International Jury
Marie Dominique Michaud
Canada
Passionate about creating and developing content in a wide variety of genres and formats, Marie-Dominique has over fifteen years of experience in content development, production and production for television, new media and film.
She has produced several award-winning experimental projects, including Les Enfants de La Bolduc, In the Mouth and Loov.ca. On television, she also produced the fiction series Toi & Moi broadcast on Radio-Canada, as well as the feature films Le Torrent by Simon Lavoie and Gurov & Anna by Rafaël Ouellet.
Documentaries La Terre vue du cœur by Iolande Cadrin-Rossignol and L’Océan vu du cœur which she also co-directed, marked a decisive step in her career, initiating a professional orientation now largely devoted to accelerating the ecological transition.
She is the ideator, co-designer and content producer of the fiction mini-series RAVAGES (6 × 1 h), an environmental thriller directed by Sophie Deraspe, produced by PIXCOM, airing fall 2025 on Club illico (TVA) and soon on ARTE. Following on from L’Océan vu du cœurshe is currently developing Vues du cœura four-part documentary series about four international women environmentalists, as well as her first animated feature, SEDNA, the last Icebergcreated by François Guinaudeau.
Asgeir Helgestad
Norway
Asgeir Helgestad is an award-winning Norwegian director, cinematographer, writer and producer. He has over thirty years’ experience in documentary and photography. Nature has always been his greatest source of inspiration and commitment, and his work bears witness to a deep sensitivity and empathy towards his subjects.
Her recent documentary Queen Without Land (2018) has been shown at over fifty festivals, received over thirty international awards and reached audiences around the world. His photography has also won awards in the most prestigious wildlife photography competitions, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
His first book, which he wrote and photographed, Dyr i skogen / Animals in the Forest (2001), was awarded the Norwegian Ministry of Culture’s prize for new talent. In 2006, Asgeir Helgestad founded the independent production company Artic Lightdedicated to giving a voice to nature and living beings often absent from public space. He is a member of the Norwegian Society of Cinematographers and Norske Naturfotografer.
Selective filmography :
A Call from the Wild / Skal hilse fra naturen (2024)
Queen Without Land / Dronning uten land (2018)
Arctic Survivors / Liv og død i Arktis (2008)
The Boy who Adored the Wilderness / Drømmen om villmarka (2005)
Natalie Zimmerman
USA
Natalie Zimmerman is a filmmaker and artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose work has been shown internationally in a variety of contexts, including at the Independent Feature Project (New York), the World Affairs Council, Museumsquartier/Q21 and the Sigmund Freud Museum (Vienna). She is a former Fulbright, Resident Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts and artist-in-residence at the deYoung Museum of Fine Arts (San Francisco), where she created Social Dream Laban exploration of the collective dynamics of dreaming and social revolution.
In 2017, she organized a gathering of indigenous and Western women engaged in climate activism, On Fertile Ground: Integrating Perspectives Toward a Collective Futurea project funded by the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. His films and installations include Islandspremiered at SF Camerawork as part of the group exhibition Traces of Life on the Thin Film of Longing alongside Jem Cohen and Jenni Olsen, Close the Eyespremiered at Vienna’s Sigmund Freud Museum, and Eros & Psychecreated and presented during her residency at Headlands Center for the Arts.
His cinematographic work was highlighted at the Ji.hlava New Visions Forum: US Docs in the Czech Republic in October 2021. In May 2022, she was nominated and selected for a filmmaker residency organized by the Woodstock Film Festival, the Theoria Foundation and Gigantic Pictures. His projects have received financial support from numerous institutions, including the American Embassy of the South Pacific (Diplomatic Fellowship), the Pacific Development Conservation Trust, the Center for Cultural Innovation, the UC Berkeley Professional Development Award, the Puffin Foundation, the Paul Robeson Foundation and the Yip Harburg Foundation.
She recently founded Alchemy Dream Studiowhich produced her first feature-length documentary, OCEANIA: Journey to the Center. OCEANIA had its world premiere at the Mill Valley International Film Festival (October 2024), followed by a premiere on the U.S. East Coast at the Woodstock Film Festival, and is currently touring festivals around the world. The film has been translated into six languages and screened in numerous countries on four continents, including the USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Estonia, Brazil, Ecuador, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand and Norway.
Natalie Zimmerman recently received several awards, including the best director award at the at the Frome International Climate Film Festival (UK), the Best International Feature Film at the at the ECOador International Film Festival (Quito, Ecuador), the Best International Feature Film competition Location Negata at the Ischia Film Festival (Italy), and the Wild Women Award at the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival (Austria).
She holds a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts and a certificate in film from New York University.
Theo Fernandez
France
My name is Théo Fernandez, I’m 27 years old, I’m an actor and entrepreneur, I’ve created an accessible acting school, a casting truck and filming studios that are free and open to all, and, more recently, an artistic agency for all. all.es I’ve just finished shooting season 3 of STALK, and season 3 of ERICA.”
Théo Fernandez began his acting career in 2009, at the age of 11, alongside Christa Théret in the horror film Village of Shadows. But it was two years later that the actor first came to public attention with the lucrative comedy fromOlivier Baroux, The Tuchesas the nerdy son of Jean-Paul Rouve and Isabelle Nanty.
Also in 2011, the young actor stars in The Button Warsthe fourth adaptation of Louis Pergaud by Yann Samuellin which he plays the character of Papier mâché. In addition to film, Theo Fernandez has also taken on a series of television roles: Change of course, Vice Versa or even Ma Vie au grand air.
Accustomed to comedies, this is the actor’s second horror film, In the Eyes of the Livingfollowed by the drama Three Memories of My Youth. But he soon returned to his chosen field, reprising his role as Donald in Les Tuche 2 – The American Dream, Les Tuche 3 and Les Tuche 4which sold 4.6, 5.7 and 2.4 million tickets respectively.
In parallel to this lucrative saga, Théo donned the clothes of Gaston Lagaffe in the 2018 film adaptation of the comic, and stars in several series. Among them: The Charity Bazaar, Stalk, Lea’s 7 Lives, Darknet-sur-Mer and Erica. In 2025, it returns to service for God Save the Tucheset in England with the royal family.
He has created an acting school with a casting truck and filming studios that are free and open to all, and, more recently, an artistic agency for all. all.es.
He has just finished shooting season 3 of STALK , and season 3 of ERICA.
Jean-Philippe Marquis
Canada
Jean-Philippe Marquis is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer and editor based in British Columbia, Canada. Working in film and television for 15 years, his projects focus on the environment, social causes and the exploitation of natural resources. His most recent feature film Silvicola (2023), which he produced, directed, shot and edited, was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and won several awards, including the John Kastner Award at Hot Docs and Best Canadian Film at Planet in Focus.
Magali ZEVALLOS
Perou
Since 16 yearsshe has run the production company Hiperactiva Comunicaciones and has directed documentaries such as Cicatrices del engañodedicated to forced sterilizations in Peru. She was executive producer and director of the interactive documentary celebrating EICTV’s 30th anniversary, Metáfora viva: between chaos and order (Cuba). She has also created transmedia documentariesincluding La vida no vale un cobre (2018) and Pozos en el desierto (2021).
His feature films include Entre el hierro y el mar (2020) and Rojo profundo, Javier Diez Canseco: el legadowhich won the Audience Award at the Lima Film Festival (2023), as well as the Best Documentary Award at the Apatzingán Festival in Mexico (2024). She also a dozen short films of a social nature.
She accompanied over 200 film projects (documentaries and fiction) as part of film laboratories in several countries, including Acampadoc (Panama), Bolivia Lab (Bolivia), Mendoza Film Lab (Argentina), Encuentros Bio Bio Cine (Chile) and Icaro Guatemalawhere she leads workshops on extended narrativesthe impact campaigns and the production. She teaches the production of non-fiction formats at theEICTV (Cuba).
She was academic coordinator of CortoLabsan audiovisual training center supported by the Cultural Institutes of the European Union. She has also directed a documentary series on the contributions of indigenous peoples in Peru, in a participatory approach with indigenous populations. She is currently academic coordinator of the film residency El último respirosupported by theAlliance Française and the Goethe-Institut.
Yanqiu Fei
China
Yanqiu Fei is a Chinese director, screenwriter and cinematographer. With a background in journalism, she is genuinely interested in exploring relationships and the inner workings of human emotions. She seeks to tell the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in a humorous, incisive, poetic and sincere way.
Yanqiu’s recent work includes his short film “BAO”. It received the “Outbreaking Performance award” at the Newport Beach Film Festival and won the “Audience Choice Award” at the Fusion Film Festival. The Japanese short film “Jose’s Tour de Tokyo”, which she co-wrote and shot, premiered at the Academy Awards® accredited Short Film Festival and in Asia. She was also director of photography for the feature documentary “Last Year of Darkness”, which won the NEXT: WAVE award at CPH:DOX and the Cannes Doc Award at Vision Du Réel. Yanqiu holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts Asia.
