2019

Sarah Perles is an Arab/Portuguese actress whose career took off after her role in Howard J. Ford’s feature film NEVER LET GO (2015). In 2017, she debuted in Nour-Eddine Lakhmari’s highly acclaimed Moroccan film, BURNOUT, which was selected at notable festivals worldwide. That same year, Sarah had a prominent role in SOFIA, which premiered at the 2018 Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, she shot the second season of the series THE TEAM and joined the cast of LOS NUESTROS 2 on channel Telecinco. She also took part in the Movistar+ series INSTITUTO.

Ismet Sijarina is a film director and scriptwriter living in Kosovo. He has directed a number of short films and his documentary film, BEYOND THE RAINBOW, has been greatly accepted worldwide.

Elia Suleiman (born in Nazareth) is a celebrated filmmaker who won numerous prizes since the beginning of his career, starting with his two first short films, INTRODUCTION TO THE END OF AN ARGUMENT and HOMAGE BY ASSASSINATION. In 1994, he established the Cinema and Media department at Birzeit University under the European Commission. His feature debut, CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE, was awarded Best Film at the 1996 Venice Film Festival.

Caitlin Mcleod has worked for over a decade as a theater director at leading institutions, including the Signature Theatre (New York), the Orange Tree, the Yard, the Almeida and Shakespeare’s Globe (London). In 2016, she received a Sky Arts Scholarship to found her new-writing company, The Coterie, which develops multi-disciplinary performance projects with women at the core. Her work straddles all genres but most often dark comedy and sci-fi.

Solange Poulet is in charge of coordinating television and documentary-filmmaking activities in between the Mediterranean countries (many of which she had lived in) and Marseille, where she is based. She was a board member of the Marseille International Documentary Film Festival (FID), and led the cinema programming for the 2013-Marseille European Capital of Culture. Solange currently chairs the board of Aflam, an NGO committed to better understanding of Arab culture, particularly among youth who otherwise lack access to cultural programs.

Anandi Ramamurthy is a Reader in Postcolonial Cultures at Sheffield Hallam University.  Her research explores issues of racism, imperialism and resistance in culture, and she is committed to preserving and recovering histories of the oppressed. She is currently Co-investigator on a research project, Creative Interruptions, where she is leading a strand on Palestinian cinema. Her previous books include Imperial Persuaders: Images of Africa and Asia in British Advertising and Black Star: Britain's Asian Youth Movements. 

Artistic Director