Dania is the director of our 2022 Grand Jury Prize -winning film, WARSHA. She was also named Best Director.

Dania is a Canadian-Lebanese writer and director. She’s a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and has an MFA in directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2019 she was selected as a Berlinale Talent and participated in its Short Film Station with WARSHA. She is currently based in Dubai and is developing her first feature film.

WARSHA tells the story of a Syrian migrant is working as a crane operator in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to take on one of the tallest and notoriously most dangerous cranes in Lebanon. Away from everyone's eyes, he is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom. tells the story of

Sébastien was the winner of the 2022 Best Actor Award for THE COLOUR OF KINGS.

He is the son of a Jewish-Tunisian father and a French mother, both traders. He grew up in the suburbs of Paris. After studying hospitality, he worked as a cook in several starred restaurants in the capital.

In 2005, he played by chance in a friend's short film, which gave him a taste for acting and the desire to enroll in acting classes.

His work includes theatre, television and film.

THE COLOUR OF KINGS is the story of a young Arab, who dreams to become an aircraft pilot but who unfortunately loses one eye, at least he may lose it, after a brutal assault from two young punks.

Mark Albiston is the writer/director of the 2022 Silver Medal Award—winning DATSUN.

Mark’s short film RUN received special distinction (runner up) at the Cannes Film Festival. Albiston’s follow-up short TTHE SIX DOLLAR FIFTY MAN also received special distinction at Cannes and was a break-out hit on the festival circuit.

Albiston premiered his feature film SHOPPING in competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won a Berlin International Film Festival Grand Prix for gen 14+ .

DATSUN tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy who, after finding out his mom plans on selling his deceased Dad’s Datsun, decides to take his best friend and little brother on one last joyride.

Sam is a writer, director, and producer working across film and performance. They are the winner of the 2022 Horizon Award.

The are from Pennsylvania, currently based in Brooklyn. They are a recipient of the 2021 Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences. They are also a member of Suhrkamp Theater Verlag publishing house in Berlin, and a proud resident playwright of New Dramatists.

In 2018 they were named to the Young & Hungry List, tracking “Hollywood’s Top 100 New Writers.” Chaperone is Sam’s first film.

In the chilling thriller CHAPERONE, an unnamed figure picks up a young man in his car. As the two drive together, and settle into an austere rental house in the country, the details of their arrangement become guttingly clear.