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Wang Tuo is an artist born in 1984 in Changchun, China. His work interweaves Chinese historical facts, cultural archives, fiction and mythology into speculative narratives. Equating his practice to novel writing, he stages an intervention in historical literary texts and cultural archives to formulate stories that blur the boundaries of time and space, facts and imagination. Through film, performance, painting, and drawing, his work is a powerful examination of modern Chinese and East Asian history.

Badlands Film Group is an experimental documentary group founded by Yang Xiao and Chen Sisi in 2020. Their latest film, The Memo, won the Best Documentary Short Film at the 60th Taipei Golden Horse Awards.

Zheng Kuo is a Chinese independent producer and director, graduated from the Li Xianting Film School in 2009. He planned the independent film section of the 2008 Beijing 798 Art Festival at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. He was also the curator of the independent film section of the 2009 Beijing 798 Biennial. In 2010, he directed his first independent feature documentary, 798 Station, and a short fiction film, Sound of Silence. His renowned feature documentary, The Cold Winter, documents the Beijing artists rallies of 2011. Burned Wings is his debut fiction feature film.

Huang Weikai was born in 1972 in Guangdong Province, China. He studied Chinese landscape painting for fifteen years since he was 10. In 1995 he graduated from the Chinese Art Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He has worked as a cinema promoter, art editor, graphic designer, movie script writer and cinematographer before becoming a director in 2002.

Feng Yan is a Chinese independent documentary filmmaker born in 1962. She was raised in Tianjin and attended Tianjin Foreign Studies University, graduating in 1984 with a degree in Japanese literature. Yan moved to Japan in 1988 where she studied for a PhD in economics at Kyoto University. In 1992, she worked as a translator in Tokyo where she had the opportunity to learn about documentary film. Most notably, her film Bing’ai, which documents the struggles of a Chinese woman farmer against relocation to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, won the Ogawa Shinsuke Prize at the 2007 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. The film also won first prize at the 2008 Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival in Spain.

José Luis Aparicio Ferrera is a Cuban filmmaker and curator based in Spain. He graduated in Film Directing from Cuba's University of the Arts (ISA). He has directed the fiction short films Tundra (2021) and El Secadero (Dryland, 2019), as well as the medium-length documentary Sueños al pairo (Dreams adrift, 2020). His films have been selected by festivals such as Sundance, Locarno, Raindance, Miami, BAFICI, Guanajuato, Curta Cinema and NewFilmmakers LA. Tundra was awarded at Fantaspoa, New Jersey, New York City Independent, Pendance and Seattle Latino Film Festival. In 2022 he was invited to Locarno’s Open Doors program and received one of the Prince Claus Seed Awards. He is currently developing his first feature film, The Sea, a project selected by the Spanish Film Academy Residencies and the Cinéma en Développement platform of the Cinélatino-Rencontres de Toulouse film festival. As part of the documenta fifteen in Kassel, he curated “Land Without Images”, the largest retrospective of Cuban independent cinema to date. Since 2021 he has been the artistic director of the INSTAR Film Festival.

Josué G. Gómez is a Cuban filmmaker, visual artist and animator. He graduated in Painting from the Professional Academy of Plastic Arts of Santa Clara, Cuba, and in Audiovisual Communication from the University of the Arts in Havana. In 2018 he was selected to participate in the workshop “Cuba-Anima”, taught by renowned British animators Paul Bush, Barry Purves and Jonathan Hogdson at the International School of Film and TV (EICTV) in San Antonio de los Baños. In 2020 he attended the NYU Tisch Schools of the Art documentary course at the Ludwig Foundation in Cuba. He was also selected for the Rencontres internationales du film documentaire de Docmonde workshop in French Guiana, 2022.

Eliecer Jiménez Almeida is a Cuban independent filmmaker and video artist based in Miami. He founded ikaik films in 2008 to produce experimental films. His documentary Veritas (2022) debuted at the 39th Miami Film Festival and has been in the PBS catalog since 2024. His other works include Entropía (2013), Person (2014), and Now! (2016), all screened at Documenta 15. Persona won the Best Short Film Award at the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale and was screened at MoMA in New York and the Ludwig Forum in Germany. Usufruct (2011) received the Special Prize at the Gibara International Film Festival, and The Face of the Waters (2012) won the Best Short Film Award at the Handle Climate Change International Film Festival in China. He holds a Master's Degree in Mass Communication from Florida International University and a Certificate in Film Studies from the International Film and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños. He participated in the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program in 2016.

Eliecer Jiménez Almeida is a Cuban independent filmmaker and video artist based in Miami. He founded ikaik films in 2008 to produce experimental films. His documentary Veritas (2022) debuted at the 39th Miami Film Festival and has been in the PBS catalog since 2024. His other works include Entropía (2013), Person (2014), and Now! (2016), all screened at Documenta 15. Persona won the Best Short Film Award at the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale and was screened at MoMA in New York and the Ludwig Forum in Germany. Usufruct (2011) received the Special Prize at the Gibara International Film Festival, and The Face of the Waters (2012) won the Best Short Film Award at the Handle Climate Change International Film Festival in China. He holds a Master's Degree in Mass Communication from Florida International University and a Certificate in Film Studies from the International Film and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños. He participated in the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program in 2016.

Daniela Muñoz Barroso (Cuba, 1994). She is a documentary filmmaker, producer and photographer. Graduated in Cinematography at the University of the Arts of Cuba. Co-founder, together with Leila Montero, of the independent Cuban production company Estudio ST, with which she has produced the short films Tundra, The Rodeo, The Rubber Boy and, recently, La Historia se escribe de noche and Blue, films selected at festivals such as Sundance, Rotterdam, Locarno, Ji.hlava, Bogoshorts, BAFICI, Miami, among others. Her feature documentary Mafifa (2021), premiered in the Luminous section of IDFA and was selected in more than twenty festivals. She has also directed the short documentaries Umbra (2021), premiered at FICViña, Chile, with which he participated in the Open Doors Immersion program at the Locarno Film Festival, 2022, and 4 Hoyos, with world premiere at IDFA, 2023.

Luis Alejandro Yero is a Cuban filmmaker graduated in Documentary Directing from the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV) of Cuba. His short films have been awarded at Mar del Plata, FICUNAM and Havana, among others, in addition to being screened at more than a hundred festivals such as IDFA, Sheffield, Jihlava, Jeonju, Thessaloniki, Busan, Malaga, Olhar de Cinema, and cultural institutions such as the Lincoln Center in New York and the Cervantes Institute in several cities around the world. Since 2020 he coordinates the Documentary Department of the EICTV. His debut film Calls from Moscow, had its world premiere in the Forum section of the Berlinale 2023.

Alán González is a Cuban screenwriter, film director and photographer. He wrote and directed short films such as La profesora de Inglés (2015) and El Hormiguero (2017). He is a co-founder and member of VICEVERSA, a collective with which he has advised or co-written the scripts of several feature films in the Caribbean area. Wild Woman (2023) is his first feature film as co-writer and director.

Eliecer Jiménez Almeida is a Cuban independent filmmaker and video artist based in Miami. He founded ikaik films in 2008 to produce experimental films. His documentary Veritas (2022) debuted at the 39th Miami Film Festival and has been in the PBS catalog since 2024. His other works include Entropía (2013), Person (2014), and Now! (2016), all screened at Documenta 15. Persona won the Best Short Film Award at the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale and was screened at MoMA in New York and the Ludwig Forum in Germany. Usufruct (2011) received the Special Prize at the Gibara International Film Festival, and The Face of the Waters (2012) won the Best Short Film Award at the Handle Climate Change International Film Festival in China. He holds a Master's Degree in Mass Communication from Florida International University and a Certificate in Film Studies from the International Film and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños. He participated in the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program in 2016.

Juan Pin Vilar is a Cuban director, writer and producer. He has a degree in Art History from the University of Havana and has directed more than one hundred broadcasts in different genres for Cuban television. During a stay in Mexico, he collaborated with various publications and produced six special broadcasts about Cuba for the program What do you think? on Televisa San Ángel (1996). His works have also been broadcast on public and private television stations in the United States and Spain. Founder of the company Xpin Producciones. In 2017 he directed the documentary Pablo Milanés. His latest work, La Habana de Fito (2023) has been at the center of an internationally renowned debate on censorship and the role of artists and intellectuals in Cuba today.

Eliecer Jiménez Almeida is a Cuban independent filmmaker and video artist based in Miami. He founded ikaik films in 2008 to produce experimental films. His documentary Veritas (2022) debuted at the 39th Miami Film Festival and has been in the PBS catalog since 2024. His other works include Entropía (2013), Person (2014), and Now! (2016), all screened at Documenta 15. Persona won the Best Short Film Award at the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale and was screened at MoMA in New York and the Ludwig Forum in Germany. Usufruct (2011) received the Special Prize at the Gibara International Film Festival, and The Face of the Waters (2012) won the Best Short Film Award at the Handle Climate Change International Film Festival in China. He holds a Master's Degree in Mass Communication from Florida International University and a Certificate in Film Studies from the International Film and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños. He participated in the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program in 2016.

Ana A. Alpízar is a Cuban filmmaker based in the United States. She is co-founder of FILA20, a Cuban-American company whose films have been screened, awarded and distributed in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Her short film The Fisherman (2017) screened at Sundance, Miami, NALIP, Rooftop Films and many other international festivals. El estreno The Premiere (2014) won first prize at the China Women's Film Festival. Hapi Berdey Yusimi in Yur Dey (2020), her most recent short film, was part of the official selection of the New Orleans Film Festival and the Brooklyn Film Festival, among others. Since 2019 she has worked in television and advertising.

Gabriel Alemán has a degree in Audiovisual Communication. He has made various works as a director, producer and photographer, highlighting Tundra (2021),La sed humana (2017), span>Atómatas (2016), El Cóndor (2016). He has recently completed his short film The Broken Space, premiered at the prestigious Pendance Film Festival in Toronto, and is part of the creative group Estudio ST.

Graduated in theoretical subjects at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in 2015. Studied musicology at the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana and several 5.1 Mixing workshops at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV). B.A. in Sound from the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana (2023). Winner of the Europe Caribbean Co-Creation Hub (2023) with the project “La Casa de las fieras” and recently winner of the first film residency for women in Latin America and the Caribbean held in Cuba: La Burbuja Lab. Winner of the Young Art Fund with “El parqueo”, a film project that rescues the tradition of outdoor cinema in Cuba. Co-creator and programmer of “El Observatorio”, a space for socialization and discussion of contemporary Cuban documentary cinema. Director of Horse, Lemus y The Right to Be Lazy.

Daniela Muñoz Barroso is a Cuban documentary filmmaker and film producer based in Madrid. Her films understand and explore cinema from the perspective of her hypoacusia, proposing new sound universes. An example of this is her documentary Mafifa (2021), which premiered at IDFA and was selected in Göteborg, True/False, It's All True, Biarritz, Trieste, Havana. It won the FIPRESCI Award at the Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival, Best Documentary at Cinémartinique, and a Documentary Mention at Trinidad & Tobago. She’s the co-founder of Estudio ST, an independent Cuban production company.

Marcel Beltrán is a Cuban filmmaker currently living and working in São Paulo, Brazil. With film studies at EICTV (Cuba) and Concordia University (Canada), his films have screened internationally at festivals such as IDFA, Hot Docs, MoMA Doc Fortnight, DOC NYC, RIDM, FICG, Busan, DOK Leipzig, Málaga, among others. Founder of Mediocielo Films, professor at EICTV and Chavón | The School of Design, consultant for projects in development at international level and facilitator for sustainability in the arts.

Gretel Marín Palacio, Cuban filmmaker. Master in Documentary Film from the Paris Diderot University and BA in Film Directing from the University of the Arts of Cuba. Her short documentaries have been selected by several international festivals. The Last Country (2018), her first feature documentary, had its world premiere at the Málaga Film Festival and was selected in competition by the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. Between 2014 and 2018 she collaborated as editor and director with the audiovisual production company Geração 80 in Luanda, Angola. She has also produced audiovisual materials for Mosaiko, a civil organization for human rights in Angola.

Karla Crnčević is a Croatian filmmaker who explores the politics of images and sound through various formats and work conditions. Her video works have been exhibited in various countries. She is one of the founders of Unseen festival – dealing with revitalization of cinema spaces. She holds a Master's Degree in Filmmaking from the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola of San Sebastian, Basque Country.

Yousef Srouji is a first time documentary filmmaker. His work centers around understanding the dynamics of occupation in Palestine, and community resilience in conflict zones. He holds a Master of Development Practice from UC Berkeley and hopes to use his skills to aid and empower marginalized communities in the Middle East. Yousef spent the first part of his childhood in Palestine, then relocated to Qatar with his family in the midst of the Second Intifada. He attended the University of British Columbia, where he earned a BA in Economics. He has been a fellow with the SFFilm Catapult Documentary Fellowship, received production and post-production grants from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), and has been a fellow with the Gotham Documentary Feature Lab (formerly IFP Documentary Lab).

Vadim Kostrov is a Russian filmmaker based in Paris. In 2017 he began studying at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), but dropped out in 2018. He then shot his first feature-length documentary film Cherdak-Underground on VHS, telling the story of the Russian underground of the 1980s and 1990s. Returning regularly to the Urals, Vadim created Summer (2020), Winter (2021), Fall (2022), as well as the documentary trilogy Narodnaya (2019), After Narodnaya (2020), and Comet (2020). Summer received a special jury mention at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021, while his earlier work Orpheus (2019) was presented in the competition at FIDMarseille. In March 2022, a retrospective of his work took place at FICUNAM in Mexico City.

Heidi Hassan is a Cuban filmmaker and visual artist based in Madrid. Her work has won awards at international festivals such as IDFA, Havana, Malaga and ZINEBI. She studied Cinematography at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV), Cuba, and obtained a diploma in Directing at HEAD Genève. Her work has been exhibited in Cuba, Canada, Switzerland, the Dominican Republic, the United States and Austria.

Kim Torres is a Costa Rican screenwriter and film director. Her work focuses on inquiries about identity and the experience of inhabiting a body and a place, exploring narratives that play with a free and experimental cinema. Her shorts have been screened in Cannes, Locarno, MoMa and Lincoln Center, among others.

Daryna Mamaisur is a visual artist and filmmaker born in Kyiv, Ukraine. With a background in art theory and philosophy, she developed her practice at the intersection of different disciplines. Her works are related to the transformations of public space and landscape due to their connection to visual culture and memory. Furthermore, she has a particular interest in situations where language and vocal expression seem fragile and unable to grasp reality. In 2022, she graduated from Doc Nomads, a master's programme in documentary filmmaking based in Lisbon, Budapest and Brussels. Her films have participated in film festivals Visions du Réel, FIDMarseille and DOK Leipzig.