Germany

The Helsinki Effect

Arthur Franck is a documentary filmmaker from Helsinki. He has been making documentaries for over 15 years. He runs the production company Polygraf with producer Sandra Enkvist. His films have been selected for CPH:DOX, HotDocs, True/False, DokLeipzig, the Chicago International Film Festival, and DocsBarcelona. The Hypnotist was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Editing at the 2020 Jussi Awards in Finland and won Best Feature Film at the 2019 Tampere Film Festival. Franck was a member of the board of trustees of the 2019-2021 Docpoint Film Festival and is currently chairman of the Finnish Documentary Guild. 

With Hasan in Gaza

Kamal Aljafari is a Palestinian filmmaker and artist. Aljafari has taught at The New School and DFFB in Berlin and was a Film Study Center fellow at Harvard. Currently a fellow at Columbia University's Institute for Ideas and Imagination. 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), premiered in the International Competition at Locarno Film Festival.

The Family Approach

Daniel Abma was born in 1978 in Westerbork, Drenthe, Netherlands. After a degree in primary school education, he moved to Berlin to be a youth media worker. Then he studied film directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam, where he realised the feature-length documentaries Beyond Wriezen (Nach Wriezen, Grimme Award, 2012) and Transit Havana (2016), The Family Approach (2024). His documentary films about social themes are observatory and based on people. Since 2017, Abma has taught documentary film directing. He also tutors pitching workshops at European film festivals and is still a freelance youth media worker.

9-Month Contract

Ketevan Vashagashvili is a documentary filmmaker based in Tbilisi. She is a Chevening alumna with an MA in Digital Documentary from the University of Sussex (UK). Her main interest lies in social and human rights issues. Ketevan has 14 years of experience working at various Georgian TV channels and online platforms, directing and producing TV documentaries and programmes.

Khartoum

Ibrahim Snoopy is a Sudanese filmmaker and cinematographer working recently for ARTE, BBC and The Washington Post, as well as music videos, commercials, and shorts. Notable works include the feature documentaries *Khartoum Offside*, which won Best Documentary at the Carthage Film Festival, and From Argentina to Sudan, as well as the award-winning shorts Serotonin and Journey to Kenya . This is his second feature.

Anas Saeed a Sudanese media maker, started working as a video journalist for the independent media house, Ayin Network. He has produced several reportage works for international media that focus on human rights issues affecting different communities across Sudan. His work for Ayin Media has focused on covering culture and the recent war. His latest work is Five Meals of Resistance, soon to be released at festivals.

Rawia Alhag  is a Sudanese filmmaker and screenwriter now based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work focuses on women's and children's issues, shedding light on the experiences and struggles of Sudanese people both within their communities and in the diaspora. She directed the award-winning short film "Out of Coverage" , which won Best Foreign Film at the Juba Film Festival.

Timeea Mohamed Ahmed is a Sudanese director, editor & producer based in East Africa. His work explores non-narrative experimental & documentary. He directed short films, including Saddari (2023) and Is it War? (2024). Other credits include Flower of Sinkat (2018), Hope Journey (2021), as well as advocacy and commercial campaigns. His films center on the culture and struggles of Sudan.

Phil is the co-director of award-winning indie film collective Native Voice Films since 1998 and has directed and shot over 30 films for TV and cinema. His recent cinematic features as director/writer are THE BENGALI DETECTIVE (Sundance and Berlin premiere – HBO), LOVE HOTEL (Toronto premiere. Netflix / BBC Storyville), BETTY THEY SAY I'M DIFFERENT (IDFA premiere, ARTE / BBC / Amazon), THE CLEANER (FR2), AND THE SPIDER-MAN OF SUDAN (ARTE / GUARDIAN). He is the recipient of a British Grierson Award, a Rory Peck Award, and the Hinzpeter and Bayeux Calvados awards for his work in Sudan since 2004.

Cutting Through Rocks

Sara Khaki is the Grand Jury Award winner of the world cinema documentary category of Sundance Film Festival for her feature documentary, Cutting Through Rocks. Her co-directed film, Our Iranian Lockdown, streaming on the Guardian, received an IDA nomination. Her co-directed Netflix original, Convergence, received an Emmy nomination. A Chicken & Egg Films and Sundance Alumni, Sara is a director, producer, and editor with dedication to stories about gender equity.

Mohammadreza Eyni is the Grand Jury Award winner of the world cinema documentary category of Sundance Film Festival for his feature documentary, Cutting Through Rocks. A Sundance and Tribeca Alumnus, Mohammadreza is a  director, producer, and cinematographer,  whose career and cinematic approach bridges boundaries and elevates underrepresented voices, connecting diverse perspectives globally. A co-founder of Gandom Films Production L.L.C., Mohammmadreza’s works have earned IDA nomination and international recognition.

Emperor

Az 1987-ben Franciaországban született Marion Burger számos játékfilm díszlettervezője, többek között Houda Benyamina Divines (Caméra d'or 2016), Jérémy Trouilh és Fanny Liatard Gagarine (Cannes 2020) és legutóbb Léonor Serraille Mother and Son (Cannes 2022) című filmjének. Legutóbbiért megkapta a Fiatal Filmtechnikusok Díját. Rendezői debütálása a személyes története alapján készült Emperor című VR-élmény.

Az 1984-ben Franciaországban született Ilan 2008 óta dolgozik rendezőasszisztensként (többek között Noaz Deshe White Shadow, Lodge Kerrigan Rebecca H. és Bertrand Bonello Sarah Winchester című filmjeiben), miközben saját forgatókönyvírói és kliprendezői tevékenységet is folytat (Rone, Gaspar Claus).

Emperor

Born in France in 1987, Marion Burger is a production designer on several feature films including Divines by Houda Benyamina (Caméra d’or 2016), Gagarine by Jérémy Trouilh and Fanny Liatard (Cannes 2020) and more recently Mother and Son by Léonor Serraille (Cannes 2022). On this occasion, she has been awarded the Young Film Technician Prize for her work. Based on her personal story, Emperor marks her directorial debut.

Born in France in 1984, Ilan has been working as a first assistant director since 2008 (including Noaz Deshe’s White Shadow, Lodge Kerrigan’s Rebecca H., and Bertrand Bonello’s Sarah Winchester) while pursuing his own screenwriting and directing music videos (Rone, Gaspar Claus).

Mesék rólunk, nekik

Rand Beiruty író, rendező és a jordániai Ammánban működő Shaghab Films produkciós cég társalapítója. A babelsbergi Konrad Wolf Filmművészeti Egyetemen szerzett doktori fokozatot, itt a reprezentáció és részvételi filmezés kérdéseivel és gyakorlatával foglalkozott. Projektjeit nemzetközi platformokon mutatta be, és többek között a Tribeca Film Institute, a Mifa Animation du Monde, az Arab Cinema Center és a European Network of Young Cinema díjazta. Első egész estés dokumentumfilmje a Tell Them About Us (2024) a koppenhágai CPH:DOX-on debütált, majd a 64. Zlín nemzetközi filmfesztiválon megnyerte a legjobb fiataloknak szóló dokumentumfilm díját.

Tell Them About Us

Rand Beiruty is a writer, director, and co-founder of Shaghab Films, a production company based in Amman, Jordan. She holds a practice-based Ph.D. revolving around questions of representation and participatory filmmaking from the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. She has pitched her projects on international platforms and received awards from, among others, the Tribeca Film Institute, Mifa Animation du Monde, the Arab Cinema Center, and the European Network of Young Cinema. Her debut feature documentary Tell Them About Us (2024) premiered at CPH:DOX and received the ECFA Award for Best European Feature Documentary for Young Audience at the 64th Zlín International Film Festival.

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