CIRCLE 2026 Mentors
Diana El Jeiroudi
Director, producer and scriptwriter
Diana El Jeiroudi is a Syrian-German documentary filmmaker, editor, and screenwriter based in Berlin. She started making films at 25, and her work — formally inventive, politically engaged, and deeply personal — has screened at Venice, Cannes, Sundance, IDFA, and major festivals worldwide. She is best known for Republic of Silence (La Biennale di Venezia 2021), which received the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize and a Jury’s Honourable Mention at DOK Leipzig 2021, and was selected for the European Film Academy Awards 2022. She is currently developing JOUD, her next feature.
She is co-CEO and managing director of No Nation Films GmbH, the Berlin-based production company she co-founded, where she works simultaneously as director, producer, and executive producer across several projects.
As a film mentor and consultant, she leads and co-leads workshops at some of the most respected international documentary programmes, including Ex Oriente, EuroDocMed, Docs by the Sea, Berlinale Talents, EICTV Cuba, and CIRCLE Doc Accelerator.
Her filmography as a producer includes the award-winning Silvered Water – Syrian Self Portrait by O. Mohamad & W. S. Bedirxan (Cannes 2014), and The Mulberry House by Oscar-nominated Sara Ishaq (IDFA 2013).
She is co-chair and co-founder of DOX BOX e.V. (Berlin), the non-profit association supporting documentary film culture in the Arabic-speaking world — and previously co-founded and directed the DOX BOX Film Festival in Syria (2007–2011), the most prominent documentary festival in the region.
Diana is a lifetime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (OSCARS), the Deutsche Filmakademie, and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy. She serves regularly on film fund committees and festival juries, most notably as a founding juror of the Cannes Film Festival Golden Eye Documentary Award.
Salomé Jashi
Film Director
Salomé Jashi is a documentary filmmaker and she chairs Documentary Association Georgia - DOCA. Her Taming the Garden (2021) premiered at Sundance Film Festival's World Cinema Documentary Competition and Berlinale Forum and was nominated for the European Film Awards. Her earlier work The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016) was awarded at Visions du Réel. Her mid-length Bakhmaro (2011) was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The body of her work was celebrated at BAMPFA in a series of screenings and talks in 2023. Salomé Jashi is the recipient of the Berlin Art Prize (2024) and European Cultural Award KAIROS Prize (2024).
Gianluca Matarrese
Film Director
Gianluca Matarrese is an Italian filmmaker based in Paris. A graduate in North American Cinema and of the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School, he began his career in French television before directing ten feature films presented at major international festivals including the Venice International Film Festival, where he was selected four times and received the Queer Lion, as well as Sundance, IDFA, CPH, Visions du Réel, Hot Docs and Karlovy Vary. Over the past six years, he has regularly premiered one or two films annually on the international festival circuit.
His work explores the porous border between reality and fiction, combining documentary observation with dramaturgical construction. Among his most notable works are Fuori Tutto (Everything Must Go), La dernière séance (The Last Chapter), Fashion Babylon, Il Posto (A Steady Job), L'Expérience Zola (The Zola Experience), GEN_, and I Want Her Dead, which premiered respectively at Sundance and the Venice Film Festival.
Lucila Moctezuma
Producer and documentary consultant
FLucila Moctezuma is founding producer at Azul Turquesa Films and a consultant to documentary filmmakers and media organizations in the U.S. and internationally. With over 20 years of institutional experience in nonfiction film, she works closely with filmmakers on story development, creative authorship, fundraising strategy, and festival positioning, offering insight into how decision-makers evaluate projects and shape competitive applications. Lucila has built a career championing nonfiction directors through leadership roles at renowned organizations such as Chicken & Egg Films, UnionDocs, Women Make Movies, Tribeca Film Institute, and the Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowships, where she led programs supporting hundreds of award-winning filmmakers through grants, labs, and mentorship, fostering professional careers in the field. She has also programmed for international festivals including Hot Docs in Canada and the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico, and is currently Senior Consultant of Artist Programs at Points North Institute, where she co-leads the Diane Weyermann Fellowship. Originally from Mexico City and based in Brooklyn, NY, she is a 2019 JustFilms Ford Foundation / Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellow, a 2025 EAVE Producers Workshop alumna, and a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Dana Bunescu
Editor and Sound Designer
Dana Bunescu is a Romanian editor and sound designer. She co-directed with Mona Nicoară the feature documentary The Distance Between Me and Me (2018). Dana is a winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2017 Berlinale for Călin Peter Netzer’s film Ana, mon amour. She has been working in the field since 2000. Known for editing The Death of Mr Lazarescu directed by Cristi Puiu (awarded the “Un certain Regard” prize in Cannes 2006), Cristian Mungiu’s films 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Palme d’Or, Cannes, 2007), Andrei Ujica’s documentary The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu (for which she also did the sound design), screened at Cannes in 2010. She is also known for the sound design and editing of Child’s Pose by Călin Peter Netzer, winner of Golden Bear for Best Film at Berlinale 2013, as well as for the sound design of Aferim, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn by Radu Jude. She edited and did the sound-design of numerous documentaries. Bunescu was nominated and won several Gopo Awards for Best Editing and Sound Design.
Charline Branger
Editor
After completing a Master's degree in Visual Arts and Contemporary Art Theory in London, I pursued film studies at IAD in Belgium, specializing in editing (with a focus on production direction). I learned the craft under the mentorship of Marie-Hélène Dozo during the editing of the film Le Silence de Lorna by the Dardenne brothers. I then became an assistant editor and later an editor. After spending 24 years abroad, I returned to France in 2022.
Additional activities include post-production direction, supervising editing projects in film schools, guest lectures at universities and training programs, and artistic direction at CATLIKE Movie Trailers Studio since 2017.
Guest experts
Kumjana Novakova
Chief curator and film director
Kumjana Novakova, originally born in Macedonia, Yugoslavia, has worked in the field of film and arts since 2006. In 2006 she co-founded the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo and acts as its chief curator and director. She was leading the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje as a Film Curator for 3 years. She is currently an associated professor at the Non-fiction department of ESCAC, Barcelona, Spain, and has formerly taught at the Béla Tarr's film.factory in Sarajevo. As an author, her research lays between cinema and contemporary video art, often exploring how moving images address identities, memories and the collective self. Kumjana currently lives between Sarajevo and Skopje, North Macedonia.
Mara Gourd-Mercado
Head of CPH:DOX Industry
Mara Gourd-Mercado is an Argentinean-Canadian arts manager, specializing in film, television and digital media. For a decade, she used her expertise and energy to promote films from around the world as a publicist. In 2011, she entered the advertising industry and created the communications manager position at one of Canada’s leading agencies. In 2014, she joined the RIDM team as communications director and was then Executive Director from 2015 to 2020 where she significantly raised the profile of the festival and grew its industry event from 3 to 5 full days. She was also instrumental in bringing the festival to the international stage and attracting top talent to the event and its programs. Over the years, she has been a mentor for different labs and programs, has sat on many juries and has acted as a moderator. She was Executive Director of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television - Quebec section from 2021 to 2023. Mara is now Head of Industry & Training at CPH:DOX.
Lana Bastašic
Writer
Lana Bastašić is a Yugoslav-born writer. She has published fiction, poetry, essays and plays. Her short stories have received numerous regional awards in the Balkans, including the Ulaznica and Zija Dizdarevic.
Her first novel, Catch the Rabbit, won the European Union Prize in Literature and the International Latisana Prize in Italy. The book was shortlisted for the Dutch European Award and longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Award. It has been translated into more than 20 languages. She also published a collection of short stories, Milk Teeth, and a diary titled The Red Suitcase. Bastašić is one of the founders of Escola Bloom literary school in Barcelona.
Rebecca Day
Psychotherapist, Film in Mind
Rebecca Day is a qualified psychotherapist and founder of Film In Mind. She combines her therapeutic skills with over a decade of documentary production experience to offer consultancies, workshops and therapeutic support to filmmakers working in difficult situations and with vulnerable people.
She is also a co-founder of DocuMentality, an international research and advocacy project, working towards a more psychologically safe industry. She has been invited as a guest speaker and mentor on panels and at workshops internationally, including Berlinale, CIRCLE, CPH:DOX, IDFA, IDA, WIFTV, and Sheffield DocFest.
Yael Bitton
Editor
Yaël Bitton is a highly accomplished documentary film editor, writer, story consultant, and director with over 25 years of experience in the industry. She has collaborated with filmmakers worldwide and served as a mentor and consultant for numerous prestigious film programs.
She is a member of the Oscars Academy.
Yaël has won several awards for her editing work, including the Sima Editing Award for Radio Silence and the Dok Fest Adobe 2024 Editing Award for KIX. In addition to her editing career, she has directed feature-length documentaries and teaches editing at HEAD/Cinéma du Réel in Geneva. Currently based in Paris, Yaël continues to influence the documentary film landscape through her extensive expertise and creative vision.
Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Director and Producer
Alyx Ayn Arumpac is a documentary filmmaker and producer from the Philippines. Her film ‘Aswang’ received the critics prize at IDFA, the grand prizes at Montreal International Documentary Festival, DMZ Documentary Festival in South Korea, and Film Festival Dokumenter Yogyakarta, the Amnesty International award at Thessaloniki, the Camera Obscura Artistic Excellence award, and more. It is the first documentary to be awarded Best Film in Gawad Urian and FAMAS, where it also won Best Director, Documentary, Editing, and Cinematography. Her work has been supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund, Aide aux cinémas du monde, Sundance Institute, Berlinale World Cinema Fund, Doha Film Institute, Purin Pictures, SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant, and more. Alyx is an alumna of Docnomads, the UP Film Institute and the Philippine High School for the Arts. She participated at Berlinale Talents Docstation, IDFAcademy, Talents Tokyo, and Docs by the Sea. Alongside her independent work, she also directs and produces documentaries for broadcast.
