The Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in Southeast Europe, and is one of the largest film festivals in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian Independence War, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and showcases an extensive variety of feature and short films from around the world. The current director of the festival is Mirsad Purivatra, former CEO of the Bosnian branch of McCann Erickson.
Elissa Down is an Australian filmmaker who, in 1999 and 2000, was nominated for Young Film-maker of the year at the WA Screen Awards.
Jean-Claude Brisseau was a French filmmaker best known for his 2002 film Secret Things and his 2006 film The Exterminating Angels.
David Bonneville is a London-based filmmaker.
The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is a film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of the "Big Three" alongside the Venice Film Festival in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival in France. Since 2019, Mariette Rissenbeek serves as the executive director of the festival, while Carlo Chatrian is the artistic director.
The 16th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June – 5 July 1966. The Golden Bear was awarded to the British film Cul-de-sac directed by Roman Polanski.
The 17th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 23 June – 4 July 1967. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Belgian film Le départ directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.
Steven Markovitz is a South African film and television producer. He has produced, co-produced and executive-produced features, documentaries and short films. Steven has been producing and distributing for over 20 years. Since 2007, he has worked all over Africa producing documentary series and fiction. He is a member of AMPAS, co-founder of Electric South & Encounters Documentary Festival and the founder of the African Screen Network.
Denis Côté is an independent filmmaker and producer living in Quebec, of Brayon origin. His experimental films have been shown at major film festivals around the world.
Sciapode is a French film production and distribution company headquartered in Paris. Founded in 2003, the company specializes in producing European feature films, both fictional and documentary, blending different genres and art forms.
Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker and producer whose films have screened worldwide in prestigious film festivals, museums, galleries, universities and microcinemas since 2005. Her films often address the collision of identities. Interpreting the notion of "double consciousness," coined by sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois to define the experience of black Americans negotiating selfhood in the face of discrimination and cultural dislocation, Owusu aims to create a third cinematic space or consciousness. In her work, feminism, queerness, and African identities interact in African, white American, and black American cultural spaces.
Meenu Gaur is a London-based British-Indian director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 2013 Pakistani film Zinda Bhaag which she co-wrote and co-directed with Farjab Nabi. The film was an entry to the foreign film category at the Oscars.Zinda Bhaag earned her critical acclaim worldwide and was theatrically released in USA, UAE and Pakistan. It was subsequently released on Netflix in 2015. She is presently working on a feature film titled 'Barzakh:Between Heaven and Hell' supported by the Locarno International Film Festival's Open Doors Hub Programme. She has also been part of Berlinale Talents and the NIPKOW film residency in Berlin, supported by Berlinale and Medienboard. Recently, SOAS, University of London installed her portrait on the school walls as part of the Alumni Series that celebrates notable alumni.
Syllas Tzoumerkas is a Greek film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Daniel Joseph Borgman is a New Zealand film director.
Considered as the auteur du jour in Bangladesh, Kamar Ahmad Simon is a new generation Bangladeshi filmmaker, writer, and cinematographer with many international awards and acclaims. Trained as an architect, Kamar is one the only Bangladeshi filmmaker who has been featured as the Red Carpet Director on the Grande Piazza, Locarno’s 8,000 seat open air theater, received WCF from Berlinale and was invited to La Atelier Cinéfondation of Cannes where only the organizers reserve the right to invite the upcoming very best of world cinema. La Bibliothèque publique d’information (BPI) France, Johns Hopkins University USA has acquired his film and Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) have exhibited his work.
Fran Borgia is a filmmaker based in Singapore since 2004. He is the founder of Akanga Film Asia.
The 67th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 18 February 2017 with Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven as President of the Jury. Django, directed by Etienne Comar, opened the festival. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Hungarian film On Body and Soul directed by Ildikó Enyedi, which also served as closing film of the festival.
Berlinale Talents , is the annual summit and networking platform of the Berlin International Film Festival for 250 outstanding creatives from the fields of film and drama series, with the events taking place in February at the three venues of HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theatre in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
Paz Fábrega is a Costa Rican film director, scriptwriter and producer. She has directed two feature films and several shorts. Her film Agua fría de mar earned the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, one of the most prominent awards won by a Central American film. Her works deal with loneliness and the vulnerability of youth.
The 70th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 20 February to 1 March 2020. It was the first under the leadership of new Berlin Film Festival heads, business administration director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian. The festival opened with the opening gala presented by actor Samuel Finzi followed by the world premiere of the film My Salinger Year which was selected for the Berlinale Special section. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Iranian film There Is No Evil, directed by Mohammad Rasoulof.
