Samer Najari et Dominique Chila

Samer Najari and Dominique Chila have been working together for nearly two decades. In 2001, they were selected for a residency at Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains in France, during which they created several multidisciplinary works. In 2013, the couple co-directed the feature film ARWAD, selected, among others, for the prestigious Hivos Tiger Awards of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2014). Chila and Najari are currently in postproduction for a short film, RITUELS UNDER SCARLET SKIES, and will be shooting A BITTER TASTE OF ETERNITY, their second feature, next summer.

Sam Chou

Toronto-based filmmaker/animator Sam Chou, creator of 'Crime: The Animated Series' which played at TIFF and Sundance, won at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2014. His works, including 'First Snowfall' and 'VRDLK,' acclaimed at festivals like Fantasia, have garnered wide recognition. As the 2023 TAFFI Kaj Pindal Award recipient, he's developing a feature film inspired by his award-winning holiday thriller, 'IN THE HEAT,' featured at the Annecy International Festival of Animation.

Gilnaz Arzpeyma et Arash Akhgari

Born in Tehran, Gilnaz Arzpeyma is an experimental artist who lives and works in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montréal). Inspired by organic and water based mediums and using under camera animation technique she combines hand drawing with digital technologies. His experimental approach explores contemporary questions of borders, identity and technology through bodily expressions and visual poetry. She holds a BFA in Film Animation at Concordia University.

Arash Akhgari (1984) is an independent animator and visual artist, focused on expressive language of visual art, moving image and abstract story telling. He works with traditional mediums for animation as well as painting, drawing and collage, and explores contemporary visual languages.

Brandon Chow

Brandon (he/him) is a Cantonese-Canadian designer and film-maker, trained in the Netherlands, working between Holland, Canada and Hong Kong. His practice is directed through a social design lens, employing writing, research and making as tools of critical investigation. Central themes of exploration include notions of identity, representation and the umbrella term of sustainability. His work aims to unearth the social and political forces shaping these topics to diverge from established narratives and explore alternative practices.

Maggie Zeng

MAGGIE ZENG is a Montreal-based children’s book illustrator, concept artist, and animator. Maggie loves making story-driven illustrations that convey a feeling of adventure and wonder through fun characters and magical environments. She is the illustrator of the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award winning book “This Is The Boat That Ben Built,” and her film “Itch” has screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival, winning the silver Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation. Her favourite pencil was a 0.9mm Staedtler Mars micro that someone stole from her during her first year of high school. (She bought a second one.)

Amir Zargara

Amir Zargara is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian (BIPOC) writer and director, whose unique perspective is shaped by the cultural mosaic of Iran and Canada. His journey, characterized by the resilience of an immigrant and the challenges of living with a stutter, deeply influences his approach to filmmaking. An alumnus of prestigious programs at Berlinale, TIFF, Zurich, and Reykjavik, he explores the moral complexities individuals face in his films.

His short film A GOOD DAY WILL COME qualified for the Oscars and received over 70 awards and mentions across more than 100 film festivals worldwide. Amir's screenplays have garnered praise from top industry competitions, including the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship, The Black List, Austin Film Festival, and Slamdance.

Laurence Ly

Of Cambodian and Vietnamese origin, Laurence Ly holds a master’s degree in cinema and moving image from UQAM and a diploma in directing from L’inis. He has directed the web series LES LAURIERS (2022) and the short films CORRESPONDANCE (2022) and LE PETIT PANIER À ROULETTES (2024), which have been shown at local and international festivals. His next short-film project, with the support of the CAC and CALQ, is LA NUIT DU CANTONNIER, a fantastical tale of a Chinese road-mender in 1939. He works as a producer, director and screenwriter, and curates and programs films for Festival Accès Asie.

Dédé Chen

Based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Dédé Chen is an author and filmmaker interested in exploring the dynamics of filiation. She holds a degree in anthropology from Laval University and completed a master’s in international relations at the University of Beijing. Upon her return, she began developing a writing practice, blending poetics and politics, and focusing on themes such as sexual violence, the body as territory, and archival work. She co-edited Les Asiatitudes (2024), the first French-language anthology of authors descending from Asian diasporas in Quebec, and has published autofiction works in literary journals such as Le double de la mère in Moebius (2021), Femmage in Le Crachoir de Flaubert (2022), and Renasiance in Estuaire (2024). Her first short film, Papaya (2022), premiered at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, and was awarded the Prix du Coup de Coeur at the Festival Accès Asie, as well as an honorable mention at the Festival Filministes and the Vancouver Festival of Recorded Movement. Having grown up between Saguenay and Quebec City, she needed to reconnect with her roots in the city and amplify the voices of adopted people. In 2021, she co-founded Soft Gong, the first Francophone organization by and for adoptees from China.