Ansone is one of Latvia’s most distinctive filmmakers, known for a refined visual language, velvety ambiguity and a healing irony. She studied film directing in Riga and Cologne, and her short films have been screened and recognised at prestigious festivals, including Rotterdam and Oberhausen. Ansone is a two-time RIGA IFF winner – her meditative coastal-climate piece Can’t Help Myself (2022) received the Best National Short Film award, while her music video for the song Protection (2023) by the band SMILE won the Baltic Music Video Competition. Ansone is right on track to keep surprising us – she is currently working on her first feature-length film, Summer Blues.

Boyce is a cultural journalist, film critic and curator, born in the United Kingdom and since 2010 based in Estonia, where he is the head of the short film section PÖFF Shorts at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. At the same time he regularly covers Baltic Sea region cinema for Screen International, Talking Shorts, Sight and Sound and Cineuropa. Boyce is a member of FIPRESCI – International Federation of Film Critics – as well as the London Film Critics’ Circle, the European Film Academy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). A regular at RIGA IFF, he is a key figure in strengthening the visibility of Baltic film and is always at the heart of the action.

Karppanen is a Finnish visual artist and the artistic director of Oulu Music Video Festival. Alongside this role – and without limiting himself to the video medium alone – he is an experienced filmmaker, photographer and writer. In his photo work, Karppanen documents blue-collar workers, Wolt couriers and Finnish pastoral scenes. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Finland, KunstHausWien in Vienna, PhotoEspaña in Madrid, and others. He is currently working on his first feature-length documentary film, while in his curatorial practice he merges the music video format with avant-garde film, seeking new dimensions at the intersection of different media. It’s an approach that captivates all – including RIGA IFF – who know Karppanen and his work.

Montasser is an internationally acclaimed editor whose practice knows no bounds – be it music videos, ads or feature films. In the realm of music videos, she has worked with such acclaimed artists as Christine and The Queens, the Australian star The Kid Laroi, Sweden’s disco-ballad grand dame Robyn, Norwegian singer Sigrid, the trio Major Lazer, Nicki Minaj, and many others. Montaser edited the documentary Jane by Charlotte (2021), directed by Charlotte Gainsbourg about her mother, the iconic singer and actress Jane Birkin, and in 2022 she made her feature editing debut with the audience favourite AKA. Born into an Egyptian–Dutch family, Montasser currently calls Paris her home.

Vengris is a filmmaker of Lithuanian–American descent. His life is divided between Riga and Vilnius – and to the latter he has dedicated his most recent feature film, Five and a Half Love Stories in a Vilnius Apartment (2023), a Shakespearean tale of heartache and romantic mischief screened at the RIGA IFF. He studied at Columbia University and the American Film Institute, and has worked alongside cinema greats Terrence Malick and Kelly Reichardt. His most acclaimed work is his feature debut, Motherland (2019) – a story rooted in personal memory, exploring the relationship between a mother and son. The film was shortlisted by the European Film Academy and celebrated at numerous festivals. He is now working on his third feature – we eagerly await Barracuda, a saga of Lithuanian organised crime in the 1980s and 90s.