Pavla Banjac is a film critic, translator, and journalist based between Belgrade and Budapest. She writes for Eye For Film and Filmoskopija. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival journal and catalogue, and regularly moderates Q&As and hosts podcasts with filmmakers across the region. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature and is currently pursuing a double MA—one in Film Theory at ELTE University in Budapest, and another in Translation and Literature at the University of Novi Sad. Her research and writing focus on documentary and short film, Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cinema, and the politics of memory and archiving in non-fiction film.

"A room plunged into darkness. The beam of a projector cutting through the dust in the air. The silence just before the first image appears. For me, cinema always begins there: in anticipation, in that suspended moment when anything can happen. This is what I have been pursuing since my early discoveries, whether writing about films, taking possession of the camera, or shooting student short films. Cinema is less a profession than a way of looking at the world, of reinventing it with every shot. As a Master's student in Fiction and Documentary working in an independent cinema, I enjoy participating in festivals, which each time introduce me to works, each more overwhelming than the last. For me, the power of stories is the most magical and powerful thing there is"

Steve Rickinson is an alternative film, music, media critic and curator based in Bucharest, Romania, by way of Brooklyn, NY and Amsterdam, NL. He is the day-to-day operations manager, industry editor, and web manager for Modern Times Review: Cinepolitical Documentary Magazine. With an academic background from The New School for Public Engagement and the University of Amsterdam, Steve has studied media extensively, focusing on documentary film and activism, incorporating and promoting independent ownership across activities. His early professional days were spent co-founding and running the New York City-based magazine Indiewood/Hollywood while continuing to contribute to underground culture in international music, cinema, and political publications. These days, Steve travels the international documentary film festival circuit, participating in juries, panels, and workshops across the continent. He also curates alternative cinema events and writes for cultural organisations in his adopted home in Bucharest.

A computer scientist and entrepreneur, managing director of code and soda ltd, a Budapest-based software development house, and co-founder of random error studio, a Budapest-based immersive production studio. Co-curator of Vektor VR, a Hungarian VR event in cooperation with Verzio Human Rights Film Festival, Budapest. Since 2016 he has worked on various immersive projects as a producer, consultant, project manager, and creative technologist.