International Jury

Marie Balducchi is a French producer at AGAT Films/Ex Nihilo, a unique collective of independent producers in Paris. The company reconciles an individual practice in developing, producing and promoting creative Authors’ work and a collective practice based on financial, editorial and human solidarity between the associates.

Marie Balducchi produces films for both cinema and television and participates in film support commissions like Europe Creative Media and Cinémas du Monde. She is a member of L’ Académie des Césars and of the board of L’usage du monde au 21 siècle, partner in the CNC Caméra Libre Residency Program for foreign filmmakers in difficult situation in their country. She is currently producing the third long feature film of Lesotho director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Ancestral Visions of the Future.

Bassam Alasad is a producer, green production consultant and member of the Documentary Association of Europe. Currently, Alasad is the Managing Director of Creative Media Solutions, a Dubai-based media company. He has produced and co-produced projects in the past 17 years all around the region. His latest project was the Saudi film Champions – 2021 as an executive producer, and he is currently producing the upcoming two feature films Montréal and Finding Oum Al Ghaith, while working on other projects in development.

In 2014, Bassam started his green production journey and later co-founded Greener Screen, a consultancy that supports the film industry in the region in becoming carbon-neutral; since 2023, Bassam Joined “Global Climate Storytellers Network – GCSN”, as a steering committee member. Bassam Alasad heads the Amman Film Industry Days at Amman International Film Festival – Awal Film since 2021.

Writer and director based in Spain.

Graduate in Architecture. She worked as an architect for a few years before starting in cinema. She has worked as a script supervisor with directors such us Fernando Trueba, Cesc Gay, Martín Cuenca, Javier Rebollo or Lucile Hadzihalilovic. She was also a programmer for Cinema Jove.

She has written and directed short films and documentaries. Her last short film, 3/105, was selected at Venice International Film Festival.

Her first feature film, Vasil (2022), produced by Distinto Films (Spain) and Activist 38 (Bulgaria), premiered in Warsaw International Film Festival and was awarded best actor in SEMINCI, Valladolid Internatioal Film Festival.

She is now finishing her second feature film, The Portuguese House, produced by Distinto Films, Jaibo Films and O Som e a Fúria (Portugal).

Graduated in Economics from the Instituto Superior de Economía de Lisboa, João Antunes has been a Senior Technician at the Portuguese Cinematheque since 1983. In addition, he is a member of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) and the European Film Academy. He has served as producer and artistic director in several short films by filmmaker Latifa Saïd and as curator in various retrospectives on Portuguese cinema at the Libertas Film Festival (Dubrovnik, Croatia) or at the Jeonju Festival (South Korea).

In his role as a journalist, he has collaborated in different international publications and has been director of Cine-ISE and Cinematógrafo. He has written several books, including Melhores Filmes, Melhores Cineastas (Edições Cinematografía) and Cinema Português 1896-1998 (Edições RBA Lusomundo). He has been a professor of Film History and a member of the jury at the Cannes, Guadalajara, Istanbul and Mumbai festivals, among others.

Born in Cairo, Amal Ramsis has a Law Degree from Ain Shams University. In 1992 she collaborated in the founding of the “Ma’an” Women’s Studies Center in Egypt. In 2002 he received a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study Film Direction at the Séptima Ars Film School (Madrid).

In 2008, she founded Cairo International Women’s Film Festival, the first annual film festival for women filmmakers in the Arab World. In 2009 he was the holder of the Chair of Arts and Cultures of the Euro-Arab Foundation in Granada. She is also the founder of La Caravana de Entre Cineastas.

His documentaries Solo Sueños (2005), Forbidden (2011), The Trace of the Butterfly (2015) and You Come from Far Away (2018) have been awarded and screened at several international festivals.