Director bios:

Aik Karapetian obtained a master's degree at the Latvian Academy of Culture, specializing in film directing, and continued his studies at the ESEC film school in Paris. He is the director and screenwriter of the full-length feature film People Out There (2012), The Man in the Orange Jacket (2014), Firstborn (2017), Samuel’s Travels (2021) and the short film Riebums (2007), with which he participated in international film festivals in Karlovy Vary, Hamburg, Gothenburg, Turin, Montreal, BFI London Film Festival, Fantastic Fest in Austin and SITGES Film Festival in Catalonia. Karapetian has been nominated for the Lielais Kristaps Latvian National Film Award multiple times.

Edgars Kaupers was born in 1995 and graduated from Riga State 2nd Gymnasium in 2014. Since 2012, he has been playing in the music band Carnival Youth, with whom he has performed in more than 25 countries around the world. In 2023, he graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture in the film directing program. He wrote and directed several short films, including White Ships (2023), Gaismas Pils (2023), Day of the Sun (2022) Mountain of Glass (2022), and Luck is With Us (2021).

Papa Chi, a visionary filmmaker, has orchestrated captivating emotions through mesmerizing music videos and TV commercials since 1998. With a prolific portfolio encompassing a number of TV commercials and music videos, his artistic influence resonates across Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. His music videos transcend art – they're living folklore, woven into artists' identities. Beyond the screen, Papa Chi has ventured into stage design, crafting visuals for esteemed local musicians. In parallel, Papa Chi's musical alter ego delves into hip-hop and drum'n'bass, while his virtuoso whistling transcends boundaries, transforming melodies worldwide.

Oskars Rupenheits was born in Riga, Latvia in 1982. Having completed BA and MA degrees in economics and marketing, he enrolled in the Latvian Academy of Culture’s Film Directing program. His graduation short film was named Best Student Film at the Latvian National Film Awards in 2009. Later, while studying at the London Film School, he worked on Kevin McDonald’s documentary Life in a Day as an editor. After he returned to Latvia, he made five successful short films over several years, which gained him an audience and led him to write the original screenplay for his first feature film The Foundation of Criminal Excellence. It was released in 2018 and has since received several Latvian National Film Award Lielais Kristaps nominations and prizes.

Marta Elīna Martinsone has studied theater and film directing and worked as a theater director and director’s assistant. She has directed two short films, and her graduation film, Viesturs Kairišs iznāk no meža received the National Film Award for Best Student Film. She was co-writer and assistant director on two feature films: 1906 and Nearby. Her feature film debut Lame-os premiered in North America at NYBFF 2022.

Mārtiņš Grauds is a Latvian filmmaker and photographer known for his poetic visual language and witty, inventive approach to his subjects. He has directed five documentaries and two short films. His latest documentaries explore the relationship between nature and creativity (Forging Condors (2018) and Tree Opera, which screened at NYBFF in 2020). He is a well-known and resourceful commercial director having directed more than 800 ads in his 20+ year career in the industry, and a number of music videos for artists such as Michelle Gurevich, Brainstorm, Tribes of the City, and others, earning four Latvian Music Recordings Annual Awards for the Best Music Video. In 2020 he collaborated with New Riga Theatre and director Alvis Hermanis on a 10-part limited series Agency as the director of photography and editor.