The internationally renowned Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has 16 films to his directorial credit, of which Gangs of Wasseypur, Ugly and Psycho Raman were official Cannes selections. Awarded the French Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2013, Kashyap is a leading critic of India’s film censorship laws. His new film, Husband Material, will premier at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

Dutch director Martin Koolhoven is a graduate of the Amsterdam Film Academy. His film Winter in Wartime outgrossed Twilight at the Dutch box office and was shortlisted for the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film. Despite “Hollywood calling”, Koolhoven formed N279 Entertainment in Amsterdam with producer Els Vandevorst.

Harry Kümel is a Belgian director known for the 1972 film The Legend of Doom House. In 1971, he made Daughters of Darkness, with Delphine Seyrig as a lesbian vampire. Besides teaching at the Brussels Free University and the American Film Institute, among others, he’s also Director of Demonology and Occultism at the College of ‘Pataphysics.

Deputy director of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia since 1992, Mike Hostench is also active in scriptwriting, film production and distribution. Author of four books on Asian and horror cinema, he writes for film journals and websites and has written more than 30 booklets for DVDs and BluRay collector’s editions for American and Catalonian prestige labels.

After her studies in Boston and in Strasbourg Anne-Claire Cieutat joined Radio France – France Bleu Alsace, where she worked as a film journalist and programme reporter for 12 years. At the same time, she worked ten years as a film journalist for the Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace and published Le Cinématographe selon Gérard Blain. She is currently editor-in-chief of the online magazine bande-a-part.fr.

After studying biology and cinema, Christine became a life and earth sciences teacher. She was involved in setting up the cinema section at the Marc Bloch High School (lycée), where she now teaches cinema. As a teacher and film buff, she passes on her passion for the cinema to her students.

After studying at the Beaux Arts College of Epinal, he completed his introductory training in illustration at the Haute école des arts du Rhin. Author of the Baku trilogy, La Nuit du Capricorne, Philoctète et les Femmes, he also the designed the India ink decor for Gabriel Harel’s short film The Night of the Plastic Bags.

In 1999, Ron Dyens became manager of the cinema l’Archipel Paris Ciné and founded Sacrebleu Productions, which received a Palme d’Or in 2010 for Serge Avédikian’s Barking Island. His first animated feature, co-produced by Sacrebleu Rémi Chayé’s Long Way North, was released in 2016. Dyens has also directed five short films selected in more than 300 festivals.

Jérémie Périn is a director and animated scriptwriter known for his Internet clips such as Truckers Delight, Fantasy and Hi Life. He also directed the opening sequence of Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life. As director of the TV series Lastman, he defends the idea of popular adult-oriented animation. He recently co-created Crisis Jung, an excessive, post-apocalyptic mini-series.

Having worked in several Strasbourg cinemas during her studies in the late 1990s, Laurence Algret began her career at the UGC Ciné Cité as head of communication in 2000. She went on to become deputy director and director at various UGC cinemas in Lille, Rouen and Lyon before working on the management team for two years at the headquarters in Paris. As a Strasbourg cinephile, she was delighted to return to take over the reins of the Strasbourg UGC in January 1915.

Kévin Béclié, a teacher at Strasbourg’s Lycée Marcel Rudloff, coordinates cinema and audio-visual matters for the artistic and cultural education branch of the Strasbourg Academy. This entails setting up workshops and national programmes, such as Lycéens au cinema and Collège au cinema, among others. A fan of genre and cinéma bis, he writes for Cinétrange.

Joël Danet is a contributor and programmer at Vidéo Les Beaux Jours and is mainly responsible for the “Filming the City” programme, which organises meetings with researchers in the field of documentary films with an urban theme. He is also responsible for research projects based on film archives at the University of Strasbourg’s SAGE laboratory.

Mélina Napoli is regional delegate of the Grand Est section of the National Audiovisual Institute (Ina) in Strasbourg, where she is head of client service in the documentary department. She now brings together partners in the local audiovisual and digital ecosystem and organises “VR Challenge – time travel” with the Shadok, the Festival and the City of Strasbourg.