Gina Henkel grew up in Frankfurt and studied acting at the HMT in Leipzig until 2005. She played amongst others in productions from Lucia Bihler, Rebekka David, Robert Borgmann and Dieter Dorn, at the Maxim Gorki, the Braunschweig and Stuttgart Staatstheater as well as the Residenztheater in Munich. She has worked in independent projects, amongst others for the Ballhaus Ost, the Sophiensäle and the HAU and was part of the performances from Paul McCarthy and Mike Bouchet at the Portikus in Frankfurt. Since 2019, she works regularly in film and TV, for example in films by Fabian Stumm, Hanna Doose, Oona v. Maydell, Anna Sofie Hartmann, Kolja Malik and Vanessa Jopp. Her collaboration with Eva Trobisch (Home Stories) premiered at the 76th Berlinale. Gina Henkel lives in Berlin.

Anna Roller was born in Munich in 1993. During her studies in Film Directing at the HFF Munich she made five short films. Two of them, PAN and DIE LETZTEN KINDER IM PARADIES, were shown at over sixty international festivals, such as Palm Springs, Max Ophüls and Camerimage. Another, GÖR, received a “Lola” - the German Best Short Film Award - in 2021. In 2019, Anna Rolle was part of the Future Frames programme at the Karlovy Vary Festival and took part in the Talent Village at the Les Arcs Festival. During the lockdown of 2020, she developed and produced the IGTV series CURFEW CALLS in partnership with kalekone film. Anna’s feature film debut, DEAD GIRLS DANCING, had a shared world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and at the Filmfest München, with a theatrical distribution by Mubi. She received the New Faces Award for this film debut.

After studying English, German Literature, and Theatre at FU Berlin, Neumann worked as a freelance film journalist. In 1994, he co-founded the Oldenburg International Film Festival, celebrated by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Screen International as "The European Sundance." In 2001, he produced "99euro-films," premiering at Berlinale 2002. His collaboration with filmmaker RP Kahl yielded "Bedways" (2010), rated by Der Spiegel among the top 10 films internationally. In 2017, he received Best Script and Best Film nominations at Munich and Tallinn Black Nights for "A Thought of Ecstasy." Recent credits include "When Susan Sontag sat in the Audience" (2021), "One-Way Ticket to the Other Side" (2024), and co-producer on Jan Cvitkovic's "Hotel Alcohol," due 2026.

Jasper Wiedhöft was born 1992 in Lingen. After his master thesis in film science at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, he worked at Hessen Film and Media. Since 2020, he has been a producer within the production company Reynard Films in Leipzig. There he produced among others the stop motion short film REST IN PIECE, which was screened at over 90 international festivals. In 2024, Jasper Wiedhöft returned to his domicile of choice, Offenbach. Last he produced the feature film A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD by Cyril Aris, which was awarded with the People’s Choice Award at the Giornate degli Autori in Venice and the Producers Award International Cinema Co-Production. Beside his job as producer, he also works on his own film projects. In 2024, his mockumentary MAGIC MUSIC MAKING was screened at the Lichter Filmfest.

Sabrina Amali is an actress and filmmaker working in both cinema and television. She has been involved in numerous productions of a wide range of genres spanning from arthouse films to television series.

She has won multiple awards for Best Actress for her leading role in the feature film “Maysoon”.

In addition to her work in front of the camera, she produces her own film projects.

As a jury member, she is particularly interested in films with unique creative styles and a distinctive inner world.

Behrooz Karamizade was born in Iran in 1978 and emigrated to West Germany via the GDR with his family in 1984. He studied Film Directing at the Kunsthochschule Kassel from 2007 to 2013. His short films have won multiple awards and have been shows at over 200 international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Oberhausen and Montreal.

His debut film “Leere Netze” won over 13 awards, including a Lola for Best Screenplay, the Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary and the Best Production awards at the Munich Film Festival.

In collaboration with other filmmakers, he founded the production company Living Pictures Production in Kassel, which produces international documentaries and feature films of high artistic value.

Leonie Chima Emeka is an art historian, curator and author with a focus on postcolonial theory and histories.

In 2025 she curated exhibitions and performances at Parfümerie, Frankfurt and at Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren. She is currently working for the Art Collection at the Crespo Foundation where she assisted Mario Kramer for the curation of the show "Die Zeit hat Keine Zentrum" (2024-2026). She has undertaken provenance research on the Chokwe-Collection of Hermann Baumann at the Anthropological Museum Berlin. Her texts and essays have appeared in magazines, catalogues and magazines such as African Arts and Positionen. Texte zur zeitgenössischen Musik.

Sita Scherer is a cultural scholar and filmmaker with a focus on documentary film, essay film, and contemporary moving image, and works in curatorial selection processes in the context of film. She studied cultural studies in Hildesheim, Caldas da Rainha (Portugal) and Leipzig, as well as visual communication in the film and moving image class of Prof. Jan Peters at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, where she graduated with honours. She has been working as a freelance filmmaker since 2018. Her works have been shown internationally and have received multiple awards, including the 2015 Open Frame Award at the goEast Festival for the video installation Essen vom Boden der Geschichte. Since 2022, she has been a member of the selection committee for feature-length documentaries at the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, and since 2024 she has held a coordinating role. She is currently developing the documentary film Ruf das Schweigen, bis es antwortet.

Saul Judd is an independent curator based in Frankfurt, Germany. Since 2010 he has been responsible for the video art section of the LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International. He conceived exhibitions with artists such as Keren Cytter and Mike Bouchet in the context of the festival until he created the LICHTER Art Award in 2011.

He started to curate the LICHTER Short Films International program in 2015. Among his projects is dont-miss.net, a multidisciplinary exhibition series in Frankfurt, 2000-2001; BLANK SLATE a publication about art, architecture and design and in 2016, SCHAUT! - a series of exhibitions of contemporary art film and video art at the MAL SEH’N movie theater in Frankfurt. In 2017 he presented the artist John Skoog and 2024 Florencia Levy as a guest curator for the Double Feature at Schirn Kunsthalle. In 2024, took part in the jury for the international RhineMain short film at the 24th goEast Film Festival.