Julie Rousson holds a Masters degree in cultural project production, with a master’s thesis about the impact of Internet and numeric revolution on the short film industry. She permanently joins Sauve Qui Peut le Court Métrage, the association behind the Clermont-Ferrand Int’ Short Film Festival, in 2015 after several years working on punctual missions. She is a member of the International competition selection committee. She coordinates the Pop-Up program dedicated to new fiction models, the industry events at the Short Film Market (including coproduction forum Euro Connection) and the relation with administrative institutions. She is a board member of the Short Film Conference.

After studying psychology in Belgium, Wim Vanacker moved to Dublin to work as a psychologist in the field of drug addiction. Three years later, he picked up studying again at EICAR where he made two shorts. After graduating, he discovered NISI MASA – European Network of Young Cinema where he became the Head of the Script Department and the Project manager of the MEDIA funded project, European Short Pitch. For the last six years, he’s been a member of the Selection Committee for the Official Short Film Competition of the Cannes Film Festival. Furthermore, he works as an Editorial Consultant for the First Cut Lab and he’s responsible for the Works-in-Progress Showcase as part of the Red Sea Souk in the context of the Red Sea International Film Festival. On the side, he works as a script consultant, creative advisor, programmer, curator, tutor and guest speaker for many workshops, film festivals and projects in development. As a writer/director, he’s currently developing the films [ˈsɪə.ri.əl ] and Psycho Revisited.

Rafael Manuel is a Filipino filmmaker based in between Amsterdam, London and Manila. His short film ‘Filipiñana’ won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the 70th Berlinale among 14 other prizes around the world. He is current film protége at the Rolex Arts Initiative being mentored by Jia Zhang-ke, and is working on first 2 feature films ‘Filipiñana’ (funded by Film 4 and sold internationally by Magnify) and Patrimonio (backed by the Hubert Bals Fund and the Prince Claus Fund).

Konstantina Kotzamani was born and raised in Greece and graduated from the Film Department of Thessaloniki University. Her short films have premiered at major international festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, and Locarno, earning numerous awards and global recognition. Her work has also been broadcast in Europe, Asia, and the USA and distributed on platforms such as Criterion and MUBI. She has been three-time winner of the Best Short Film award by the Hellenic Film Academy and has received two European Film Academy (EFA) nominations for Best Short of the Year. Additionally, her film Limbo was Oscar-qualified in 2017. Retrospectives of her work have been featured at festivals such as BAFICI, Istanbul Film Festival, and Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal, and she has served as a jury member for multiple international short film festivals. Her medium-length film, Electric Swan, financed by CNC France and ARTE, was shot in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It premiered at Venice 2019 and was declared Best Short of the Year by the French Critics’ Association. Currently, her first feature film, Titanic Ocean is in post-production. A Greek-French-Japanese co-production, the film was shot in Japan. Through her work, Konstantina explores primordial themes such as love, dreams, mystery, and the surreal aspects of life, often crafting alternative realities that challenge perception and storytelling conventions.

Jade Wiseman is a film distributor, curator and festival producer. Originally from Montréal, Canada, she is now based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She previously worked for Vidéographe, IDFA, Transitions, GoShort and is coordinating Distribution for Video Power (NL). She is fueled by an honest passion for non-commercial, experimental moving images and strives to make it more visible and accessible. She has hosted workshops on independent distribution and worked closely with filmmakers to bring their films to wider audiences nationally and internationally. She curated film programs and crafted distribution policies that champion the fair remuneration of filmmakers. Her main goals are sharing industry knowledge, creating a community around unconventional, experimental moving image practices and supporting filmmakers.

Noor Abed is a Palestinian artist who works at the intersection of performance and film, combining forms of the ‘staged’ and the ‘documentary’. Her practice examines notions of social choreographies and collective formations, searching through the connection between the notion of ‘synchrony’ and social action. Abed attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in Νew York in 2015-16, and the Home Workspace Program (HWP) at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut 2016-17. She was a fellow at the Raw Material Company in Dakar in 2019, and in 2020, she co-founded, with Lara Khaldi, the School of Intrusions, an independent educational collective in Ramallah, Palestine. Abed was an assistant curator in documenta fifteen, Kassel 2021-22, an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam 2022-24. She was awarded the Han Nefkens Foundation/ Museu Tàpies Film Production Grant in 2022, and her film ‘A Night We Held Between’ was selected as a first-prize winner of the e-flux Film Award 2024. Her book ‘Stars at Midday’ was recently published by Occasional Papers in October 2024.

Dana Linssen is a Dutch film critic, philosopher and writer. She is the former editor-in-chief of de Filmkrant magazine, a long-standing film critic for Dutch daily newspaper NRC, the founder of the Slow Criticism Project and a former curator of the Critics’ Choice at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where she commissioned and programmed video essays for the big screen for 10 years. She has received several awards for her work as a film critic and teaches at HKU Utrecht University of the Arts and ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem. She is a member of the selection committee of the Berlinale Talents.

Helena Kate Whittingham is the founder of Lover Management, a pioneering talent agency specialising in intimacy and the erotic. Since launching in 2019, she has worked with leading names in the sex industry and collaborated with brands including LELO, Lovehoney, Ann Summers, Mubi, and Channel 4. With a background in curating and a long-standing interest in the intersection of art, sex, and film, she is also one half of Content Warning—a curatorial duo exploring fetishistic desire and erotic cinema through screenings and archival work. Their series Late Tapes, in collaboration with the UK Fetish Archive and ICA, presenting rare and archival VHS pornography to explore the aesthetics, politics, and historical significance of fetish on film.

Doreen Boonekamp is a seasoned chief executive officer and expert with over 35 years of experience in the audiovisual industry and cultural sector. From October 2009 to October 2019, she served as CEO of the Netherlands Film Fund. Prior to that, she led the Netherlands Film Festival for eight years, then the largest cultural media event in the country. She held various positions at the festival from 1990 onwards. She also worked for CineMart at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Since 2020, she has worked as an independent strategic advisor, holding various board and advisory roles. Among her current functions, she chairs the Platform ACCT “chain tables” for film and TV production and for film festivals, driving the dialogue on fair pay and improved working conditions in the sector. She also represents EU training providers as ambassador of the Audiovisual Training Coalition. She currently holds several ancillary positions, including President of the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht and member of the supervisory boards of the Limburg Film Office and the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht. Doreen holds degrees in Arts Management from HKU – University of the Arts Utrecht and in Public Administration from the University of Amsterdam. She is a member of both the European Film Academy and the Dutch Academy for Film.