Hameed Haroon - The Chief Executive Officer and publisher of the Dawn Group of Publications, and the former president of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society, Hameed Haroon is also a man of art, culture, theatre, music and film. He owns one of the most extensive collections of art in Pakistan and recently co-curated the widely acclaimed retrospective exhibition in Karachi of the Pakistani master Sadequain. He has been associated with the theatre in London and has also directed stage plays in Karachi. His passion for the documentation and promotion of sufi shrine music at the Bhit Shah shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai earned him, in 1994, the Latif Award, the highest cultural award in the Sindh province. He is also currently involved in documenting and issuing the collected works of the famed Pakistani singer Noor Jehan. On the board of a number of art and culture institutions, Haroon has also served as the Chairman for the National Task Force on Culture in the Federal Ministry for Culture (1999). He has grown up watching and following Pakistani cinema and has a deep and abiding interest in international cinema.

Daniyal Ali Khan - Daniyal Ali Khan is an independent filmmaker. He graduated in 2001 from Columbia College, Chicago, in Film and Video with a concentration in direction and minor in cinematography. He has also done a documentary course at Columbia with Michael Rabiger, the veteran filmmaker, teacher and author of Directing the Documentary. In addition to teaching 10-week to six-month workshops in filmmaking and post-production at various production houses and academies, Daniyal has also worked as a producer for the first independent news channel in Pakistan, Indus News. He is currently heading the Department of Film and Video at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi.

Jamshed Raza Mahmood - Jamshed Raza Mahmood (better known as Jami) returned to Pakistan in 1997 armed with a bachelor's degree in writing and directing from the Pasadena Arts Center College of Design, California (USA). In the short time since his return, he has built an impressive repertoire of chart-topping music videos which include "Pal do Pal" by Najam Shiraz, "Duur", "Anjane", "Dhaani" and "Chaye Chaye" by leading duo Strings, and "Chal Dil Mere" by emerging artist Ali Zafar. One of the leading commercial directors in Pakistan today, Jami's dream is directing features and he is currently in preproduction for his first film.

Khusro Mumtaz - Khusro Mumtaz has degrees in Computer Science, Creative Writing and Business & Finance and works as a banker. He has written extensively on film, theatre and music for a variety of newspapers and magazines, but most notably for The Friday Times where he had a weekly movie review column for a number of years. Currently he writes weekly film reviews for The Review - Dawn newspaper's Thursday magazine.

Naqi Mustafa - Naqi Mustafa received an MA in Sociology from Dacca University in 1965. He was affiliated with the first international film festival held in Dacca in 1966 and participated in Alamgir Kabir's Pakistan Film Society from 1964 to 1968. In 1967 he was awarded Best Writer by Nigar Public Awards for the film "Nawab Sirajuddaula" (dir. Khan Ataur Rehman, Dacca) and a special prize on the script for "Soye Nadia Jagay Pani" (dir. Khan Ataur Rehman, Dacca) in 1968 by the Moscow Film Festival Committee. Other writing and associate direction credits include "Bandhan" (1964), "Quli" (1966), "Zaibunnesa" (1973) and "Suhag" (1974). He was Manager Public Relations for NAFDEC (National Film Development Corporation) in Lahore from 1975 to 1979 during which time he organized mini-film festivals, screenings and discussions for NAFDEC's Pakistan Institute for the Study of Film Art. In 1974 he was the production manager for the feature "Conduct Unbecoming" (dir. Michel Anderson, UK), and in 1976 the production coordinator for "Force 10 from Navarone" (dir. Oliver Unger, USA). Since 1979 Naqi has written for television, radio and print, as well as held various positions in the marketing, advertising and public relations sector in Karachi.

Farjad Nabi - Farjad Nabi is a Lahore based filmmaker whose films include "Nusrat has Left the Building...But When?" and "No One Believes the Professor". He's one of the founding members of Matteela and coordinated the "Duss Goongi Filmain" short film project. He is also the convenor for the Matteela Film Festival which takes place in Lahore every two years. Currently he is working on a radio series on the music of Sindh for the BBC Urdu Service.

Asim Raza - Asim Raza is one of the leading advertising filmmakers of Pakistan and has been in the field of direction for the last 10 years. He has worked on more than 200 TV commercials for a wide variety of clients and products including all the multinationals as well as most of the local clients. He is also directing regional advertising films for middle-eastern countries. Besides commercials, he has done about 15 music videos for various artists including Junoon, Awaz, Junaid Jamshed, Abrar-ul-Haq, Fakhr-e-Alam, Fakhir and Hadiqa Kiyani. He also shot the famous Junoon concert in Central Park in New York, directed a 13-episode program on Marketing and Advertising by the name of "The Big Idea" and directed the on-ground event as well as the TV broadcast for the 2nd Lux Style Awards, 2003.

Beena Sarwar - Born and brought up in Karachi, Beena Sarwar is an artist, journalist and filmmaker active in women's rights, human rights and peace movements in Pakistan. With an undergraduate degree in art and literature from Brown University (1986), she has been assistant editor at the Star Weekend, Karachi; features editor of The Frontier Post, Lahore; and founding editor for The News on Sunday. She contributes a weekly column 'Personal Political' to The News, Pakistan, as well as Tehelka in India and the US-based www.chowk.com. In addition to her work in print, Beena also has a master's degree in TV Documentary from Goldsmiths College, London (2001), and has been a producer for Geo Television in the News Department since 2002. She has in this time produced and directed several documentaries and news features.

Andreas Stroehl - Born in 1962 in Munich, Andreas Stroehl studied New German Literature, Theory of Dramatics, Philosophy and American Cultural History. After a brief stint in journalism and various positions at Goethe Institute, he became Director of Cultural Programs at the Goethe Institute in Prague from 1991 to 1997. Towards the end of this period he was also a guest lecturer on media theory at the Innsbruck University in Austria. From 1998 to 2003 he was Head of the Film, Film Production Management, Television and Radio Department at the Goethe Institute headquarters. As of this year, he is the present director of the Munich International Film Festival. Andreas has served on numerous festival juries internationally.

Ali Faisal Zaidi - Ali Faisal Zaidi is the BBC's Pakistan Producer and is responsible for the camerawork and editing of most of the exclusive Pakistan coverage seen on BBC World Service Television. Ali has a bachelor's degree from Harvard University where he read politics and trained in photography and film and also served as the head of photography for The Harvard Crimson. He has written film reviews and other feature reports for the Herald and has also written for The Muslim in Islamabad. He was creative consultant for the digital feature film "Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke" and was the editor for the short "Virtual Lives" showcased at the 2nd KaraFilm Festival.