Competition

Titas Laucius (born in 1993) is screenwriter and a film director. He co-wrote films like “Pensive (We Might Hurt Each Other)” – the first Lithuanian slasher comedy which had VOD and theatrical releases in Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, U.S., an international award winning documentary “Animus Animalis (a story about People, Animals and Things)” and a dramedy called “Film Feature about Life”. In 2018 his first directed short film “Snake” won CineEuropa an audience prize in “Fest – New Directors new films”. In 2022 his debut feature film “Parade” won a prize for a best director in “GoEast” film destival. Also, Polish filmmaking company “Gigant films” bought the films script and did a remake. It’s called “Divorce” and it is on Netflix. In his films Laucius usually searches humour in every day common situations. He mixes classic genre conventions with ironical point of view which makes an audience laugh where it doesn’t even expect.

Shih-Ching Tsou is a Taiwanese-American writer, director, and producer based in New York, known for emotionally precise, culturally grounded storytelling that bridges intimate human experience with social observation. She co-directed the Independent Spirit Award–nominated Take Out with Sean Baker, and went on to collaborate closely with Baker as a producer on internationally acclaimed films including Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket, which premiered at major festivals such as SXSW, Sundance, and Cannes. Her solo directorial debut, Left-Handed Girl, premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2025 and was selected as Taiwan’s submission for the 98th Academy Awards (shortlisted). Set within a Taipei night market, the film offers a quietly radical portrait of intergenerational conflict, gendered expectations, and inherited silence. With over two decades in independent cinema, Tsou continues to craft work that is deeply personal, politically resonant, and globally legible.

Carmen Thompson is a film programmer, distributor and cultural producer based in Edinburgh. For over ten years, she has worked across audiences, festivals, funding and distribution – both in the UK and internationally. She is currently Head Distribution & Special Projects for multi-award-winning distribution and exhibition company We Are Parable, an International Features Programmer for Hot Docs Festival and one third of the newly-formed Jali Collective in Scotland. She was previously programme consultant for Sheffield DocFest and programmer of Sub-Saharan African Film at Red Sea Film Festival, as well as a producer at sales & distribution company Aya Films. Across her career she has worked on UK release campaigns for titles such as Dreamers, Banel & Adama, The Gravedigger’s Wife, Rafiki and Sprinter. She is deputy chair of the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA), and is a BAFTA and EFA voter.

Iana Murray is a Scottish-Filipina writer and journalist based in London. Covering arts and culture, she has contributed features and film criticism to New York magazine, i-D, W Magazine and Empire. Her celebrity profiles have also been featured on the covers of GQ and Dazed. In 2020, she won the PPA Scotland Award for Young Journalist of the Year, and she served on the international press jury for MyFrenchFilmFestival in 2024.

Hélène Espeisse joined the international sales company Charades in 2022, after graduating in English literature and business. She handles Eastern Europe, North America, the UK, Spain, Germany and ANZ amongst other territories as a sales agent and is involved in the acquisitions processes. Hélène Espeisse joined the international sales company Charades in 2022 as a sales agent following her internship there in acquisitions.