Jafar Panahi is a prominent filmmaker and screenwriter associated with the Iranian New Wave. He gained wide recognition with his debut feature film, The White Balloon (1995), which won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. Since then, he has received numerous accolades from major film festivals, including the Golden Lion at Venice for The Circle (2000), the Golden Bear at Berlin for Taxi Teheran (2015), and Best Screenplay at Cannes for 3 Faces (2018). Despite the Iranian government’s censorship and restrictions, Panahi is continuing his creative pursuits. It Was Just an Accident won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Michael Mann is a world-renowned director, screenwriter and producer, and one of American cinema′s most innovative filmmakers. A four-time Academy Award® nominee and two-time Emmy® winner, he′s received WGA, DGA and BAFTA Awards. Mann created influential TV series Crime Story and Drug Wars: The Camarena Story, launched Miami Vice, and executive produced and directed the pilot episodes of HBO’s Luck and HBO Max′s Tokyo Vice. His acclaimed films include The Jericho Mile (1979), Thief (1981), Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Ali (2001), Collateral (2004), Public Enemies (2009), Blackhat (2015) and Ferrari (2023). As producer, his work includes The Aviator (2004), The Kingdom (2007), Hancock (2008) and Ford V Ferrari (2019). As a novelist, Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner’s Heat 2 was a #1 New York Times Bestseller and Heat 2 is currently in preparation as his next feature film.

Sergei Loznitsa was born in Baranovitchi, Belarus, in 1964, and was raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. After studying applied mathematics at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, he graduated from the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1997. Beginning his filmmaking career in 1996, he has since directed 28 documentaries and five fiction films. His feature debut My Joy (2010) was selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and In the Fog (2012) won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes. He later won Best Director in Un Certain Regard at Cannes for Donbass (2018) and a Special Jury Prize of the Golden Eye award for documentaries at Cannes for Babi Yar. Context (2021). In 2013, he founded the production company Atoms & Void, and he has been actively producing documentaries and narrative films, based in Europe. His latest film Two Prosecutors won the François Chalais Award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Born in Florence, Italy, in 1939, Marco Bellocchio is one of Italy’s most prominent filmmakers, whose career has spanned both the 20th and 21st centuries. His debut feature Fists In the Pocket (1965) was screened at the Locarno Film Festival, marking his emergence on the international film scene. With his second feature China Is Near (1967), directed in his twenties, he won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and quickly rose to prominence as a new talent. Since then, through works such as Slap the Monster on Page One (1972), The Eyes, the Mouth (1982), and Good Morning, Night (2003), Bellocchio has built a distinct cinematic universe that incisively examines political realities and the human psyche. In particular, Good Morning, Night offered a bold reinterpretation of the Aldo Moro kidnapping, earning him wide critical acclaim. In 2011, he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, solidifying his status as a master. To mark the 50th anniversary of his filmmaking career, major retrospectives were organized around the world, including at MoMA in New York, the La Rochelle Film Festival, and the BFI in London. His profound influence on cinema was further recognized at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, where he was awarded the Honorary Palme d’Or. Continuing to work actively in recent years, Bellocchio has released the series Exterior Night (2022) and the features Kidnapped (2023) and If I May (2024), all of which reflect his sharp engagement with contemporary Italian society and history. Relentless in his exploration of both his era and the human condition, Marco Bellocchio stands as one of the greatest living masters of world cinema.

Binoche rose to prominence with her performance in André Téchiné’s Rendez-vous (1985) and has since appeared in around 70 films over the past 40 years, establishing herself as a world-renowned actress. She won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival for Three Colours: Blue (1993), the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival for The English Patient (1996), and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Certified Copy (2010), becoming the first performer ever to sweep all three major European film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, and Venice. Binoche’s notable works include The Lovers on the Bridge (1991), Damage (1992), Hidden (2005), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), The Truth (2019), and The Taste of Things (2023). Beyond film, she has also been active in television, theater, dance, music, and painting. In-I In Motion marks her directorial debut feature.