Guests

		Laure Adler Well-known author and central feminist journalist in France. Has a PhD in history, author of essay books: À l'Aube du féminisme: les premières journalistes, Les Femmes politiques, Dans les pas de Hannah Arendt, Dangerous Women: The Perils of Muses and Femmes Fatales, Marguerite Duras: A Life, and more. Among her public roles she directed the documentaries and culture programs on France 2, was the presidential adviser of French television, directed the radio station France Culture and was editor at the prestigious publishing house Grasset. Today she hosts leading art programs on radio and television, such as Hors Champs on France Culture: meetings with intellectuals from the world of the culture and art, and Studio Théâtre on France Inter. Adler is the guest of honor of the central conference of the festival: Sexual Violence in Films - Ethics and a New Cinematic Language.

		Sarah Projansky Professor of Gender, Media and Cinema Studies. She is Associate Head of Media and Cinema Studies at the unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Projansky is author of Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture (2001), and co-editor of Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek (1996). She published articles in various anthologies and culture and film journals. Currently, she is completing a book titled Spectacular Girls: Media Fascination and Celebrity Culture. Sarah Projansky will lecture at the central conference of the festival: Sexual Violence in Films - Ethics and a New Cinematic Language.

		Ewa Mazierska Born in 1964 in Włocławek, Poland. Mazierska is a reader in Contemporary Cinema, in the Department of Humanities at the University of Central Lancashire. Her publications include numerous articles in Polish and English and monographs on two major modern filmmakers: Roman Polanski and Nanni Moretti. Mazierska will lecture on the role of the mother in Polish cinema, as part of the program Mothers at War, a collaboration between the festival and the Polish Institute, that includes film screenings and discussions about the myth of the mother in film and television in Israel and in Poland.

		Audrey Estrougo French film director. Her first feature film Regarde moi (Ain't scared) was screened at the festival in 2006, and second film Toi, moi, les autres (Leïla) is to have its premiere screening at the festival this year. She directed Regarde moi, a story about teenagers in the French suburbs, without any prior formal education in film studies. She then directed her first documentary about the 20th birthday of one of the most famous hip hop bands in France "IAM". Her second feature film, for which she also wrote the script, is a romantic-ironic musical that deals with statuses and the immigrant life in France, and demonstrates her singularity and political engagement for a critical social cinema. Today she is writing the script for her third film, dealing with female prisoners, and for which the shooting is due to be next summer. Estrougo is one of the judges at the Israeli Competition and the director of the closing film of the festival: Leïla.

		Rachel Millward Founder-Director of Birds Eye View Film Festival, one of UK's leading annual festivals today. Millward has also led training labs for emerging women screenwriters, bringing five new feature film ideas into development, and commissioned leading female musicians to create new live scores to silent films as part of BEV's Sound & Silents program. Millward was nominated a World-Changing Woman by the Guardian in August 2006 and a Media Award nominee at the 2010 Women of the Future Awards. She is currently the film fellow on the Clore Leadership Program. Millward will be one of the judges at the Israeli Competition. Supported by the British Israeli Arts Training Scheme (BI ARTS) a British Council initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and Sport in Israel

		Leslee Udwin Independent British film producer. Among her films: West is West (2010), Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution (2007), The One and Only (2002) and East is East. Udwin was awarded the London Critics Producer of the Year Award, and won the BAFTA (British Academy Award) for Best British Film (East is East). Udwin will be one of the judges at the Israeli Competition, and will also hold a production workshop during the festival, where she will discuss working in a men's industry, and the connection between money, women, and film. She will also present her latest film: West is West.

		Paula van der Oest Dutch film director and screenwriter (born 1965). Her film Zus & Zo (2011) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Van der Oest directed many TV series and feature films dealing with experiences of women, among which: The New Mother, The Journey of Teetje, Moonlight, Madame Jeannette, and Hidden Flaws. Her last film, Black Butterflies tells the story of Ingrid Jonker, a South African poet who resisted the regime during the Apartheid, and will have its premiere screening at the festival, as part of the program Women and War.

		Brigitte Bertele German actress and feature and documentary film director. Her film The Fire will have its premiere screening at the festival. Bertele studied drama in Ulm, Germany and joined the international master class for acting at the Russian Academy for Theater in Moscow. She studied at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg and got a diploma for directing documentaries. She then went to the Universidad del Cine at Buenos Aires, Argentina. She played in more than 30 productions at theaters in Eisenach, in Dresden and at the Mecklenburgische Landestheater, as well as in several film and TV productions. The Fire is her second feature film as director. Bertele will be one of the judges at the Israeli Film Competition.