Kerem Ayan graduated in Mechanical Engineering in Istanbul before studying Film at the ESRA and Université Paris Diderot. He was Assistant Director, in charge of the cultural page, at Radio France Internationale for four years. He started working for the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 while organising the International Literary Adaptation Market in Monaco. In 2005, he launched the Festival de Cinema Politic in Barcelona. He became Director of the Istanbul Film Festival in 2015. He has been directing plays since 2010, such as Mr. Nobody by Sabahattin Kudret Aksal; Chien-chien by Fabrice Roger-Lacan, The Labor of Life by Hanoch Levin, The City For One by Behiç Ak, Anayurt Hotel–Zebercet by Yusuf Atılgan and For No Good Reason by Nathalie Sarraute. He directed his first feature film Oregon in 2023.

Yasmine Benkiran is a Moroccan-French director and screenwriter who graduated from La Fémis in Paris. She is also the author of two Morrocan books and of a series of podcasts about Alice Guy and the history of cinema. Her first feature film Queens, a truck journey through the Moroccan Atlas, had its world premiere at the Settimana Internazionale della Critica in 2022 and won numerous awards at festivals before its theatrical release.

Ariane Labed was born in Athens to French parents. She studied drama at Provence University, where she co-founded the Vasistas theatre company. Her screen debut was in Attenberg by Athina Rachel Tsangari, then Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps. She has starred in French and International films: Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight, Lucie Borleteau’s Fidelio: Alice’s Odyssey, Lanthimos’s The Lobster. She has worked with Guy Maddin, Delphine & Muriel Coulin, Philippe Grandrieux, Justin Kurzel, Garth Davis, Peter Strickland, Thomas Cailley, Joanna Hogg and Stéphane Demoustier. Her critically acclaimed short film Olla premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Her first feature film September Says premiered at 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.

Giulia Achilli, after five years in India as a producer and a consultant for an Indian investment fund looking for international projects, joined Dugong Films in 2013, sharing its line of research at the intersection of genres. Among the films she produced are Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy (2023), Silver Bear in Berlin, New Directors / New Films MoMA, winner of a Lumières Award and nominated for two David di Donatello Awards including Best Producer; Il Palazzo by Federica Di Giacomo (2021), Venice Days official selection; That Which Is to Come Is Just a Promise by Flatform (2019), Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Prada Foundation; Tony Driver by Ascanio Petrini (2019), in competition at Settimana Internazionale della Critica.

Simone Bozzelli (1994) graduated in Media Design and Multimedia Arts from NABA and in Directing from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. His short films, including My Brother, Loris is Fine, Amateur, J’ador and Playtime have received international acclaim. He directed the music video for Måneskin’s I Wanna Be Your Slave, which won the 2022 MTV Music Award for Best Alternative Video. His first feature film, Patagonia, competed at the 76. Locarno Film Festival. He is currently writing his second feature film.

Elena Ciofalo graduated in Communication and in Film Studies, with an Erasmus at the University of Paris VIII, and European training and exchange experiences. She has been working in the cultural sector in Turin and Aosta for 9 years. From 2018 to 2023 she was project manager in the area of Cultural promotion and Audience Development at the Fondazione Polo del ‘900 in Turin; from 2021 to 2023 she worked as a producer with the production company Cinefonie. She is co-founder, secretary and current project manager of the AIACE VDA association based in Aosta Valley. Since 2023, she is the project manager and head of strategic planning in AIACE Nazionale for the activities of the Italian Short Film Center.