GUESTS (2025)

María Adell Carmona is a lecturer and researcher. She holds a PhD from Pompeu Fabra University and is currently a lecturer in the Department of Library Science, Documentation, and Audiovisual Communication at the University of Barcelona. She regularly writes about film and television in media outlets such as the Ara newspaper, Filmtopia, and Rockdelux. She has written articles and book chapters on film stars, actresses in cinema during the Franco regime and the transition to democracy, female representations in film and television, Spanish cinema, and popular culture. She taught for more than a decade at ESCAC-Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya, where she taught classes on film history and Spanish cinema and co-directed the Master's Degree in Film Studies and Visual Cultures.

Ana Asensio is an actress, screenwriter, and director. She began her career as an actress, working on Spanish television series. Her debut film as a writer and director, Most Beautiful Island (2017), shot while she was living in New York, won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2017 and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards. It was distributed across all continents and premiered at more than 50 international festivals, including Sitges, BFI, and Mumbai. She is currently developing a television series and has returned to Spain to act in a Netflix series.

Eva Aridjis Fuentes is a prize-winning Mexican-American director and writer. She has directed six features, including the narrative films "The Favor" and "The Blue Eyes" and the documentaries "Children of the Street", "La Santa Muerte" and "Chuy, the Wolf Man". She also wrote on "Narcos: Mexico" and co-wrote the graphic novel "Monarca", published by Harper Collins.

Piluca Baquero began producing films at the age of 19. Her first feature film, Ojala Val del Omar, was presented at the Venice Film Festival. Since then, she has produced more than twenty feature films and documentaries. In 2017, she made her only foray into directing with the animated documentary El silencio roto, which premiered at SEMINCI. She is currently also Executive Producer at Ramen Studio, where she is developing several fiction formats and is currently co-producing Each of us, a feature film starring Diane Kruger, which is currently in production. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, specializing in production. She was Executive Producer of the 39th Goya Awards, held on February 8 in Granada. She is already preparing for the 40th Goya Awards in the same role.

Born in Istanbul, of Kurdish origin, Berivan Binevsa arrived in Belgium in 1997 as a political refugee. After studying film at INRACI in Brussels, she directed the short films LA MELODIE DU PETIT CHÂTEAU and PHONE STORY, as well as the documentary TRACE – LE PEUPLE DU PAON, all three of which were selected for numerous international festivals. Her latest short film, SIDEWALK, was selected for the Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival in 2013.

Mar Bezana is a concert performer and castanet teacher with a professional career spanning more than 30 years. She has traveled extensively throughout Spain, offering concerts on major stages around the world. She has been invited by the Spanish Embassies in South Africa, Cameroon, Ecuador, Gabon, Mali, and Uruguay, as well as the Cervantes Institutes in Algiers, Oran, Tunis, and Toulouse. She has been a guest on several occasions on national and international radio and television stations. Director of Castanets BCN since 2018, where they have also performed in major theaters throughout Spain and have been invited twice to appear on the Antena 3 program El Desafío. A unique show featuring the world's first light castanets.

Asaari Bibang (Equatorial Guinea, 1985) is an actress, comedian, presenter, writer, and activist, and a leading figure on the Spanish cultural scene. With a career spanning film, theater, television, radio, and stand-up comedy, she has starred in shows such as Negra batalla, Amén, hermana, and Humor negra, and participated in programs such as La Resistencia and Ilustres ignorantes. A columnist for El País, she is the co-creator of the podcast No hay negros en el Tíbet (No Blacks in Tibet, ODA Award 2023) and a contributor to A vivir (Cadena SER). Recognized with the Desalambre Award for Activist of the Year and Women to Follow in Culture (2023), she was included by Forbes among the 100 influencers of 2021. She is currently continuing her tour with Bibang Theory and the live version of her podcast.

Creator of the blogs Claqueta, Luces y Acción (Clapperboard, Lights, and Action) and Fotografía y Lugares (Photography and Places). Passionate about cinema and photography since she was very young. For the past six years, she has been a member of the Blogos de Oro jury, participating on its behalf as a juror in two editions of the Festival de Cine por Mujeres (Women's Film Festival). In 2020, she made her first short film, Alcor 2030, for a competition during lockdown, and three of her photographs were selected by PhotoEspaña for the #desdemibalcon competition. Co-creator of the CortoCoslada Children's and Youth Festival of the FAMPA in Coslada. Founder of Formagesting and the Inspiring Women Leaders Community. Entrepreneurial, curious, and active by nature.

Isra Calzado holds a diploma in Audiovisual and Entertainment Production, and in Film and TV Direction and Production. He has furthered his training with courses in AVID editing and post-production, HDSLR recording, magazine production, sound engineering with ProTools, dubbing, and voice-over work. For more than ten years, he has worked as an ENG camera operator and producer for local and regional television stations, while also developing amateur short films and collaborating as a film critic on radio and in digital media. He has co-founded competitions such as FESCIMED and 4661 Film Fest. He currently continues to be involved in the audiovisual sector, participating in two feature films, several short films, and advertising and promotional projects for companies and organizations.

A prominent figure in Spanish cinema since the 1960s, Enriqueta Carballeira made her debut in Cerca de las estrellas (Close to the Stars, 1962) and consolidated her career with titles such as La tía Tula (Aunt Tula, 1964), Oscuros sueños de agosto (Dark Dreams of August, 1966), Cateto a babor (Portside, 1970), La mitad del cielo (Half the Sky, 1986), La casa de Bernarda Alba (1987) and Cómo ser mujer y no morir en el intento (1991). Her versatility extended to independent theater, where she collaborated with TEI and Grupo Tábano, and to dubbing, being the Spanish voice of Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins. She has also directed short films, written essays on acting, and is the mother of filmmaker Arantxa Aguirre.

Pilar Castro is one of the most established actresses of her generation, with a career that includes collaborations with directors of the stature of Pedro Almodóvar, Carlos Saura, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, among many others.

In 2010, the Film Academy nominated her for a Goya Award in the Best Actress category for her performance in Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's comedy Gordos (2009), and she won the Actors Union Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same film.

In 2020, she was nominated for Best Leading Actress at the Forqué Awards, Feroz Awards, and the Film Writers' Circle Awards for her work in the film Ventajas de viajar en Tren (Advantages of Traveling by Train) by Aritz Moreno (2019).

Pilar has won Best Actress awards at multiple festivals, including the Malaga Film Festival, the Zaragoza Film Festival, Almería en Corto, Medina del Campo, Badajoz, and the San Pancracio Award at the Cáceres Film Festival.

She has recently premiered the HBO series “Furia,” which has been receiving rave reviews both nationally and internationally. In November 2025, she will premiere the film “Todos los lados de la cama” (All Sides of the Bed), directed by Samantha Speranza, in which she stars.

Julia Cherrier is a producer and founder of Calouma Films, a company dedicated to film production and public relations for the entertainment industry. With more than ten years of experience in distribution—including her work as Sales Manager at Buenavista Columbia Pictures Mexico—she made the leap to production in 2018 after training at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (Film Training Center). She has worked on titles such as Noche de fuego, Annette, Manto de gemas, and Tótem. With Calouma Films, she has produced the documentaries Pobo Tzu and Pedro, both nominated by the AMACC, and fiction films such as Después and Morro. A member of the AMPI and the Mexican Federation of Film Producers, she was selected by EAVE PUENTES 2021 and is developing El último rey by Víctor Checa.

Multidisciplinary artist. Graduated in Fine Arts from the UCM. She was born in Valencia, surrounded by a family of artists. From an early age she began to experiment in the world of Plastic Arts, Dramatic Art, Music and Audiovisual. Director and screenwriter of the feature films Las cartas perdidas, La cárcel y el exilio de las mujeres republicanas, Las lágrimas de África, Los sueños de Idomeni, Pasionaria. She has received, amongst others, the Silver Biznaga, Malaga Festival 2022; the Pilar Bardem Award, Cinema, aid and solidarity, 2019 from the Spanish Film Academy, the Gold Medal of the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona. and recognition from the French Ministry of Culture. In 2022 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Madrid Films by Women Festival.

Arantxa Echevarría is a director and screenwriter. Her first feature film, “Carmen y Lola”, was nominated for eight Goya Awards in 2019, winning two; Best New Director and Best Supporting Actress for Carolina Yuste. The script was also a finalist for the Julio Alejandro Prize of the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE). In addition, she was selected in 2018 for the Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Spanish director to be selected for the Fortnight. In 2021 was released her feature film “La Familia Perfecta” (The Perfect Family), a comedy starring Belén Rueda and José Coronado and distributed by Universal and with the participation of Antena 3. The film achieved one of the ten highest box-office revenues of the year and number one on Netflix Spain and number two on Netflix worldwide. She has also directed on television the last chapter of the series “El Cid” and two chapters of “Días mejores”, (When You Least Expect It) both for Amazon Prime.

She was born in Bilbao in 1993. She studied at the ESCAC (Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya), specializing in film direction. She graduated in 2018 with the short film No me despertéis, which premiered at the Seminci and participated in festivals such as Rotterdam. She was co-director and co-screenwriter of La filla d'algú, a collective feature film tutored by Sergi Pérez, premiered at the Malaga Festival, where it won the Movistar+ Award for Best Feature Film Zonazine. In 2023 she co-directed the series Esto no es Suecia with Aina Clotet, Mar Coll and Celia Giraldo.

Charlène Favier (Lyon, 1985) is a director and screenwriter. It was in Australia where she picked up a camera for the first time, and after several years traveling the world, she entered the Jacques Lecoq school in London, trained in directing actors and art direction with Lenore Dekoven in New York, and in screenwriting at LA FÉMIS. She then wrote, directed, and produced several short films, and decided to explore her own adolescence in her first feature film, Slalom, selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2020. Sold in more than 25 countries and selected and awarded at some thirty international festivals, Slalom won the Ornano-Valenti Prize at the Deauville Festival and was nominated four times for the Lumières Awards and twice for the César Awards in 2022. Charlène then adapted Tanguy Viel's novel La Fille qu'on appelle for Arte, in competition at La Rochelle Festival, which attracted more than 800,000 viewers. Oxana is her second feature film for cinema.

Daniela Fejerman is a screenwriter, film and television director and playwright. With a degree in Psychology, she began as a television scriptwriter. She has written and directed two short films and six feature films: A mi madre le gustan las mujeres (2002); Semen, a love story (2005); 7 minutos (2009); La adopción (2015), Mamá no enredes (2022) and Alguien que cuide de mí (2023). She has won and been nominated for several awards, including the Goya for new director.

Belén Funes (Ripollet, Barcelona) is a director and screenwriter. She graduated in Film Direction from ESCAC (2008) and completed a master's degree in fiction writing at EICTV (Cuba). In 2015 she directed Sara a la fuga, awarded at the Malaga Festival. In 2017, La inútil premiered at the Seminci and was nominated for the Gaudí Awards. In 2018 she was selected by the TIFF Talent Lab to develop La hija de un ladrón, her first feature film, premiered in the Official Section of San Sebastian, where Greta Fernández won the Silver Shell. The film received three Gaudí Awards and a Goya. 

Director, producer and co-screenwriter of the documentary short films Confluencias (Goya Award 1999 for Best Documentary Short Film), Positivo and Ventanas (2000 and 2017 Goya Award Nominees), among others. From 2003 to 2019 she was responsible for the film department of the Comunidad de Madrid. She has directed festivals such as the Short Film Week and coordinated professional meetings, workshops and events.

Esther García is the executive producer at El Deseo. Throughout her more than thirty-year career, she has produced all of acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar's films since Matador in 1986. Her long career as a producer also includes collaborations with other notable Latin American filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, 2001), Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, 2003), Paul Leduc (Cobrador. In God We Trust, 2007), Lucrecia Martel (La mujer rubia, 2008 and Zama, 2018), Diego Galán (Con la pata quebrada, 2013), Damián Szifron (Relatos salvajes, 2013) and Pablo Trapero (El clan, 2015), among others. Her work has been recognized on numerous occasions at the Goya Awards and also at the Oscars. In 2015, she was honored in Segovia, her hometown, as part of the European Film Festival, and in 2018 she received the National Film Award. She is an active member of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the United States. Currently, in 2024, Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, La Habitación de al lado, Ramón y Ramón by Salvador del Solar, a co-production with Peru, is awaiting release. Oliver Laxe's After is in post-production and she has a couple more projects on her desk in development.

Born in Zurich, director and screenwriter Katalin Gödrös graduated from the Budapest Film Academy in 1996. Her directorial debut Mutanten premiered at the Berlinale in 2002, and Songs of Love and Hate (2010) screened at the international competition in Locarno. She has worked on the Swiss national TV and Netflix series The Undertaker, and since 2021 has been a professor at Cologne’s International Filmschule.

Sarah Goher is an Egyptian-American writer and producer, born and bred in the South Bronx. An alumna of NYU Tisch and the Nightingale Bamford School, Sarah worked on Cairo 678 (2010), Clash (2016), Amira (2021) and Marvel Studios' Moon Knight (2022).

Gala Gracia graduated in Audiovisual Communication from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and completed a master’s degree in film at Kingston University (London). She has directed the short films El color de la sed, winner of the 38th Festival du Film Court de Villeurbanne in Lyon, among many other awards. Other short films she has directed are La pared and Evanescente, selected at the Malaga Film Festival in 2024 and nominated for the Forqué awards. The Remnants of You is her first feature film, whose script was selected at the Ibero-American Film Project Development Course of the Ibermedia Program in 2019.

Martina Gusmán is an Argentine actress and producer with a solid career in film, television, and theater. She gained international recognition with Leonera (2008, dir. Pablo Trapero), presented at Cannes, and continued with titles such as Carancho (2010), El Hijo (2018), El Inocente (Netflix, 2021), and the series El Marginal (2015–2021). She has also participated in international productions such as Echo 3 (Apple TV, 2022) and Los Pacientes del Dr. García (Netflix, 2023). In 2024, she starred in Romina Smile. Together with Pablo Trapero, she founded the production company Matanza Cine, from where she promoted key works of new Argentine cinema such as El Bonaerense (2002), Familia Rodante (2004), Géminis (2005), and La Rabia (2008), as well as titles with great international projection such as Carancho and La Quietud (2017). She is currently developing projects with a feminist perspective such as Intersex, La Fragilidad, and Indistintas (all in development for 2025). Socially committed, she has participated in inclusion programs in Argentina and Spain, as well as in projects supporting vulnerable people, integrating her artistic vocation with her training as a psychologist specializing in trauma.

María Luisa Gutiérrez is an audiovisual producer and entrepreneur, president of AECine, and member of the Board of Directors of the Film Academy. Founder of Bowfinger International Pictures and CEO of Amiguetes Entreprise and Amiguetes Entertainment, she has produced more than 25 films, including hits such as Padre no hay más que uno, Nieve negra, and Sin rodeos. She began her career at Mareal Films and, after her time at Amiguetes, established herself as one of the most prominent producers in Spanish cinema. With a degree in Business Studies from the Complutense University and a Master's in General Management from IESE, she has worked with directors such as Santiago Segura, Armando Bo, and Gustavo Hernández, as well as promoting new talent and international co-productions.

Tania Hermida is a screenwriter, director and producer. She is a graduate of the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV, Cuba), where she made her first short films. She has written, produced and directed the feature films: Qué tan lejos (2006), En el nombre de la hija (2011) and La invención de las especies (2024), selected and awarded at Havana, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Punta del Este, Guadalajara, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Rome and Geneva festivals, among others. She combines independent film production with university teaching and research. She has complementary studies in Cinematographic Aesthetics; Creative Writing; and a master’s degree in Cultural Studies. She is currently a PhD student at the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, working on a dissertation on Poetics of the Script. She has been a film professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito SFQ (1996–2007) and director of the Film Career department at the Universidad de las Artes de Ecuador (2016–2017).  She currently teaches in the master’s degrees in Creative Writing (UARTES) and Latin American Cinema (UARTES Cuba), and in the Film Career of the UDLA. She has participated as a jury and speaker in film festivals and cultural meetings in various countries. She has been an Assemblywoman of the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly 2007-2008, a member of the Consejo Superior de la Fundación del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano and founder and director of the Corporación Ecuador para Largo.

Narges Kalhor (born in 1984 in Tehran, based in Munich) is an award-winning Iranian-German director, video artist, and editor. Her work spans documentary, experimental art, and fiction, often exploring themes such as exile, identity, feminist perspectives, and political resistance. During her studies at the Tehran Film Academy, she was a student of renowned filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami. In 2009, she applied for political asylum during a visit to Germany, which attracted international attention as she is the daughter of the chief cultural advisor to then-Iranian President Ahmadinejad. After her application was accepted, she studied at the University of Television and Film in Munich. Her graduation film, In the Name of Scheherazade or the First Beer Garden in Tehran, received the Goethe-Institut award for best documentary at the DOK Leipzig festival in 2019.

Screenwriter for Michel Leclerc’s film ‘The Names of Love’, based on her own story and which was awarded the César for Best Original Screenplay, and Thomas Lilti’s ‘Hippocrates’, nominated for that same César, Baya Kasmi directed her first short film in 2011 – ‘I Could've Been a Hooker’ –, nominated for the César award for Best Short Film. She then directed two comedies – ‘I’m All Yours’ and ‘The (In)famous Youssef Salem’. Mikado is her third feature film.

A screenwriter, director, and producer with more than two decades of experience, David Lara has built a filmography marked by a critical eye and a narrative drive. His latest feature-length documentary, Mucha Mierda, closed the Made in Spain section of the San Sebastián Film Festival in 2024, consolidating a career that moves with ease between fiction and documentary.

Co-writer of the miniseries El Aceite de los Pobres (SGAE Award), he is currently developing 180 Días, a fiction film supported by a development grant from the Community of Madrid. As a producer and director, he has promoted award-winning short films such as Lo Cotidiano and Dantzariak-Bailarines, and as a documentary director he has made titles such as Miguel Hernández, La Fuente de la Vida and El 5º Por la Izquierda, broadcast on RTVE, Movistar and Discovery Max.

His films, with their social conscience and strong narrative pulse, delve into the cracks of everyday life to reveal the extraordinary.

Born in Stockholm, educated in England. Professor (emeritus) at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and the Department of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He was vice-rector of the UAB and director of the ICTA. He writes about environmental sociology, health inequalities, technological risks, science fiction... He is a peace activist.

Eva Libertad García López (October 7th, 1978. Molina de Segura, Spain) is a Spanish filmmaker, sociologist, screenwriter, director and producer. She studied Sociology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with complementary training in the performing arts. Since 2016 she has co-directed the production company Nexus CreaFilms, where she develops fiction and documentary projects. Her work explores issues of diversity, the female experience, sensory impairment and the challenges of communication between the deaf and hearing worlds. Her film Sorda (Deaf), 2025, an adaptation of her short film of the same name (2021), has been internationally recognised and makes a deaf woman visible as the main character for the first time in Spain.

Elvira Lindo is a Spanish writer and journalist, best known for being the creator of Manolito Gafotas. Her activity includes journalism, and writing novels and television and film scripts. She was recognized with the Spanish Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 2024. Alguien que cuide de mi is her directorial debut.

Petra Martínez (Linares, 1944) is one of the leading figures in Spanish theater. Trained at William Layton's Teatro Estudio, she co-founded the Tábano group, a symbol of free theater during the 1970s, and later El Gallo Vallecano and Uroc Teatro, together with her husband Juan Margallo. With the latter company, they received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2010) and the National Theater Award (2022). Her career spans theater, film, and television, where she achieved great popularity with La que se avecina. In film, she has worked with directors such as Almodóvar and Jaime Rosales, and for La vida era eso she won the Feroz Award and a Goya nomination. In 2025, she received the Honorary Award at the Max Awards.

Mariasun Miquel is a cultural journalist specializing in literature, theater, and cinema. She has served as press officer for the El Sector Digital Short Film Festival, collaborated with the FILMADRID International Film Festival, and been a member of the jury for IbizaCineFest (Ibiza International Independent Film Festival). She has forged her career in media outlets such as Onda Cero, Radio Nacional de España (RNE), RTVE.es, and Diario Información (Alicante), writing for the interview blog Charing Cross Road (Periodista Digital) for more than five years. Currently, in addition to writing for Nokton Magazine and contributing to MagaZinema, he co-directs the newly launched Guadix Iridiscente, an international queer and feminist film festival.

Zeltia Montes is a Spanish film composer, internationally recognized for her narrative talent and versatile style. Winner of the Goya Award for Best Original Music for El buen patrón (2022) and nominated for Frágil equilibrio (2017), she has composed for films such as Que nadie duerma, Mi soledad tiene alas, Adiós, and Bird Box Barcelona, as well as for series such as La novia gitana and Honor. Trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid and graduating summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music, her work has been recognized with numerous national and international awards. She is a member of the Spanish Film Academy, the Hollywood Academy, and the European Film Academy.

Ana Murugarren (Marcilla, Navarra, 1965), a graduate in Information Sciences from the UPV-EHU, is a film director, screenwriter and editor, a profession in which she has worked with filmmakers such as Enrique Urbizu, Pablo Berger and Álex de la Iglesia. In the 80s she founded the Bilbao production company Creativideo together with the aforementioned Urbizu, Joaquín Trincado and Luis Marías, and her first work as a director was the video clip of the group Eskorbuto Antes de las guerras (1985). In 2005 she directed the feature documentary Esto no es la vida privada de Javier Krahe, which was followed by the television miniseries El precio de la libertad (2011), dedicated to the figure of the Basque politician Mario Onaindia, the medium-length film with a medieval setting La dama guerrera (2012), and the feature films Tres mentiras (2014), a stark vision of the theft of children in Francoist Spain.  and La higuera de los bastardos (2017), based on the work of the same name by Ramiro Pinilla about Falangist repression in Getxo during the Civil War. She is currently in the middle of filming the comedy García y García, starring José Mota and Pepe Viyuela. Her films have received numerous awards, including the Silver Screen Award at the Hollywood Film Festival for La higuera de los bastardos (The Bastard’s Fig Tree), and have as their main themes their exposure of diverse situations of injustice and the preservation of the Spanish historical memory.

Lorena Padilla (Guadalajara, 1978) is a director, screenwriter and script consultant. She studied Audiovisual Arts at the University of Guadalajara and a master's degree in Dramatic Writing at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where she received the recognition for Excellence in Screenwriting and the Venable Herndon Award. She has worked as a script doctor, teacher and director of the Talents Guadalajara program of the Guadalajara International Film Festival. She was co-screenwriter of the feature film 499 (Rodrigo Reyes, 2020) and in 2023 she made her film directorial debut with Martínez, a black comedy about loneliness and routine, developed with the support of various international funds and laboratories.

Screenwriter and film and television director, Inés París has made films such as Olvido (2023), La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre (2016) and A mi madre le gustan las mujeres (2002), as well as the documentaries Manzanas, pollos y quimeras and Ellas son África. On television she has worked in Romi, El grito de las mariposas and La Valla. Her works, internationally awarded, combine critical look and humour. Also recognized for her commitment to gender equality in culture, she has been honoured for her career and work in favour of women in the audiovisual industry.

Avelina Prat (Valencia, 1972) is an architect, screenwriter, director of short and feature films, and script supervisor. After working for several years as an architect, in 2004 she began her career in film as a script supervisor, participating in more than thirty films with directors such as Fernando Trueba and Manuel Martín Cuenca. She has directed, among others, short films such as 208 palabras, 3/105 (the latter selected for the Venice Biennale in 2014), Puerta 6, La fábrica de luz. Her first feature film, Vasil (2022), won the Best Actor award at Seminci and the CEC Solidarity Medal. 

Héloïse Pelloquet is originally from western France. After completing literary studies, she joined La Fémis in 2010 in the specialty of editing. In 2014, she directed Comme Une Grande, her final degree project, and later two other short films: L'Âge des Sirènes in 2016 and Côté Cœur in 2018. La Passagère, released in 2021, is her first feature film as a director. She works as both editor and director.

Azucena Rodríguez is a director. She graduated in Modern History and then trained as a screenwriter. She worked with Gonzalo Suárez on the writing of six of his films and then began to write her own scripts. She debuted with the feature film Entre rojas, with Penélope Cruz as the main female character. It was followed by Puede ser divertido and Atlas de Geografía Humana (adapted from the novel by Almudena Grandes). She combines directing with writing scripts as in El grito de las mariposas and directing series as in Cuéntame cómo pasó. She has written and directed several documentaries for television such as Primarias and Maltratadas. She is also a tutor in the master’s degree in Screenwriting at the Carlos III University of Madrid and teaches Directing at the ECAM.

Manane Rodríguez has directed Retrato de mujer con hombre al fondo (1996, First Film Award at Peñíscola), Los pasos perdidos (2001, awards at Valladolid, Toulouse and Turin), and the feature films Un cuento para Olivia (2007, nominated for the Mestre Mateo Awards), Un ajuste de cuentas (2005-2009, Málaga and Toulouse) and Migas de Pan (2016, presented in Montreal and Uruguay's candidate for the Oscars). She has also directed the documentaries Memorias Rotas (2009) and Vidas virtuales (2010).

Evi Romen was born 1967 in Bolzano, Italy. She studied Editing & Cinematography at the Vienna Film Academy and has worked as a film editor and writer for over 20 years. She received several awards for short stories and the Diagonale Award for Best Editing 2011 for My Best Enemy and the Austrian Film Award 2016 for Best Editing for Casanova Variations. In recent years, she moved into scriptwriting, winning the Carl Mayer Award for the Best Script in 2017 for her script Hochwald. Evi Romen is the co-writer of the series M - A City Hunts a Murderer, which premiered at the Berlinale Series and was broadcast by ORF and TV now in 2019.

Julie Rubio is an award-winning producer, screenwriter, director, and actress. As president of Women in Film San Francisco Bay Area and founder of East Meets West Productions, she produced the acclaimed East Side Sushi, which has enjoyed both national and international distribution through Samuel Goldwyn Company, Sony Home Pictures, HBO North America, and Netflix. 

Rubio is the writer, director and producer of the comedy Too Perfect, which found its audience in the United States through Amazon Prime and Osiris Entertainment. She also took on the roles of writer, director, and producer on Six Sex Scenes and a Murder, available on Netflix and Apple TV.

Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, born in Barakaldo, Bizkaia, is a director and scriptwriter. She holds a degree in English Philology from the Deusto University and Audiovisual Communication from the UPV.

She graduated in Film Directing at the ECAM. Her final project was the short film "Clases Particulares" (2005), which won her numerous awards.

She has developed her work as a filmmaker and director in parallel with her work in advertising. In 2012 she founded her own production company: Igloo Films, and has directed campaigns for, among others, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Once, Mapfre and BBVA.

Her short films have won a multitude of awards, especially "They Say" (Dicen, 2011), which was selected for more than 160 festivals, receiving 50 awards.

In 2021 she wrote and directed her debut feature film "Cinco Lobitos", winner of numerous awards.

She began her career at the production company Escándalo Films, after studying at the ESCAC. There, she learned the trade working on different films such as Blog by Elena Trapé and Eva by Kike Maíllo. In 2014 she went on to direct commercials, with which she won several awards at different festivals: El Sol in San Sebastián, Cannes and the Clio Awards in New York. She directed the short film Beef, produced by Isabel Coixet, premiered at Seminci in 2019. It was selected in numerous international film festivals and won the HBO Ibero-American Short Film Award at the Miami Film Festival 2020 and was nominated for best fiction short film at the 35th edition of the Goya Awards. Ruido (Beef) is her debut feature film.

María Silveyro, who holds a degree in Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid, has more than twenty years of experience in cultural management. In 1994, she founded, together with Jesús Robles, the Ocho y Medio bookstore, a benchmark for cinema and culture in Madrid, and in 1999 they created Ediciones Ocho y Medio, specializing in film and cultural publications. She has received numerous awards, including the González-Sinde Award from the Film Academy, the Critics' Award, and the Actors' Union Award. In 2024, she was honored with the Professional Tribute Award, and in 2025, she received the Tecmerin Award. For the past twelve years, she has directed Ocho y Medio Libros de Cine, consolidating her commitment to cultural dissemination and dialogue.

Carla Simón (1986) is a screenwriter and film director born in Barcelona and raised in a small Catalan village. Trained in Audiovisual Communication, she completed a master's degree at the London Film School. Her debut feature film, Verano 1993 (Summer 1993) (2017), an autobiographical work, won Best First Film at the Berlinale and represented Spain at the 2018 Oscars. Alcarràs (2022), her second feature film, received the Golden Bear at Berlin and was selected at more than 90 festivals. In 2022 she premiered Carta a mi madre para mi hijo (Letter to my Mother for my Son) in Venice. Carla has won Goya, Gaudí and the Premio Nacional de Cinematografía (Spanish National Cinematography) awards. Romería, culminates her Memory Trilogy.

Alba Sotorra is an independent producer specializing in live action, animation, and documentary films. Motivated by the lack of diversity of viewpoints in the industry, she produces stories directed by women and people from underrepresented communities. Her films explore contemporary social and political issues from a gender perspective.

Some of her most notable productions include Rock Bottom (2024, Annecy), Sima's Song (2024, Tokyo), Upon Entry (2022, Tallinn Black Nights), Mi vacío y yo (2022, San Sebastián), Sica (2021, Berlinale), El Retorno: la vida después del ISIS (2020, SXSW), and Comandante Arian (2018, HotDocs).

Mercedes Stalenhoef grew up in Arnhem and studied art history at Leiden University. She then made short documentaries for Amnesty International and various broadcasters. She subsequently made several award-winning feature-length documentaries. Her debut Ik wil nooit beroemd worden (2005) won a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival after its success at IDFA. In 2008, her film Carmen meets Borat became an international success after its IDFA premiere: winner 'Best Documentary' in St Petersburg, Lessinia and Minsk. The film was the official Dutch Oscar entry. The documentary Karsu followed in 2012, also selected by IDFA and international film festivals. In 2023, her documentary Mijn grote broer premiered at the Movies that Matter Film Festival. She won the Movies that Matter Award and also a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival.

A Chilean actress trained at Gustavo Meza's Theater School, she is one of the most prominent performers in contemporary Chilean cinema. She has worked on films such as Post Mortem—Best Actress at the Havana Film Festival—No, El Club, and El Conde by Pablo Larraín; La vida de los peces, Mensajes privados, and El castigo by Matías Bize—for which she received multiple international awards. She has also starred in Marcela Said's Los perros and Dominga Sotomayor's Tarde para morir joven. On television, she has appeared in La jauría and Dignidad, and in theater she has performed in plays by Brecht, Cocteau, and Chekhov, as well as the monologue Girls and Boys, directed by Alfredo Castro.