Writing the TV Pilot) and a recipient of the JN Tata Scholarship. His latest film ‘Love Death and Everything In Between won the ‘Prix Interculturel Award’ at Film School Fest Munich’.

Viv Li is a Chinese filmmaker and artist based in Berlin. She likes to approach everything with humor, especially her films.

Ashmita Guha Neogi (1991) is a filmmaker based out of Delhi, India. She studied Scriptwriting & Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. She is currently developing her debut feature, Cold Ashes Can Cause Forest Fires.

Katarzyna Trzaska is a director, scriptwriter and producer of documentary films
in ZYGIZAGA FILMS. She is an author of documentaries shown around the world:
Village of Swimming Cows, Maximum Pleasure, 10 Years to Nashville; presented
among others at New Horizons IFF, Krakow Film Festival, Visions du Réel in
Switzerland, and others.

Anna Korom is a Budapest-born film director who completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. She continued her studies at the Freeszfe Society after the university was stripped of its independence. Anna has directed commercials, music videos, and films that have been showcased at various festivals. She is currently working on the post-production of her short films “NIKÓ” and “DIAMOND BEAUTY” while developing the feature film “LADY SUNSHINE” with András Soós and Anna Szijártó. In addition to her film work, Anna has also contributed to various theatrical productions, including Kornél Mundruczó’s “EVOLUTION”.

Terézia Halamová is a Slovak director currently finishing her MA at FAMU in Prague. Her short film Sing for us (2020) premiered at Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan and was screened at many international film festivals including Vilnius IFF. It won the New Europe Talent Award and The Best Cinematography at the Zubroffka Festival and the Jury Award at the International Kinoproba Festival, among others. She also collaborated with foreign musicians, and her music video Move Honey won the Jury Prize at the Polish Papaya Young Directors Competition and was featured at the Berlin Music Video awards. With her feature film in development – The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, she was selected as a KVIFF Talent 2022 and presented the project at Karlovy Vary IFF. All of her films are connected by the themes of loneliness, growing up, and exploring intimacy. She repeatedly likes to work with non-actors and is interested in the plasticity of interpersonal relationships.

Director, scriptwriter, editor. She was born in 1988 in Starobilsk, Eastern Ukraine. In 2006 moved to Kyiv. The first specialty is “Finance”.
2017-2019 studied at the Kyiv University of Theater, Cinema, and Television. Karpenko-Kary, specialty “Director of a documentary film”. Worked in video production for the last 9 years, making advertisements, music videos, social videos, and documentaries.
In 2018, she won the main prize for the best social advertising at the Molodiya Festival.
In 2022 finished her first full-length, self-produced documentary “ADA”.
Now she is based in Berlin.

Assel directed, wrote and produced three short films that participated in Uppsala Short Film Festival, Cottbus FilmFestival, PÖFF Shorts, GoEast, Jogja NETPAC and other festivals. Her recent short film COMRADE POLICEMAN was awarded Special Prize in the Short Film Competition of Cottbus FilmFestival.

Assel participated in Eastern Promises of Karlovy Vary IFF 2023, Biennale College Cinema of Venice IFF 2020, Connecting Cottbus 2021, Meetings on the Bridge 2021, BOAT Meeting 2020, Script POOL Tallinn 2018 and Eurasia spotlight 2017.

Romy is a filmmaker from Lebanon who graduated from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in 2021. She wrote and directed her graduation film ‘Apnea’ that screened in festivals like Medfilm Festival and is currently developing her first feature.

Leila is a Lebanese filmmaker and photographer with an MFA in Film Directing from FAMU. Her second-year short documentary The Adam Basma Project was short-listed for the 48th annual Student Oscars after its festival tour, and her graduation film Sea Salt premiered at the 80th International Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Official Short Film Competition. Leila is currently developing various film and photography projects.

Gretta-Garoliina originates from Finland, South Lapland, where she graduated as a Bachelor in communication, continuing her studies at the HFF München and in the Icelandic Film school. Her interest can be caught especially with the weight of social and political themes and questions about identity, injected with some dry humour.

Inès Sieulle is a French filmmaker based in Paris. Through a choir of life paths, her films aim to shed sensitive light on the contemporary social dynamics that surround her through the themes of intimacy, community and their way of defining themselves in the world.

Born in Hamburg in 1993, Berthold studied Arts & Sciences at University College London. In 2016 he joined the directing programme at the University of Television and Film Munich. His short SUMMER HIT screened at many festivals including SXSW and won prizes at Palm Springs Shortfest and Premiers Plans amongst others. His new short SENSIBELCHEN is currently in post-production. As a screenwriter and director Berthold has worked on various TV projects and is developing his first feature film.

Carlo Enciso Catu is a 29 year old, multi-awarded Filipino filmmaker from the region of Pampanga. His work seeks to explore the trauma surrounding the Philippine family, the normalisation of LGBTQ+ centric-stories and the balancing both artistic and commercially viable works.

His debut film, Ari: My Life With A King premiered at the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) and was named one the 50 Best Filipino Films of the 21st Century by Pinoy Rebyu (Society of Filipino Film Reviewers). In 2016, he was the youngest Gawad Urian nominee for Best Director (Philippines’ equivalent to the Oscars).

Carlo also works in narrative tv; directing and writing three full series (Misis Piggy, My Delivery Gurl, My Single Lady) and part of an anthology (Now Streaming); all available on major Philippine streaming platforms such as iWant and CignalPlay.

He is an alumnus of Full Circle Lab, ASEAN-ROK Film Leaders Incubator (FLY Cambodia 2016, FLY Higashikawa 2017, FLY Alumni Program Singapore 2018),

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1982, Maryna Stepanska graduated from Karpenko-Kary National University of Film, Theatre and Television (Film Department, specialty: director) in 2004. Further, Maryna worked at the experimental theatre “School”, where she studied the methodology of working with non-actors. She completed a 6-month ARCHIDOC program for documentary filmmakers at the French film and television school La Fémis. Her scripted feature debut FALLING (2017) premiered at Karlovy Vary IFF and received several awards at the international film festivals and 3 awards at the National Film Awards “Golden Dzyga” in 2018. She writes scripts for other directors as well. Maryna also directed several short films MEN’S WORK (2015, DESATURATED (2019). Her project IT’S NOT A FULL PICTURE was selected at WEMW 2023 Co-production forum. Her latest project CONSIDER VERA has been selected for CineMart 2023.

Enterprising and bold artistic director, founder, and performing artist with over 17 years of building a company, a theater, and a non-profit organization through resourcefulness, resilience, and strong leadership abilities.

Jela Hasler studied Photography in Zurich and Istanbul and Video in Lucerne. Her short filmsTheMeadow(2015) andLe sens de la marche(2018) premiered at Locarno Film Festival and screened atfestivals including IDFA, Hot Docs, Tampere. Jela has been part of several juries and is a boardmember of Pro Short, the Swiss Short Film Association.

I’m a socially conscious creative driven by the desire to harness my gift to impact the world. I’m eclectic, zany and I love to push boundaries..experiment. I’m stimulated by the desire to present unique and novel perspectives of Africa. As a Director, Writer and Producer I focus on stories with multicultural appeal, impact and flavour.

Tapiwa was working on her project Life On the Other Side of the Sun during her residency in Bratislava.

Adrianna is a creative producer and production manager based in Warsaw. She gained her experience at the Warsaw Film Festival, Munk Studio and Her Docs Film Festival. Graduate of the Lodz Film School in the Department of Film and Television Production. She is the member of the Film Foundation Lumisenta, she is responsible for searching for brave and important film projects and develops them at all stages of production. She is also a co-maker of features and documentaries working with Kalejdoskop Film Studio, Lava Films, Aura Films, Lodz Film School and Theatre School in Krakow. She strongly believes in teamwork.

Randa Ali is a director & writer working between Los Angeles and Cairo. She graduated in 2023 with an MFA in directing from UCLA’s school of theater, film and television. Her last short film Mango was selected in the official competition of the 46th Clermont-Ferrand Int’l Short Film Festival. In 2021, She was awarded the ARRI Franz Weiser grant for her film Kingdom of Strangers. The film won the Jury awards at Toronto Arab Film Festival, Cairo Int’l Shorts Film Festival & Beirut Shorts

Melisa Liebenthal (1991, Buenos Aires) is a film director and editor. She directed the films The pretty ones (2016, 77 min.), Constanza (2018, 27 min.), Here and there (2020, 21 min.) and The face of the jellyfish (2022, 75 min.). Her films were awarded at Rotterdam, Berlin, Mar del Plata and BAFICI international film festivals, and were screened in FIDMarseille, Edinburgh and Torino film festivals, MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center, amongst others. Her work reflects on the way we construct our identity in a contemporary world traversed by cybernetics and consumerism, from a clearly female perspective and playfully articulating different materials. She is a film graduate at Universidad del Cine in Argentina and at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France. She specialized in Editing and Dramatic Structure with professor Miguel Pérez in Argentina, and in Essay-Film at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV) in Cuba. She is a Berlinale Talents (2021) and FID Campus (2018) alumna. In 2024 she was a Junge Akademie – Akademie der Künste Berlin fellow in Villa Serpentara, Olevano Romano (Italy).

The São Paulo-based Carolina Markowicz hit the festival circuit to acclaim, her first two features, “Charcoal” (“ Carvão”) and “Toll” (”Pedágio”), bowing to audiences at the Toronto Film Festival, where she was awarded the Emerging Talent award in 2023. Her short film, 2018’s “The Orphan,” (“O Órfão”), snagged a Cannes’ Queer Palm plaudit among other international accolades.

Graham Foy is a writer, director currently based in Toronto, Canada. His films, which often explore themes of connection, nature and loss, have been praised widely by critics including Manohla Dargis (The New York Times), Jonathan Romney (The Guardian), Jessica Kiang (Variety) and Marcos Uzal (Cahier du Cinema). His films have been awarded and shown at festivals around the world including Cannes, Venice, Toronto, New York Film Festival and MoMA / Lincoln Center’s New Directors / New Films. His debut feature film The Maiden was highlighted on several year end top ten lists and was awarded numerous prizes including the Cinema of The Future prize at the 2022 Venice film festival, the FIPRESCI Prize, Youth Jury Prize, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize (special mention) at the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg, Grand Prize at Festival du Nouveau Cinéma and runner up for the International Cinephile Society award for best debut feature film of 2023.