Czech Republic

Jindřich Andrš (1994) is a director and producer. He studied film at FAMU, Charles University and Edinburgh Napier. In 2017 he received a Special Mention Award at the Ji.hlava IDFF, amongst others, for his short documentary The Last Shift of Tomas Hisem. Based on this short, he finished his first feature film, A New Shift in 2020, with which he participated in Ex.Oriente, dok.incubator and the IDFA Academy. As a producer, he debuted with the short film Pripyat Piano — a film-poem from Chernobyl. Pripyat Piano received a Silver Eye Award in 2019, and premiered at Visions du Réel 2020.

Jakub Julény graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2011, having specialized in Documentary Film Direction, under Professor Dušan Hanák. He has directed the short films HOUSE - Memories of Martin Porubjak and In King Svätopluk’s Shadow. The Commune is his first feature-length film.

Born in Treviso, Italy, in 1989, Francesco Montagner studied Documentary Direction at the FAMU, in the Czech Republic. In 2014 he directed, shot and produced Animata Resistenza, his debut feature documentary about the life and work of the renowned Italian animator, Simone Massi. The film was presented at the 71. Venice Film Festival and awarded with the Venice Classics Award for the Best Documentary on Cinema. Francesco recently finished his second feature documentary, Brotherhood. He is a teacher at FAMU International in Prague.

Barbora Berezňáková is a graduate of the University of Performing Arts in Bratislava, the film directing course at NYFA, and the Animation and Film Department of BBAA, UPV, Valencia. Barbora has worked on TV documentaries and web videos for various NGO productions as a director or editor. Her work also includes video installations, gallery screenings and music videos. She experiments with new ways of storytelling and crosses genres in documentary film.

Zuzana Piussi is a Slovak director, documentary filmmaker, producer and actress. She graduated from the Department of Directing, at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. From 1992 until 2000, she worked with the Stoka Theater, and was subsequently involved in the theater project, SKRAT.

Anna Kryvenko is an artist working with video and fine art photography. She studied theatre directing at KNUTKT (Ukraine), and alternative theatre directing at DAMU (CZ). She is currently a student at the Centre for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU. Her films and performances have been screened at the Fluidum Festival, Jihlava Documentary Film Festival, Intermedia BB, and Visions du Reél.

Mika Johnson is a multimedia artist, concentrating on designing virtual reality experiences. Johnson also directs AR projects, music videos, commercials, and fiction and documentary films. Johnson has presented, lectured, and taught workshops across Europe and North America. Based in Prague, Johnson teaches workshops and classes at FAMU International and Prague Film School. He is also a member of the New York City based trio MomenTech: a multiplatform experimental production studio devoted to transnational progressivism, post-humanism, neo-nomadism and futurism.

Petr Horký studied journalism in Prague. He graduated in photojournalism in London, later moved to Berlin and then Prague where he worked for economic periodicals. His job exposed him to a wide range of issues, one of them was a Russian story which inspired him to make the documentary The Russian Job.

Stephan Komandarev studied directing at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. His films, The Balloon (1997), Dog’s Home (2000), Bread over the Fence (2002), Alphabet of Hope (2003), The Judgement (2014), and Directions (2017) were awarded by numerous prestigious festivals.

Linda Dombrovszky graduated as a film and television director in 2013. She has directed a music documentary, image films, non-commercial films, and a reality series. Her documentaries and short films attended and received awards at several festivals.

Evdokia Moskvina studied film production at the Sorbonne University in Paris. In 2011 she directed the film Our Dreams Come True, which was successfully presented at the Cannes festival. Currently, Evdokia is post-producing a documentary filmed in Syria in 2016, a story about civilians in the war.

Apolena Rychlíková (1989) is a Czech documentary film director and journalist. She graduated from the Documentary Film Department at FAMU, Prague. She takes interest in public space, and is dedicated to socially engaged documentary filmmaking.