Davide Abbatescianni

Journalist

Davide Abbatescianni is an Italian journalist, critic and programmer. He has written extensively for Cineuropa since 2017, covering European cinema and industry events. As of 2024, he also works as a programmer for the Torino Film Festival. He is a member of FIPRESCI and the European Film Academy.

Marilyn Castonguay

Actress

Marilyn is an actress who has made a name for herself on stage, in film and on television, through her outstanding roles. A 2010 graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, her credits include Testament (Éric Jean), Le Joker (Éric Jean), Le déclin de l'empire américain (Patrice Dubois), and Glen Garry Glen Ross (Brigitte Poupart). In 2021, she brilliantly rose to the challenge of bringing Les filles et les garçons, a Dennis Kelly play translated by Fanny Britt, to the stage alone, earning her the Prix d'interprétation féminine from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre.

On television, Marilyn appears in several productions (Au secours de Béatrice, 19-2, Vertige, Plan B, Fatale station, L'échappée, Le Pacte, Bon Matin Chuck and Bellefleur). She will soon be appearing in the third season of Bête noire, as well as in the new series Emprises.

On the big screen, Marilyn has appeared in L'affaire Dumont (Podz), Louis Cyr (Daniel Roby), L'Ange-Gardien and Miraculum (Podz). She was also in the cast of Ça sent la coupe (Patrice Sauvé) alongside Louis-José Houde, Mon boy, a short film by Sarah Pellerin, and the short film Foyer, directed by Sophie B. Jacques. In 2019, she plays Sarah in Matthias et Maxime (Xavier Dolan) and is part of the cast of Jusqu'au déclin, Netflix's first Quebec feature. In 2023, we saw her in the feature Frontières, alongside Pascale Bussières, Christine Beaulieu and Micheline Lanctôt. In 2024, we saw her in La Petite et le Vieux (Patrice Sauvé) and Mlle Bottine (Yan Lanouette Turgeon).

Yvon Jardel

Head of Animation Operations at Rodeo FX

Yvon is an animator and animation supervisor with more than 15 years of experience. After training at the acclaimed École des Gobelins in Paris, he launched his career working on animated films such as The Tale of Despereaux before joining the Cartoon Network in London, where he developed characters and supervised the animation of the first two seasons of The Amazing World of Gumball. Yvon has also drawn characters, and his work has led him to every part of Europe, whether for television series, advertisements or animated feature films.

In 2013, Yvon arrived in Quebec and joined MPC, where he immersed himself in the world of special effects. Since joining Rodeo FX in 2016, he has built a top-notch creative team. As animation supervisor for the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, season 3, he led his team to four VES nominations and two wins. His recent contributions include Sonic 3, the design of several complex animation sequences for Pennywise in Andy Muschietti’s It, and the successful films Jumanji: The Next Level, Bumblebee, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Nicolas Khabbaz

artistic director

Nicolas Khabbaz is born in Lebanon. He graduated in filmmaking and holds a Ph.D. in cinema, where he studied the cinema of small nations and the question of its identity.

He is the artistic director of Beirut Shorts International Film Festival and the program director of Batroun Mediterranean Film Festival. He is an Associate professor in the Media Studies / Audiovisual Arts Department at Notre Dame University-Louaize.

Nicolas has participated in several major international festivals around the world as a filmmaker, jury member, curator and industry expert. He has produced several award-winning short films premiered in Clermont Ferrand, Locarno and Toronto International Film Festival.

Martin Lamarche

Technician

Since his teens, Martin Lamarche has been driven by a passion for light and all the techniques of theatrical, photographic and cinematic production. He began his career as a stage technician in one of Quebec’s major performance venues. In the early 1990s, the launch of MusiquePlus kicked off a golden age of music videos. Friends who had graduated from film school at Concordia University immediately called on his knowledge and talent to work on cutting-edge lighting techniques and creative rigging. Since that moment, his career has been dedicated exclusively to film and television production. His professionalism and technical knowledge have led him to work on numerous foreign productions, including shoots in the Czech Republic, Romania, England, France, Switzerland, Cuba and Costa Rica – each an opportunity to deepen his knowledge by learning from some of the world’s greatest creatives.

Always on the lookout for new technologies and ways of innovating in our art, Martin never stops researching and developing new tools for improving each aspect of camera operation on moving vehicles.

Philippe Lesage

Filmmaker

An important figure in contemporary cinema (according to the New York Film Festival), Philippe Lesage began his career in documentary. After Ce cœur qui bat (Jutra for best feature-length documentary, 2012), he turned to fictional features.

Les démons (2015) was selected by more than 50 festivals around the world and won numerous honours, including the Prix Gilles-Carles and the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival. It was also named to Canada’s Top Ten at the TIFF. After premiering in the official competition at the Locarno Festival, Genèse (2018) was selected by more than 70 festivals, including AFI Fest, Moma/Lincoln Center, New Directors/New films and TIFF Canada’s Top Ten. Genèse was lauded by critics, including being named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, as well as receiving positive reviews in the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Libération, El País, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and The Globe and Mail.

Comme le feu (2024) had its world premiere at the Berlinale 2024 and won that festival’s Generation Jury Grand Prix. Since then, the film has appeared at numerous international festivals and received excellent reviews.

Agustín Masaedo

Programmer

An Argentinian journalist, critic and film curator, Agustín Masaedo has written for the legendary magazine El Amante/Cine and translated, corrected and/or edited books by John Waters, Scott Foundas and J. Hoberman, among many others. For almost a decade, he was the editor of the catalogues for the Mar del Plata IFF and BAFICI. Since 2016, he has been a member of the latter's programming team.

Seggen Mikael

programmer

Seggen Mikael works freelance as a cultural manager, programmer and writer. She designs film programs and social media appearances, curates talks and organises projects with a focus on marginalized people.

She is also part of the consulting collective DisChecks. In her work as a programmer and moderator, she mainly focuses on film/art and media, as well as intersectional discrimination, inclusion and equity.

Caroline Monnet

artist

Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist based in Mooniyang/Montreal. Her work has been programmed by numerous festivals and museums around the world, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance, Gothenburg, Rotterdam and Berlin, as well as the Whitney Biennale, the Frankfurt Kunsthalle, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and the National Gallery of Canada. In 2016, she was selected for a residency at the Cannes Festival’s Cinéfondation (Paris). In 2023 she received the Merata Mita Fellowship of the Sundance Institute and was named Compagne des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.

Yannis Sakaridis

Filmmaker

Yannis’ filmmaking career has spanned 30 years. His debut feature film, Wild Duck, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. His second feature, Amerika Square, was Greece's selection for Best Foreign Film 2018. He was the Artistic Director of Drama International Short Film Festival for five years.