The Netherlands

Ruud Lenssen is an independent documentary filmmaker. He studied at the Film Academy of Rotterdam (2007-2010) and at the LUCA School of Arts in Belgium (2013-2016). He merges socially relevant topics with a subjective style in his documentaries.

Meng Han is a filmmaker based in Beijing, China. She has worked as a photojournalist and documentary director. Her photo essay, Chinese Adoptees at Home in America, focuses on women's and children's rights, and was published in The New York Times.

Sandra Beerends is a script editor, creative producer and writer/director who works for the Dutch broadcaster, NTR. She also runs her own company, Beruang. Her work includes script-editing for Kauwboy (2012) and In Blue (2018), and writing Arigato (2012). They Call Me Babu is her directorial debut in documentary film.

Maasja Ooms graduated from the Photo and Film Academy in the early 1990s. Having worked as a cinematographer for roughly 15 years, she trained and became an editor.

Leonard Retel Helmrich was born in the Netherlands, in 1959. He graduated from the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1986. Retel Helmrich’s films have screened and won acclaim at film festivals worldwide, and have won major documentary film awards including: the Sundance inaugural Grand World Documentary Award 2005, the Special Jury Award for World Documentary 2011, and the prestigious Grand Joris Ivens Award, IDFA Amsterdam 2004 and 2010.