✪ Honorary Member of the SFA

Bio:
Branka Besevic Gajic is a Serbian and Croatian Award-winning Film & TV Director, Creative Producer, Screenwriter, Doctor of Arts, Ph.D. She holds a Master's degree in Drama and audiovisual arts. She is a member of the European Film Academy based in Berlin. She has graduated in the class of professor Goran Pekovic, at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and Interdisciplinary Arts Ph.D. at the University of Arts in Belgrade with the film directing at Interactive feature movie The Decision (Odluka). She was born in Pancevo on September 18th, 1982. In 2014 she debuted as director and screenwriter of film "Laus", a film about the life of famous Yugoslav actor Zarko Lausevic. The film features more than twenty major names of Serbian culture. After a successful premiere at Sava Center in Belgade, the film was widely distributed in Serbia as well as in Balkan region, followed by screenings at series of festivals in America, Australia, South Africa, Russia and China, in the cities of Toronto, New York, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Vulagong, Melbourne, Canberra, Peking, Johannesburg, Moscow, where it won numerous awards for directing, artistic contribution and courage of the author.

Featured Awards:
Award wining In Chicago, the Serbian Film Festival included it among the best films of 2014. Award wining "The best women XXI century" in drama and audiovisual arts, Airli Nivo, Belgrade(2016) Award wining "GRAND PRIX" for screenplay of film "Laus" at the International Festival (2016) Award wining "GRAND PRIX" for "The Home of Angels" in at the International Festival "Gold Buklia"(2017). Award wining "Dejan Kosanovic" award for the best Master of Arts graduate film at Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia (FDU, 2017) Award wining City Fest (2019) Award wining City Fest (2021) Award wining Avant & Una (2021) Award-Wining for the best movie at Nis (2021) Award Wining for the best director at Film festival "Gold Buklia" (2022) Award wining for the best screenplay of the movie "The Testimonials" at International Film Festival (2022)

✪ Honorary Member of the SFA

Bio:
Andrea Lodovichetti was born in Fano (Italy). Graduated as a Film Director at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - National School of Cinema in Rome, he has worked as 2nd Assistant Director for the Academy Award Winner Director Paolo Sorrentino. In 2009 he won the Italian Golden Globe for Best Short Movie with his film "Sotto il mio giardino". Among the other recognitions he received, also the "Looking for Genius" prize (Babelgum Film Festival, Cannes) chaired by Spike Lee. Andrea's works have received over 80 prizes and awards worldwide.

✪ Honorary Member of the SFA

Bio:
Olympia Mytilinaiou based in Athens, Cinematographer Member of GSC, IMAGO, and THEICFC association. She is a member of the European and Hellenic Film Academy
She was born and raised in Litochoro, Mount Olympus, and North Greece.

1987 she studied Cinematography at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos and started working while she was a student in the Greek film industry.

Till 1998 she has worked as Assistant Camera, Focus Puller, and Camera Operator in films (fiction and documentary) and TV spots.

1999 Olympia filmed her first feature with director Mimis Kougioumtzis 17 to 18 as a Cinematographer

2001 she filmed Lagia Giourgou's (Avrio tha'nai arga) Tomorrow will be to late.

2009 Her work became most known to a wider audience with Panos Koutras' acclaimed feature A Woman's Way (Strella), a festival favorite, selected and screened, among many in Berlin International Film Festival 2009 Panorama section.

2011 she filmed Stephen Lloyd Jackson's David Is Dying. Awarded with Grand Jury Price, Best Director, and Best Actor in American Black Film Festival.

She has achieved the shooting for the documentary Dollars For A Saint, by Avra Georgiou a Films Transit INC Production for ARTE TV.

2013 she collaborated with director Alexandros Avranas on his acclaimed feature film Miss Violence, winner of Venice Silver Lion Award, Fedora Award, Young Cinema Award and Best Actor award at Venice Film Festival, winner of Best Screenplay Award at Stockholm Film Festival, winner of Innovation Award.

For the same film, her work has been awarded 2013 with the Gianni Di Venanzo International Prize for Cinematography in Italy.

The same year she worked with artist Stefanos Tsivopoulos for the film History Zero, which was presented at the Greek Pavilion 55 Biennale di Venezia.

In 2015, she collaborated with Algerian director Rayhana on the feature film A mon âge, Je me cache encore pour fumer, starring Hiam Abbas, a co-production of Michele Ray-Gavras and Fenia Kossovitsa.

In 2016, she shot Talal Derki's short documentary Ode to Lesvos, commissioned by Johnnie Walker.

In 2017 and 2018 she collaborated with Stavros Tsiolis in the film Women Who Passed by and with Nikos Kornilios in the film Back Held Hands.

In 2018 she collaborated with the artist Pantelis Makkas in the art film Antistoli.

In 2020 she also collaborated with George Drivas on the video art film Aeonium.

In 2022 collaborate again with Panos Koutras at his film DODO that participates in 75 Cannes film festival official selection.

Bio:
Film critic. Has experience as a marketer in US film studios (20th Century Fox/ Warner Bros.Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Columbia-Tristar). Current member FIPRESCI & FEDEORA.

Bio:
Christian Rodrigo is a Spanish Actor born in Barcelona, who is recognized internationally as a fresh, unique, creative, generous, passionate and extraordinary performer.

He is based in Los Angeles, specialized in acting on camera with experience in 10 feature films, around 40 short films, several TV-shows and in some theatrical independent plays.

He is a member of SAG-AFTRA (the biggest Actors Screen, TV and Radio Union in the US), the Professional Actors and Directors Association of Catalonia (AADPC) and also of the Cinema Academy of Catalonia.

Christian is a Member of The Actors Gang, an American Theater company which Tim Robbins is the artistic director. He has also been a member of the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Conservatory.

At a young age, he starred in a lot of school plays at Thau School. Thanks to his performance in the play "Carlota i la Dona de Neu", (when he was 16 years old) he was hired to become a member of the CC Sants Theater Company, a theater company based in Barcelona.

At 18, he started his studies in Business at the University, and at the age of 23 he got a Business and Administration Degree and an MBA from ESADE, one of the top European Business Universities with an exchange program at Goizueta Business School (Emory University, Atlanta). Then he started working on worldwide companies, such as Danone where he worked in the Marketing department, or Michael Page as a Headhunter. This experience allowed him to be involved in a lot of commercials and TV projects, working as a decision maker.

Then, due to his passion for acting, he came back to his origins and he studied Performing Arts at the Col.legi del Teatre de Barcelona, one the most well known Acting Schools in Barcelona. He was trained with some of the most talented teachers including the Russian theater director Boris Rotenstein (who studied with one of Stanislavski's students) and learned Stanislavski's technique for four years.

Education has been always very important for Christian, that's why after his studies at El Col.legi de Barcelona, he trained with some of the greatest international coaches such as Michelle Danner (Salma Hayek, Gerald Butler, Christian Slater, or Penélope Cruz coach, among others), Bob McAndrew (Raul Julia, Richard Dreyfuss, Chris Cooper, Christopher Walken, Tom Selleck, or Liza Minelli coach, among others), Juan Carlos Corazza (Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Sergio Peris-Mancheta teacher, and many other Spanish great actors), Javier Daulte, Helen Rowson, Alexandra Neil's, Manuel Carlos Lillo, Ragnar Freidank, and many other great professors.

He also took some Meisner Technique courses with an incredible actor and teacher, Javier Galito-Cava and his colleague Matthew Graham Smith. Thanks to Meisner Technique he evolved to a new step as a performer.

Some of the fear films he'll be involved, Calungsod (that will be shot in The Philippines), The key to Happiness (in Spain), or The Fallen Angel (between the US and Mexico), are some of the interesting projects he'll star in.

Among the feature films he has worked on, three of them were international co-productions between USA-Paraguay, Spain-USA and Spain-UK. Christianwas proud to have worked with actors such as Robert Pattison in "Little Ashes," directed by Paul Morrison, (Highest Award at Schermi d'Amore Italian Film Festival and Award at GLAAD Media Festival); "Trash," directed by Carles Torras, starring Oscar Jaenada (Oficial Selection in Malaga International Film Festival); "7.5 Steps," directed by Lalo Garcia, starring Ernesto Alterio (Award winner in the Malaga International Film Festival); "Stevie," directed by Bryan Goeres, starring Jordi Mollà and Catherine McCormarck; Danny Trejo in "No way out" "Violet" directed by Luiso Berdejo, screened at the International Film Festivals of San Sebastian and Sitges.

He starred and completed more than 40 short films, main lead roles in all of them. Among them are "Wings" directed by Jose Villalobos, screened in the most important Film Festivals all over the World, such as Tribeca, Austin, Nantucket, Malaga, and many more; "Behind the Door," directed by Jan Baca, which won the Golden Medal for the Best Short at UNICA Cinema Film Festival in 2006; "Ilusion" directed by Alexia Muinos, selected in more than 10 International Film Festivals around the world; "Water Moon" directed by Carles Reixach, Audience Award and Best in Cinematography at Girona's Film Festival in 2007; "The Last Dinner," directed by Javier Ideami (selected in several international film festivals); "El Refugio," directed by Albert Ribas, which won the special prize as Best Cameo Short and Best Cinematography at the 2009 Inexperto Film Festival (distributed in Spain); "My invisible Friend," directed by Pablo Larcuen, Best Narrative Short at the 2010 LA Film Festival ; "The Prize," directed by David Blanco, short that was shown for 3 months at the MACBA (The Barcelona Modern Museum).

In Television he appeared in several TV shows such as "El Cor de la Ciutat" (TV3 production), "My Adventure in Barcelona" (a China-Catalonia co-production) or "A fork in the Mediterranean" (Australian SBS Production). But the most notable was his collaboration with TVE (The Spanish Public TV) on its daily show "Los Lunnis", the most successful Puppet show ever done in Spain (sold all around the world with more than 500 chapters). He was a voice over actor of one of its main characters, an American Speaker teacher named Luke. He was also the lead role in the web series "Croma," directed by Victor Quintero and the new tv pilot "Zero" in a leading role. He is been the lead role in some TV pilots such as "Zero" or " Strangers" that are still waiting for a Green Light to be shot.

In Theater, besides his involvement as a Member at The Actors' Gang (Culver City, CA), with which he played Johansson in "The Ghost Sonata" directed by Brian T. Finney, he has been involved in many independent projects such as "Blak & Deker," directed by Roger Delmont (Film, TV and Theater director educated at the New York Film Academy); "I'll Tell you the Truth," a mix of monologues and poems from William Shakespeare, directed by prestigious Russian theatre director, Boris Rotenstein, who has directed also two more plays with him --- "Passions and Slides" and "Impossible Love"; "The Miser" and "El Cafe de la Marina," directed by Rafael Duran; and "Hysteria" (he was the assistant director to John Malkovich).

Hosting is one of his greatest skills. In Europe, he hosted important events, music concerts, premieres, with audiences between 300 to 20,000 attendees. Among them were "Batecs d'Esperanca Concert" (for Haiti victims), "Best AIJEC Entrepeneur Prize 2010", "Trash Premier Party", "Viceversa Editorial" and the "La Festa de la Llibertat concert". He is under negotiations to host a TV-Show for an International Network in 2014.

But he also has a great experience in two more fields. As a producer, thanks to his MBA, he's become a great Film and TV producer, with awarded films under his name. And as an Acting Coach, with his own Acting Studio, coaching dozens of actors every year.

Christian Rodrigo has worked also as a model on TV and print commercials (known by his International 2015 campaign for Dolce & Gabbana with Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey). He also worked as a children animator and has worked in summer camps as a Children Counselor for 15 years.

The biography is taken from the IMDb profile.

Bio:
Yassmine Othman comes from a family of multicultural artists, Moroccan Turkish Spanish by father and French Portuguese by mother. From her paternal grandfather Abderrahman who was a musician, played the violin and clarinet in addition to being an exceptional artist through her aunt Assia a gifted actress from Tangiers to her mother Alexandrina who was a well known circus trapeze artist. Being a polyglot (English, French, Italian, Spanish, Moroccan Arabic and Valenciano), Yassmine has appeared in several film, television and theater productions and has lived in the USA, Morocco and now Spain for several years.

Bio:
He is the author of 6 novels, two of which have been translated into other languages. At the moment, he has finished working on the first script by his novel.

Kirill Denisenko is a lawyer by education, after heart surgery, he studied to be a coach, using his experience, became a coach for people with disabilities and organized visits of athletes and artists to rural orphanages. He has written four books in the genre of science fiction with a focus on protecting the ecology of the earth and uniting disparate people. At the forefront of his books is the acute philosophical and existential torments of heroes who, despite anything supernatural, come to themselves in the present and original.

At the moment, he is creating the Chronicles of Inverted Worlds universe in four volumes and created a script based on the first book Soul Fracture. About the underground world of beggars and the ambiguous totalitarian future that has become commonplace for people.

Joined the Academy on February 5, 2024.