He graduated in cinematography from the Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first steps filmmaking in documentaries and as a war reporter. He began his television career as the cinematographer on the pilot for Ugly Betty, which opened the door for him in American television (30 Rock, Sister Jackie, Bored to Death, Orange is the New Black). He has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award. For his work on an episode of series Marco Polo, he received the Award for Best Cinematography of the American Society of Cinematographers, of which he is also a member. He lives in New York.

Ivan Ikić (Belgrade, 1982) studied film and television directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His debut film, Barbarians (2014), received the Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary and has screened at numerous festivals. In 2016, he was selected for the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence, where he conceived Oasis. The film premiered at Venice, where it won the prestigious Europa Cinemas Label award, also scooping up the Golden Pram for Best Film at the 2020 Zagreb Film Festival.

An actress and cultural activist with degrees in Performing Arts and Anthropology. She is part of several independent theatre groups that do multidisciplinary political and theatre projects – the Macaz Cooperative, 4th Age Community Arts Center and Replika Center. With her colleagues, she develops artistic and social programs in support of vulnerable communities, promoting socially engaged art and accessibility to culture. She performs in Romanian, English, French and Yiddish.

Born in Montenegro in 1987. He graduated in film directing from the Faculty of Art and Design in Belgrade. He has directed and written several short and medium-length films screened and awarded at numerous international festivals, including A Small Good Thing (2011), Wars (2013), Our Skin Is Going To Gray (2014) and Malesh (2016). His feature debut, After the Winter (2021), was developed at ZFF’s workshop My First Screenplay, screening at this year’s Karlovy Vary. He is a selector for the Montenegro Film Festival.

Slovenian director and author of the festival hit Class Enemy (ZFF 2014), which won the FEDEORA Award for Best Film at the International Critics’ Week in Venice. For his documentary The Family (2017), he received the Grand Prix at Locarno Critics Week. His works deal with intense themes, which he approaches with great subtlety. He is interested in the potential dangers that lie in small, everyday details. A gesture, a look or a wrong word have the weight and the power to create serious consequences. Rok’s short film Penalty Shot (2021) screened at the Locarno Film Festival. He is currently working on the screen adaptation of Kristian Novak’s bestselling novel, Dark Mother Earth.

Sara Grgurić was born in Rijeka in 1998. In 2020, she completed her undergraduate studies in film and TV directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Her undergraduate graduation film, In the Woods (2020), was shown in the Checkers program at ZFF, where it received the Golden Pram for Best Croatian Short. She is a graduate student of feature film directing at ADU.

Born in Virovitica in 1988. In 2013, she graduated in acting from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She has since worked as an actress as a freelance artist. She has acted in about twenty roles on film and television, including Mali (2018), Life is a Trumpet (2015), The Diary of the Great Perica (2021 –), Black & White World (2015 – 2021) and others.

Saša Ban was born in Zagreb in 1978. He is a film director and professor of philosophy and comparative literature by profession. He makes documentaries for the Croatian Radiotelevision, commissioned, short fiction and documentary films. He was a member of several juries at festivals in Croatia. From 2018 to 2020, he was an artistic advisor for short fiction films with the Croatian Audiovisual Center for two terms. In 2020, he founded the artistic organization Zelena Zraka.

She was born in Zagreb, where she graduated in Croatian studies from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1995, and then earned her master’s and doctoral degrees. From 1995 to 2009, she worked as a junior researcher at the Institute of Literary Studies at the Faculty of Humanities in Zagreb. Since 2009, she has been employed at the Faculty of Croatian Studies. She has published books Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (2001), Kraći ljudi: povijest dječjeg lika u hrvatskom dječjem romanu (2011) and Praksa svijeta: biografija Ivane Brlić-Mažuranić (2019). She speaks German and English and translates texts in the field of literary science.