France

Suhaib Gasmelbari was born in 1979, in Sudan, where he lived until the age of 16. He attended Cinema Studies in France at the University of Paris VIII. He has written and directed several short films, both fiction and documentary. He is also a researcher and was able to find long-lost Sudanese films, and actively takes part in saving and digitizing the works of Sudanese cinema.

Rithy Panh is a Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter. He was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He graduated from the university known as La Fémis in Paris. His ouvre focuses on the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Rithy Panh co-founded the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh, an audiovisual center focusing on restoring and protecting the Cambodian audiovisual heritage.

Hubert Sauper was born in Austria and has been based in France. Sauper is known for his socio-political documentary films, which have garnered major international prizes, including at Berlin, Venice, Sundance, the European Film Academy Award, the Austrian Academy Award and the French “Cesar." He received an Academy Award nomination for Darwin's Nightmare (2004), a documentary spotlighting the environmental impact of the fishing industry in the fragile Tanzanian ecosystem. He received the Special Jury Award at Sundance with We Come as Friends (2014), which focuses on the war conflict among the Sudanese. Sauper has worked as a visiting professor at many film schools and universities around the world.

Nicolas Champeaux was Radio France Internationale’s special correspondent based in Johannesburg between 2007 and 2010. He was appointed reporter-at-large for the radio station’s Africa service. He left RFI in October 2017 to pursue a freelance career. Champeaux has written and produced several radio documentaries, and the web documentary, Sur les traces de Boko Haram.