Manager of the Sitges Foundation – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, Mónica García Massagué combines this with university teaching, co-directing the UOC’s Fantastic Film Master, and writing. In addition, she is currently working on a thesis on film festivals and film marketing

A leading UK indie film-maker, Simon Rumley’s films have played around the world and won awards at major festivals such as Fantastic Fest, Sitges, Boston Underground, among others. They flirt with horror convention and investigate vulnerable characters and their fractured psyche.

Talal Selhami, writer and director, was born in 1982. He made Mirages in 2010 and in 2019 he made the creature film Achoura, which won a special mention prize at the Sitges International Film Festival. In 2020, he directed Tell Me Why, a video game edited by Microsoft and developed his first series, Miara.

Laurent Callonnec is a programming assistant. Passionate about genre cinema in all its forms, he has been organising regular themed evenings for nearly 30 years to introduce the great classics and little gems of fantastic cinema to audiences at the Écran cinema in Saint-Denis.

Noémie Luciani was born in Corsica. During her literary studies at the Sorbonne, she developed a passion for film writing. After 5 years spent working in the culture section of Le Monde, she now writes about cinema and series for the film magazine La Septième Obsession.

A former art teacher who became a freelance rock critic for national titles and European editions of the Freeway press group, Patrick Peiffer founded the press periodical Station Service, distributed for free in Alsace for more than 30 years, relaying cultural news and film releases in Strasbourg and the surrounding region.

A film historian and critic, Laurent Aknin divides his time between criticism, history and teaching cinema at the university, in the form of training and lectures, among other activities. He has published several books on the history of cinéma-bis, the peplum and myths in genre cinema.

Diane Leenders first worked at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF) in organisation and programming. She left to gain more experience in the cultural sector before returning there in 2017, where she is now financial director and co-ordinator of the BIF Film Market.

Martine Malet teaches philosophy at the Bischheim high school and joined the film-teaching team in 2012. For a long time lycée coordinator for and member of the steering committee of “Lycéens et apprentis au cinéma”, she continues to introduce her students to the rich diversity of the cinema medium.

Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka works in Paris where he makes short films, music videos and content for different audio-visual supports. His short films, La Femme à cordes, La bête and I Want Pluto to Be a Planet Again have been selected and won awards in festivals worldwide.

Marie-Pauline Mollaret is a film critic for specialised reviews. She is on the short-film selection committee for International Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival and for student films at Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Eminé Seker divides her time between the Centre de résidence de l’écriture à l’image à Saint-Quirin, where she has been the director since 2013 and the production company Promenons-nous dans les bois, for which she co-produces numerous international animated short films

In 2015, Boris Baum founded the Belgian production company Les Films de la Récré, and his first feature, Bula (2021) was selected for the Karlovy Vary and Tallinn Black Nights festivals. He attends various international festivals as a jury member or speaker.

Laura Cassarino is the director of Mira, a regional digital-film library in Strasbourg. She also teaches at the Strasbourg Institute of Political Studies and develops art projects centred on photography and cinema.

Nicolas Keitel has written and directed several short films, the last of which was shortlisted for an Oscar. He is currently writing his first feature film and as well as working on a science fiction series

Writer and director, Hélène Rastegar co-organised the short-film festival Chacun son court for five years. She studied at the Lussas Documentary School and has directed fiction and documentary films: Rêves en chantier and Des Hortensias en hiver.

Guillaume Baychelier is a researcher at Bordeaux-Montaigne University, a video artist and podcaster. His thesis title is: “Restraining devices: the inter-art and video-game iconology of monstrous bodies” (ed. translation).

A video-games journalist in the print media, a host for the Nolife channel and a Twitch streamer, Medhi Camprasse, aka Medoc, devotes his life to entertaining people. Among other things, he created the podcast “Le Cosy Corner”.

Anaïs Garestier “Modiie” is a web video maker. She has an MA in political science and has proposed “live” video games since 2013. Recently, she’s tried to combine the two to make the social sciences accessible on the Internet.

Marine Macq is the director of the video game art gallery Pixel Life Stories and a columnist for Jour de Play on Arte. Her book, Imaginaires du jeu vidéo. Les concept artists français, will be published in autumn 2021.