filmmakers
Ada Solomon
Ada Solomon is one of Europe’s most acclaimed producers, known for her bold curatorial vision and commitment to socially relevant cinema. With 100 films to her credit and collaboration with Radu Jude, Ivana Mladenović, Alexandru Solomon and Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), her work has earned top distinctions – from Berlinale’s Golden Bears (Bad Luck Banging, Child’s Pose) to awards in Locarno (Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World) and Venice (The New Year that Never Came). A recipient of the EFA Co-Production Award, she continues to redefine European independent cinema. She is serving the film community as Chairperson of the European Film Academy.
Adam Ganz
Adam Ganz is Professor of Screenwriting at Royal Holloway University of London and a co-investigator on the CoSTAR National Lab - a major research project looking at the future of film, TV and live performance. He studied at Cambridge and Bristol Universities followed by a Directing course at the National Film and Television School. “Synthetic Sincerity” is the third of his collaborations with Marc Isaacs. “Felix’s Room”, which he wrote and co-directed (with creative studio ScanLAB Projects), reconstructed the room where his great-grandfather Felix Ganz and his wife Erna lived for a year in Mainz in Germany before their deportation in 1942. Adam has written several plays for BBC Radio 4, including “The Gestapo Minute” (nominated for Best Single Drama in the BBC Audio Drama Awards). He co-wrote (with Steven Price) “Robert de Niro at Work: From Screenplay to Screen Performance”, the first book-length study of how the actor prepares.
Alessia Borangic
Alessia Borangic (b. 2004, Bucharest, Romania) studies film directing at the National University of Theatre and Film "I. L. Caragiale" in Bucharest. Her shorts were showcased in festivals such as “CineMAiubit”, "Nopțile Scurtmetrajului Studențesc", "SoMe Festival", and "Super Festival", as well as in galleries such as Jecza and Himera and on online platforms – Labocine.
Elena Cernei
Elena Cernei is a community organiser from Găuzeni, a small village in the Republic of Moldova. She organises volunteer initiatives and supports vulnerable people in her community. Her story forms the basis of the documentary „Electing Ms Santa”, which follows her attempt to become the village mayor.
Elena Martin
Elena Martin is a Romanian film producer working across documentary and fiction. Her credits include: “Something Familiar” (CPH:DOX 2026), “Tooth and Nail” (Krakow 2025), “Dad’s Lullaby” (Sarajevo 2024) and “Imaginary Youth” (OWR 2024). She produces documentaries and fiction with a strong social and political focus.
Ilinca Manolache
Ilinca Manolache studied Acting at the National University of Theatre and Film (Bucharest). She stood out in plays like "The Vanished Year. 1989" by Peca Ștefan (she won the UNITER Prize for Best Supporting Actress in 2016). In cinema she collaborated mostly with Radu Jude, in films such as "Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World" (Special Jury Prize – Locarno, and on the European Film Awards shortlist and Romania’s proposal for the Oscars). In the film, she’s both Angela and Bobitză, an avatar Ilinca created using a Snapchat filter of a bold, young toxic male, as a performative exercise of empowerment, through which she recycles the language men use to control, dominate, and objectify women. An outspoken feminist, she’s ready to experiment with cinema and theater.
Ioana Coca
Ioana Coca is an emerging voice in documentary filmmaking. Based in Bucharest, she turns observations of human behavior into compelling visual stories. Her perspective, shaped by travel and curiosity about the human condition, brings a fresh view to contemporary documentary.
Ion Gnatiuc
Ion Gnatiuc is a documentary film producer based in Moldova, and founder of HaiDOC
Productions. A graduate of EAVE Producers Workshop, EFM Doc Toolbox, IDFA Academy and
Balkan Documentary Center, his work focuses on character-driven documentaries developed
through international co-productions.
Johan Grimonprez
Johan Grimonprez is a filmmaker, multimedia artist, and curator whose critically acclaimed work moves between theory and practice, art and cinema, beyond the dualisms of documentary and fiction, self and other, mind and brain, to weave new pathways for perceiving our realities. His film “dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y” (1997, in collaboration with novelist Don DeLillo) premiered at documenta X and was named by the Guardian among the “30 greatest works in the history of video art.” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”, his latest feature, is Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature, premiering at Sundance 2024, where it won the Cinematic Innovation Award, and later the Persistence of Vision Award at SFFilm and the Audience Award at Thessaloniki.
Lisette Olsthoorn
Lisette Olsthoorn is a Dutch based filmmaker whose work evolves around closely observing and occasionally staging interactions between people, revealing layers of common experiences and political tensions. For her cinematic research into precarious labour she made work about museum attendants (“Fantasies on how to Strike”, 2019), microworkers (“Ghost Workers”, 2024) and Uber drivers (“In This Together”, 2025). From 2026 she conducts PhD research on collaborative film practices – Cinematic explorations at work (LUCA School of Arts / KU Leuven, Belgium).
Mahshid Mahboubifar
Mahshid Mahboubifar is a Berlin based artist and filmmaker from southern Iran. Pulling, reassembling, researching still and moving images, she de/re-constructs fragments of archival material. She creates collages tracing the interplay of image, corporeal perception and space. She studied Expanded Cinema at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig.
Marc Isaacs
Marc Isaacs has directed over 10 creative documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, having won Grierson, Royal Television Society and BAFTA awards. In 2008, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of East London. He is a visiting professor at the London Film School, the National Film and Television School and the Royal Holloway University, and Associate Professor UCL. In 2022, he had a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) Paris, as well as in 2025, at One World Romania. His work has been included in numerous documentary books and academic studies.
Marcin Wierzchowski
Marcin Wierzchowski (b. 1984) lives and works in Frankfurt and Warsaw. He studied philosophy at Goethe University and graduated from Mainz University of Fine Arts, receiving the Lions Club Scholarship. He was a Meisterschüler of John Skoog, and in 2019 founded the production company milk&water. His film ”Hanau - Eine Nacht und ihre Folgen” won the Grimme Prize in 2022. He received the Gerd Ruge Scholarship in 2021 and works in theatre as a video artist and set designer.
Mehrdad Oskouei
Mehrdad Oskouei (b. 1969, Tehran) is a celebrated Iranian independent documentary filmmaker, producer, and photographer, known for his deeply humanistic work on marginalized groups, youth, and women, and acclaimed for his tetralogy on incarcerated youth. Oskouei received the 2010 Prince Claus Award and the 2016 True Vision Award at the True/False Film Fest. A founding member of the Institute of Anthropology and Culture in Iran, he also mentors emerging documentary filmmakers.
Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan is a film producer, documentary director and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscar) and the European Film Academy. The films she produced or directed were selected for or awarded at major international festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale, IDFA, CPH:DOX, TIFF, Hot Docs and Toronto.
Olga Lucovnicova
Olga Lucovnicova (Moldova, 1991) is a documentary filmmaker and researcher in audiovisual arts based in Brussels. She won the Golden Bear at the 71st Berlinale and the 35th European Film Academy Award for her short “My Uncle Tudor”. Combining observational cinema with poetic elements, her films explore stories that can spark social change and critical thinking. She graduated from the DocNomads Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Documentary Directing and is currently pursuing a PhD in Belgium on memory and trauma in post-Soviet societies.
Rachel Tâpârjan
Rachel Tâpârjan is a British Romanian filmmaker and academic. She lives in the north east of England and is a senior lecturer in social work at Teesside University. She has directed documentary short films selected for Sheffield DocFest, the East End Film Festival, and SEE Film Festival. She is a member of the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE). She was selected for the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator programme 2022 and subsequently awarded the Cineuropa Marketing award. Her debut feature documentary, "Something Familiar" celebrated its world premiere in the International Main Competition at CPH:DOX 2026.
Raisa Răzmeriță
A graduate of Balkan Documentary Center and a Malik Bendjelloul fellow, Raisa is studying a Master's Degree in Philosophy and Cultural Management at the State University of Moldova. Her documentary debut – ”Electing Ms Santa” – won the Special Jury Award at PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
Roberto Beani
Roberto Beani (Pietrasanta, 1979) earned a film degree in Pisa. He collaborated as a camera operator and director of photography with ZimmerFrei, Matteo Parisini, Mauro Bartoli, and artists like Aldo Giannotti, The Cool Couple, and Danilo Correale. He has signed the cinematography of over twenty films, often shot with small crews or alone, so he can chat freely with “odd folks, alcoholics, and superheroes”, seeking formal freedom and improbable encounters. “Il Pilastro” is his directorial debut.
Valeriu Andrișcă
Valeriu Andrișcă (born in Romania, 1992) is a director and visual artist based in Brussels. They are in a continuous exploration of possibilities to express postmodern visual narratives. Valeriu navigates topics around queerness, alienation, migration, and resistance. Recently, they exhibited at The Green Corridor, the Pride Museum, and during Brussels Art Week.
