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Director of "With Hasan in Gaza"

Palestinian filmmaker and artist Kamal Aljafari is known for his distinctive approach to cinema. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and has held teaching positions at The New School in New York and the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie in Berlin. He was awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University and most recently a fellowship at The Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris (2024–2025). As from September 2025, he will be a resident at Académie des beaux- arts x Cité internationale des arts in Paris. His installation “The Camera of the Dispossessed” was shown at the 35th Bienal de São Paulo in 2023.

Aljafari was also honored at IndieLisboa 2024 with a full retrospective of his work at the Portuguese Cinematheque as well as in Madrid Spanish Cinematheque in 2025. The feature film “A Fidai Film” (2024) was shown in over hundred festivals and won 15 international awards. His most recent work, “With Hasan in Gaza” (2025), will premiere in the International Competition at Locarno Film Festival.

Director of "If I Die Today"

Camilla Arlien graduated from the Documentary Program at the Danish Film School in 2019.
She grew up in the Northwest district of Copenhagen, has lived in the USA and Spain, and has a
background in theater and circus. In her films, she works with themes of identity and a deep
love for the complex and sensitive human being. Camilla likes to look at reality with an eye for
the potential of the people involved. We are not just what we became, but also what we could
have become. Camilla is the mother of Aya and Nima and is currently based in Istanbul.
IF I DIE TODAY is Camilla's debut in long-form filmmaking.

Director of "Soldiers of Light"

Johannes Büttner studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin and at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. His work deals with speculative as well as scientifically based socio-economic phenomena. Most recently, Johannes participated in the 16th Istanbul Biennial (2019) and in exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2018), the Kunsthalle Mainz (2020), and the Ruhr Ding (2021). Johannes' work has been honored with numerous scholarships and awards. In 2022, his film PLATFORM was nominated for the German Short Film Prize.

Director of "On My Own Terms"

Tadeusz Chudy is a filmmaker and photographer. His work stems from
the belief that experience leads to understanding, and understanding leads to tolerance. He undertakes long-term documentary projects to tell stories about people and places from a perspective of genuine engagement. He studied philosophy and film studies at the Jagiellonian University, and then film, television, and photography at the University of Silesia and at the Visual Narrative Laboratory at the Łódź Film School

Director of "Do You Love Me"

Lana Daher is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. With a background in fine arts and graphic design (BFA, American University of Beirut) as well as filmmaking (MA, Goldsmiths, University of London), she has long been active in Beirut’s vibrant art and music scenes, working across sound, image, and archival practices.

Her work is grounded in deep research and intuitive storytelling, exploring the space between documentary and fiction by bringing different time periods and emotional landscapes into dialogue.

Main protagonist of "In Hell with Ivo"

Ivo Dimchev is an internationally acclaimed Bulgarian multidisciplinary artist, a theatre maker, choreographer, visual artist, singer, songwriter known for his extreme and colorful mix of performance art, dance, music, visual arts, and queer activism. Renowned for pushing creative boundaries and challenging societal norms, Dimchev's contemporary artistic projects are celebrated worldwide for their boldness and innovative approach.

Director of "Resilience"

Tomáš is a film director and editor. He studied editing at FAMU, Prague. His director’s debut Central Bus Station was premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest. His editing credits include feature films as Two Roads (dir. Radovan Síbrt, CZ, HBO) or Sugar-blog (dir. Andrea Culková, CZ). He attended workshop ExOriente as a tutor.

Director of "Silver"

A documentary filmmaker whose life and work span from the Beskids to Chile, Bolivia, France, Warsaw and Cairo. A graduate and lecturer at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, she made her debut with the award winning film Tama, screened at more than 50 festivals. Her next documentary, Postcards from the Verge, premiered at IDFA. Natalia is also the winner of the Grand Prix at the East Doc Platform Forum and develops her projects on international platforms such as DocsBarcelona Public Pitch and Fipadoc Industry.

Director of "Child of Dust"

Weronika Mliczewska is a documentary filmmaker and anthropologist whose work explores themes of identity, belonging, and cultural resilience. She studied anthropology and filmmaking in the UK, Poland, and the USA, earning a joint honors degree in Media and Communications and Cultural Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London, and an MA in Science of Culture from the University of Warsaw. She later completed postgraduate studies in Directing Actors and Film Directing at UCLA Extensions in Los Angeles.

Child of Dust is Weronika's feature-length documentary debut as a director and a producer, a project she has worked on for over eight years.

Director of "Welded Together"

Anastasiya graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts, where she majored in Documentary Film Directing. Her first full-length documentary "Crossroads" (2014) is a philosophical story about a homeless artist. It premiered at the 30th Warsaw IFF (an A-list film festival), winning the Special Mention Jury Award and Audience Award. Anastasiya’s next full-length documentary "Debut" (2017) captures an intimate look at the lives of imprisoned women in Belarus, and premiered at the 30th IDFA in Amsterdam. "Debut" was submitted by Belarus for the Oscars in the categories of Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Feature. Both films have received acclaim from a wide audience and have been showcased at film festivals, as well as on TV and VOD platforms in various countries.

Director of "Lost for Words"

Director of "Imago"

Déni Oumar Pitsaev was born in Chechnya in 1986 and grew up between
Grozny, St Petersburg and Almaty. He studied at Sciences Po in Paris before
turning to cinema. He later obtained a bachelor's degree in film directing at
the INSAS (National Institute of Performing Arts) in Brussels, followed by a
master's degree in audiovisual arts at the LUCA School of Arts, St. Lukas
Campus.
Déni is an alumnus of the Locarno Filmmakers Academy and the
IDFAcademy. His debut feature documentary, IMAGO, will have its world
premiere in competition at La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes. He is
currently developing the script for his first feature film, MASPALOMAS.

Director of "Special Operation"

Oleksiy Radynski is a filmmaker and writer based in Kyiv. His films experiment with documentary forms and practices of political cinema. They have been screened at film festivals and exhibitions worldwide, including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), e-flux (New York), Taipei Biennial, Docudays (Kyiv), Sheffield Doc Fest, Krakow IFF, DOK Leipzig etc. His film Chornobyl 22 won the Grand Prix at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival

Director of "Double Trouble"

Emilia Śniegoska is a director and linguist. She graduated from the University of
Greifswald (Germany) in 2010 with degrees in German as a Foreign Language,
Baltic, and Finnish Studies. From 2006 to 2010, she collaborated with the Centre for Theatre Practices Gardzienice, exploring the intersection of language, movement, and performance. In 2018, she earned a degree in film directing from the Polish National Film and Television School in Łódź. Since 2014, she has worked as an assistant director on fiction and documentary films, as well as various television formats. Her short documentary 19.91 (2019), and her feature-length documentary debut, Double Trouble (2025) premiered at Visions du Réel 2025. She lives and works in Berlin.

Director of "Soldiers of Light"

Julian was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1985 and studied at FU Berlin, the
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and Fémis in Paris. He specializes in making documentaries. Occasionally, he also conducts film workshops or works as a journalist. He has produced a film about a client who falls in love with a prostitute (TILMAN IM PARADIES, 2011), a documentary about the residents and planners of a housing estate (PALAST, 2013), and a film about the deceased father of his best friend (BILDER VOM FLO, 2016). In 2023, his documentary trilogy EINZELTÄTER (lone perpetrator) was released, focusing on individuals who lost family members in right-wing extremist attacks. EINZELTÄTER won the Hessian Film Award, the Prize of
the Duisburg Film Week, and was honored with the Grimme Prize. In 2023, Julian founded the production company patatino.

Director of "The Longer You Bleed"

Ewan Waddell is an award-winning British filmmaker whose debut documentary The Longer You Bleed premiered at Hot Docs 2025 and later won the FIPRESCI Award at Beyond Borders Festival in Greece. Waddell holds a First-class Honours Bachelors from the University of Leeds, he was the Valedictorian at Catalyst Film Institute in Berlin and is the most recent recipient of the Wim Wenders Scholarship Award.

Director of "Stolen Children"

Martyna Wojciechowska is one of the most well-known individuals in Poland. She is a journalist, traveler, and social activist deeply involved in advocating for human rights. Martyna is the founder of the UNAWEZA Foundation, dedicated to promoting equal opportunities for women in Poland and around the world. She is the author of numerous reports, documentary films, and bestselling books. In 2023, she secured the top spot in Forbes magazine's "Most Valuable Polish Celebrity" ranking, according to the Influence Power Index.

She is appreciated for her credibility and is perceived as a strong female figure, serving as an example of overcoming life's adversities. She has been associated with TVN (currently Warner Bros Discovery) since 1998. For the past 17 years, she has been creating her own travel series called "Woman at the End of the World," which is broadcast in many countries. This documentary series tells the stories of inspiring women from different corners of the globe. To date, over 130 episodes have been produced, spanning 68 different countries across 6 continents.