Rémi Bonhomme is the artistic director of the Marrakech International Film Festival and the Atlas Workshops, a platform supporting a new generation of Moroccan, Arab, and African filmmakers. From 2009 to 2020, he served as Programme manager of the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes, where he created Next Step, a workshop guiding directors from short to feature-length films. Alongside his programming work, he also nurtures emerging talents as an associate producer, notably on The Dam by Ali Cherri (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2022) and Every Day is a Holiday by Dima El-Horr (TIFF 2009). In 2024, he co-founded with gallerist Imane Farès, Last Dreams Production, a company dedicated to producing films by directors whose work also engages with contemporary art. The company co-produced The Tree of Authenticity by Sammy Baloji (Jury Prize, Rotterdam 2025) and is currently completing a short film by Ali Cherri.

Lina Soualem is a filmmaker and actress, born in Paris to an Algerian father and a Palestinian mother. After studying history and political science at the Sorbonne University, Lina worked as a curator for the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her first feature-length documentary, Leur Algérie, was selected for its world première at Visions du Réel 2020, then released in theatres in France in October 2021. The film has received around ten awards. Lina has starred in four feature films by filmmakers Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Rayhana, and director Cédric Kahn. In 2020, she co-wrote the series Oussekine (Disney+) directed by Antoine Chevrollier. Her second feature-length documentary, Bye Bye Tiberias, had its world premiere in 2023 at the Venice International Film Festival, and was subsequently selected for the Toronto International Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and others. Bye Bye Tiberias represented Palestine at the 2024 Oscars and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, the 2024 European Film Awards, and the 2025 César Awards. Lina also received the Alice Guy Award for best director of the year in 2025.

Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose work pushes the formal boundaries of political cinema. Her films have screened in theatres and festivals internationally, including at Sundance, New York Film Festival, Visions du Reel, and IDFA. She is the director of four feature films, including The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) and The Hottest August (2019), and the author of the book Prison Land. Her most recent feature documentary, Union (2024) co-directed with Stephen Maing, premiered at Sundance 2024 where it won the Special Jury Prize for Art of Change. Union has screened at over 100 festivals worldwide and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Brett holds a PhD in geography and is an assistant professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. She is currently finishing a new film about the writer John Berger. 

Ali Asgari is a writer, director, producer and prominent figure in Iranian cinema whose films focus on the precarious lives of individuals living on the margins of society in his native country.  Two of his short films, More Than Two Hours (2013) and The Silence (2016), were nominated for the Short Film Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. His short film The Baby was also featured in the short film competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2014. In 2017, his debut feature film, Disappearance premiered in Orizzonti at the Venice International Film Festival and was selected at the Toronto Film Festival in the Discovery section. After staging several other short films, he directed his second feature film, Until Tomorrow, which premiered at the 2022 Berlinale in Panorama section. Ali’s third feature film, Terrestrial Verses, a cross-genre film, premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard and was theatrically released in more than 10 territories across the world. Terrestrial Verses has drawn over 100,000 spectators in France and 26,000 in Italy. His fourth feature film, Higher than Acidic Clouds, is a boundary-pushing hybrid film that has been selected for IDFA 2024. Most recently, Ali Asgari was chosen as a jury member for the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival. Ali is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His latest feature film, Divine Comedy, premiered at Venice Film Festival 2025 in Orizzonti section. 

Liyo Gong is a film editor based in Brussels, working across documentary, fiction, and experimental film. She has edited several works presented at festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Visions du Réel, IFFR, and NYFF, as well as at institutions like MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and Hamburger Bahnhof. With an academic background in political science, a parallel practice in music, and a brief venture into acting in Bas Devos’ Berlinale award-winning film Here, her approach to filmmaking is multifaceted, explorative and cross-cultural. Recent editorial credits include Wang Bing’s documentary trilogy Youth, Maxime Jean-Baptiste’s feature film Kouté Vwa (which won multiple awards at the 77th Locarno Film Festival), and Sofie Benoot’s essay film Apple Cider Vinegar, with which she participated for the first time at Visions du Réel. She’s currently working on new features by Beatrice Gibson and Stéphanie Roland.

Antoine Thirion is a film critic and curator. He is currently a member of the selection committee of Cinéma du Réel and an advisor for the New York Film Festival. He has previously served on the selection committees of the Berlinale and the Locarno Film Festival, organised around a dozen monographic retrospectives in France (at the Jeu de Paume and the FIDMarseille), devised performances with Raya Martin (Asian Arts Theater), written for journals such as Cahiers du Cinéma and Cinema Scope, and edited the book Homes Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Éditions de l’Œil, 2024).

Co-Head of Programme at Doclisboa and Programmer at Large at Film at Lincoln Center. She was Artistic Director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and co-programmed Neighboring Scenes: New Latin American Cinema at Film at Lincoln Center. She was also curator of Documenta Madrid and has organized programs for major institutions including UNIONDOCS, MACBA, Museo Reina Sofía, Viennale, and Harvard Film Archive. She is co-editor of the bilingual publication Las Naves Cine and holds an MA in Documentary Filmmaking (UAB, Spain), with training in film restoration from FIAF/ACE, Cineteca di Bologna, and L’Immagine Ritrovata. She was an Associated Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and was awarded the title of Chevalier of the Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.

Nicole Reinhard studied film, history and ethnology at the University of Zurich. From 2000 to 2005, she was part of the management and programming team of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. She then served as director of Stadtkino Basel for seventeen years (2005–2021). During this time, she founded the film archive Kinemathek Le Bon Film in 2009 and launched the Bildrausch Filmfest Basel in 2011, which she co-directed and helped develop. Since 2021, the Swiss film curator and programmer has been director of the Filmpodium Zürich, where she seeks to reconnect audiences with cinema through innovative and surprising programmes, special events and a rigorous curatorial approach. Her commitment to auteur cinema has earned her several distinctions, including an Order of Merit from the French Ministry of Culture.

Sofia Tocar is a film distributor and festival agent, leading the short film distribution slate at Square Eyes—a Vienna-based agency known for bold, non-mainstream cinema. Previously, she was part of the Institute of Documentary Film in Prague, where she coordinated the East Silver Caravan and East Doc Market. With a background in art history, Sofia also works as a curator and co-creator of craftivist and artivist projects.

Róisín Burns is Irish-British and lives in Paris. She grew up in Liverpool, to the sound of Merseybeat, football chants and the waves of the Irish Sea. Her first fiction short film, Wonderwall, had its world première at La Semaine de la Critique in 2025, won numerous awards at prestigious festivals around the world and was later nominated for the César Awards. She is currently directing a second documentary, La Lucarne, for Arte.

Stavros Markoulakis est scénariste, réalisateur et programmateur de films, partagé entre la Grèce et les Pays-Bas. Il est directeur artistique de Leiden Shorts, présélectionneur de courts métrages au Festival international du film de Rotterdam, producteur au sein de Producers Connection au Festival international du film documentaire d’Amsterdam et responsable de la programmation du Festival international du film d’Anafi. Ses films, oscillant entre réalité et imaginaire, explorent l’amour, la douleur et la perte, ainsi que les relations humaines et non humaines dans notre univers. Ils ont été projetés dans de nombreux festivals internationaux, notamment au Festival du court métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, au Festival du film de Sarajevo et au Palm Springs International ShortFest. Il travaille actuellement sur son premier long métrage, Sunbruise.

Franziska Sonder is a graduate of Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and La Fémis). She participated in Ex Oriente 2017, Eurodoc 2018, Rotterdam Lab 2019, and Emerging Producers 2021. She is co-founder of Ensemble Film in Zurich, a member of the Swiss and European Film Academies, a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts, and a board member of the Swiss Producers’ Association GARP. 

With Ensemble Film, she released The Game by Roman Hodel at the 77th Venice Film Festival (2020), followed by 150+ festival screenings and international sales (ESPN, New Yorker). Caves by Carlos Isabel García premiered at VR Expanded at the 78th Venice Film Festival (2021). Dida by Nikola and Corina Schwingruber Ilić premiered at Visions du Réel – Burning Lights Competition and won the Dok Leipzig Audience Award. Loving Highsmith by Eva Vitija sold to 20+ territories. Arctic Link by Ian Purnell premieres in the International Competition DOX:AWARD at CPH:DOX 2026.

Jerry Chiemeke is a Nigerian-born writer, journalist and film critic based in London. He frequently reports from Sundance, Berlinale, the Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. Chiemeke writes and contributes to various media outfits and culture publications across the United Kingdom, U.S.A and Nigeria. He is interested in nonfiction, experimental filmmaking, minority representation, and conversations around stories emanating from the global south.

Nil Kural is a Turkish film critic and film programmer. After working as the film critic for the Milliyet daily newspaper and Milliyet Sanat arts magazine, she was the festival director of the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival and worked as an advisor for the International İstanbul Film Festival. Based in İstanbul, she has served as a FIPRESCI jury member at the Vienna, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, and Venice International Film Festivals. She is a member of the European Film Academy. In 2025, she co-founded Görültü, an independent collective that focuses on film screenings, publications, and public events.

A graduate of the University of Lausanne with a degree in literature, Sabrina Schwob is a critic for Ciné-Feuilles magazine, where she served as co-editor-in-chief from 2017 to 2022. She currently teaches French at Burier High School, where she also offers film classes. 

Aziyadé Poltier-Mutal is Senior Officer of Partnerships in the Office of the Director General of UN Geneva. She heads the Coordination Team of the future Portail des Nations / Visitor’s Center of UN Geneva and also supervises the Perception Change Project, which aims to broaden the understanding and the importance of the work done by international actors based in Geneva. She has worked in the field of communications in public relations firms and United Nations agencies for more than 25 years, during which she initiated and managed successful partnerships with world leading advertising agencies, media, artists, film makers, cultural entities, sports organizations and the private sector to boost corporate communication and benefit projects in the field. Aziyadé Poltier-Mutal graduated from la Sorbonne, the Institute of International Relations Studies in Paris and the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in Geneva. Originally from The Netherlands, she lived many years in South America and is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

François Vioud joined the UN Geneva Perception Change Project in 2016 as an intern and is now a Programme Management Specialist. In charge of youth programmes, he organises numerous conferences with different Swiss school classes, but also public events such as exhibitions, sports and cultural gatherings, open doors, inaugurations, etc. Before joining the United Nations, François Vioud worked as a freelance writer for the ecotourism website Evaneos. Originally from Annemasse in Haute-Savoie, François Vioud holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Lyon III University. He is passionate about cinema, photography and nature.

Emmanuel Deonna is an independent journalist and film critic based in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, specialising in filmmaker profiles and retrospectives. His background in the humanities and social sciences, along with his personal interests, led him to develop a passion for films from 1945 to 1990. He is particularly interested in the connections between fiction and documentary, memory, history and cinema. Since 2014, he has regularly attended film festivals in Geneva, as well as Visions du Réel and the Locarno Film Festival. Former co-chair of the Cercle Martin Buber (2012–2019), he is a member of the Communauté israélite libérale de Genève (GIL). Having grown up in a multicultural and multi-religious environment, he is committed to human rights, in particular those of minorities and migrants.

A journalist and film critic, Christian Georges has worked for the Neuchâtel daily press, the Locarno Film Festival newspaper and several other publications in the French-speaking region of Switzerland. For nearly 30 years, he has facilitated discussions with filmmakers within the framework of the Prix Farel (an international festival in Neuchâtel dedicated to ethical, spiritual and religious issues). Now a scientific associate in public education, he is active in the Cinéducation network, the committees of Cinéculture and Reflex, as well as in the support group for the federal project “Jeunes et médias”. Committed to cultural mediation, he works with numerous festivals in French-speaking Switzerland to create educational resources for media literacy.

A pastor in an evangelical church in Nyon for the past ten years, David Rossé knows Visions du Réel well as a regular attendee. A fan in the sense of someone who loves documentary cinema – the kind of cinema that speaks of life in all its forms and facets. As a theologian, he is particularly attentive to the way filmmakers choose to recount human experiences, especially those concerning what transcends them.

After his initial studies in economics and various experiences in the business world, David earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Geneva in 2014. Alongside these studies, he worked as a youth leader in a Christian organisation. During this time, he discovered the diversity of churches in French-speaking Switzerland as well as across Europe, through a role coordinating several projects.

Bahareh Zareeipolgardani is an environmental scientist with international research and project experience in Switzerland and France. Although not a film professional, she has long been deeply interested in cinema, particularly documentary film. Through her interest in literature and film, she seeks to better understand cultures, identities, and social realities. Working across different countries and contexts, she sees herself as an  intercultural translator committed to openness, respect, and dialogue, especially interreligious exchange. For her, cinema is a space for reflection and for building bridges between societies.