Germany

Steffen Krones – also known as LAX – is a German director and filmmaker. As a young skateboarder, he started to abstract his surroundings. Architecture, people, weather, and light settings seemed to matter for this kind of sport. It also brought him out into the world to discover new opinions, lifestyles, architecture, vegetation, and of course, other people. He moved to Canada and lived in Vancouver for a year after finishing school. Today he is a freelancer based in Dresden, Germany, without attachment to any locality. He works with several filmmakers and artists who travel the world producing award-winning films, commercials, music videos, and short films.

Mantas Kvedaravičius (1976–2022) was a Lithuanian-born filmmaker with a degree in social anthropology from Cambridge University. His first documentary film, Barzakh, was selected in numerous festivals and won several awards, including the Amnesty International Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlinale in 2011. His two, subsequent films, Mariupolis (2016) and Parthenon (2019), were selected for the Berlinale and the Venice International Critics' Week, respectively. Mantas Kvedaravičius was killed by Russian Forces in late March 2022, in Mariupol, while documenting Russia's invasion of Ukrainian territory.

Mantas Kvedaravičius (1976–2022) was a Lithuanian-born filmmaker with a degree in social anthropology from Cambridge University. His first documentary film, Barzakh, was selected in numerous festivals and won several awards, including the Amnesty International Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlinale in 2011. His two, subsequent films, Mariupolis (2016) and Parthenon (2019), were selected for the Berlinale and the Venice International Critics' Week, respectively. Mantas Kvedaravičius was killed by Russian Forces in late March 2022, in Mariupol, while documenting Russia's invasion of Ukrainian territory.

Márton Vízkelety is a director and cinematographer. He was thirteen when he stared taking black and white photos with an analog camera. In 2007 he graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest, Hungary, with an MA degree. He took part in many workshops, including the Berlinale Talent Campus, and Cinetrain in Moscow, Russia. He works on short films, commercials, and documentaries in Russia, Hungary, the United Kingdom and USA. Holy Dilemma is his first feature documentary as a director.

Benjamin Rost studied directing at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and philosophy in Munich. His films have been screened at festivals like DokLeipzig, Dokfest München, and Max Ophüls Preis a.m.m. He has been part of the scholarship program of the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” since 2016. In 2017–2019, he lived in South Africa and Rwanda, supporting the German Development Organisation (GIZ) with the launch of the youth television channel “Iwacu”. In 2019 he participated in the Documentary Campus Masterschool with #Harraga. A Portrait on the Search for Happiness is his graduate film.

Kristina Savutsina was born in 1989, in Riga, into a Belarusian family. From 1993 to 2014 she lived in Belarus. In 2011, she graduated with a degree in cultural studies, in Minsk. Since 2015 she has been studying film and fine arts at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg. In her work, Kristina deals with regulatory politics and its concrete manifestations in Belarus. She lives and works in Hamburg.

Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing has worked as a freelance filmmaker in Myanmar since 2006, acting as director, producer, editor, and sound recordist after attending film schools in both Myanmar and Germany. Her short, Burmese Butterfly played festivals in over 20 countries, and Period@Period won for best short at the Wathan Film Festival. Midwives is her feature documentary debut.

Vera Krichevskaya is the co-founder of Dozhd (TV Rain) Russia, the only independent, private television channel in Russia. She is also an award-winning television director, having worked for NTV and 24DOC as a senior producer and director.