He is currently the Artistic Director of the Rome Film Festival and teaches Production Design at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture (USI). Marco Mueller has been Director of several major film festivals: Turin-Electric Shadows (1981), Pesaro (1982-1989), Rotterdam (1990- 1991), Locarno (1992-2000) & Venice (2004-2011). He has produced over twenty award- winning films. Originally an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, he has now writtenand edited 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.

Essentially a painter and filmmaker deeply inspired by Sufism, Muzaffar Ali is known the world over for his film Umrao Jaan, and his name spells a quest for beauty and excellence, humanity and aesthetics. Born on 21st October 1946, Muzaffar Ali is the present Raja of Kotwara, one of the oldest living civilizations in the largest district of Awadh. His first feature film Gaman was made in 1978 which received the special award of the Jury, a Silver Peacock at the 7th International Film Festival, New Delhi. He 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.

Born in 1966 in Teheran, Ali Mosaffa is a graduate of Civil Engineering from Tehran University and started his film career as an actor in the early 90s, earning praise for his work in a loose adaptation of J. D. Salingerís Franny and Zooey entitled Pari (1994, dir. Dariush Mehrjui).He won the Best Supporting Actor at the 13th Fajr International Film Festival for this performance. In 1991 he began making short films, including Incubus (1991), Rush (1993), The Deceit of Poesy (1996) and The Neighbour (1999) (Best Experimental
Film at the Iranian short film fest). Portrait of a Lady Far Away (2005) was Mosaffaís 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, screened at Tehranís Fajr Film Festival in February 2012 and received the Best Script Award. Leila Hatami has just won the Best Actress Award for this film at the 47th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in July 2012. This fil will be screened at the 12th OCFF. The international premiere of this film took place at the 47th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in July 2012.

Magdi Ahmed Ali is a film director from Egypt, and the current President of the Egyptian Film Center. His work in the 80s is said to have started at a crucial time in the history of Egyptian Cinema, a period termed by film critics as ìThe Wave of Realismî. His first feature film, Life, My Passion, won the Best Film at the Cairo Film Festival, picked up three prizes at the Montreal Film Festival and also won the Best Feature Film at the Beirut Film Festival. In 2001, his film Girlsí Secrets shocked Egypt with its bold theme of a young middle class girl, who becomes pregnant while still in high school. It won the Silver Award at the Cairo Film Festival, the Bronze Award at Milano and at the Valencia Film Festival and was also screened at Osianís Cinefan. His film Fawzeyaís Recipe (2008) won Best Film Award at the Wahran Film Festival in Algeria, and the Silver Award at the Rotterdam Arabic Film Festival. Magdi Ahmed Ali is presently the President of Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Short films.

Born in Louisiana, Hart began producing low-budget ìdrive-inî movies in the 1970s, including Summer Run. In 1977, he attempted a screenplay adaptation of Dracula. The screenplay would eventually become Francis Ford Coppolaís 1992 film Dracula. Hart also wrote the screenplay to Steven Spielbergís Hook (with Robin Williams), and served as a producer on both films. Thereafter, he was catapulted to the A-list of Hollywood screenwriters. His other writing credits include adapting Carl Saganís Contact (starring Jodie Foster), Tuck Everlasting, Sahara, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. In 2005, Hart published his first childrenís novel, Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth, yet another take on the Peter Pan character. James V. Hart is a screenwriter, producer, and novelist of repute today.

Born on 15 June 1951 into a working class family in the south-western city of Ahvaz in the Khuzestan province of Iran, Hamid Dabashi received his early education in his hometown and his college education in Tehran. He then moved to the United States, where he received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1984, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. 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 this field. He has taught and delivered lectures in many North and Latin American, European, Arab, and Iranian Universities. 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, his books and articles have been translated into numerous languages.

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 also wrote the original stories and screenplays and also directed the films Fiza, Tehzeeb and Silsilaay. Last year, he debuted as a playwright and director of the stage 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.

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, 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 played a role in nearly 40 films of mainstream and independent cinema.

Annemarie Jacir is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter living in Jordan. Listed as 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 Cinefan Film Festival. Jacir co-founded Philistine Films, an independent production company, focusing on productions related to the Arab world. Annemarie 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 in post-production on her new film When I Saw You.

Atiq Rahimi was born in Kabul in 1962. Following the Soviet invasion, Rahimi fled Afghanistan, taking refuge in Pakistan for a year and then 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 Prix du Regard 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-yearold Prix Goncourt, for Syngue Sabour, his first book in French. This book was translated into English as The Patience Stone.

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. Her film Romance de Valentía (Only the Brave) (1993) about the art of bullfighting, was internationally awarded. In 1997, Yo Soy Así (This Is Me), about the senior artists of a café chantant in Barcelona called ‘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 First prize at the Golden Prague Festival 2003, Grand Prizefor Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York 2004, the Best Documentary Award 2004 at the Bergen International Film Festival in Norway and AQCC Award at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal 2004.