Jeon Kyu-hwan has followed a unique career path in his journey towards becoming an influential film director. Despite the lack of a formal educational training, he employed an art house film production method in his debut film Mozart Town (2008). The film is a part of his 'Town Trilogy' which includes Animal Town (2009) and Dance Town (2010). 'Town Trilogy' sheds light on the ironic soullessness of Seoul's urban jungle by employing different approaches in all three films. His film From Seoul to Varanasi (2011) set in Varanasi will be screened at the 12th OCFF. This film was officially invited to the Panorama section of the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2012.

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Annemarie Jacir is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter living in Jordan. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema. Two of her films have premiered as Official Selections at the Cannes Film Festival, one as an Academy Award qualifier, and one in Venice. Her first feature film, Salt of this Sea, was Palestine's Official Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film and won numerous awards including the FIPRESCI and the Special Jury Prizes at the Osian's Film Festival. Jacir co-founded Philistine Films, an independent production company, focusing on productions related to the Arab world. She teaches screenwriting and works as an editor and film curator, actively promoting independent cinema. In 2011, renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou selected her to be his first protégée as part of the Rolex Arts Initiative. She is currently working on the post-production of her new film When I Saw You.

Artistic Director of the Rome Film Festival, Marco has held the prestigious position of being the Director of several major film festivals? Turin-Electric Shadows (1981), Pesaro (1982-1989), Rotterdam (1990- 1991), Locarno (1992-2000) and Venice (2004-2011). An anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, Mueller has written monographic volumes of criticism and history of cinema. He is a significant contributor for academic publications and a film critic for magazines and daily newspapers. He has also produced over twenty award-winning films. He is currently teaching Production Design at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture (USI).

Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni was born in Pune in 1976. After finishing his graduation in commerce, he went ahead and completed a master's degree in Law. He worked as an assistant director with noted filmmakers Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar for their feature films and documentaries. He was the only Indian student who was selected for the Summer University course in La Femis, Paris, in 2000. Following this, he joined the Film and Television Institute of India, where he specialized in Direction. His Diploma film Girni (The Grinding Machine) won the President gold medal for Best Short Film and Best Direction in the year 2005. His short documentary Three of Us premiered at Berlinale in 2008 and has been the recipient of several international awards. His first feature film Valu (The Wild Bull) along with two other films, Vihir (the well) and Deool (A Temple) premiered in Rotterdam in 2008, 2010 and 2012 respectively. He is currently working on the production of his new venture Pune 52, directed by Nikhil Mahajan.

Dutch documentary film director Sonia Herman Dolz, has been invited as a jury member at several International Film Festivals. A Retrospective of her work was held in 2005 at the International Film Festival of Seville, in 2007 at Documenta Madrid, and in 2008 at l' Alternativa, Independent Film Festival Barcelona. In 1993, her film about the art of bullfighting, Romance de Valentía (Only the Brave), won several awards at international film festivals. In 1997, Yo Soy Así (This Is Me), about the senior artists of a café chantant in Barcelona, 'La Bodega Bohemia' won international acclaim and was a hit especially at Gay & Lesbian film festivals. In 2003, her documentary film The Master and His Pupil won the First place at the Golden Prague Festival 2003, Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, New York 2004, Best Documentary Award at the Bergen International Film Festival, Norway 2004 and AQCC Award at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Montréal 2004.

Born in 1955 in Tallinn, Estonia. After graduating from All-State Institute of Film-making (VGIK) in Moscow as a master of film theory and criticism in 1981, she worked for a decade in Estonian film studio "Tallinnfilm" as a scriptwriter, story editor and also a member of its art council. After short period of being an editor-in-chief of two local film and photography jourmals, in 1993 she co-founded a film distribution company "Filmimax" that brought mainly European and independent films into the Baltic market (until 2001). In 1997 she founded Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and has remained the festival director up to the present day. Since 1975, she has published numerous articles and film criticism in written press and also worked as a film correspondent for TV and radio programmes. She has given lectures on film history and film theory in Tallinn Pedagogical University, Concordia International University and Estonian Academy of Music. Since 1991, she has been invited as an expert for several round-tables, reform groups and selection committees of Estonian Cultural Endowment, Ministery of Culture and MEDIA Programme of European Commission. She was elected a member of European Film Academy in 2000. In 2004, she was appointed a member of the executive board of the European Coordination of Film Festivals.

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, the oldest and most prestigious Chair in his field. He is a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, as well as a founding member of the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University. An internationally renowned cultural critic and award-winning author of more than 20 books, his works have been translated into numerous languages. In the context of his commitment to promoting transnational art and independent world cinema, Dabashi is the founder of Dreams of a Nation, a Palestinian Film Project, dedicated to preserving and safeguarding Palestinian Cinema. In his latest book is The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism (2012), he shows how the Arab Spring has altered the geopolitics of the region so radically that one needs to start re-imagining the moral map of “the Middle East” anew.

Panah Panahi was born in 1984. While he had enrolled for the filmmaking course at the Art University of Tehran, he never quite finished the course. Panahi's short film The First Film won several awards in various festivals in his country and around the world. The film also won the Best Short Film Award at Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival. Other than short films, Panahi has made several clips and teasers for TV and festivals and has held numerous photographic exhibitions of his work. He has also worked as a photographer.

Dariush Mehrjui was born in Tehran in 1940 and graduated in Philosophy and Film-making from UCLA in 1964. He started his film career in 1968 by writing and directing a feature film, Diamond 33. His subsequent works have been awarded numerous prizes at local and international film festivals.

Raymond Phathanavirangoon is a film producer and an international film festival programmer who is currently an official delegate for Cannes Critics' Week and the Programme Consultant for the Hong Kong International Film Festival. He also acts as a Reading Committee Member for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) and was previously an advisory member of the Asian Film Awards (AFA). Previously he served as international programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival. Prior to that, he was the Director of Marketing & Special Projects (Acquisitions) for international sales agent Fortissimo Films. In 2007, he was a member of the Teddy Jury at the Berlin Film Festival, and in 2010 a member of the Antalya Film Festival's international jury, among others. His producing credits include Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA (2008, Associate Producer), Pang Ho-Cheung's DREAM HOME (2010, Co-Producer), Boo Junfeng's SANDCASTLE (2010, Associate Producer) and Pen-ek Ratanaruang's HEADSHOT (2011, Producer). He was a moderator for the Cannes Producers' Network Breakfast Meetings in 2009 and has spoken on panels at festivals worldwide. 2011 Pen-ek Ratanaruang's HEADSHOT (Producer) - Berlin Panorama, Toronto 2010 Boo Junfeng's SANDCASTLE (Associate Producer) - Cannes Critics' Week, Toronto Pang Ho-Cheung's DREAM HOME (Co-Producer) - Opening Film, Udine, Tribeca 2008 Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA (Associate Producer) - Cannes Un Certain Regard

Dr. Shoma A. Chatterji is a film scholar, independent journalist and author. She has written 17 books on subjects such as gender, cinema and fiction. She completed her Ph.D. in History (Cinema) and received a post-doctoral fellowship under the ICSSR, Delhi. She won a PSBT Fellowship for research on gender on television and another from National Film Archive of India, Pune. Among the several awards that she has won, the most noteworthy are the National Award for Best Writing in Cinema, which she won twice, the Best Film Critic award in 1991 and an award for the Best Book on Cinema in 2003. In 2010, she won the lifetime achievement award from Laadly-UNICEF for her 'consistent writing on women's issues'. She has presented papers at many regional, national and international seminars on gender and cinema. She has been on the FIPRESCI Jury at Mannheim-Heidelberg and San Sebastian Film Festivals and on the International Jury at the St. Petersburg International Festival of Animation, Short and Documentary films.

Satti Khanna interprets the lives and works of contemporary Indian writers to an international audience through a series of documentary films and translations. His recent work includes a translation of Vinod Kumar Shukla's Naukar ki Kameez (The Servant's Shirt, Penguin India, 1999), an anthology of short fiction, His Daily Bread (Har Anand, 2000) and the series Literary Postcard on the Doordarshan national network in India. At present, he is engaged in a translation of G. M. Muktibodh's fiction and a documentary about tailors.

Born in 1960 in Sagar (M.P.) Teaches Physiology in Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal Poems, short-stories, essay and translations & translations of his works have appeared in many literary journals. Books Published- Sudeshna (a short-story collection) Abhed Aakash (a book of conversation with Film maker Mani Kaul), Kuchh Vakya (poems), Charkhe Par Barhat (collection of essays) Vie Invisible (poems in French translation, Cheyne Editeur, Paris) Door Desh Ki Gandh (collection of short stories), Mati,smriti aur prajna (a book of conversations with Historian Dharampal), Jangarh Kalam (Long essay on Pardhaan Paintings along with the retold folk tales of Pardhaans) , Saatavan Batton (collection of short-stories), Patjhar ke paon kee menhdi (collection of essays), Matmaili smriti mein prashant samudra (translation of Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa) Has edited a book on theatre director, Kavalam Narayan Panikkar, Theatre of Rasa. Poems, short-stories and essays are translated into Bengali, Tamil, Oriya, Kannada, English, French, Swedish, Polish, Bulgarian etc. Has translated texts of Octavio Paz (Mexico), Borges (Argentina), Anton Chekhov (Russia), Joseph Brodsky (USSR), Tadeuz Rozewicz (Poland), Phillipe Jaccottee (France), Balchandran Chullikad (Malayalam), Nilim Kumar (Assamese), Shuntaro Tanikawa (Japan), Frank Andre Jamme (France) etc. into Hindi. Translated renowned Indian Philosopher Ramachandra Gandhi’s book Sita’s Kitchen into Hindi. Written texts for Mithak Bhanga (a film on Agaria Tribe of M.P., directed by Sudhanshu Mishra) Avantikatha (a film on Ujjain by Ashmaki Acharya),Asgari(a film on Dhrupad singer Asgari Bai by Rajendra Jangale), Virah Baryo Ghar Aangan Kaune (a film on bamboo flute directed by Kumar Shahani) and dialogues of Char Adhyaya (Kumar Shahani’s feature film on Ravindarnath Tagore’s novel). Has recreated Sanskrit classic Bhavbhooti’s Uttarramcharitam in Hindi which was directed by K N Pnikkar. Assisted in editing Kavita Asia (a magazine of asian poetry and poetics, Bharat Bhavan) and edited Hindi section of Vibhav (a reader of Modern Indian Writing in English, over all edited by U.R. Ananthmoorthy, a catalogue on eminent painter and thinker J. Swaminathan (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi), Reader of hindi writer Shrikant Verma, Prose selection of Shamsher Bahadur Singh. Was senior fellow of literature from 1994-96 (Government of India) and was awarded Krishna Baldev Vaid award in 2001, Raza Foundation Fellowship in 2003 Has lectured on arts and literature in Varanasi, Bhubneswar, Mumbai, Bhopal, Nagpur, New Delhi, Paris(France), Heidelberg(Germany), Kaathmandu(Nepal), Moscow(Russia), etc. Has participated in various poetry festivals in India and abroad, including Biennale International de poetes in Val-de-Maurne (France) in 1997 and Kavita Shati (century of Hindi poetry) in Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal) in 1999, in Marche de la poesie, Paris(2008)etc. Was invited as Writer-in-Residence in Lavigny (Switzerland), in 2000 in Les Balles Etrangenres, France in 2002. Gave lecture at Bibliotheque Nationale (National Library), Paris in 2003,Was Writer-in-Residence in Paris in 2003 aqnd participated in International Book Fair in Paris in 2007. Was fellow at Institute of Advanced Studies in Nantes (France) in 2011. Edits Samaas, a journal of Literature, Arts and civilization.

Gurpal Singh is an FTII alumni is the brain behind extremely popular Chhupa Rustam. Later he worked on Funjabi Chak De (Star One), Tedhi Baat Shekhar ke Saath (Sab TV). He has also organized MAFIAs a platform for artists, filmmakers, photographers, musicians & all sorts of creative people who catch up and share their work. And he is the founder of the cult hit BRING YOUR OWN FILM FESTIVAL that takes places every year in Puri, Orrisa from 21-25 Feb.

Screenwriter, Actor, Director, MOdel, Theatre Personality and translator. Rajat's interest in Cinema was kindled when as a young boy, he began frequenting cinema theatres with his father. He joined FTII in the 80s and studied Direction. He has won 2 National Awards, the latest one for his film Raghu Romeo (2003). He is also interested in theatre is the founder member of a group called Chingari.

Mita Vashisht is an Indian television, film and theatre actress, who graduated from National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 1987. Meeta has written and produced three short films, as well as a serial for television.

Sometime in 1996, Mani Kaul saw a documentary film shot by Mohanan and he liked the way young cameraperson had 'moved' his camera. Kaul chose him to shoot his film Naukar ki Kameez (The Servant's Shirt, 1999), and then to shoot his short film Bojh (Burden, 2000), which took the idea of 'capturing time in its randomness to its edge.' During his time at the FTII, Mohanan never missed the workshops or classes conducted by Mani Kaul, although they were meant for the students of direction faculty.

Piyush has one of the longest associations with Mani Kaul as he shot four of his films, Before My Eyes (1989), Siddheshwari (1989), Nazar (1991) and Idiot (1993). In fact, Kaul had asked Piyush to work with him when he was in his final year at the FTII. As Piyush reflects, while working with Kaul he learnt the art of cinematography and his training made it possible to continue learning it till today.

Gurvinder Singh studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, graduating in 2001. In the following years, he traveled extensively through Punjab, documenting folk ballads and oral narratives. In 2002, he translated a long interview of Mani Kaul, titled Abhed Akash (The Uncloven Space). This led to a long association with the filmmaker who invited him to be his teaching assistant at FTII. Singh directed his first feature film Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for the Blind Horse) in 2011. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Competition and was screened at many other international festivals. It won the Special Jury Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, 2011, and awards for Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Punjabi Film at India's 59th National Film Awards. Singh is currently working on his second feature, titled Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), set in the mid 1980's in the backdrop of the 'Operation Bluestar' and the separatist insurgency in Punjab.

Hailing from the illustrious Dagar family, Ustad Baha'ud'din represents the twentieth generation of the Dagarbani school of music. He is a master of a very rare instrument, the Been, more popularly known as the Rudra Veena. Baha'ud'din began his training with his father Ustad Zia Mohi'ud'din Dagar at the age of eleven. Currently Baha'ud'din runs the Dhrupad Gurukul in Mumbai, which was originally started by his father in 1988. Ustad Zia Mohi'ud'din Dagar was also Mani Kaul's guru.

Randhan Ramnath (aka Dilip Randhan) Studied Civil Engineering & IT (The Netherlands) and learnt Dhrupad vocal music (Dagar Bani) from late Sri Mani Kaul in the Guru Shishya Parampara tradition (05/2001 – 06/2011). Shri Mani Kaul learnt Dhrupad from Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariddudin Dagar. Randhan has performed in The Netherlands, France and India (Bhopal 2011, Marg Sanstha).

He (Jogi to his friends) has a long 'sound' association with Mani Kaul and his cinematography. Along with D. Wood, he composed music for Nazar (1991) and Idiot (1993).

Magdi Ahmed Ali Magdi Ahmed Ali is a film director from Egypt, and the current President of the Egyptian Film Center. As a director, Magdi's work started at a crucial time in the history of Egyptian Cinema in the 80's, a period termed by film critics “The Wave of Realism”. In this period Magdi made 13 film documentaries and worked as an Assistant Director in many feature films with famous directors like Youssef Chahine and Mohamed Khan. Magdi's started as a feature film Director in 1996 when he made his first film “Life, My Passion” a film which won Magdi Ahmed Ali the prize of Best Film in the Cairo Film Festival, 3 prizes in Montreal Film Festival and the Award of Best Feature Film in the Beirut Film Festival. Two years later, Magdi made his second film entitled “The Hero” 1998 and three years later in 2001 he made his film “Girls' Secrets” which shocked the public in Egypt with its boldness and bravery in introducing a very sensitive Egyptian Taboo which is “Girls Virginity” by telling the story of middle class young girl, who gets pregnant while she is still in high school. It was awarded - among other prizes - The Silver Award in the Cairo Film Festival, the Bronze Award in Milano and Valencia Film Festival. Between 2008 and 2010, Magdi made two films, “Fawzeya's Recipe” which won Best Film Award in the Wahran Film Festival in Algeria, and the Silver Award in the Rotterdam Arabic Film Festival, and “The Nile Birds” in 2009 which was based on a novel written by the famous Egyptian Writer Ibrahim Asslan. Now Magdi Ahmed Ali is the President of Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Short films that just wrapped its 15th edition with much success despite the circumstances in Egypt nowadays.

Born in 1939 in the German city of Augsburg, Klaus Eder studied German literature at Stuttgart University. He has been a film critic of great repute from the mid 60's, primarily working for the national radio (“Bayerischer Rundfunk”) and for numerous German film magazines. He is the author of numerous books on Andrzej Wajda, Luis Bunuel, Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrei Konchalovski, Arturo Ripstein, Im Kwon-taek and Nagisa Oshima. He has worked as a programmer for the Munich International Film Festival from 1986 - 2007 and has been an Adviser for a number of festivals. Eder is currently the General Secretary of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), a post that he has held since 1987.

Author, writer and director, Atiq Rahimi was born in Kabul in 1962. Following the Soviet invasion, Rahimi fled Afghanistan to escape the Soviet coup, and took refuge in Pakistan for a year before relocating to France after receiving political asylum. In the late 1990s, Rahimi embarked on his first writing project. His 2000 Dari/Persian book, Earth and Ashes, was an instant bestseller in Europe and South America. A movie based on this book, directed by Rahimi, was awarded the Prix du Regard vers l'Avenir at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. The film featured in 50 festivals, winning a total of 25 awards including the one at Cannes and a Golden Dhow award for Best Feature Film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. It also won the Best Film (ex-aequo) at the 6th Osian's Cinefan. In November 2008, Rahimi won France's most prestigious literary prize, the 105-year-old Prix Goncourt, for Syngue Sabour, his first book in French. This book was translated into English as The Patience Stone.

Born in Louisiana, James V. Hart grew up on drive-in movies and Saturday matinees. He began producing films in the 1970s and his first feature Summer Run, opened the USA festival at Dallas. His writing/producing credits include Steven Spielberg's Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Muppet Treasure Island, Contact, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life amongst others. In addition to being a much sought after Hollywood screenwriter, Hart published his first children's novel, Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth in 2005, which is yet another take on the Peter Pan character. He is currently writing a sequel to the book and is working on a new super-hero franchise. He is also working with his son on adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle. He is also in production for his first animated spectacle, The Legend of the Leafmen, with William Joyce, and director-animator Chris Wedge, who created Ice Age and Robots with Joyce.

Vicky Habib's bio: I Vicky Habib am an editor in AL Hayat Pan Arab International Newspaper based in Beirut. I am responsible for daily tv page as well as write features and articles and opinion articles. In addition to that, I am the assistant of cinema page edition in Al Hayat and contibute to cinema pages content.

Twenty-five year old Jet Leyco is a Filipino independent filmmaker, editor and cinematographer based in Manila. He has worked as an intern and art director with acclaimed directors like Lav Diaz and Khavn De La Cruz. Since 2008, Leyco has produced over sixty short projects in narrative, experimental/video art, and small documentaries, in addition to music videos of the band Vigo and duo Fando&Lis. He is currently working for ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs as a director and cinematographer.

Born in the Eastern lowland of Nepal, Deepak Rauniyar was raised in the multicultural societies of the Eastern hills of the country. A chance position as a film critic ultimately inspired him to make his own films. Deepak's first film Chaukaith (Threshold), a short, was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival - Short Film Corner in 2009. He is currently a fellow of the Berlinale Talent Campus #10, 2012. Highway is Deepak's first feature film. He is currently working on his next film Kaalbela.

Born in 1969, Mani Haghighi studied Philosophy for several years before making his first feature, Abadan, in 2003. His second feature, Men at Work (2006) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won him several prestigious international prizes. He has also written screenplays for other Iranian directors, including Fireworks Wednesday (Asghar Farhadi) and acted in About Elly (Asghar Farhadi) and Dariush Mehrjui's Mahboub's Sky (2010). Modest Reception is his fourth feature film.

Eduardo Roy Jr. is a graduate of the New Era University and the Philippine School of Interior Design. He has been writing screenplays and directing shorts since 2002. Baby Factory is his debut feature film. His second script Lola Igna has been selected as one of the projects for the 2012 Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum.

Emin Alper was born in 1974 in Ermenek, Karaman. Trained in economics and history at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Alper holds a Ph.D in Turkish Modern History. He teaches at Istanbul Technical University's Humanities and Social Sciences Department. He has written and directed two short films, before making his debut feature film Beyond the Hill.

Manav Kaul has been writing and directing experimental and thought provoking theatre in Hindi for a decade. He has won appreciation and accolades both within the country as well as outside. More than ten plays by him have been performed at all the major theatre centres of the country. Several have been translated in different languages and performed by theatre groups within India and outside. Hansa is Manav's debut feature film as a film writer and director.

Wichanon Somumjarn was born in Khon Kaen in 1982. While studying engineering, he made his first short W.C., which was much appreciated. He left engineering for a full time career in cinema. He has participated in Asian Film Academy 2009, Berlinale Talent Campus 2010 as well as the Next Master Tokyo Filmex, Japan 2010. In April the Following Year, There was a Fire, is Wichanon's debut feature.

Born in Meknes, Morocco in 1971, Mohcine Besri studied Physics and Chemistry at the Faculty of Rabat, while also playing small parts in films. He later left for Switzerland where he studied Computer Science and worked in finance, before becoming a mathematics teacher. Simultaneously he pursued scriptwriting and direction. He worked as Assistant Director, directed two short films, was a co-writer of Operation Casablanca with Swiss director Laurent Nègre, before writing his first feature film The Miscreants.

Bikramjit Gupta graduated from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 1998 with a degree in Film Studies. Since then he has done a lot of television work apart from several shorts and documentaries, some of these have won awards and appreciation. The Stagnant is Bikramjit's debut feature film.

Producer CHOI Miae 29 October 1977 Korean-born producer CHOI Mi-ae majored in Film and Theatre at The Dongguk University in Seoul and earned an MA degree in Film and Theatre at The postgraduate School of the Dongguk of Seoul. A Master's Thesis subject : A study on Creative Communication Methods of Actors and Directors for Creating Role - Focusing on Director Lee Myung-se / Hong Sang-soo / Lee Chang-dong - As a student, she was actress, performed various play. And she played in short film several times. And her first feature film, Mozart Town, she invest her money in this movie. She did also Acting-coach to Actor and Actress in this movie. So she is Acting Director, Producer and Co-producer of Mozart Town. Currently, She is giving to a lecture “Acting” for university students at Dongguk University (DUCSI). FILMOGRAPHY (As a Producer, Acting Director) 2008 Mozart Town (86mins, directed by JEON Kyu-hwan) Sunflower 30th Anniversary Music Video (Producer)

Priit Tender (born in 1971) is a well-known Estonian animator - the director, designer and writer of many short animated films. His author films are driven by surreal imagery, black humor and dark existential journeys. Priit's films have won prizes and nominations from the most important short and animation film festivals, including Annecy, Ottawa, Hiroshima, Dresden, Fredrikstad, Utrecht etc.

Ajay Bahl began his career as an independent cinematographer in advertising. He launched his film production company Tonga Talkies in the year 2010. After reading Mohan Sikka's story titled "The Railway Aunty", he decided to turn it into a feature which he titled B.A. Pass.

Based in Kolkata, Amitabh Chakraborty has studied Film Editing from the Film and Television Institute of India. Has been editing films since 1986 and has directed several documentaries and the feature film Kaal Abhirathi, which won the special jury award at the National Awards, 1990. He has also directed the documentary feature Bishar Blues, which won the National Award for the Best Nonfiction Film, Best Editing and Best Audiography, amongst several other awards.

Sharat Katariya was born in 1978 and completed his Masters in Mass Communication from Jamia Milia University. His short film That's What my Dad used to Say, was a part of the Dahlonega Film Festival in Atlanta and the International Film Festival in Thiruvananthapuram while his film Sleep was a part of the Kara Film Festival in Karachi. He has been a dialogue and script writer for several films like Bheja Fry 1 and Bheja Fry 2 amongst others. He also participated in the 2004 Berlinale Talent Campus.

Ashish R. Shukla started his career by assisting Prahlad Kakkar during 2001-2002. A commercial artist by qualification, Ashish worked for various ad agencies for 6 years as Creative Director. In 2006, he joined Anurag Kashyap for his film Dev.D as Creative Head. Since then, Ashish has directed various short films, corporate films and documentaries. His last documentary on 26/11 Inside Mumbai Terror Attacks that he directed for National Geographic channel won him the award for the Best Director in Indian Telly Awards 2010. Prague is his debut feature film.

Cristina Demaria is associate professor of Semiotics in the Department of Philosophy and Communication of the University of Bologna, Italy. She teaches Television Studies in the BA on Sciences of Communication, Gender Studies and Semiotics, Perception and Cognition in the Master on Semiotics, and the module on "Memory films and conflict" within the course on Soviet Cinema and Literature of the MIREES Master, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bologna - Forlì. Her research interests comprise: gender and post-colonial theories, the representation of conflicts, Trauma and Memory Studies, genres of testimonies, with a specific attention to documentary films.

Born in Beijing in 1961, Wu Quan is a sound and multi-media artist, improvisation musician, and independent film maker. In 1986, he graduated from CAFA, special crafts department and presented his solo painting show at the National Art Museum of China in 1995. In 2005, he made a short film, Color which participated in several festivals.

After leaving India's premiere design school, Dibakar Banerjee joined advertising to get closer to film production and direction. Over the years, he has directed and produced several award winning commercials. His first feature film Khosla Ka Ghosla was a sleeper hit redefined the genre of independent cinema in India, creating a new trend. It won the President's award for Best Hindi Feature Film in 2007. His next film Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! released amidst unanimous critical applause and won many popular awards. Love Sex aur Dhokha, his third film, was the first commercially successful, breakthrough digital film in India. Shanghai, a contemporary political thriller is his fourth film and released this month on June the 8th.

Ajita Suchitra Veera was born in 1977 in Hyderabad, India. She studied Science, Theatre, Cinema and Filmmaking from 1995 to 2004. She has been working as a freelance director and writer since 2004.

Born in Kolkata, Rituparno, received hands-on training in filmmaking from his school days, when his father switched from portrait painting to documentary cinema. So far, seventeen of his films have been released, twelve of which have won national level awards. Ghosh also made his debut in acting with Just another love story. The film along with Memories in March and Chitrangada has been acclaimed for its gender-sensitive portrayal. Rituparno is currently working on Jeevan Smriti, an impressionistic documentary on the life of Rabindranath Tagore.

Kim Kyung-mook dropped out of school at the age of sixteen and has worked as a journalist and a columnist. In 2004, he started studying film and made his directorial debut with the film, Me and Doll Playing, followed by several documentaries and experimental video works. In 2005, he completed his feature length film, Faceless Things. His films have won several awards. He is currently leading a project on multiple identity diaspora.

Born in Shangai in 1978, Lu Sheng studied Cinematography at Paris' Institute International de l'Image et du son. He returned to China in 2005 and established himself as a Director of Photography while working with several prominent filmmakers including Wang Bing, Guo Xioalu, Lin Yichuan, and Jia Zhangke. Here, There is his debut feature film.

Kriti Malhotra was born and brought up in Pune, Maharashtra. She graduated from Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune in 2003 with a Bachelor's Degree in Arts, specializing in Geography alongside a Diploma in Fashion Apparel Design in 2000-01. In 2004, Kriti moved to Mumbai where she first worked at MTV India Networks and produced/directed MTV Stylecheck, a fashion based show. In 2007, Kriti expanded her portfolio and began working as the Assistant Costume Designer & Wardrobe Supervisor for several Hindi feature films including Ram Gopal Verma's "Sarkar Raj" (2007), Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra's "Delhi 6" (2008), "Action Replayy" (2009), "Michael" (2010), Dibakar Banerjee's "Shanghai" (2012) and currently Neeraj Pandey's "Special Chhabees" (2012). She continues to style TV commercials & Promos on a regular basis. "Dhobi Ghat" is her first film as an actor. Her 2nd film "Peddlers", directed by Vasan Bala and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap where she plays the female lead, was recently in competition in the Critics' Week section of the Cannes Film Festival in May this year.

Born in Bangalore and raised in Calcutta, Kiran Rao worked as an Assistant Director on films such as the Academy Award nominated Lagaan directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. She went on to assist him on Swades later on and also worked with Mira Nair for Monsoon Wedding. Dhobi Ghat (2011) marks her directorial debut. She has started writing her next film which will have roots in Calcutta. She was also Associate Producer for Taare Zameen Par (2007), Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (2008) and Peepli [Live] (2010).

Madhuja Mukherjee teaches in the Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She is an inter-media artist who writes and researches on film history, makes independent-experimental films, creates graphic-narratives, as well as executes media-installations. She has authored and edited books and several scholarly articles. Carnival (2011) is her first feature-film.

Born and brought up in Amravati, Maharashtra, Dhiraj Meshram completed his Bachelors degree in Arts from Amravati University in 1998 and joined the Film and Television Institute of India. His Diploma film in Marathi, Oadh was selected for a number of prestigious film festivals all over the world. His other short film, The Lost Rainbow' was selected in the Indian Panorama (non-feature) section in the International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2007) in Goa.

Nishant Radhakrishnan grew up in Mumbai, India among the films of Kerala, Europe and Iran. He started his career in the movies as an Assistant Director on the feature film, Split Wide Open (1999) and several made-for-tv films. In 2004, he completed the Master's Program in Film at the American University School of Communication. He then worked as an Assistant Editor on the controversial documentary series, PBS Frontline. After his stint at PBS, he edited a wide range of television shows and documentaries (In Our Backyard and The Saint of Chitrakoot) and returned to Mumbai to edit Indian- language feature films. He has worked on several feature films as an editor and associate including ‘Loins of Punjab presents’, ‘Outsourced, ‘Ghajini’, and ‘Road, Movie’. ‘Dhobi Ghat’ is his third feature film.

Ayush Ahuja was born in Mumbai, where he spends much of his time trying to find silence in a noisy city. He has worked on feature films, documentaries and animation films, as well as radio-drama for the BBC - taking on various roles as production sound mixer, sound designer and re-recording mixer. In 2007 he graduated with commendation as the Haya Asif scholar from the UK National Film and Television School with a Masters in Sound Post Production. His other interests include acoustic ecology and electro-acoustic music, and finding a good cup of tea.

Born in Panipat, Haryana to an Urdu-speaking class, Hassan attended the Punjab University in 1947 prior to establishment of Pakistan, gaining B.Sc. in civil engineering. In 1950s, Hassan traveled to United States where he gained M.Sc. in civil engineering from Iowa State University, and finally gaining doctorate in civil engineering after submitting his doctoral thesis on fundamental problems and their solution on Hydraulic engineering, a sub-discipline of civil engineering. After returning to West-Pakistan, Hassan joined the University of Engineering and Technology at Lahore teaching courses on civil engineering which remained his lifelong passion. His political philosophy began to take place in 1967, after witnessing the 1965 war with India. In 1967, Hassan published the political manifesto, "A Declaration of Unity of People", advocating for Techno-Democratic socialism in East-Pakistan, during which he was lecturing in the topic of Engineering physics at the Dhaka University.

Born in 1977 in Ardebil, Iran, Naghi Nemati is a graduated from Soureh College of Isafahan in Film Directing in 2004. He started making short films in 1993 and his first short film, Like The Umbrella of the Kids received several awards in national festivals. He has been involved in the Iranian film industry as scriptwriter, editor, actor and photography and his first feature film, Those Three premiered at the Locarno Festival and won an award there as well. Three and a Half is his second feature film.

Graduated from National School Of Drama (New Delhi, India) in 1996 & was in N.S.D. Repertory Company as an actor for 3 yrs. Acted in more than 35plays as lead(in hindi) in NSD & NSD Repertory Company. Completed a short term course in “voice & speech” from Central School of Speech & Drama, (London,U.K.) in 1999 sponsored by Charles Wallace Trust,British Council(New Delhi,India). Presently working as an ACTOR in Bollywood and Bengali Film Industry . Acted in Films: ( In Hindi) : Birsa Munda, Karwaan, Zameen, Tango-Charlie, 88-Antop Hill, Mangal Pandey, Shourya, Meridian, Madholal - Keep Walking, Ardhanginni-Ek Ardhsatya, Bhairavi, RaktaCharitra 1 & 2 etc (In Bengali): Swapner Feriwala, Uttara,Chaturanga, Bibar,Jor, Achin Pakhi,Antim Swash Sundar, Saptasur,Doshta Dosh etc AWARDS: # Best Actor Award for Bengali film “BIBAR” (CalcuttaUnabashed) in Asian &Arab Comp Sec,Osian Cinefan ( New Delhi,India) in 2006. # Best Actor Award for Hindi film “Madholal-keep Walking” in International Comp Sec at 33rd Cairo International Film Festival (Cairo,Egypt) in 2009. Completed(hindi films): 1 . "Talaash" (major role), directed by Reema Kagti.. starring Aamir ,Rani & Kareena . 2 ."Oass" ( as one of the LEAD ), directed by Abhinav Tiwari . 3. "Baromas" (as one of the LEAD), directed by Dhiraj Meshram, starring Seema Biswas, Benjamin Gilani, 4. "Charlie-Ke Chakkar Mein"( as one of the LEAD), directed by Manish Srivastava, ,starring Naseeruddin Shah, 5. "Kaphaal" (as LEAD ) directed by Batul Mukhtiyaar. Completed(Bengali films): 1. “LATTOO”- dir by Ashis Roy 2. “BLIND LANE” -dir by Amitava, Dasgupta 3. “TARGET KOLKATA”- dir by Kartik Singh(lead in all three films)

Zhanabek Zhetyru, Kazakh film director, screenwriter, and film producer, graduated from the philological faculty of the Kazakh State University. From 1988 through 1990, he worked at the Kazakh Film studios as an Assistant Film Director. In 1993, he finished the Higher Courses of Script writers and film directors (HCSD) in Moscow. He is currently working as a documentary film director in Almaty and is the author and director of more than 40 documentary films.

He (Juku to his friends) started work in theatre as music composer and worked on as many as 250 plays up to 1981, and then worked on many documentary films either composing music or designing sound for them. And then as he says, “One day God opened the door and sent me to film maestro Mani Kaul.” It was on Before My Eyes (1989), Rajat worked with Kaul for the first time, followed by another Kaul masterpiece Siddheshwari (1989).

He started working with Mani Kaul when Idiot was in its final stage of making - in 1991. And then on Kaul's short fiction film B?dal Dw?r (The Cloud Door), Madhu became his chief assistant director. Madhu did a post-graduate diploma in 'Cinema specialization in Sound Recording and Sound Engineering' from the FTII, where his interaction with Mani Kaul had begun during student days.

Mani Kaul and Lalitha Krishna jointly launched a company that produced all his films after the 1980s, from Satah se Uthta Aadmi in 1980 to The Cloud Door in 1994. She has worked in different departments of films not only as an editor, but also as a producer and a still photographer. As an editor, she has worked on five of Kaul's films, Before My Eyes (1989), Siddheshwari (1989), Nazar (1991), Idiot (1993) and The Cloud Door (1994). She has independently directed two documentaries.

Director, writer, producer and now actor, Tigmanshu Dhulia has come a long way in the Bombay Film Industry. He graduated in acting from the National School of Drama. His directorial debut began with TV serials like Krishna's Dreams, Naya Daur, Just Mohabbat, Rajdhani, Woh Dus Din amongst others. He has written dialogues for Dil Se, Tere Mere Sapne, Bas Itna Sa Khawab Hai, and Family. His remarkable first feature length debut Haasil (2003), won several awards. However, he swept the audience and critics away with a tribute to the forgotten hero turned bandit in Paan Singh Tomar. His next project is Milan Talkies, based on the film industry of Malegaon City.

Ashwini Malik is a Mumbai-based independent filmmaker and screenwriter. He also teaches screenwriting at FTII and Whistling Woods. Born in 1969, Ashwini obtained a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Delhi University and then went to India's premier film school, Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) to study Film Direction. His graduation film, The Waiter in Slow Motion, was a part of the official competition at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 1995.

A painter and filmmaker deeply inspired by Sufism, Muzaffar Ali has developed a discerning eye and vision for aesthetics and humanity. This quest for beauty and excellence was seen in his breathtakingly beautiful film Umrao Jaan. The present Raja of Kotwara, his house in Qaiser Bagh is a throbbing nucleus of design and a living museum of art and craft. His foray into films was inspired by his friend and the famous poet Subhas Mukhopadhyaya. Through him, he was motivated to using film as a medium of social comment and artistic expression. His first feature film Gaman (1978), received the special Jury award, a Silver Peacock at the 7th International Film Festival, New Delhi. In 1986, he made Anjuman, a feature film on the chikan craftswomen of Lucknow. Ali follows his creative pursuits in the fields of film making, music, fashion, crafts and design without compromise. His films have been invited to International Film Festivals in Vancouver, Teheran, Cairo and Mauritius among others.

Lillete Dubey is a well known theatre director and a stage, television and film actor. She owns and manages the Primetime Theatre Company in Mumbai. Over the last 35 years, she has played the lead role in over 50 productions on stage, from plays as diverse as Greek tragedies to absurd drama, farces; adaptations of the works of Shakespeare, Brecht and a gamut of Indian playwrights. She has received several awards in theatre both as a director and actress including, most recently, the Best Actress Award for her role in the play Adhe Adhure at the National Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, META 2012. Not only has she been a part of 15 television series, she has also hosted 26 episodes of her own talk show By Invitation Only. She also acted in the BBC series Mumbai Calling and has acted in nearly 40 mainstream and independent films.

Yoshimasa Ishibashi was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1968. After spending a short period at the Royal College of Art in London while completing an MA in Fine Arts, he graduated from the Kyoto City University of Art. From 1994 - 1999, while working as a freelance Commercial Director and designing the visuals for computer games, he began a career as an independent film director. During this period, he also founded the Performance Art Unit Kyupi.

Nandita Dutta is the Associate Editor of DearCinema.com, portal for Indian films and film festivals. She writes on independent cinema for several national and international publications.

Khalid Mohamed started his career as reviewer and co-editor, for Close-Up, a film society quarterly magazine. He was editor of Filmfare magazine and also reviewed television for The Economic Times besides contributing articles to The Illustrated Weekly of India and Femina. His writing has also featured in India Today, The Indian Express, The Telegraph, the international film weekly Variety and in Sunday Observer, London. Currently, he is Consulting Editor to the Deccan Chronicle-Asian Age media group. He has written the original stories and screenplays for three Shyam Benegal's films: Mammo, Sardari Begum and Zubeidaa. He is also responsible for the screenplay and direction of Fiza, Tehzeeb and Silsilaay. Last year, he made his debut as a playwright and stage director with the play Kennedy Bridge. His documentary The Last Irani Chai has been screened widely. His second documentary Little Big People, on Mumbai's street children, is under post-production. Presently, he is writing his second stage play and his first novel. His book, Two Mothers and Other Stories, was released recently.

GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN'S CV I am a senior film critic, columnist and author. I am now Editor South Asia of The Seoul Times and Film Critic of The Hollywood Reporter, USA. Last year, I completed my 25-year tenure with the English language newspaper, The Hindu, in Chennai, where I wrote editorials, comments, reviews and features on a wide range of subjects, such as environment, wildlife, health, children, history, heritage, archaeology, advertisement, fashion, cinema, theatre and other arts. I have been travelling widely both within the country and outside on a variety of journalistic assignments. I have done spot reporting on and interviews with several organisations, including UNESCO in Paris, the Sorbonne University also in Paris, Globe Theatre in London, Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art in Brussels and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. I have met and written about personalities as varied as Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Barbara Cartland, Alyque and Pearl Padamsee, Tom Ford, Pierre Cardin, Rohit Bal, Ritu Beri, Sidney Poitier, Gemini Ganesh, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Nandita Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Pedro Almodovar, Lars Von Trier, Jane Campion, Ang Lee, Ken Loach, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap, Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan, R.K. Laxman, Mario Miranda, Sudhir Dar, E.P. Unny and others. I have written features and editorials on Kolkata rickshaw-pullers, Kolkata Chinese, circus industry, Taj Mahal, ruins of Vijayanagar, wildlife sanctuaries and on cities like Venice, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Cannes and others. I have been covering major film festivals, including Cannes (19 years), Venice and Berlin. I have also been writing from festivals such as Melbourne, Stuttgart, Deauville, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Dubai, Marrakech and several in India (Goa, Kerala, Pune, Bengaluru and New Delhi). In 2007, Cannes honoured me with a Gold Medallion for distinguished writing. I was one among the 20 selected from all over the world, and the only one from India I have served on several international film juries -- New Delhi, Pune, Melbourne, Venice, Deauville and others. I have been on the National Book Jury. I have also served on Indian Panorama juries. I grew up in Kolkata, went to school and college there and worked for The Statesman for nine years under British editors before joining The Hindu in Chennai in 1984. It is in Kolkata that I developed a passion for meaningful cinema: I had this fascinating opportunity of watching Satyajit Ray closely at work, and the fact that his son, Sandip, and I were classmates at St. Xavier' s College helped me to nurture my association with the great Master. I can speak, read and write Bengali, Hindi and Tamil (my mother tongue). I can understand Malayalam. I work in English. I review films for The Hollywood Reporter, USA. I also review movies for them from major international film festivals, such as Venice, Deauville and Marrakech. I write on cinema also for The New Zealand Herald, The Seoul Times, The First Post and Sight & Sound in the U.K., Dawn in Pakistan, The World and Khaleej Times in Dubai and The Week, Sakaal Times and Press Trust of India in India. I write a column on social and political affairs for The Japan Times in Tokyo and The Seoul Times. I have finished writing a biography of India's auteur director, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, whose latest film, A Climate for Crime, has travelled round the world, including Toronto, Nantes, Warsaw, Munich, Deauville and Dubai. The biography will be published by Penguin in March 2010, and the research for the book was funded by New York's Ford Foundation. In 2001, I was invited by The Japan Foundation (under the Japanese Foreign Ministry) for a fellowship to study modern Japanese cinema. I stayed in Japan for six months and did detailed research, meeting tens of Japanese producers, directors and actors. I wrote several articles on Japan for The Hindu. I got a similar fellowship from The Japan Foundation last year, this time for 10 months, but had to decline the invitation for the time being because I was busy with the Adoor book. I teach cinema at Karnataka's Manipal University and English at Chennai's Loyola College. Some of my writings can be seen on my website: http://www.gautamanbhaskaran.com Gautaman Bhaskaran Editor South Asia, The Seoul Times, South Korea Film Critic, The Hollywood reporter, USA 2/26D Judge Jumbulingam Street, Subasree Apartment, First floor, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004, India. Email gautamanb@hotmail.com gautamanb@gmail.com Telephone +91 44 43238286 Mobile + 91 98410 29426

Uma da Cunha's name is synonymous with Indian films. Her film career began in 1974 when she started organizing film events for the Indian government. She then went on to programme and represent festivals in India and abroad. Her work as casting director includes films such as Monsoon Wedding, Holy Smoke, Lagaan and Water among others. She is a well known film critic and editor of a quarterly magazine Film India Worldwide, published from Mumbai. Presently she writes for Screen, which is a India's leading weekly trade newspaper. She also covers festivals for Mumbai Mirror (Mumbai's daily newspaper), Sunday Herald and Film Information Weekly. The most recent articles was for the Cannes Film Festival (she wrote a weekly diary for Mumbai Mirror) and she covers the Toronto Film Festival for Mumbai Mirror. Since 1995, Uma has been contributing the India chapter goor the International Film Guide published out of London Uma has contributed research and chapters on Indian cinema for leading publishing houses in Italy and Japan.

Born in 1966 in Teheran, Ali Mosaffa is a graduate of Civil Engineering from Tehran University. He started his film career as an actor in the early 90's, earning praise for his work in a loose adaptation of J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey entitled Pari (1994, dir. Dariush Mehrjui). He won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 13th Fajr International Film Festival for his role in the film. In 1991, he began making short films, Incubus (1991), Rush (1993), The Deceit of Poesy (1996) and The Neighbour (1999). Portrait of a Lady Faraway (2005) was Mosaffa's debut feature film, which premiered at Karlovy Vary and then toured some of the prestigious world festivals like Montreal, London, and Istanbul. The Last Step is his second feature film. It was screened at Tehran's Fajr Film Festival in February 2012 and received the Best Script award there. The international premiere of this film took place at the 47th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, July 2012.

Yam Laranas was born and raised in Davao City, Philippines. He studied filmmaking at the Mowelfund Film Institute in Manila under Nick Deocampo, Tomas Mauch, Helga Borsche and Christoph Janetzko. Yam pursued a career in advertising as director-cinematographer producing award winning spots for the local industry. He has directed and photographed six features to date - with The Echo (Sigaw) being the most celebrated and awarded. His latest film The Road is the first Filipino film to be commercially released in mainstream US and Canadian markets.

Faouzi Bensaïdi, directed his first short film in 1997, after having worked in theater as a director and an actor. In 2000, his film The Wall, won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival and The Rain Line, won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 2003, his first feature film A Thousand Months, won two awards in Cannes and was distributed in over a dozen countries.

Former Secretary Water Resources in the Government of India, and in that capacity he was the initiator and principal draftsman of India's first National Water Policy in 1987. Has written several books

For Navroze Contractor, Mani Kaul's Duvidha (1973) was not just a first feature film but it was his very first film that he had ever shot. Before joining the FTII, Navroze had studied painting and photography at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda. Recently, Navroze photographed and directed Jharu Katha, a documentary on brooms, funded by the Ford Foundation, India.

Three of Mani Kaul's films, Satah se Uthta Aadmi (1980), Dhrupad (1983), and A Desert of a Thousand Lines (1986), have been shot by him. Virendra had been intimately and consistently connected with the New Cinema movement in India. After directing several short films and television series, he made his first feature film Kabhi Pass Kabi Faiil followed by Foto, both winning the National Awards for the Best Children Film.

Tanwarin Sukkhapisit was born in 1973 in Korat, Thailand. She played a cross dresser in the TV series Chai Mai Jing Ying Tae in 1998 which was a hit but controversial with the government. Her first feature film, Insects in the Backyard (2001) was banned by the Thai rating committee for alluding to patricide and prostitution but was screened at international festivals. In 2011, she became one of the founders of Amfine Production and is also the President of Thai Film Director Association.

Intishal Al Timimi, b 1954, Baghdad, is a photographer, journalist and festival curator. He holds Masters degree in Journalism from Moscow University. He is the artistic director of the Arab Film Festival in Rotterdam and programme advisor for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Singapore International Film Festival, Ismalia Film Festival.... to name just a few. A keen follwoer of the developments in Cinema from the Arab world, he has been a member of several International Juries in film festivals worldwide. Intishal has held several photo exhibitions in (Damascus, Berlin, Delft, The Hague and Brussels & writes regularly for Arab Newspapers & Magazines.

Born in Lebanon, Jean-Claude Codsi started as an engineering student at Saint Joseph University. He then pursued film studies in Belgium and obtained a degree at the INSAS - Brussels. He wrote and directed his first feature film, Ana el Awãn (Time Has Come) in 1994. The film received the jury award at the Namur Francophone Film Festival and is seen as the first Lebanese post-war film. Codsi has been teaching scriptwriting and film directing since 1997 at IESAV, the audiovisual Institute of Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

Kenny Deori Basumatary has acted in two films - Shanghai and Luv Ka The End - apart from playing several comic characters on Channel V's Bollywood Nonsensex and the online comedy show JayHind. He has also written a novel, Chocolate_Guitar_Momos, a romantic comedy which has made it to several bestseller lists.

Rohit Khaitan is dedicated Media Entrepreneur / an Independent Film Producer and the Founder of Glamour Struck Productions, established in 2008. Commerce graduate from Hans Raj College, Delhi University. Khaitan began his career in Media and Entertainment early on, after a brief stint in commercial banking at HSBC Bank, New Delhi. He joined Director Anurag Kashyap in 2005 during the filming of 'No Smoking,' subsequently line producing his next film 'Dev. D' in barely 2 years. Khaitan previously worked as Supervising Producer and Creative Producer at NFDC and Balaji Motion Pictures. PRAGUE is his first home production movie which he conceptualized and produced and first Indian-Swiss Co-Production.

Shoojit Sircar made his debut in Bollywood with the 2005 release Yahaan, which won the Indian Competition Special Jury Award at Osian's-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema. Six years after Yahaan, Vicky Donor is a tremendous success. Despite exploring the sensitive topic of sperm donation, the film is light-hearted, sensitive, and effortlessly funny. Shoojit has begun working on his next film Jaffna, a serious, edgy thriller based on Sri Lankan politics starring John Abraham.

His (Paddy to his friends) association with Mani Kaul goes back to 1977, when Kaul with his Yukt Film Cooperative comrades was making Ghashiram Kotwal. Later on he worked with Kaul on Dhrupad (1982) and on all his subsequent films up to Naukar ki Kameez (1999) as the location recordist or on the mix. Paddy is an alumnus of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), where Mani Kaul had studied and later taught.

Sandesh Kulkarni has been active on the Marathi theatre scene as an actor, writer and director for the past 20 years. He has his own group Samanvay, which has produced important plays. He represented India at the Royal Court Theatre's International Residency as a writer. Masala is his first feature film.

Shin Suwon was born in 1967 in Seoul. She graduated from Seoul National University with a Major in German language education and the department of Filmmaking in Korea National University of Arts (KNUA). Her feature film Passerby #3 won the Best Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Samimitra Das is a recent pass out of SRFTI, a premier film institute of India. Thereafter he worked as an Assistant Director with Vikram Motwane on Lootera and is now working as an Associate Director on a yet untitled film being made in Bombay.

Rizwan Siddiqui is an advertising professional who is based in Lucknow. He has worked with many multinational advertising agencies in Delhi. As a script writer, he has written some very successful TV commercials and Series. His directorial debut Kharboozey (2010) won several Indian and International awards. Rizwan has a keen interest in kite flying, story telling and exploring human behaviour. He plans to take his interests in film making further by making some radical films.

A Punjabi, born and brought up in Chennai, by parents born and brought up in Madras, I am as much a madrasi at heart as I am a Punjabi. This combination did make me sub consciously imbibe tastes and practices beyond just my nativity and look at things in a bigger context. I have seldom settled for what is available to all. Trying to learn something new, I decided to discontinue in a regular c.b.s.e. school and pursue the Cambridge board A levels in psychology, sociology, business studies and spoken English as my majors. That was where I developed the confidence to push myself to explore other avenues in life. Immediately after that, my education in visual communication with a specialization in Television Production helped me realize that this is where I wanted to be. My education in film direction in L.V.Prasad Academy made me realize that there is so much learning and realization that goes into making and understanding a film. The way in which Kim Ki Duk can say such powerful things in such poetic style, the way Wong Kar Wai, can make you want to fall in love over and over in 'In The mood For Love', or whether it is Yash Chopra's love for the good life in his films, or Maneesh Sharma's observation of people and Imtiaz Ali, Raju Hirani's knowledge of making a truly intelligent , honest and entertaining film, just makes me want to watch and understand cinema so much more and be able to bring out my ideas with skilful craft. The way in which all other art forms like performance, sound design, music, cinematography, art design, edit enhance the feel of a situation and help us to communicate better never fails to fascinate me. I have utmost respect for all film technicians and aspire to be a good one myself. Making films (whether ads, corporate or features) that are genuine, universal, viable and entertaining is what I am striving for.

Sandeep Ray is an editor, camera operator and producer and has made four documentaries. The Sound Of Old Rooms is his first feature length film.

Madan Gopal Singh is an Indian composer, actor, screenwriter, film theorist, lyricist and editor. He has written and lectured extensively on cinema, art and cultural history. He has been actively associated with the widely acclaimed Pakistani film, Khamosh Pani, as its music composer; and has also worked as the screenplay and dialogue writer for the Name of a River - a feature film on the life of Ritwik Ghatak. Madan is also an Ethnomusicologue and an internationally acclaimed singer of Sufi texts. Dr. Madan Gopal Singh is a singer of Sufi texts and has sung for films like Kumar Shahani's Kasba and Khayalgatha and Mani Kaul's Idiot. As a singer, he travelled with the legendary Kurdo-Persian singer Shahram Nazeri to ancient Sufi towns such as Isfahan, Hamadan & Kermenshah. He also performed at the 2nd Sufi Soul World Music Festival held in Lahore, Pakistan in 2001. He also composed music for the documentary film on Kashmir- Paradise on a River of Hell directed by Meenu Gaur and Abir Bazaz. He also composed music for Sabiha Sumar's celebrated Khamosh Pani - a French-German-Pakistan coproduction. The film has been widely acclaimed and shown the world over. It won the Best Film award at the Locarno Film Festival, 2003 I have been actively associated with the widely acclaimed Pakistani film, Khamosh Pani, as its music composer; I have also worked as the screenplay and dialogue writer for the Name of a River - a feature film on the life of Ritwik Ghatak

Alex Chung, film producer, Swiss adapted Taiwanese, obtained the degree in engineering in 1995 and the master in design in 1999 in Italy.Since 2000 he was working as intercultural mediator for Lugano City, 2011 inaugurated Lugano Representative Office in Beijing, presenting an editorial initiative, debuted with 4 Max Frisch navels in China, as well curator for Poem festival "Poestate" 2011, 2012 in Lugano. Film producer since 2005, "Winter Vacation" produced with Li Hongqi as director won the "Pardo d'oro" at the 2010 Film Festival of Locarno. Today 2 documentaries with Li Hongqi are in progress, and a co-produced feature film of Jeshua Dreyfus will be launched at summer 2012.

Ahmed Rashwan is an Egyptian film director, screenplay writer, and a film producer. His filmography includes a list of short films , documentaries, and one long-feature film. Since his graduation from the Cairo Film Institute in 1994, he worked on promoting independent Cinema in Egypt, as an alternative path to overcome the sway of the mass marketed film production. In 2002, Rashwan wrote a book about Arab Independent Cinema . Rashwan worked as an executive producer and director for many documentaries produced exclusively for Al-Jazeera (an Arab News Network based in Qatar). Those films were financed through Hot Spot Films (A Film Production Company based in Dubai-UAE). He also worked as an executive producer for several productions, financed by Arab and American film production companies. 2008 witnessed the accomplishment of his first long-feature film “Basra”. The world premier was in October 2008 (Mostra de Valencia Film Festival). “Basra” won the Best Cinematography Award from Mostra de Valencia Film Festival, then Best Arab Screenplay Award from Cairo International Film Festival November 2009, Best Director (for first Film) and 3rd production award in 15th National Film Festival - Cairo April 2009, and Best Actor ( Bassem Samra) in Arab Film Festival -Rotterdam June 2009. in 2011, Rashwan made his documentary film “ Born on the 25th of January “ , as co-production with UAE - Dubai Entertainment and Media Organization, in association with : Dubai Film Market - Enjaaz. And the World Premiere was in DIFF - Muhr Arab Documentary.

Born in Kobe, Japan, Kyoko started to distribute and promote Asian films including especially Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, Indian and Iranian cinema in Japan since 1986. She has also organized the ACEM (Afghan Children Education Movement establised by Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf) with Director Siddiq Barmak in Afghanistan

Arvind Iyer is an Independent filmmaker based in Mumbai. He began his career being an Ad filmmaker, Research Writer and an award winning Graphic Designer before moving onto story telling with the Short film in Dutch titled 'Karma' in 2006. Iyer is the Creative Director of the production house Iceberg Nine Films and Drapchi is his first feature film.

Irshad Kamil is a prolific lyricist in the new wave of the Hindi Film Industry. In a span of ten years he has created a niche' for himself through an endeavor for original thought and with a weave of distinctly fresh breath in expression. Irshad hails from Malerkotla,Punjab. He holds a Doctorate in Contemporary Hindi Poetry from Panjab University, Chandigarh. In the year 2003, with the release of Chameli, Irshad embarked on his journey as a lyricist. It was here itself that his expression through words won him instant recognition. Socha Na Tha (Irshad's first signed film) released in 2004 where again the songs stood out in prominence. His journey continued with a couple of movies, which had songs in his signature style ; but it was in 2007, with the release of Jab We Met that an astounding recognition for his writing heard its echoes everywhere. In the year 2010, Irshad Kamil won his First Filmfare for Love Aaj Kal. In films like Aakrosh, We Are Family, Action Replay, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Mere Brother ki Dulhan , Mausam , Rockstar and the latest being Cocktail, one can witness his innate poetic sensibility effortlessly manifesting itself and in the process giving a stature to the lyrical value of Hindi Film Songs. Irshad's songs are his imaginative revelations, yet to be decoded by all. But Rockstar is the closest to the reflection of this lyricist. His lyrics in Rockstar were highly acclaimed and he was awarded almost all the awards in 2012, winning his 2nd Filmfare as well for his song Nadaan Parindey- (RockStar). Apart from his work as a lyricist, Irshad has lent his words to a number of advertisements, most recent being-“Hum Mein Hai Hero”, (Composed by A R Rahman) for Hero Bikes. His love for literature and poetry can be seen in other realms of writing as well. Irshad has given an in depth critical analysis of contemporary hindi poetry in his book -“Samkaleen Hindi Kavita: Samay aur Samaaj” which was launched in December 2011. His work as a playwright will soon be published in the form of his first full length play-Bolti Deewarein. For Irshad, his writings are the echoes of his sentiments and sensibilities; A quest for the Self through creative expression. And of course, this is just the beginning of a blessed journey towards oneself.

Writer, film critic and professor of art criticism at the Faculty of Information, Cairo University and the International Academy of Media, Tarek el- Shennawy graduated from the Faculty of Media - Cairo University in 1979, and the Institute of Cinema in 1984. He has published more than ten books including Directors of the 80s, The Dream and the Reality, The Cinema and a Little of Politics, The Years of Laughter in the Egyptian Cinema, and Suffering and Oum Kalthoum amongst others. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Best Critical Article by the Union of journalists and film associations. Shennawy started his work as a film critic 25 years ago while writing for the magazine Rose El Youssef. A prolific writer, he currently writes for several newspapers and magazines such as the Daily El Tahrir, El Dostour, Sot El Omma, the Arab newspaper El Shark El Awsat, and the magazine Rose El Youssef, in addition to some electronic sites such as MBC and Masrawy.

Suresh Chabria Suresh Chhabria is the Professor of Films Appreciation & Registrar, FTII, Pune. He was the Director of The National Film Archive of India, Pune from 1992 to 1998. He has published several articles on film and history in periodicals in India and abroad. His book “Light of Asia; Indian Silent Film,” is a highly acclaimed record of Indian silent era films betweem 1912 to 1934. His other interests are painting, photography and culture studies.

OFFICIAL Roger Garcia Executive Director, Hong Kong International Film Festival Society With over 30 years in the arts, cultural and film industries for both the Hong Kong Government and the private sector, Mr. Garcia has served as a strategic and programming consultant, adviser, curator and juror for many international film festivals in Europe, US and Asia. Mr. Garcia was the director of the HKIFF soon after it began in the late 1970s when he consolidated its programming of contemporary and classic Hong Kong cinema and developed its bi-lingual publications which helped introduce Hong Kong cinema to the world. He also pioneered the HKIFF's specific focus on Asian cinema that became a model for many subsequent international film festivals. Mr. Garcia was previously a HKIFF and AFA Jury member, an HAF Advisor and HKIFF Programme Consultant. He was consultant for the corporatisation of HKIFF. He has been Executive Director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society since 2010. As an established film critic and writer, his work has been published globally including Asiaweek, British Film Institute, Cahiers du Cinema, Far East Economic Review, Film Comment and Variety among others. Mr. Garcia has also lectured on Asian cinema at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley and was the first Director of the Filmmakers' Development Lab (FDL) for the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) from 2005-2008. As producer, he has worked on both studio pictures and independent films including US box office topper The Big Hit (Columbia TriStar/ Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips); and in Asia, works such as Himpapawid (Manila Skies) by Cannes Palme d'Or winner, Raymond Red. Mr. Garcia was also creator and executive producer of Cinema AZN (Comcast Cable) the first series on Asian and Asian American cinema in the US.

Amar Kanwar is a Delhi based film maker and his films are screened in several film festivals as well as in museums like the Stediljk Museum, Amsterdam, Museum of Modern Art, New York and the National Museum in Oslo, Norway. He is the recipient of the 1st Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art from Norway; an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Maine College of Art, USA; Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival; Golden Conch, Mumbai International Film Festival; First Prize, Torino International Film Festival, Italy; Jury’s Award, Film South Asia, Nepal; Grand Prix at EnviroFilm, Slovak Republic; Golden Tree at the 1st National Environment and Wildlife Film Festival, Delhi. He has also participated in Documenta 11 (2002) and Documenta 12 (2007), Kassel, Germany.

Khavn De La Cruz is a multi-awarded and internationally renowned filmmaker, composer, and writer. Seen as the father of Philippine digital filmmaking, he has thirty-three features and more than a hundred short films under his belt. He has served as jury member at various film festivals and is the festival director of .MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival, the first digital film festival in the Philippines. He has published five books, which includes an anthology of Philippine poetry, a non-fiction compendium on new Philippine cinema, and Ultraviolins, the first postmodern book of stories in Filipino.

After working in the IT industry for about four years and then completing a film making program at NYFA, Los Angeles, Prithvi Konanur made his the debut feature film Alegalu. His first short film 'A Conditional Truce', shot in Sri Lanka, was well received in the international film festival circuit.

Born in the beautiful land of Assam, Bidyut Kotoky was heavily influenced by the landscape in his formative years. He obtained a Masters degree in both Economics and Mass communication from Pune. He has successfully directed over 140 short films. His first feature length documentary was 'The road less travelled… where the journey is the destination'. He is currently working on a feature length documentary 'Guns and Guitars' - a musical travelogue set in region torn by insurgency.

Mr. Uday Kumar Varma is presently the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. He has won numerous awards in his career. He has published two books and written scores of papers which were presented on national and international fora.

Mr. Jindal is one of the leading film producers of India, He has produced films such as Rajnigandha(1974), Shatranj Ke Khilari(1977), the Academy Award Winner Gandhi(1982), Katha(1983) and Dance of the Wind(1997) amongst others. Mr. Jindal is a "Chevalier dans l'ordre des arts et lettres", a title bestowed by the French government.

.Sc. in the early 1980s, University of Bombay. Went into political journalism after college; began writing on film. Active member of the editorial collective of the Journal of Arts and Ideas and a regular contributor to Framework and Sight & Sound. Senior Research Fellowship from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (1989-91). Author of Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic (Screen Unit, 1982); editor, with Paul Willemen, Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (British Film Institute and OUP, 1994); editor, The Sad and Glad of Kishore Kumar (Research Centre for Cinema Studies, 1988); editor, with Amrit Gangar, Ghatak : Arguments/Stories (Screen Unit/Research Centre for Cinema Studies, 1987); editor, with Marco Muller, L'Avventurose Storie del Cinema Indiano (2 vols., in Italian) (Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema, 1985); editor, with Rani Burra, Looking Back, 1896-1960 (Directorate of Film Festivals/Film India Retrospective of Indian Cinema, 1981). Currently coordinating the Media Archive of CSCS, and working on a collection of essays titled Who's Looking? Has published widely on cinema and contemporary art, and presented papers on these topics in conferences across the world. Has taught film studies at the University of Iowa, The Korean National University of Arts, Seoul, Birkbeck College/British Film Institute, Jadavpur University, University of Bombay, and the National Film Archive of India/Film and Television Institute of India. Jury member, National Film Awards (Feature Films), New Delhi, 1995; and Selection Committee Member, First Festival of Short and Documentary Films, Bombay, 1990. in the early 1980s. Co-curator (with Geeta Kapur) of the exhibition Bombay/Mumbai 1992-2001, part of Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London, 2001. E-Mail address : ashish@cscsban.org

Olgu Baran Kubilay (Istanbul, 1986) studied at the Film & Television Department of Marmara University Fine Arts Academy. As one of the co-founders of GRKM Productions, he made several promotional films and music videos, and has since worked in many short films. Two of his scripts have won the Türsak Screenplay Competition award.

Eric Dinkian is a French professional television and film editor since 1999. He runs the Editing Section of the 3IS School since 2008 and regularly teaches there. He has been collaborating as a journalist with the webzine Devildead.com and has been published in Mad Asia, a magazine specializing in Asian cinema. He is now working on his first feature film as a director.

Born in 1979 in Japan, Yu Irie produced Obsession (2003) and Seven Drives (2004). He established his production company Norainu Film. His main production works are Cream Lemon: Madoll (2007) and Japonica Virus (2007), amongst others. His first film 8000 Miles won the grand prix award at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2009. It also won the NETPAC award at the 13th Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Anurag Kashyap is a critically acclaimed Indian film director and screenwriter. He has directed the critically acclaimed Black Friday (2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking (2007), Dev D (2009), Gulaal (2009), and That Girl in Yellow Boots, (2010). Considered as one of the most versatile and prolific filmmakers in contemporary Hindi cinema, he has won several awards over the years for his films.

Like many others of Mani Kaul's associates, Reena Mohan was also just a fresher from the FTII when she started editing Mati Manas (1985). Besides having edited a number of acclaimed non-fiction films, Reena Mohan has herself independently directed three non-fiction films. Her maiden film Kamlabai (1992) about the first woman to act on Indian screen, had earned him a National Award. Her other films include Jouryes(1998) and Skin Deep (1998).

Vinay Pathak is an Indian actor and a theatre person. He has starred in various critically acclaimed films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry and Johny Gaddar. Pathak started off with bit roles before being noticed for his role in the comedy Khosla Ka Ghosla. Soon after that, his stellar performance in the comedy Bheja Fry won him rave reviews. Along with friend and co-star Ranvir Shorey, he was the host of the successful talk show Ranvir, Vinay aur Kaun? which aired on Star TV. He and Ranvir Shorey hosted a show called "Nokia Football crazy" on ESPN-STAR during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He also starred in the critically acclaimed movie Johnny Gaddaar and in the Madhuri Dixit hit movie Aaja Nachle. His new releases include acclaimed director Sudhir Mishra directed Khoya Khoya Chand, Rab ne bana di jodi, Dasvidaniya - which he has coproduced as well.

Raghu Rai (born in December 1942) is one of India's foremost photographers. In 1977 he was nominated to Magnum Photos, the world’s most prestigious photographers’ cooperative, founded by the legendary photographer Henri Cartier Bresson. He was awarded the ‘Padmashree’ in 1971, one of India’s highest civilian awards ever given to a photographer. In 1992 he was awarded “Photographer of the Year” in the United States for the story “Human Management of Wildlife in India” published in National Geographic.

Branding specialist, media advisor & film producer, Rahul Mittra's debut film Saheb biwi aur Gangster released last year was received very well at the box office, apart from getting rave reviews from the media & bagging top nominations at all major film award functions. Overwhelmed at the success of his maiden project, Delhi bred Rahul Mittra diversified full time into film production with his second film Saheb biwi aur Gangster Returns, seen as one of the fastest sequels to go on floors, slated for a 2012 end release, starring Irrfan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Mahie Gill, Soha Ali Khan & Raj Babbar. His production house, Brandsmith Motion Pictures along with close friend & partner, ace writer-director partner Tigmanshu Dhulia, is seen as one of the fastest growing production houses in the industry with a line up of 3-4 films in the next year. He loves to travel & meet achievers across different walks of life and has been actively featured in top magazines, channels & newspapers for his innovative practices.

Bassam Chekhes was born in Syria and moved to the Netherlands where he studied audio-visual art and graduated from Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He has directed and produced a dozen short films and collaborated in several projects with other artists and filmmakers. He is currently working as a creative advisor and has participated in the Feature Film Educational Programs funded by the Royal Film Commission- Jordan (RFC) and the Doha Film Institute.