Martyna Ratnik is a Lithuanian cultural worker whose artistic practice focuses on the aesthetics of boredom, landscapes and their (de)colonisation, as well as the politics of archives, in order to explore the tensions arising between grand narratives and the everyday in relation to the post/Soviet space. She holds a BA degree from the University of the Arts London’s Film and Screen Studies course and has previously served as a juror for Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori section. She is currently working as a member of the London Short Film Festival’s selection committee. 

Erdvile Girininkaite is a Lithuanian filmmaker based in London. Erdvile holds a BA degree in Photography & Video as well as an MA in Filmmaking. What began as a hobby in photography, developed into passion and work creating films. Erdvile has worked in different departments of filmmaking, including directing, cinematography, and editing. She currently specialises in the camera department and has worked for brands such as Levis, Dior, Channel 4, Jabra, and many more. Erdvile pursues cinematography within different settings of film, from features and short films to commercials and music videos.

Rugilė Pranculytė has found her love for filmmaking a few years back, while trying to capture culturally significant, yet vanishing places of her hometown Vilnius together with a small group of friends. Now, after graduating in Philosophy and Visual Culture at Vilnius University, she is determined to settle matters with her old projects and pursue with the realisation of new dreams in film. Rugilė wears multiple hats in film creation as she writes, co-directs and co-produces both fiction and documentary films.

Saulė Savanevičiūtė is an emerging film industry professional, actively collaborating with prestigious international film festivals (Reykjavik, Venice, Vilnius), European Film Academy and Lux Audience Awards. With an academic background in philosophy, Saulė is dedicated to integrating her philosophical insights into film curation and writing. Beyond cinema, she passionately engages in diverse interdisciplinary artistic practices. She joins this mentorship program to further expand her expertise in distribution, production, and programming, seeking to grow within the industry.

Pata Popova is a queer, Lithuanian, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany. Pata Popova aspires to be an international film producer, bringing together women and queer artists from the Baltics, Eastern Europe and Germany in interdisciplinary projects. Eastern European identity questions as well as migrant and LGBTQIA+ topics are at the core of her personal work.

Dace Čaure is a Latvian curator and film critic. She has been programming for Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS since 2017, and working as a curator for the LAC Riga Film Museum since 2021. Dace is currently studying towards a master’s in film theory at the Latvian Academy of Culture. She is a member of FIPRESCI Latvia. 

Una Cekule is a film director and producer. She received her BA in film directing from the National Film School of the Latvian Academy of Culture in 2019. She is currently working in film studio KameraZ as a director and producer and directing children’s TV shows in Latvian Television (LTV1), as well as directing, producing and editing multiple personal projects. She has created several fiction and documentary short films, such as documentaries Deeper (2017) and A Pretty Little Party (2022), as well as fiction shorts Duna (2018) and Unmarried (2019). She has received 2 Latvian National Film Award nominations for her short fiction films.

In 2023, she graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture, where she studied Sociology and Management of Culture. Presently working at the film studio “Mistrus Media”, where she assists with various production-related tasks, including both feature and documentary projects. Her previous work experience includes working at a casting agency on local and international commercials and feature films, as well as in theatre production. Currently, she is exploring and delving into the field of film production.

Madara Lote Peizuma is a passionate director of photography, recently graduated with a degree in Cinematography from The National Film School of the Latvian Academy of Culture. As a cinematographer, Madara Lote is always amazed by light and thoughtful camera work which serves the plot. With a keen eye for storytelling and a deep love for the art of cinema, Madara Lote is poised to make a significant mark in the world of filmmaking. Madara Lote is a keen traveller, now based in Riga, Latvia, but always open for new adventures abroad.

Kate Jansone is a film director and animator based in Latvia, Riga. She holds a BC degree in Audio-Visual Arts from Art Academy of Latvia and pursues a MA degree in Animation at Art Academy of Estonia. Throughout the years she has worked as a motion-designer and storyboard artist. Recently Kate completed a course in experimental analog cinema (within the Baltic Analog Lab school). This sparked her interest in expanded cinema, as well as, love for analog cinema. The topics Kate Jansone is interested in  exploring in her work are neuroscience, human nature and light.

Full of life and very energetic Grete has always been running around doing absolutely everything she loves. From playing violin to publishing her first book when she was just 14 years old. She loves creating moving pictures that are about hard topics and she isn’t scared of anything. Right now she is majoring in Journalism and communication and minoring in semiotics at Tartu University. Inspite of that she counts her one and only true love being a producer in movies. At the end of the day she has always belived that “A Bit Of Madness Is The Key To Give Us New Colors To See”.

Heneliis Notton (2001) is a freelance writer, currently doing her MA in Queer Performance at Rose Bruford College in London. From 2021-2023 they worked as the dramaturg of a performing arts centre Kanuti Gildi SAAL. She has curated a performative bookshop Kausaal, performing arts online magazine MAGASIN and been part of the curatorial team of the festival SAAL Biennaal 2023. Their texts have been published in various cultural magazines. In 2021 their play “Emesis” won a prize at the national playwriting competition organised by the Estonian Theatre Agency and in 2023 she was awarded the annual Värske Rõhk literary prize in prose category. Her work experiments with many topics and forms, focusing on many intersections and shifting everything everywhere.

Alesja Suzdaltseva, an Estonian director and storyteller, is known for her realistic tales set in fantasy worlds. She graduated from Baltic Film and Media University, Film Arts, as a film director. Her last short film “The Rise” has won 12 awards and screened at 21 festivals. She’s also directed two full-length documentary TV series and 5 short films. In 2023 Alesja represented Estonia at the Cannes Lions Young Lions Film competition. Right now she is working as a commercial director in Gorodenkoff Productions.

Inger Põder graduated from Baltic Film and Media school with a diploma cum laude in 2020, specialising in film arts and producing. Since graduation, Inger has worked at one of Estonia’s most successful production companies Homeless Bob Production, which focuses on pushing boundaries in Europe’s art house scene. She is currently producing the short film “Room Number” with Italian writer-director Silvia Lorenzi.

Liisbeth Kala is an Estonian based actress and visual essayist whose current passion is strongly focused on film (both film acting and filmmaking) and music (singing, composing, improvising). She has BA in acting and performance arts, furthermore, she has completed several international camera specific and physical theatre courses/workshops. In summer 2023, she composed her first short movie “Saab” which is also taking part in this year’s PÖFF Shorts programme.