Daria Voumard
Locarno Film Festival Industry Manager
A media management graduate, Daria Voumard began her career in communications and journalism, working for several media platforms. For eight years, she has been part of Locarno Pro, the industry hub of the Locarno Film Festival, where she currently serves as the Industry Manager. In this role, she coordinates industry activities and curates the First Look work-in-progress section along with the Heritage Online classic films database.

Gilles Duval
Member of the Selection Committee / Arte France Cinéma
Gilles Duval served as the General Delegate of the Gan Foundation for Cinema for over a decade, during which time he supported emerging French filmmakers before co-founding the MEMORY! Festival in Myanmar. He is currently the Vice-President of Aide aux cinémas du monde. He also works as a reader at Arte France Cinéma and contributes to project development for ArteKino.

Tarık Aktaş
Director
Tarık Aktaş is a filmmaker and academic, operating at the intersection of cinema, video art, and visual research. His debut feature, Dead Horse Nebula (2018), premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and won the Best Emerging Director award. By examining the formal boundaries between traditional cinema and digital media, his work investigates how technical structures and visual experimentation shape contemporary perception. Alongside his artistic practice, he teaches filmmaking.

Stella Wejchert
Picture Tree International - Festival Manager & Acquisitions
A graduate of the University of Warsaw and the Lodz Film School, Stella Wejchert joined Picture Tree International in Berlin in 2024, where she works across international sales, festival strategy, and market positioning. Previously, she served as a Producer at Schiwago Film, focusing on international co-productions and project development. During this time, she contributed to projects such as Blutholz (2023), No Dogs Allowed (2024), and Eunuch, which was presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2022.

Sudeep Sharma
Sundance Film Festival Programmer
Sudeep Sharma is a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, with a focus on documentary feature films. He has nearly two decades of experience in film festival programming and curation. In addition to his work with major Los Angeles film organisations such as Film Independent, AFI Fest, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he has held leadership roles, including Director of Programming and Interim Artistic Director for the Palm Springs International ShortFest. He has served on festival juries and film award committees worldwide, and has led and participated in panels on various industry and cultural topics. He holds a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA and has taught film and television courses at universities throughout Southern California, where he currently resides.

Tolga Karaçelik
Director
His debut feature, Toll Booth (2010), had its European premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival. His second film, Ivy (2015), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at numerous festivals worldwide. He won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance with Butterflies (2018). His latest film, The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer (2024), starring Steve Buscemi, John Magaro, and Britt Lower, was filmed in New York and received the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck
Head of Berlinale Shorts
Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck is the Head of Berlinale Shorts, the short film competition of the Berlin Film Festival, where she previously served as a member of the selection committee from 2007 to 2019. For twenty years, she has been actively engaged with the moving image in various capacities, including serving as a programmer for Filmwinter Stuttgart, Kasseler Dokfest, and ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival. She has also moderated for Pictoplasma and the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, alongside frequent roles as a jury member and panellist. While her primary focus is on the short film format, she also conceives and realises video installations for exhibitions, stage works, and concerts. Additionally, she teaches film theory and video practice at various film and art schools.

Bige Önal
Actress, Producer
A graduate of Bilgi University’s Department of Cinema and Television, Bige Önal began her acting career in 2006. She has starred in productions such as Ethos (2020), Yeşilçam (2021), Erşan Kuneri (2022), and Ten Seconds (2024). She has also worked as a director and production assistant, serving as the first assistant director on Tolga Karaçelik’s Ivy (2015). Her producing credits include co-producing A Guide to Living for the Dead (2023) and Cansu Baydar’s Almost Certainly False (2024). She served as both lead actress and producer of I’m Here, I’m Fine (2025), which premiered at the Istanbul Film Festival and later competed at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, where she was awarded Best Actress. Currently, she stars in and co-produces Cenk Ertürk’s upcoming second feature, Together.

Julie Marnay
European Short Pitch - Head of Programme
With years of experience as Short Films Manager at Semaine de la Critique, Cannes, Julie Marnay is now actively engaged in managing and organising film consulting and market-access programs. Since 2019, she has been the Head of European Short Pitch, an annual development and networking program dedicated to emerging European short-filmmakers. Over the years, she has expanded her expertise through various collaborations, serving as co-manager of Full Circle Lab Nouvelle-Aquitaine and industry coordinator for FIDLab, the co-production platform of FIDMarseille. Her extensive experience in project selection and evaluation includes serving on the selection committee for the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal and on the reading committee for institutions such as the CNC and the Brittany Region. In 2021, she was appointed Program Manager, later becoming Head of Program at First Cut Lab, an international program supporting feature films in the editing phase. Additionally, she coordinates the activities of the Producers’ Association of the South Region in France.