He graduated from the German Film & TV Academy Berlin (dffb). His debut film Fate in 1994 received the German National Film Award. He has directed Kalyi Age of Darkness (1993), Frost (1998), Nightfall (1999), Fallen (2005), Sarajevo Songs of Woe (2016), each drawing international attention and four FIPRESCI Prizes. Kelemen has served as cinematographer for film directors including Joseph Pitchhadze (Sweets, 2013), Béla Tarr (Journey to the Plain, 1995; The Man from London, 2007; The Turin Horse, 2011), Rudolf Thome (The Visible and the Invisible, 2006), Pavel Lungin (Esau, 2019), etc. He works as a teacher at the German Film and TV Academy Berlin (dffb)/Germany, Film Factory Sarajevo/Bosnia-Hercegovina, Steve Tisch School for Film and TV at the Tel Aviv University, at the Moscow School of New Cinema, etc.

After graduating from VGIK she has made over sixty documentaries and five fiction films (co-directed by Slava Chaplin). She has lived and worked in Israel since 1976, directing for Israeli and European television. She has won two Ophir Awards from the Israeli Film Academy. Her latest work includes Underground Ballet (2019, Best Documentary Award at the 35th Haifa IFF), Eighty and Counting (2017), Voices from the Booth (2014), Weeping Susannah (2012), In the Prime of Her Life (2010). She has participated at film festivals in Moscow, Paris, Geneve, Warsaw, and Rome.

Born in Moscow in 1972, she has lived in Italy since 1997. Alyona graduated from the University of Urbino and worked at the Cineteca di Bologna. Since 2002 she has been working as a programmer, selecting films from East Europe and the former USSR for various festivals (Alpe Adria Cinema in Trieste, Venice Film Festival, Rome Film Festival, Beijing and Pingyao festivals) and curating retrospectives in Italy and abroad. As a translator, Alyona has collaborated with theater festivals and groups; she was awarded for translating Ivan Vyrypaev's Oxygen as well as by the Yeltsin Foundation for translating Alexander Sokurov's book, In the Middle of the Ocean. She currently selects films for the Directors Fortnight, the Cannes Film Festival's sidebar.

She graduated from VGIK's acting department (Iosif Raichelgauz's workshop). Olga's filmography runs to over fifty projects, including Waiting Room (Zal ozhidaniya), Contract with Death (Kontrakt so smertyu), Cinema about Cinema, Leningrad, Nirvana, Pro Lyuboff, The Bomb, Son, Trotsky, Snow and Ashes, Gold Diggers, Bender, The Last Minister. She has won the Association of Russian Film and Television Producers Award (2008), the Guiseppe Sciacca International Award for theater and film actors, the Triumph Youth Award (2009).

His short films have been shown in many prestigious film festivals, including Cannes and Locarno. Kuosmanen's debut feature The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki premiered in Cannes 2016 and received the main prize in Un Certain Regard. Kuosmanen is also a co-founder and artistic director of Kokkolan Kinojuhlat, a film festival focusing on classics and modern gems.

Petar Valchanov received his degree in film and television from the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts in Sofia, while Kristina Grozeva studied journalism at the University of Sofia. Their feature debut The Lesson made it to the final three nominees for the Lux Award, bestowed by the European Parliament, while their sophomore feature Glory earned multiple awards in film festivals around the globe. The Father, the third installment in the Bulgarian duo's filmography, won the Crystal Globe, the most prestigious distinction awarded by the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

He wrote about music and cinema for Seance, Iskusstvo Kino, Afisha, Interview Russia, W-O-S, Look At Me, Colta.ru, Kommersant Weekend, and other publications. He worked as press secretary for the State Central Museum of Cinema and the Message to Man IFF, editor of the Seance magazine, cinema section at Theory and Practice, and syg.ma. He has curated film programs for the Media Forum of the Moscow International Film Festival, the Message to Man and the Lisbon & Sintra film festivals. Alexey is the program director of the New Holland Island International Debut Film Festival.

Andrey Zagudaev is a film journalist, blogger, and host of the podcast Disgusting Men. He contributes to various publications such as Meduza, Esquire, and Disgusting Men, and owns Cronenberg Unfiltered, a popular Telegram feed on film and television. He used to work in the gaming industry and has been the editor in chief of Gmbox and editor of Championat.com.

In the past he has contributed to Megapolis FM radio, Wonderzine, Buro 24/7, and GQ. He presently writes for Kommersant Style, Forbes, and Kinopoisk, and regularly speaks at television and radio networks, along with moderating public events.

Yulia Gulyan graduated from the Saint Petersburg University's Department of Liberal Arts and Sceinces and from the University of Amsterdam's Masters Program in Film Studies. She has published her work in Film Art (Iskusstvo Kino) and Seance since 2014, in addition to keeping the blog glukk.com and screenwriting for the film company Bazelevs.

Founder of online magazine Cinemaholics and editor-in-chief of film.ru. She owns the unpopular Telegram feed "Sexy Beast".

Independent film critic and curator, at 16 she writes for influential publications like Film Art (Iskusstvo Kino), Film Reporter, Aroundart.org, and others. She has been hosting the Telegram feed "(kino)avant-garde" since 2019. Anna specializes in the French new wave.

Alisa Taezhnaya is a film critic, lecturer and journalist. She graduated from the Higher School of Economics and the Manege / Media Art Lab Open School and studied at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague. She has written for The Village, Wonderzine, Afisha Daily, RBC, Film Art (Iskusstvo Kino), Esquire, Seance, Forbes, and other publications. She lectures on contemporary film and culture at educational programs within film festivals and Moscow's cultural institutions: Manege, Moskino, MMOMA, ZIL, Illusion, Karo.Art, the Pushkin Museum of Arts, and others.

Alexey Filippov is an editor of Kino-Teatr.ru and the online editor of Film Art (Iskusstvo Kino). He contributes to Esquire, RussoRosso, GQ, KinoPoisk, KinoTV, etc. He hosts the podcast Monday Karma on film.