Chantal Akerman (Belgium) President

Since her early shorts and feature films in the footsteps of the New York avantgarde, Chantal Ackerman has always been concerned with the research of truth – that kind of truth that can be detected only through a camera filming in real time (Hôtel Monterey, Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles). Chantal Ackerman’s work ranges from fiction, documentaries (D’Est, Sud, De l’autre côté) and comedies (Golden Eighties, Un Divan à New York), to auteur films (Là-Bas) and video installations, and all her production bares a touch of ironic, and often autobiographical, references. In her films Ackerman always expresses a complex relation with places, objects and other people, as well as with herself, her history and origins (she was born into a Jewish Polish family that went through deportation and exile). Very close to the post-Nouvelle Vague generation, her films show her creative ability, her love for narrative experimentation, and her documentary rigor in the observation of reality, conveying a unique analysis of human behavior.

Nicole Brenez (France)

Nicole Brenez teaches Cinema Studies at the University of Paris 1. Graduated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, she has published several books including Shadows de John Cassavetes; De la Figure en général et du Corps en particulier. L’invention figurative au cinéma; Abel Ferrara; Traitement du Lumpenproletariat par le cinéma d’avantgarde; Cinémas d’avant-garde. She also is the editor or co-editor of several books: Poétique de la couleur, une histoire du cinéma experimental; Jeune, dure et pure, une histoire du cinéma d’avantgarde et expérimental en France; La Vie nouvelle/nouvelle Vision; Cinéma/Politique Série 1; Jean-Luc Godard: Documents. She is the curator of the Cinémathèque Française’s avantgarde film sessions since 1996.
She has organized many film events and retrospectives, notably Jeune, dure et pure, une histoire du cinéma d’avantgarde en France for the Cinémathèque française in 2000. She has curated various series in Buenos-Aires, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Tokyo, London, and Madrid.

Barbara Cupisti (Italy)

Barbara Cupisti began as a dancer before going on to acting at the National Academy of Dramatic Art «Silvio D’Amico» in Rome. She made her debut in the cinema with Tinto Brass’ La Chiave  (The Key) and thus continued her career as actress, playing the leading role in many horror and thriller B-movies for Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Michele Soavi. In Italy she has worked with Carlo Verdone and Gabriele Salvatores and abroad with Planchon, Vasconcelos, Jewison as well as in many international fictions films. In 1999 she began working in the television where she discovered her passion for production, focussing on documentaries. Very close to Visconti’s realism in particular, Barbara Cupisti likes to work with «the stories of people and not with facts», leaving aside the historical-social and political explanation of the situation she is describing. Madri, her first long feature film presented at the Venice Film Festival last year, won the David di Donatello Prize in 2008. She has just completed Forbidden Childhood Forbidden Dreams  set in Israel and the Occupied Territories.