Takeo Hisamatsu
Director of Tokyo International Film Festival. He joined Shochiku Co., Ltd in 1978, and in 1986 became manager of Shochiku USA’s Little Tokyo Cinema in Los Angeles. He returned to Tokyo in 1989 and was appointed Manager of Exhibition Department. In 1994, he joined Time Warner Entertainment Japan as General Director of the Theatrical Distribution Department. In 2015, he established his own company, My Way Movies. Over the past several years, Hisamatsu has participated in the production of such renowned films as Rurouni Kenshin (2012, Keishi Ohtomo), Air Doll (2009, Hirokazu Kore-eda) and Still Walking (2008, Hirokazu Kore-eda).
Verónica Langer
Fellow of the FONCA in the category of Scenic Creators with a trajectory of 2017-2019. Mexican actress born in Argentina with a trajectory in theatre, film and television. She graduated from the National School of Theater Arts of INBA and was a member of the National Theater Company. She has participated in approximately thirty films, such as Miroslava (1993) —for which she received an Ariel award—, Novia que te vea (1994) and Cinco días sin Nora (2010). She won the Best Actress Award at the Morelia Film Festival for her performance in Hilda. In 2017 she received the Ariel for Best Actress for La Caridad by Marcelino Islas.
Georges Schoucair
Over his 10+ years of experience, Georges Schoucair has developed and produced critically acclaimed [and award-winning] independent movies. As a producer, Georges was able to develop strong relationships with prominent international film award winning directors (such as Kaouther Ben Hania, Ivo Ferreira, Alain Gomis, Lucretia Martel, Shirin Neshat, Apichatpong Weerasethakul). His films have been exhibited at international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto, Venice, Locarno. His most recent endeavor is Schortcut Films, whose objective is to identify and invest in high quality international independent films.
Steven Gaydos
Steven Gaydos is a screenwriter known for writing American independent film director Monte Hellman’s 2010 film Road to Nowhere, which was listed in the Sight & Sound “Best Films of 2010” lists. Gaydos has co-authored several other screenplays, including the 1988 Venice Film Festival prize-winner Iguana and Silent Night Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!, both directed by Monte Hellman. Gaydos is an entertainment journalist; he has appeared regularly on American television and radio, international outlets such as the United Kingdom’s BBC, and in publications around the world. Gaydos is currently Vice-President and Executive Editor of Variety.
Hania Mroué
Hania Mroué is the Founder and Director of Metropolis Art Cinema, the first art-house cinema in Lebanon, which opened in 2006 and aims to support regional and international productions by presenting audiences with alternative cinema, including recent independent titles, cult films, creative documentaries, and experimental videos. In 2009 Hania started MC Distribution, a distribution company specialised in Arab independent titles. She is also a founding member of Beirut DC, the Cultural Association for Cinema production created in 1998 which aims at producing and promoting independent Arab cinema.
Michel Lipkes
Artistic director of FICUNAM. He studied at the CCC Film School. During his studies, he started working as a programme director for Mexico City International Film Festival (FICCO). Since then, he has programmed for many festivals and institutions, including the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the Cineteca Nacional. His feature debutMalaventura (2011) received a Jury Mention at Morelia International Film Festival. Strange But True was premiered at Rotterdam in 2017. He is cofounder of the production company Axolote Cine and has worked for over two years as a teacher
Ricardo Giraldo
His work is linked to film promotion, music, audiovisual media and design. As Director of Cinema23 and the Fénix Awards he has been working on the construction of a community of professionals dedicated to cinema made in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. This year, the Fénix awards celebrate its 5th edition. He collaborated as a programmer in 4 editions of the International Contemporary Film Festival of Mexico City (FICCO) and later in Ambulante where he was associate programmer in 2010 and director of the tour in 2011 and 2012.
Charlotte Vincent
Charlotte Vincent founded Aurora Films in 2002. She has produced more than thirty short films along with acclaimed long features in international film festivals: On the Edge, Iris in Bloom, Domain, The Wound, and Exotica or Erotica. Recently, she produced director Davy Chou’s film Diamond Island, selected at the Critic’s Week of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where the film was awarded with the SACD Award. The same year, Heaven sent, directed by Wissam Charaf, was also selected at the ACID Program of Cannes International Film Festival.
Dana Linssen
Dana Linssen is a film critic and writer from the Netherlands. She is editor in chief of the independent film magazine Filmkrant, founder of the Slow Criticism Project, long term film journalist for daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad and curator of the Critic’s Choice of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, where they bring video essays to the big screen. She wrote the libretto for Creator/Destroyer – 17 Ways to Spell Boson for a particle cantata by composer Maarten Ornstein. Together they are working on a new composition about our current age of anxiety: She Had a Great Sense for Disaster.
José Nacif
Producer with more than 15 years of experience, he has produced multiple short films, feature films and television series. Among his most outstanding projects are the feature film Everybody Loves Somebody by Catalina Aguilar Mastretta, the documentaries Ilusión Nacional and Gimme The Power, as well as the first Latin-American original series for Amazon Prime Diablo Guardián, based on the novel by Xavier Velasco. He is the co-founder of Ring Cine, with which he co-produced Museo, by Alonso Ruizpalacios. Currently he is preparing ¡Asalto Nacional! with Emiliano Rocha Minter
Amy Darling
Amy Darling is the founder and managing partner of Media Darling, a boutique Canadian film company specializing in the discovery and support of emerging filmmakers via development, financing, coproduction, and festival strategy. One current project, the Norwegian-language Canadian feature Violent, was shortlisted for La Semaine de la Critique at Cannes 2014, where it screened as an official selection of the Perspective Canada sidebar. Hailed by The Hollywood Reporter as “hurling a brick for Canadian newcomers”, and named among Canada’s Top Ten in Toronto, Violent has won over twenty awards to date.
Viktor Jakovleski
Berlin based filmmaker. He attended the German Film and Television Academy, spent time as a Hollywood personal assistant and driver, and worked with Benh Zeitlin as a co-producer and AD on Glory At Sea (2008). He has directed and produced electronic music videoclips and produced Lenalove (2016). He was named among the 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema by Filmmaker Magazine in 2015. His documentary feature Brimstone & Glory (2017), produced with the Court 13 collective, premiered at True/False and won Best Documentary at San Francisco IFFl.
Marija Milovanovic
Marija Milovanovic is a cultural manager and curator based in Vienna, Austria. She’s co-manager of the Vienna Shorts Agency which was founded in 2015 with the aim to present short films in a broad national and international context. Since 2008 she’s is working for VIS Vienna Shorts, Austria’s only Oscar® qualifying film festival, where she’s head of the international competition Fiction & Documentary and is also in charge of the VIS Academy —the industry programs of the festival. Marija has curated programs for national and international festivals and museums.
Tessa Ía
Mexican singer and actress. She has performed since she was 9 years old in several productions, debuting in the series Rebelde (2004), later she played the character of María Martínez in the film Fuego, directed by Guillermo Arriaga in 2008. She is best known for he performance in Después de Lucía directed by Michel Franco in 2012, a film that won the Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2017, together with Camila Sodi and Luis Gerardo Méndez, she made the film Camino a Marte by director Humberto Hinojosa Ozcáriz. On 2016 she released her first album entitled Correspondencia.
Felipe Lage
Director of Zeitun Films since 2009. Has participated in the production of seven films to date: Todos vós sodes capitáns (Oliver Laxe, 2010), Arraianos (Eloy Enciso, 2012), O Quinto Evanxeo de Gaspar Hauser (Alberto Gracia, 2013 ), Costa da Morte (Lois Patiño, 2013), Pozoamargo (Enrique Rivero, 2015), Mimosas (Oliver Laxe, 2016) and the short film Tshweesh (Feyrouz Serhal, 2017), all recognized in some of the most important film festivals of the world (Cannes, Locarno, Rotterdam, BAFICI, Seville, FICUNAM or Jeonju among others). Currently produces the new project of Lois Patiño, Tempo Vertical.
Camille Hébert-Bénazet
Camille Hébert-Bénazet is in charge of the sprawling beehive of activity that marks the six-day program called Short Film Corner organized by the Festival de Cannes, as well as member of the Cannes’ Short Film Selection Committee. After studying Art, Communication and Language in Nice, she joined the Festival de Cannes in 2008. She had been working for many years with the Short Film Corner – coordinating the event and bringing emerging filmmakers closer to the Film Market – before becoming the Head of the department. Obsessed by Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, she has seen it 24 times!
Sofía Carrillo
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Member of the Mexican National System of Creators (SNCA) since 2018. Participant in Berlin Talents, Mexicannes, Talent Motion Studio and Talent lab of the Toronto Film Festival. Director and stop motion animator of Cerulia, produced by Imcine/ Nahuyaca Films in 2017 and winner for Best Animated Shortfilm on FICG32, FICM, ShortsMexico, Feratum, CutOutFest, FICMonterrey, St Louis International Film Festival, La Habana Film Festival. Creator (Director and Animator) of the animated interstitials for the Horror Anthology XX, directed by Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin and Karin Kusama.
Jeffrey Bowers
Jeffrey Bowers is a Senior Curator at Vimeo, where his responsibilities include selecting Staff Picks, contributing to the Staff Pick Premieres program, and running the Vimeo On Demand curation. During four years he has curated VICE media’s VICE Shorts and wrote the column I’m Short, Not Stupid. His background includes programming features and shorts for Tribeca Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and the Athens International Film + Video Festival. He’s served on juries and participated in speaking engagements at places like SXSW, DOC NYC, Slamdance, Palm Springs among others.
Gabriel Giandinoto
He has been a film critic on radio and television, as well as contributor for several publications. Created the consultancy Moviegoup, specialized in promotion and launching of films, and the Latin American Audiovisual Laboratory at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. He was also director of the Film Market of MERCOSUR. He dvelops businesses in Latin America for Rain Networks, a digital content distribution company.t With Moviemobz, he launched the first digital independent film distribution in Latin America and collaborates in consultancies on digital and
Priscila Guedes
Brazilian cinematographer radicated in France, where she studied Cinema and specialized on high technology image. Guedes participated in the Propellor Kickstart incubator at Rotterdam IFF with a project of technological solutions for VR. She was invited to interact with startups in acceleration at the Propellor Speednic in the European Film Market of Berlin. The project was presented by Propellor Film Tech Hub at Cannes as the first of the 10 most promising innovations in business models for the film industry of the future. In Brazil, Guedes founded the programer of VR narrative content FEEL XR Studio.
Roberto Fiesco
Graduated from the University Center for Cinematographic Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (CUEC-UNAM) and the National School of Theater Arts of the National Institute of Fine Arts (ENAT-INBA). He produced the feature Mil nubes de paz cercan el cielo, amor, jamás acabarás de ser amor, winner of the Teddy prize at the Berlinale 2003. As an executive producer he made the film El Mago, by Jaime Aparicio, which received the Zenith Gold Award the Best First Film in Montreal. In 2013 he made Quebranto, his first documentary, where he invited the viewer to enter the life of Coral Bonelli without any shame.
Hugo Jesús Castro
Born in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico. He is a journalist with a degree in communications from the Universidad Iberoamericana of Torreón. He has been a SIGNIS jury at the International Film Festival Guanajuato and Festival de La Memoria. He has taught the subject of Film Appreciation at the Universidad Iberoamericana of Torreón and Lasalle University of La Laguna. He was a coordinator of the Film Workshop at the Carlos Pereyra School. He is a production assistant for several regional and national television programs, as well as editor of the newspaper El Siglo de Torreón.
Luis García Orso
Has a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences from the ITESO, Guadalajara, and Doctor in Theology by the Faculty of Theology of Barcelona. He has been a tenured professor of Fundamental Theology and Christology at the Universidad Iberoamericana de México and at the Pontifical University of Mexico. He has also given courses and workshops on theology, spirituality and cinema in various centers. He has been a juror of SIGNIS in various film festivals (such as Havana, Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, San Sebastian, Lyon, Venice, Rome). He is Ecclesiastical Assistant of SIGNIS.
Aldo Valdés
He was born in Torreón, México. He has a degree in Humanities and Social Sciences from the ITESM Campus in Mexico City and a Master in Cultural Industries from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. In addition to teaching, he has participated in various social projects related to migration, public space, accountability and peace processes. He is currently a member of the committee of Moreleando AC, founder of Distrito Peatonal, co-founder of Los Oigo MX and Focil (Fomento de Cine en La Laguna). He is the author of the books Voces Anónimas III (Porrúa, 2014) and Vivir Jugando (Solar, 2017).