He was born in Sri Lanka of Indian/ Dutch ancestry, he went to school in England, and then moved to Canada. Although he is best known as a novelist, his work also encompasses memoir, poetry, and film. In his transcendent novel The English Patient – later made into the Academy Award-winning film – he explores the stories of people history fails to reveal, intersecting four diverse lives at the end ofWorldWar II. Having won the British Commonwealth’s highest honor, the Booker Prize, he has taken his rightful place as a contemporary literary treasure. He is the author of four collections of poetry. His latest novel is entitled Divisadero (2007), which recently won the Governor- General’s Award.

She was born in Sarikamis, in eastern Turkey, in 1960. After making several award-winning shorts in Turkey, she made her feature film debut with 1994’s The Trace which was presented at numerous international festivals. Her second feature film, Journey to the Sun, won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film at the Berlin IFF and the Best Film and Best Director prizes at the Istanbul IFF in 1999. Waiting for the Clouds won the Special Jury Award and the Best Actress award at the Istanbul IFF and was screened at the Thessaloniki IFF 2004. Her latest film, Pandora’s Box, received the Golden Shell Award for Best Film at the 56th edition of the San Sebastián ΙFF.

Since 1997 he has been the Director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Giornate del CinemaMuto). He is also a former Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He was for 20 years film critic of the London Times and before that of The Financial Times, and is a former associate editor of Sight and Sound. His special interests are the prehistory of cinema, and popular entertainment in general. He hasmade a life-long study of Charles Chaplin. His many books include Chaplin, His Life and Art, From Peepshow to Palace, Light and Movement and, most recently Alexander Shiryaev:Master ofMovement (November 2008).

She won 18 awards for her debut screenplay, Juno, including a WGA Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. A columnist for Entertainment Weekly, she has been profiled in countless publications and has appeared on CNN, the FOX Morning Show and Late Night with David Letterman. In 2004, she authored the critically acclaimed memoir Candy Girl. Most recently she wrote and co-created a half-hour series, The United States of Tara, for executive producer Steven Spielberg. Her next movie project is a horror film, Jennifer’s Body, due out in spring of 2009.

Born in Thessaloniki in 1944, he writes and performs his own songs. In 1963 he left Law school for the sake of art. Selftaught and eclectic, he has so far made fourteen albums of his songs and five recordings of his concerts and live performances. He has composed music for the theater and the staging of ancient Greek plays at Epidaurus. He haswritten music for the cinema (and won the 1976 Hellenic National Award for Best Music for the film Happy Day which he refused to accept). In 1967 hewrote the music for the feature film Terirem. His publications include five collections of his lyrics and articles, and two books on his life andwork. He has hosted his own programs on radio and television.

She has produced numerous films and is now considered one of the key figures of the New Argentinean Cinema, contributing with her experience and her support to the growth of talented and recognized young directors. In 2007, she received the Astor de Oro Award in tribute to her career at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and was presented with the Rezzónico Award at the 60th Locarno IFF. She conducts production seminars in different film schools in Argentina and Barcelona. Two of her recent productions, Café de los Maestros directed by Miguel Kohan and Cordero de dios directed by Lucia Cedrón are being screened at this year’s Thessaloniki IFF.

She was born in Beloeil, Belgium in 1981. In 1999, she won the Best Actress Award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival for her debut film performance in the Palme d’Or-winning film Rosetta by the acclaimed Belgian directors Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne. She became more well-known to worldwide audiences after her participation in Christophe Gans’ Brotherhood of the Wolf. Other credits include collaborations with directors Laurent Vinas-Raymont (J’ai oublié de te dire), Marc Fitoussi (La vie d’artiste), Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe (Le grand meaulnes), Alanté Kavaite (Écoute le tempsfissures), Antoine Santana (La Ravisseuse), etc. In 2008 she collaborated with André Téchiné in his latest film La fille du Rem.

Born in 1964, he has established himself as an independent international filmjournalist. After studying German Literature and Language, hemoved on to teach Film Analysis. Since 1988 he has worked as a freelance critic for several newspapers and magazines throughout Germany, including Die Welt (Berlin), Leipziger Volkszeitung, Badische Zeitung (Freiburg), and Film-dienst (Bonn). He is especially interested in the conversion of film and digital media. His “complete works” can be found at [www.filmtabs.de]. He is currently living in Aachen, a city in the center of Europe, at the meeting point of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, where he has established the tree-nationfilm-festivalMaastricht-Aachen [www.FFMAC.eu].

He was born in 1955 and lives in Warsaw. He is a film critic, interested especially in the history of cinematography and its technique. During the last fifteen years he has published many reviews, articles and interviews (mainly with cinematographers) in Kino, Kamera and Życie Warszawy, among others. Since 1984 he has been organizing screenings at the Dom Sztuki arthouse film theater in Warsaw. Ηe lectures on the History of Cinema atWarsaw’s Music Academy.

He studied Architecture at John Moore’s University in Liverpool, Photography at London’s Middlesex University and Film Directing at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has worked at the Greek Film Centre as a programmer for Greek and international films. Currently, he is an editor and film critic for the weekly economic newspaper O Kosmos tou Ependyti and he also presents a weekly radio program on cinema.

She was born in Jõgeva, Estonia in 1978. She studied Cultural Studies at the Estonian Institute of Humanities and Film Studies at Tallinn Universtity. She has worked as a consultant to the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. She is currently an editor specializing in film, theater and media at the Estonian independent weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress and a consultant to the Estonian National Broadcasting Corporation on cultural issues.

She holds a Ph.D. in Art Criticism, is a critic and journalist whose name has often appeared in specialized editions, on the radio and the TV screen for the past three decades. She is always delving into the problems of the arts, culture and media. In 1992 she was appointed editor in chief of the national weekly for education and culture ABC. She teaches Theory of Cinematography and Mass Media in different colleges and institutes. She has been a member of the European Society of Culture in Venice since 1996. She has often been amember of juries at international film festivals. She is the author of a number of books, studies, artists’ monographs, articles and critiques published in Bulgaria and abroad.