Born in 1978. Graduated in Humanities, University of Warsaw. Between 2005 and 2009 lived in Israel and studied film directing at the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School in Jerusalem. Completed an internship at the Lodz Film School. Author of historical and anthropological essays. Her shorts and documentaries are successfully presented at many international film festivals. Participant of workshops such as Berlinale Talent Campus, 2015, New Horizons Studio 2017, + 2017, Script Atelier 2017/18 (with The Sybill film project.

Diana Groó received her education in Budapest. In 1992 she attended ELTE University Faculty of Arts (Faculty of French Literature and Judaism), in 1995 she attended the University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest where she obtained her BA and Master’s in Film and TV Directing in 2000. Co-founder of Katapultfilm studio (2002), Malcah Films (2013) and DunaDock Workshop & MC (2013). Diana recieved her academic doctoral degree DLA (PhD) summa cum laude at University of Theatre and Film Arts –Budapest in 2018. She is associate professor, lecturer and head of the Film and Media Specialist Program at Metropolitan University Budapest.

Languages: (Very good): English, French, Russian / (Good, Limited): Herbrew, German, Portuguese

PROFESSIONAL BACKROUND:

After her prize winning shorts and documentaries, her debut feature film was ’A Miracle in Cracow’, a Central European Jewish magic tale, in Polish-Hungarian coproduction in 2004 with coproducer Krzisztof Zanussi. Her documentary “What Lies Ahead”– about disabled children of the Hungarian Pető Institute, was awarded by the Jury of Verzio 4 Int. Human Rights Doc. Filmfestival in 2005. Her second feature film “Vespa ” _(2010) /a road movie of a Romani teenager/, awarded by UNICEF, winner of the Dialog Prize for Intercultural Communication in Cottbus, the Best Director’s Award in Geneva and Los Angeles. Her “Wild Imagination” art-history series, presenting the art of Marc Chagall, August Renoir, Pieter Bruegel and Henr Rousseau opened the contemporary art exhibition of Herzlya Muzeum in Israel in 2005. The “Intervisual Mediaprogram between Painting & Cinema” at Haifa University, involved the serie into its courses along with the works of Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman and others.

In 2008 Diana premiered first time in Hungary the stage adaptation of Katherine Kressman Taylor’s prophetic novel about the Nazism “Address Unknown_”, that she staged also in Sao Paulo Theatro Hebraica in 2011.

Her latest work is “Regina” (2013) a poetic documentary of the World’s First Woman Rabbi was the winner of the Lia Award at 30th Jerusalem Film Festival 2013, won the Hungarian Filmcritics Special Award in 2014, the GRAND PRIX – of Szolnok International Film Festival of Cultural Arts and the Warsaw Phoenix Award at Warsaw Jewish Motifs Filmfestival. In 2014 beyond many festivals the documentary was screened at the Lincoln Center in New York, at the Library of Congress in Washington,and at Unesco Palais in Paris for the occasion of the International Rememberence Day of the Holocaust. The documentary film is archived at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. The film stars the voices of Rachel Weisz (English version) and Martina Gedeck (German version). Television Premiere: BBC4, 3 February 2015

Current project : The Blood libel case of Tiszaeszlár in Hungary 1883 – the story of the great trial – in phase of project development in co-production with ECLIPSE FILM.

Born in 1979, playwright, director.

Graduate of the drama directing department of Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw (2009). Univeristy degree for the author’s spectacle of „The Last Daddy” premiered at the Lalka Theatre in Warsaw. Holder of the Minister of Culture scholarship for 2004. Regarded as one of the most interesting playwrights of his generation.
His plays quickly found their way to Polish stages. His debut „Piaskownica” was staged in 2003 at the Jerzy Szaniawski Theatre in Wałbrzych, directed by Piotr Kruszczyński, followed by „Kopalnia” – a play commissioned specifically for this stage. In the following years, his plays were taken to the stage by numerous directors, including Tomasz Man, Paweł Miśkiewicz, Jarosław Tumidajski, Giovanny Castellanos. His works has been translated to English, German, Lithuanian, Italian, French and Hungarian. His directorial debut was staging of his own play – „Podróż do wnętrza pokoju” – for the Garaż Poffszechny stage of Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw (2003, artistic supervision – Władysław Kowalski). Michał Walczak was an assistant for Zbigniew Zapasiewicz at the Theatre Academy for Witold Gombrowicz’s „Iwona, księżniczka Burgunda” (2004). In 2004 he directed Gombrowicz’s „Kosmos” for Klub Le Mademe in Warsaw, in 2006 his own „Kac” for Nowy Teatr in Łódź. Wrote and directed „To nie jest kraj dla wielkich ludzi” for Teatr Montownia (2008), „Ojciec polski” for Teatr Polonia in Warsaw (2009) and „Rekonstruktor” for the Drama Laboratory in Warsaw (2011).
Walczak also writes plays for children. His „Smutna królewna” was directed by Paweł Aigner for Montownia
Theatre in Warsaw (2004). Walczak himself directed „The Last Daddy” for Warsaw’s Teatr Lalka (2007).
His „Janosik. Naprawdę prawdziwa historia” was directed by Łukasz Kos in 2010.
Walczak was awarded many awards in Poland and abroad for his plays, his playes has beed translated to English, German, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian, French, Russian, Ukrainian and many others.

Born in 1983 in Poznan, Poland. She graduated in Film Production at the Lodz Film School. In 2009 she completedcourses in Andrzej Wajda’s School of Film Directing.

Olga started as assistant to director, then 2nd and 1st AD on

numerous feature films and TV series (among them Oscar nominated In darkness by Agnieszka Holland). She directed for theatre (Edward Albee’s “The goat or who is Sylvia”, Tuvia Tenenbom’s “The Last Jew in Europe”), award winning television series (The Deep End) and recently short films – 3xLOVE won Grand Prix at Distances Short Film Festival in Dublin and Morning has broken premiered at Raindance Festival 2017.

NINA, Olga’s full-length feature debut premiered in International Film Festival Rotterdam winning BIG Screen Award. She’s one of four women directors to direct first Polish Netflix series entitled 1983.

Director, writer

The director of the film, Ivars Tontegode, is widely known for his urge to experiment
and depict the inner struggle and evolution of strong personalities in a highly
creative and modern manner. “Spinners” will be his second fiction film and first
genre film.
Work:
“Casting” (short) 2008
“Mušas mantinieks” (short) 2008
“Obsession” (short) 2009
“Mushroomers” (feature) 2012
“Knutification” (documentary) 2017
“Spinners” (feature) 2018 –
Awards:
Latvian national film award “Lielais Kristaps” (“Obsession”)
Warsaw International Film Festival – Best Director, Audience Award (Mushroomers)

Barbora Námerová (1985, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia) graduated from film academy FAMU in
Prague, department of screenwriting and story editing. Her first feature screenplay
“Filthy”(Tereza Nvotová, 2017) premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. “Filthy”
attended more than 30 festivals around the globe and has won over 20 prizes. Barbora was
nominated for the prestigious Czech Academy Awards and Czech Film Critics Awards where
“Filthy” won Best Picture. Barbora is currently working as a story editor with Gyorgy Krystof,
whose last film “OUT” premiered at Cannes (Certain Regard, 2017), as well as on various film
projects for moloko film production company. She is also part of the film label collective
gurufilm, with whom she made a short film “Retriever”, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival
(Cinéfondation, 2015).
She is currently working in on her second feature screenplay “The Nightsiren” and television
miniseries in US-Slovak co-production “Convictions”, based on a cold-war era autobiography in
stalinist Slovakia.

Zornitsa Sophia is a Master of Fine Arts with major in painting, alumni of NAFA, Sofia. She specialized in School of Visual Arts, New York and American University, Washington DC. As an initiative of her own, she restored the church in the Sofia Male Prison, together with the convicts. She worked 4 years as Art Director in EURO RSCG while she took part in over 50 visual arts festivals and exhibitions around the world with video art, installations, actions and paintings, before she got involved with filmmaking. She specialized directing under the supervision of Academic Lyudmil Staykov in National Academy of Film and Theatre Sofia for one year.

Her first film as writer, director and producer is MILA FROM MARS (2004) „the film marks the bow of a director to watch” (Variety), “full of invention and daring” (FIPRESCI review), “wild young cinema” (at Manheim-Heidelberg IFF) won 16 awards, including Best Film and Extra Special Jury Award for Ensamble Cast at Sarajevo IFF, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize and Ecumenical Jury Award at Mannheim-Heidelberg IFF, 5 awards at Bulgarian National Film Festival „Golden Rose” including Best Film, Best Actress and Best Debut. The film was the Bulgarian submission for the Academy Awards’05 and a national box office hit, released theatrically, on DVD, on TV and sold in 5 countries.

In 2005 Zornitsa Sophia delivered her daughter and her first documentary DEATH AND ALL THE WAY BACK, followed by the documentary MODUS VIVENDI 2006, her second feature film FORECAST, 2009 released theatrically, on DVD and on TV, “an optimistic realism” by the German press, developed with the support of MEDIA Programme of the European Community.

“VOEVODA” is Zornitsa Sophia’s third feature film as writer, director and producer and first as actress. It premiered at two A category film festivals – Shanghai IFF (World) and Moscow IFF (International) and is a national box office hit with record admissions, realeased also on the biggest Bulgarian TV channel, sold internationally by Ytinifni Pictures.

Zornitsa Sophia directed over 30 episodes in 6 prime time TV series: KANTORA MITRANI (2011), WHERE IS MAGI (2012), HOME AREST (2012), SEX, LIES AND TV (2013), TREE OF LIFE (2013) STOLEN LIFE (2016, 2017, 2018).

Following her successful theatrical debut in January 2013 with the awarded WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING by Andrew Bovell (ASKEER and 2 awards) Zornitsa Sophia develops couple of new theater projects.

Zornitsa Sophia is member of Bulgarian Film Directors Association and Unity of Bulgarian Filmmakers since 2005 and since 2011 she is a voting member of the European Film Academy. She has served as a Jury member in several film festivals: Warsaw IFF, Valencia IFF, Pilzen FF and NATFA FF and in the Artistic Committee of Bulgarian National Film Center.

Born and raised in Skopje, Macedonia. Graduated at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, Film and TV directing. Also attended law studies and political science studies at the State University of Cyril and Methodius.

Wrote and directed several short student films and other exercises over the period of studying at FAMU: The Confession (2008), A Football Story (2009), Recurrence (2011) Won Crossroads award on 50th Thessaloniki film festival’s market, for his first feature screenplay PASQUA (2009 His first documentary project “PRAISE THE SEA, STICK TO THE SHORE” placed second on Supetar Super film festival in Croatia.
His feature debut project “THE BLACK PIN” got selected for Script Station program on 63rd edition of Berlinale – International film festival in Berlin, Germany. In April of 2013 the project won the first prize on national film concourse in Montenegro. In 2014 was selected for Jerusalem film lab (JFL) where it won 2nd award for best screenplay. Later that year the screenplay was awarded also on Cinelink (Sarajevo Film Festival). The film premiered in Official Competition of 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2016.
The Black Pin was chosen as a Montenegrin Oscar Candidate for 2016.
Founder of the Independent film company ADRIATIC WESTERN in Montenegro, with aim to produce and develop projects of new coming Southeast European talents. The Black Pin is the company’s first feature project.
In 2018 Ivan became a member of EFA – European Film Academy. He is the first (and only so far) director from Montenegro to become an EFA member.
Thanks to the success of THE BLACK PIN Ivan got invited into the writer’s room of HBO’s THE ISLAND (OTOK/OSTRVO) – An in development HBO drama for Adria region where he collaborates with headwriter Ivan Knežević, co-writer Mile Božićević, and head of development Ana Balentović.
He became the programmer for feature films of the Montenegro Film Festival in Herceg Novi, which is an International Film Festival of National Importance. Ivan significantly changed the concept of the festival, with a plan to open it up to the world, and to turn it into one of the most important regional summer festival experiences.

Rusudan Pirveli (1975, Georgia) graduated from the Department of Japanese Language at Tblisi University and was educated in film direction at the Georgian State Institute of Theatre and Film. She directed numerous documentaries and short films and is also active as an editor. Her short films were screened at several international film festivals. Susa is Pirveli’s first feature film. It will have its world premiere during the Rotterdam film festival 2010.

Adina Dulcu graduated from “I. L. Caragiale” National University of Theater and Film, in Bucharest, and obtained a Masters’ degree in Film Studies, at the “Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès”. She lives between Romania and France and has developed a multi-layered career as a producer, scriptwriter, head of development and assistant director. Enriched by all these experiences, she began developing her own projects. Her first short film as a director, “Network Unavailable”, has just concluded its international festival circuit, including festivals like Mumbai IFF, Dublin FF, Cartagena IFF, or “Let’s CEE” Vienna. Adina has recently completed her second short, “The Island”, and is in development with her first feature, “Chemistry”, initiated at “L’Atelier Scénario Fémis” and supported by a development grant from the Romanian Film Centre. The project was already selected at “Transilvania Pitch Stop 2017” (at “Transilvania” IFF) and at “CineLink Development Workshop and Coproduction Market 2018” (at Sarajevo IFF).