Guests

Before graduating in directing from Lodz Film School (1967), Krzysztof Zanussi studied physics at Warsaw University and philosophy at Jagiellonian University. He is one of the best known and internationally recognized authors in Polish cinema. He has been a film director, screenwriter, and producer for several decades. In the years 1980-2019, he was the artistic director, and then the president of Tor Film Studio. He has been a lecturer at numerous film universities around the world. He is also a theatre director and has worked in Milan, Palermo, Bonn, Krakow, Bremen, and Basel, among others. A member of the European Film Academy, and since 2011 a member of the Board of the Academy.

Laura Mora graduated Film Directing from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Director of the feature film "Matar a Jesús", premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and the San Sebastian Festival in 2017, where she was awarded a special mention in the New Directors section, an Eroski award, and a Signis critics award. The film was selected for more than 30 festivals and has won more than twenty awards. Director of the Netflix series: "Green Frontier" (4 chapters 2019) and "The Great Heist" (3 chapters 2020). "The Kings of the World" is her new film, which is in the post-production stage. "The Project" won stimulus from the FDC (Colombian Cinematography Fund), Ibermedia, a development award at the Toulousse Latino Film Festival, and was selected at the Sundance 2019 laboratory. The Kings of the World is being produced by Ciudad Lunar ("The Embrace of the Serpent") in association with La Selva Cine, a company in which she is a founding partner. She was born in Medellin, Colombia, where she currently resides.

Ivo was born in Skopje, Macedonia and graduated from FAMU in Prague. Upon graduation he decided to stay in Prague and start his career in the Czech Republic. Head of FAMU Editing Department, tutor, director, producer and screenwriter. His filmography as a director/screenwriter includes 5 feature-length films for which he received numerous awards. He works in a wide range of genres: comedy, docudrama, experimental films, and historical drama. As a producer, Ivo Trajkov was involved in more than 60 episodes of a critically acclaimed documentary series Unexplained Deaths. Selected filmography: Honey Night – screenwriter, director, producer (2015), For Losers only (short)– screenwriter, director, producer (2013), The Berlin project – screenwriter, director, producer (2011), Sozercanie – screenwriter, director, producer (2009), Movie – screenwriter, director, producer (2007), The Great Water – screenwriter, director, producer (2004), The Past – screenwriter, director (1998), The Canary Connection – screenwriter, director (1993), Jan – screenwriter, director (1992). He has directed feature films in 5 different countries, with 12 countries as co-producers. His films attended more than 120 international film and tv festivals and he received more than 20 international awards. He also worked as a scriptwriter and story editor on projects in more than 10 countries. He teaches in 2 dpt. and several International programs of FAMU, being mentor in 7 international script writing and editing workshops.

Zlatko Geleski is a writer, film, music, and literary critic, born in Bitola. He graduated General and Comparative Literature, at the Faculty "Blaze Koneski" in Skopje in 2010. He has been actively involved in film criticism since 2008. He published the digital film reviews on the website "Movies.mk", and the printed ones in: "Kinopis", "FilmPlus", "Film Press" etc. He is the host of the film radio shows "Danse Macabre" and "TV 103" on the radio "Kanal 103". He won the Cinedays Film Festival Award for Best Film Criticin 2013. He is the director of the short films and the organizer of the horror film selection "MrakFest". He was a member of the juries of the film festivals: "Cinedays", "Filmay" and "Mobile Festival". In 2021, his first collection of film essays and reviews "Videology" will be published.

Luis Martin Arias is a professor at the University of Valladolid (UVa). From 1987 to 2017, he taught Film History at UVa summer courses and is currently a professor at the Master's Studies in Film, Communication, and Audiovisual Industry in collaboration with the International Film Week of Valladolid (Seminci). He was the founder of the Association "Trama y Fondo" and its vice-president from 1997 to 2018. He has published several books dedicated to film art: "The film as an aesthetic experience" (1997), "To the beginnings of cinematography" (2009), and "The film work of Clint Eastwood. Textual Analysis' (2011). He is currently developing a film analysis channel on YouTube (Análisis del cine) where, with a detailed analysis of films through philosophical methods, he prepares videos for teaching and research.

Amirhossein Asgari was born in Tehran on November 22, 1978. Starting his career in theater, he graduated from the School of Dramatic Arts and entered the world of cinema and television. After having been director's assistant in numerous films and series, he made his first, completely experimental short film, 'A Short Nap', in 2008. 'Maybe Another Time', his second short, brought him success by participating in national and international festivals. Shortly afterwards, he made his first feature film 'Borderlesss' (2014), which won the 'Best Asian Feature Film Award' at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival. 'The Last Snow' is his second feature.

Elizabeta Sheleva is a professor at the Department of General and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Philology in Skopje. She is the author of 12 books and over 270 author contributions. She published a dozen critical essays in the field of film: "Macedonian film and the Balkan cultural context"; "The relationship between film and literature"; "The film in the Balkan intertext"; "The Film as Lustprinzip ("Dangerous Liaisons")"; "History, Ritual, Cinematic Poetics ("The Thessalonica Assassins"); "Frosina, figure of absence"; "The Poetics of Mannerism in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover"; "Is it always Dogville?", etc. She is currently the vice president of the Macedonian PEN Center.

Niall Kennedy, PhD, is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of French, Trinity College Dublin. He has also worked as a Guest Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London. In Summer 2023, he will be a visiting scholar in the Department of Film and Television Studies, Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University, Türkiye. His recent publications include a chapter on the philosophical relationship between Deleuze and Fernando Pessoa, from Louvain University Press, and an essay on the fantastic in the films of Nacer Khemir, from the Philosophical Society of Macedonia. He has also translated scholarly work on Pierre Boulez for Cambridge University Press. He is presently working on a book on Deleuze and the author. He campaigns against academic precarity in Ireland and is a founding member of the Irish Precarity Network.

Filip Bukrshliev and Andrea Mirceska are emissaries of the New Macedonian wave of Jazz music, or at least that’s what they want to think. Both of them have received the Best Young Jazz Musician award given by the Skopje Jazz Festival. This is already a fact. The years are 2019 and 2021, you can check if you want. Between them, they have more than 30 record. Also: Fact. They are members, together or separately, of more eminent Macedonian jazz ensembles than you can count. They are members of ZAMP. Mircheska played at Bukrshliev’s graduation party. That is probably why he received a passing grade on the exam. The “Bukrshliev/Mircheska Play Coltrane” project is a musical-adventure-travelog performance in which, through the performance of John Coltrane’s music in an atypical duo formation of guitar and double bass, the audience will have an incredible opportunity to learn how John Coltrane went on a musical pilgrimage in 1961 Veles, how he practiced every day under the Gemidzii bridge, and how, before going back, he recorded an album at Radio Veles.

Stefan Palitov is a filmmaker, media artist and researcher focusing on storytelling, extended realities and art & tech. His academic background includes BA studies in Philosophy on Ss. Cyril and Methodius - Skopje and filmmaking studies on FAMU in Prague, Czech Republic. Acquired Master of Arts in Media Arts Cultures Erasmus Mundus Excellence Program. Along with creating fiction and documentary films, he has exhibited VR and media artworks. Notable exhibitions include Ars Electronica and exhibitions in Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Changsha... Former artist in residence on UNESCO supported residency in China and at ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe researching the history and design of 360-degree, VR and immersive artworks.