Hala Al Abdalla

She was born in Hama, Syria. She studied Film and Audiovisual Media at the University of Paris VIII (1984-89), Anthropology of the Arab World at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1982-84), Genetics at the University of Paris VII (1981-82) and Agricultural Engineering at the Damascus University in Syria (1974-78).

From 1985 onwards she has been devoted to Cinema and she continues to work in this field in Syria, Lebanon and France. She was a member of the Jury at Fidmarseille 2007 and Mostra de Venise-Orisonti 2007. Tutor on the Eurodocmed group training program 2006.

Member of the selection committee for the first Cinema East Film Festival 2005 in New York, Consultant for the �Syrian Perspective� sidebar at the 28th �Cin�ma du reel� in Paris. Scriptwriting assistant for Ammar Al-Beik and for Frederic Goupil.

Director and Producer of her debut full-length feature, I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Own Grave which received many awards and prizes.

Paul Smaczny

Producer, director and screenwriter Paul Smaczny studied law, French and German literature, film and theatre in Germany and Paris.

He has produced or directed more than 200 films and television programs throughout the world, capturing some of the most important musical events of the last fifteen years, featuring such renowned orchestras and opera houses as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Staatsoper Berlin or La Scala in Milan.

In 1995 he was appointed Vice President and music production director of EuroArts Music International and its Managing Director in 2001.

He has been awarded numerous prizes and awards for his films. After winning the 2006 Inernational Emmy Award for �Knowledge is the Beginning� he is now filming a new documentary that features �El Sistema� which is a network of children�s and youth�s orchestras, music centres and workshops in Venezuela.

Andreas Thomopoulos

He was born in Athens 1945. He studied Theatre at the London School Of Dramatic Art (1963-66) and Cinema at the International Film School - London (1966-68).

He returned to Athens in 1974 and since then he has been writing, translating and directing for the cinema, the theatre and TV.

He is a founding member of the Scriptwriters� Guild of Greece and has served as a member of the Disciplinary Council. His work includes directing and screenwriting of documentaries, feature films, shorts, award-winning theatrical plays, television series and teleplays.

Films: �Love Me Do�, �Dharma Blues (Tomorrow We�ll Know)�, �South Wind �Ostria�, �Smiling Afternoon�, �Irreconcilable (Easy Road)�, �Aldebaran�, �Pirates�,  �On Your Own�, �It�s alright ma-I�m only bleeding�. Television: �An Amateur Man�, �We Want Peace�, �Hotel Amore�, �Mikres Angelies�, �Beatles for Ever�, �Greetings�, �Traveling Music�. Theatre: �Socrates, Wind and Fire�, �Outsiders�, �Masculine-Feminine�, �The Children of Cain�, Nassos�.

COMPETITION MEDIUM LENGTH FILMS  jury

Matthias Bergmann

Received his degree in Electrical Engineering in 1976 at the Technical University of Berlin. Being research and teaching assistant until 1984 he completed his PhD in 1979 at the University's Department for Technical Environment Protection.

From 1984 to 1989 he was managing director of the Green Party in the Berlin Parliament. After having been the director of the private research and consulting Oeko Institute - Institute for Applied Ecology Freiburg/Darmstadt/Berlin from 1989 to 1992, he worked there as senior research consultant and head of the Environment & Transport Division until 1998. Ηe was the German representative to the management committee of the EU COST 616 (CITAIR - Mobile Sources).

During the period 1992 - 1998 he was coordinator of a number of nationally and EU funded interdisciplinary research projects on sustainability. Joining the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study in 1998, he first worked as scientific coordinator for the project AGORA - Work, Knowledge, Social Cohesion.

He is the manager for evaluation, organisation and communication at this institute since 2001 and a senior researcher at the Institute for Social Ecology, Frankfurt. He currently works on Methods of Knowledge Integration in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research.

Sawsan Darwaza

Sawsan Darwaza is a theater and film director who usually works on collective projects in an attempt to explore new zones in the field of art. She started her career as a filmmaker, when she introduced the audiovisual medium of film and video in her theater pieces.

The intermingling between film and theater makes her projects carry a special orientation.

She is a director and managing partner in the production company PIONEERS in Amman, Jordan as well as the creative director at a Media production house in Mir. Born in Syria, she spent her life in Beirut and Damascus until 1984, where she studied theater and French Literature.

In 1985 she moved to Amman and started working as an independent producer and director. She produced, wrote and directed more that ten plays. When she began to work on a major television series of documentaries about theater artists in the Arab world, she entered a new world of encountering the realm of different artists.

She was able to gather 52 one-hour films of  Arab artists and intellectuals in one module entitled �An Artist With A View� or �Haoula�a Alakharoun� (1996 � 2003).

Dimitris Yatzouzakis

Born in Athens in 1961 and has a daughter Eleni Dirphys. In 1980 he moved to Venice where he studied Sculpture, Painting and Commedia dell� Arte.

In 1983 he won a scholarship from the �Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia� in Rome, where he studied directing and script-writing under Gianni Amelio, Marco Leto, Furio Scarpelli and others. In 1987 he returned to Greece, wrote articles for film magazines and made documentaries for the Greek State Television. In 1991 he received local and international recognition with �SAINT PHANOURIOS� PIE�, a feature film about a little girl and a pie that ends up in the teeth of some wild dogs.

Then, in 1997 he wrote, produced and directed his second feature: �TOUCH ME NOT�. These two films and some of his documentaries have won prizes in Greece and abroad. Some other works he did are: FULL PINK AHEAD (feature�2001), ALMOST NEVER (TV series�2004), A SKY WITHOUT PASSPORT (documentary-2006). He has also worked as a script adviser and he is a permanent collaborator of the Mediterranean Film Institute, a MEDIA program for the improvement of script-writing techniques.

 COMPETITION SHORT LENGTH & GREEK FILMS  jury

Fereydoun Faryad

He was born in Khoramshahr, Iran in 1949. He studied Social Sciences and Comparative Literature at the University of Teheran and received his diploma in Public Relations from the University of Teheran in 1972.

He was attended the Drama School of Iran for three years and studied the Stanislavski Method. From 1974 to 1979 he was the Cultural Advisor for the Centre of Youth Intellectual Development in Teheran and then was appointed Professor of Iranian Language at the University of Thessaloniki (1991-1992). He worked at the Press Office at the Film Festival of Thessaloniki in 1995.

From his childhood he busied himself with literature and published his poetry in magazines. He wrote his first book �The Birth of Leviathan� in 1978 and the second �The Young Poet� in 1979. He wrote children�s books �The Sharks and the Dragonflies� and �Dreams of Kites and Doves� in 1984 (translated by Iannis Ritsos), parts of which are included in the public school text books of 5^th and 6^th grades for the years 2001-2002.

He has translated more than twenty books from Persian to English and speaks Greek, Ancient Greek, French, Arabic and Spanish. Has been awarded various prizes and honorary distinctions.

Iannis Shizas

Lately he doesn�t mention his year of birth as 1946, because he prefers to declare that he was born immemorial years ago in Athens� He studied Law, Political and Economical Sciences and English Literature. He worked in hotels, stores, companies etc until he finally settled down as an Air Traffic Controller (1980) from where, it is predicted, that he will probably be pensioned off�

He took part in committees and organizations of the antinuclear and ecological movement since 1977, was an officer of the �Alternative Ecologists�, a member of the self-governed movements and a contributor of publishing enterprises such as �Environment and Pollution�, �Ecology and Environment�, �New Ecology� and �Ecological Newspaper�. He has written articles for many journals and magazines.

Has published the books: �City, Nature and Society�, �Imittos�, �Attiki�, �The Other Tourism�, �The Mountains of the World�. Participated in the writing of  the collective works: �Greece-Europe-World in the 21^st Century�, �14 Essays for the Left�, �The Ecological Movement in Greece�, �After the Rain�.

Participated in events and conventions about alternative tourism, in collaboration with the Greens of Europe. He is a member of the Mountaineer Club of Ilioupoli and an unrepentant frequenter of various artistic meetings, that are characterized by extreme nepotism.

He is an associate of the site www.greekarchitects.gr and he is the chief editor of the magazine �Ecotopia�, with the rigid language of conventional ecology, as its prime target�

Marianthi Irakleidou

She was born and raised in Rodos.

She studied Political Science at the Panteion Univerisity of Athens.

She is an active member of the cinematographic club of Rodos and a co-owner of the gallery-bookstore �Prisma�.

  COMPETITION SHORT GREEK FILMS  jury

Iannis Shizas

Vassilis Leontiadis

Is a film-TV producer.

Since 1965 he has been working as a film technician (editor) in feature films. In 1971 he founded the Motion film production company and in 1987 the Movies film production company.

In 1999 he co-founded the Seven Stars film production company in which he now holds the office of Managing Director.

He is a member of PAKT (Film-TV Producers Guild) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Greek Film Centre.