Valerio Lopes

Valerio Lopes is a Cape Verdean storyteller and director born in Luxembourg. He considers himself an African who left the continent before being born. Both his parents are Cape Verdean immigrants who left the country before its independence at times of hunger and unemployment. As a director, Cape Verde was at the center of Val's first documentary "Cabralista". He has lived an travelled the continent extensively, using his day job as an enabler and his curiosity as a reason to keep crossing borders while telling the stories of people and places.

Dejanane Saint Juste

Founder, Artistic Director, Lead Artist, Choreographer, Dancer and a native of Haiti, Djenane Saint Juste is a professional choreographer, dancer, actress, and vocalist with over 30 years of experience specializing in Haitian traditional dance and folklore. She received extensive training in Ballet, Hip Hop, Modern, Jazz, and Ballroom dance at the Institut de Danse JAKA, Institut de Dance Vivianne Gauthier, and Artcho Dance Company in Haiti. In 2018, Djenane received the Award of Excellence from the Haitian Community of Minnesota and the NAACP. Her latest work is her first children’s book “The Mermaid and the Whale'', published in August 2020. She is currently a teaching artist at the Saint Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts, the Cowles Center, and COMPAS. Co-choreograph at the MN Opera for the Anonymous lover production.

Zandile Mjekula

Zandile Mjekula is a first time director with this offering titled A CULT CALLED EXPRESSION, but she has 10 years of experience in the fields of acting and producing for stage and film. Obsessed with storytelling, Zandile is a champion for woman's rights and has an interest in telling bold stories particularly stories about women of colour in her native country of South Africa..

Khanyiso Booi

Khanyiso learned to draw as a kid living in South Africa, and moved to Welches, Oregon, following his passion for skateboarding, after high school in Oregon, he moved to California for college where he studied business admin & computer science at Golden West College then later transferred to Santa Monica College to major in Animation. Today Khanyiso lives & studies Animated Arts in Portland at PNCA in the BFA program. Khanyiso began animating part-time for the TYSO podcast on Youtube and moved on to producing animated NFT cards for The SNKR Project. His animated work is made on Adobe Animate CC, Audition, Logic Pro X, Maya, C4D, and Unity.  

Makda Musa

My name is Makda Musa. I'm an Eritrean/Ethiopian Canadian, living in Toronto, Ontario. I studied Sociology as well as New Media in college and worked briefly in the film industry. I then studied Early Childhood Education and worked as a pre-school educator as well as working in administrative roles in various non-profit organizations. I’ve recently revisited my creative roots – re-learning video editing, visual design, and audio production. I put these skills to the test while working on my first official film, The Rainbow Brainstorm. This is an experimental, sci-fi film, shot on an iPhone, in my living room! The story is hybrid live action/animation and is carried through with various styles of electronic music.

Luan Santos

Luan Santos is a Film and Audiovisual student at the Federal University of Reconcâvo da Bahia in Cachoeira / BA, where he works as an independent audiovisual director in the areas of direction, photography, editing and color. He directed the short films "Mil Vinny's - Suite Cachoeirana" (2019) and "The Days With You" (2021) that are being shown in festivals and film shows.

Marcus Smith

·         First-time filmmaker Marcus Smith is based in Bristol, UK. His film Retreat is a modern exploration of fundamental relationship principles. The couple in his film is distracted and disconnected by the contemporary trappings of technology. The gap between them is slowly closed as they leave their tech behind, reconnect with the natural world, with themselves, and ultimately with each other. The music in the film goes from operatic to upbeat rhythmic as the journey of the characters evolves.

Prinsey Walker

Prinsey Walker, a native of New Orleans, LA, is a recent Film M.F.A. Graduate student from the University of New Orleans. Upon entering her undergraduate studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, she found a desire to tell stories through journalism. Walker, through her collegiate career, grew to love and support her community by documenting history via radio, podcast, television, and newspaper. Now, Prinsey Walker is taking her passions and introducing audiences to new stories through documentary and narrative films, as an independent filmmaker..

Pâmela Peregrino

Pâmela Peregrino works with Animation Cinema and Art Direction. She directed the short film Partir (2012), first place in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra's short film competition; the short Òpárá de Òsùn: when everything is born (2018), nominated for the Grand Prix of Brazilian Cinema; the short film Oríkì (2020) and the short film Porto e Raiz (2021).

Pamela is the only Black Creative to have 3 films included in Bijou Film Festival 2021, and is one of two filmmakers returning to participate in year two of our emerging festival. The festival team was delighted to represent the African Diaspora with her delightful, spiritual, Afro-Brazilian films.

We are even more excited to have her back for the 2nd year in a row.

We’re always enthusiastic about elevating the voices of las hijas de la diaspora!

Brandon Jones

Born in Queens, raised in Orlando, and based in Chicago, Brandon Jones is an artist, filmmaker, and photographer. Multi-talented in a wide variety of creative fields, Brandon specializes particularly in the visual and performing arts. He attended and graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in film. From short films, to portraits, to voice-acting, Brandon is on a never-ending mission to both redefine what it means to be an artist, while telling memorable stories and creating captivating visuals along the way.

David Weathersby

David Weathersby is a filmmaker/videographer and the founder of City Vanguard, an arts organization that helps independent filmmakers create community-based documentaries for educational and cultural institutions. As a director, he has produced films, documentaries, and music videos. His past projects include the documentaries Got the Love, Jazz Occurrence, Thee Debauchery Ball, and The Color of Art. His work has been featured on The Africa Channel, WTTW, and various film festivals including Pan African Film Festival, Black Harvest Film Festival, and the Image Union Film Festival. In 2018, he was awarded a Black Excellence award for best director by the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago and Thee Debauchery Ball won Best Feature Film at Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago Southside Film Festival, and the Cinekink Film Festival in 2019/2020.

Thierno Seydou Nouro Sy

Born in Dakar , Thierno was an actor in cinema for ten years. Thierno now devotes himself to directing, after having been assistant director on many film sets. In addition to his documentary film, "Music Sama Wérouwaye/ Music is my refuge,” featured in Bijou Film Festival, Thierno also directed a science-fiction short
"Péppu Suuf / Grains of sand"

Raphael Almeida

Raphael Alemeida is a Videomaker. He worked on many TV Globo products. He went through dramaturgy, varieties and realities. Editor of the series 'Eu Só Quero Amar' that competed for the Emmy Kids in 2017.

Jairo Iván Martínez Cuéllar

Originally from the municipality of La Dorada (Caldas) Colombia and raised in Bogotá DC, Jairo Iván Martínez Cuéllar, plastic anthropologist by vocation and creator of moving images, has immersed himself in cinematography in the city of Medellín since 2015, since then he has contributed his plastic and conceptual appreciation in a variety of projects in said city. To this day, he is pleased to create one of the most sensitive and wise trips, together with a great team..

Pratim Biswas

Pratim Biswas is an independent filmmaker currently taking full projects and up for freelancing in other projects as cinematographer and video. His film IMRICH is a beautiful symbolic exploration of the ways in which technological advances can destroy life rather than enhance it by valuing extraction over connection.

Thina Zibi

Thina started in advertising and as an art director and worked in leading agencies carving her way up from junior to Creative Director but her love for visual story-telling pushed her to follow her dream of becoming a Film Director. And she hasn't looked back ...Thina's work forces one to engage beyond just a visual realm but also wants to challenge the viewer with the topic at hand.

Her photographic work has been showcased in many publications such as Essays magazine, Elle Magazine – which deemed her one of South Africa’s photographers to watch, House & Leisure,10 & 5, Noted Man, Africa is a country, the Bubblegum Club and more. She has shown her work in her debut solo exhibition titled Andindedwa at Agog Gallery in Johannesburg in 2017 as well as a many others.

Thina's short film "Bompi" was shortlisted at ARIFF 2022 and is still going the round in international film festivals such as PAFF AND AFRIFF. Her 3 part mini web series funded by the international Black Women Distrupt programme was showcased on Kweli TV. With her understanding of the Advertising world and obsession with performance and character, her ability to collaborate on projects is valued by the creative teams who work with her.

Slindile Mthembu

Slindile Mthembu is a South African multi-hyphenate who dabbles as a playwright, director, scriptwriter, creative producer, theatremaker, and filmmaker.

Mthembu received a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the 2016 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown/Makhanda, South Africa for the production Milked Voice as writer and director. Later, in 2018 Mthembu wrote the play IGAMA? for her master’s degree (in Theatre and Performance), which she is currently pursuing with the University of Witwatersrand. IGAMA? (Stylized with uppercase and “?”)

In 2020, Mthembu was recognized as a finalist for the Impact Act Awards for the Arts & Culture Trust Fund (ACT) for her thought-provoking works and further selected for the first virtual National Arts Festival curated program the same year, presenting IGAMA? as well as working on The Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance Lulu Mlangeni’s dance documentary ‘Lesedi: the rise of Lulu Mlangeni’ as co-writer, co-director and co-producer. Mthembu is also Avance Media’s 100 Most Influential Young South African (2020). She returned to the National Arts Festival in 2021 with an experimental play titled Old Soul Waiting, which won a Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award. The play was later screened to two sold-out screenings in August 2021 at The Bioscope Independent Cinema (Johannesburg, South Africa) as part of her initiative of taking theatre beyond its medium/formalized way and curating for community.

Through her works Mthembu is interested in continuing to challenge one-dimensional narratives depicting black women and their lives and her passion for blending theatre, dance & film is an ongoing experiment in her praxis of creating.

David Masanso

David Masanso has over 15 years of experience in the animation industry and training animators. Founder and director of Crossroads Digital Multimedia, A local animation studio in Uganda which tells African stories.

Co-founder of not-for-profit social enterprise Women in Animation (Uganda) to give African women and girls a platform to learn, master creative technology and share equally in the benefits of the animation industry.

David holds a Bachelor`s degree in 3DComputer Animation at the University of Wales Trist David Swansea, UK and is currently producing Uganda’s first 3D animation series, based on indigenous

African games to inspire children of African descent worldwide. He hopes to reach up to 20million subscribers with the series globally within 4 years, through on-demand platforms.

 Founder Crossroads Animation Academy to youth, young women and artists due to lack of animation skills in Africa.

 He was a member of the DISCOP Experts speaker 2018 in South Africa.

 He was on the Chief Animation jury at the Kalasha Film and market festival, Nairobi (Kenya) 2019

 He has won 6 awards in the animation industry for short animation films.

 He was the winner of the Afrique Creative grant acceleration program 2019 financed by (AFD) to produce local children`s animation series.

 Keynote Speaker at Durban film mart 2021 about Animation on the continent connecting international opportunities.

Anne Raffin

From line to colour, Anne Raffin is a background supervisor in animation cinema for adults and teenagers. Her exacting ethos and her capacity to grasp the essence of a great variety of graphic universes have landed her jobs to compose backgrounds in internationally recognized projects. Raw beauty and commitment as a vital experience are at the chore of her artistic guideline.

With XX LAB, Anne Raffin makes her directing debut. This project was born out of her encounter with electronic musician François X and the mutual passion they harbor for science-fiction dystopia. For this music video, Anne Raffin has added a whole new dimension to the social utopia of the label. Their seditious dreams take shape in creative and subversive harmony.

Daniel Tupinamba

Daniel Tupinambá directed advertising works for brands such as Philips, Unilever, Ambev and the international branded content´s “4 years in 4 seconds” from RedBull.
In 2019 he released 3 films in the cinema: ESTRO, starring Marisa Orth in a rare dramatic role; “Ilusions for sale”, with Gabi Lopes and João Côrtes; and the documentary “Chemistry of life”, based on the best seller by Flávia Flores and recently acquired by the GNT channel. In addition, he was also responsible for the direction of the web series “Wrong Girl” created and starred by Manu Gavassi and which already has more than 20 MILLION views on youtube.  

In 2020 he launched in March the documentary series Young Skate Session on the OFF channel. In June he launches the comic webseries “Quarentenados” starring Fabio Rabin, Isabella Santoni among others. In September, filming of “The Music that Stopped Time” begins the period film starring Kevin Vechiatto and Julianne Trevisol

Bianca Mona

Bianca Mońa is a lover of the arts. As an artist, curator, educator, and advocate, she has initiated a number of projects at institutions such as Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, NY) and The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC), and Market Photo Workshop (Johannesburg, SA). All of her artistic endeavors center on a greater understanding of contemporary Africa and her Diaspora. In addition, she is particularly keen on investigative projects that tackle the living histories of regular citizens who negotiate grand topics such as gender and social-economic placement. As an oral historian and sound artist she had received commissions from The Laundromat Project and Initiatives of Change USA. She is currently a Black Utopia Fellow at Culture Push, New York. Ms. Mońa holds a bachelor’s degree in arts administration from Dillard University, two master’s degrees (art education and interdisciplinary studies) from San Jose State University and Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.

Ilana Paterman Brasil

Ilana Paterman Brasil is a visual artist, post-graduated by Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, Germany, and graduated by the Superior School of Industrial Design of the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (ESDI / UERJ), Brazil.

Ilana creates animation works based on videos of female dances and gestures, mixing handicraft and digital techniques. Currently, Ilana is a PhD candidate in Design, Theory and Critics at ESDI/UERJ in Rio de Janeiro.

Ilana’s film How to Dance Funk is a unique, diverse, and moving illustration of the power of women, rhythm, music, culture, and dance.

Marcia Paraiso and Francisco Colombo

Marcia Paraiso was born in Rio de Janeiro. She is a Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter and journalist.
Graduated in Social Communication - Journalism at Universidade Federal Fluminense and has a master's degree in Communication, Image and Information. She is a partner of the production company Plural Filmes - based in Rio de Janeiro and Florianópolis, she directed documentaries for RBS TV and TV Brasil, and worked as a teacher in the film course at the University of the South of Santa Catarina (UNISUL)..

Francisco Colombo was born in Brazil. He is a writer, producer and director of short films, as well as being director of photography. His main short films include "No fiel da balança" (2002), "Bom te ver" (2005), "O incompreendido" (2008) and "Reverso" (2009). He directed 12 episodes of the documentary series Academy of memory: men and immortals. He has produced events such as the Exhibition of Cinema and Human Rights and the exhibition of Avanca Maranhão.

David Alves

David Alves, as his artistic name is, is a debuting director who came from the slums of São Paulo.

He was one of the first students at Oficinas Kinoforum, an organization that teaches people from the periphery about the art of cinema. Since then,

David has helped his community with short films and documentaries that show the harsh realities of the streets
of São Paulo.

Kelvin Osoo

Jean-Marie Bonny

Mem Nahadr

Jahday Ford

Nino Lou Le Chenadec

Daisa Chatman

Thomas Belet

Journalist and photographer in the written press for several years in France and abroad, Thomas Belet is passionate about traditional music that accompanies his many trips, particularly in Colombia where he fell in love with the musical diversity of the country. He is also co-founder of the Locombia Festival in Toulouse in 2017. Herencias, his first documentary film, is the result of a long work around the village of San Basilio de Palenque.

Adrien and Anthony Peskine

Brother duo and powerful directing team. The only filmmakers this round to have two films accepted into the festival: 1. Womxn Time Machine and 2. Another Story (featuring Esperanza Spalding)

Keep Creating!