GUEST LECTURERS
JUSTINE PERES SMITH
Film Critic / Programmer / Teacher
Justine Peres Smith is a film critic and film festival programmer based in Montreal, Canada. Since 2014, her writing has appeared in publications such as Cléo: A Journal of Film and Feminism, Hyperallergic, Little White Lies, RogerEbert.com, and POV Magazine. In 2015, she was honoured as a member of Locarno’s prestigious Critics Academy. She has contributed to physical media releases of iconic works like The Silence of the Lambs (Arrow Video), Gina (Canadian International Pictures), Nothing is Sacred: Three Heresies by Luis Buñuel (Radiance), and Behind Convent Walls (Arrow Video). Justine has also served on juries for festivals such as Tenerife Shorts, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Regard: Saguenay’s International Short Film Festival, and ZagrebDox.
LYNNE SACHS
Experimental Documentary Filmmaker
Lynne Sachs (born 1961) is an American experimental filmmaker and poet living in Brooklyn, New York. Her moving image work ranges from documentaries, to essay films, to experimental shorts, to hybrid live performances. Working from a feminist perspective, Sachs weaves together social criticism with personal subjectivity. Her films embrace a radical use of archives, performance and intricate sound work.
MEHDI JAHAN
Teacher / Filmmaker
Mehdi Jahan is a filmmaker and educator from Guwahati, Assam. His work challenges conventional image production methods by drawing from regional oral storytelling traditions. He creates a sensorial aesthetic that blends personal and collective histories, resulting in a cinematic language akin to poetry and dreams. Mehdi's films have been featured at prominent international and national festivals and exhibitions. These include events in Brazil, Moscow, Spain, Italy, Peru, Romania, and India. He has also taught film studies and direction at institutions like Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and Seamedu Media School.
In 2023, his work was featured in his first retrospective at the Millennium Film Workshop in New York. Mehdi is the recipient of the 2023 Berlin Fellowship in the Film and Media Arts category, awarded by Junge Akademie, Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
ADRIAN MARTIN
Teacher / Film Critic
Adrian Martin is an arts critic and audiovisual essayist based in Malgrat de Mar (Spain), born in Australia. He is the author of ten books, including The Mad Max Movies (2003, update forthcoming), Mise en scène and Film Style (2014), Mysteries of Cinema (2018), Filmmakers Thinking (2022) and, with Cristina Álvarez López, the forthcoming Brian De Palma Pure and Impure (2024). He regularly contributes to De Filmkrant (Netherlands), Caimán (Spain), FILO (Korea), Cineaste (USA) and Sight and Sound (UK). He is associated with Monash University (Australia) and EQZE (Spain). His ongoing website covers 45 years of writing: www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com
VICTOR GUIMARÃES
Teacher / Film Critic
Victor Guimarães is a writer and programmer based in Brazil. His work has appeared in publications such as Cinética, Con Los Ojos Abiertos, Senses of Cinema, La Vida Útil and Cahiers du Cinéma. He is a programmer at FICValdivia and the artistic director of FENDA. He holds a PhD in Communications from UFMG.
MUSTAFA UZUNER
Filmmaker / Producer / Teacher
Mustafa Uzuner is a Montreal-based artist, curator, producer, and distributor currently pursuing a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at York University in Toronto. He holds a Master’s degree in Film Studies from Concordia University. From 2011 to 2018, he served as the head of programming for the !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival, after which he transitioned into distribution and audience design, focusing on contemporary art cinema by renowned directors such as Pedro Costa, Hong Sang-soo, Alain Gomis, Bi Gan, and Payal Kapadia.
As a producer, Mustafa’s credits include Belonging (2019), which premiered at Berlinale; Yurt (2023) at the Venice Film Festival; and An Evening Song (for three voices), which screened at FID Marseille in 2023. He also served as executive producer for Measures for a Funeral, which premiered at TIFF in 2024. His directorial debut, La Cancha, had its world premiere in IDFA’s Envision Competition in 2023. Additionally, Mus works as a freelance grant reader for the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and serves on the board of RIDM.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-uzuner-3074332b
https://mubi.com/en/cast/mustafa-uzuner
RAUL DOMINGUES
Filmmaker / Film editor
Raul Domingues (b.1991 Portugal) is a filmmaker and a film editor that studied Sound and Image at ESAD.CR. His films have screened in festivals like Berlinale - Forum, Viennale, IDFA, New Horizons, Black Canvas, ARKIPEL, DocLisboa and IndieLisboa.
Terra que marca, 2022
Flor Azul, 2014
Alice e Darlene, 2013
SABRINA D. MARQUES
Filmmaker / Teacher
Sabrina D. Marques is a visual artist, scriptwriter and researcher living and working in Lisbon. With a degree in Media (FCSH), specialized in Film (ESTC) and PHD Candidate in History of Art (FCSH), she's a member of the Photography and Film Studies Cluster (IHA). Publishes in several magazines and international publishers, such as Arrow, Second Run, Medeia, La Furia Umana, Lumière, Cinética, etc. Programming and writing for Film Festivals, Showcases, Museums, Galleries and Film Clubs. As a filmmaker, has directed several shorts and film essays. The Photo-Cines (2021) is her documentary feature directorial debut. To be released soon, the documentary installation Trees & Seas (2025), the documentary feature Web (2025) and the fiction short Nabia (2025).
http://sabrinadmarques.blogspot.com