Germany

Carlotta's Face

The North Drift

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.

Mariupolis 2

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.

Mariupolis

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.

Holy Dilemma

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.

Julianna Ugrin graduated from university in 2005, after which she began working in film at Flora Film International. In 2009 she was selected to the EURODOC producer’s workshop. Since March 2009 she has worked at Havas Films as a producer and production manager. She established Éclipse Film, an independent film production company in 2011, and has developed projects at various international workshops and pitching forums. Films she produced were screened, nominated and awarded at festivals like Sundance, IDFA, DOK Leipzig, or Sarajevo IFF. Since 2013 she has taught at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in documentary MA studies, where she is also a DLA student. Ugrin is part of Emerging Producers 2014, and is an EAVE graduate. She is organizer of DunaDOCK Master Class & Pitching series, and a member of the Hungarian Film Academy and of EDN. Holy Dilemma is her first feature documentary as a director.

A Portrait on the Search for Happiness

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.

Khan's Flesh

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.

Midwives

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.

f@ck this job

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.

Angels of Sinjar

Auteur-director Hanna Polak (1967, Katowice, Poland) has Oscar and Emmy nominations under her belt for Children of Leningradsky, and a Producer Guild of America nomination for Something Better To Come, amongst many other awards and accolades. Her emotional bond with her protagonists allows her to deliver visceral, poetic films that celebrate the power of the human spirit, and portray the beauty of humanity in the most adverse circumstances.

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