"Contrary to what Freud taught us, dreams give meaning to a succession of images and sounds that bombard our sleeping brain in a random fashion. In other words, dreams make stories out of chaos. I believe it is this faculty that enables us to experience cinema." With his seven feature films, several shorts and seventy music videos, Michel Gondry, who is also a musician, has created an original body of work coloured with dreamscape qualities and Utopian ideals. His first feature, Human Nature (2001) was selected for the Festival de Cannes. He was back in 2008 with his segment in the Tokyo! triptych and in 2009 with The Thorn in the Heart. The Academy Award winning screenplay in 2005, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was followed by The Science of Sleep (2006) and Be Kind, Rewind (2008), which led to the writing of his first book: You'll like this Film because you're in it: the Be Kind, Rewind Protocol. The Green Hornet, released in January 2011, has been his biggest box office hit thus far. Michel Gondry has also created some highly innovative music videos for a number of international artists, including Björk, the Rolling Stones, the White Stripes and Beck, as well as visually striking commercials. In February 2011, he set up at the Centre Pompidou in Paris his “Amateur Film Factory”, a studio for creating a short film in just three hours. He is currently adapting for the big screen a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick: Ubik.

«My faith in cinema is very much alive, as evidenced by my sitting on a jury that highlights auteur cinema ». Emir Kusturica was born in Sarajevo. He studied at the Film Academy in Prague (FAMU). He was awarded the Golden Lion in Venice for his first feature in 1981, "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?" In 1985, he shot "When Father Was Away on Business" which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. In 1988 he made "Time of Gypsies" (Best Director Award Cannes 1988), followed by "Arizona Dream" (Silver Bear Berlin 1993). "Underground", selected in Cannes in 1995 earned him his second Palme d’Or. In 1998 "Black Cat White Cat" is awarded the Silver Lion in Venice. In 2001, he turns to documentary filmmaking with "Super 8 Stories" about his musical band "The No Smoking Orchestra". In 2004 he presented at Cannes "Life is a Miracle". It was on the set of his last film that he decided to build his own village: Kustendorf, where he wants to create a new life style. He’s back at the Festival with "Promess me" (2007) and 2008 with his documentary "Maradona by Kusturica". He just published his autobiography "Where Am I in the story".

«I am very psyched, to the point of shock, by all of the new directors this year. Whether you are invited to Cannes or not, I would like to express my sincere congratulations to all of you, the new filmmakers from all over the world, for completing your first film. Congratulations! » Bong Joon-ho studied sociology and film at the Korean Academy of Film Art before becoming a director. He achieved critical acclaim for his first feature film Barking Dogs Never Bite distinguished by the Fipresci Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2001. His next film, Memories of Murder (2004), which achieved huge public success in Korea, earned him a Best Director Award at San Sebastian. The Host, screened in 2006 at the Directors’ Fortnight, finally sealed his reputation as a director of genre films raised to the level of art. He was invited to Cannes in the Official Selection with Shaking Tokyo (2008), part of the trilogy Tokyo! which he signed with Leos Carax and Michel Gondry. In 2009, he presented Mother at Un Certain Regard, later awarded by many international film festivals.