DOCUMENTARY FILM JURY
Julie Bergeron BIO
Julie Bergeron, born in Montreal, Quebec, has lived in Paris since 1997. Over the past 25 years, she has collaborated with prestigious film festivals and markets worldwide, including the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, Ventana Sur in Argentina, and Frontières at Fantasia, where she played a key role in developing industry programs. She is frequently invited as an expert or jury member for film agencies and festivals. Bergeron has been a member of the CNC’s Cinéma du Monde commission and currently sits on the CNC’s Fonds d’aide à l’innovation and the Franco-Italian commission.
She is a producer at Reality Films, the production arm of the French distributor Epicentre Films, where she actively develops creative documentaries and feature film coproductions including The Masters of Beauty and Magic by Jad Chahine and Ofelia by Juan Pablo Felix.
Bergeron also produces within NOUS Theatre, the company founded by Haitian writer and director Guy Régis Jr.
Bassam Mortada BIO
Bassam Mortada is a director and artistic producer. He co-founded his own See Media Production with a concentration on projects that feature alternative histories and marginalised narratives. His first documentary, Reporting… A Revolution premiered at the Berlinale 2012 and toured many festivals worldwide.
His short film Searching for Ghazala was screened at the Cairo Film Festival in 2019.
His second feature documentary, Abu Zaabal 89, won the Robert Bosch Co-Production Prize while still in development. The film was later screened at the Cairo International Film Festival and IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), earning three awards in Cairo and two at the Amman International Film Festival. The film was selected by the FIPRESCI and the Egyptian Film Critics Association as one of the 25 best Egyptian films of the new millennium.
Alongside his filmmaking, Bassam produces the Cinema Saifi podcast and contributes to film programming and the support of independent screenings across the Arab region.
Ola Salama BIO
She is the Executive Director of Filmlab Palestine, a cultural institution dedicated to empowering Palestinian filmmakers and fostering a vibrant cinema culture. Born in Gaza and holding a Master’s degree in Economics from Birzeit University, she brings a multidisciplinary background in marketing, culture, and public administration.
Since joining Filmlab Palestine, Ola has led flagship initiatives such as the Palestine Cinema Days Festival and The Story Lab, nurturing storytelling among youth across the Arab world. Guided by a belief in cinema as a tool of cultural resistance and collective memory, she has expanded the Filmlab’s impact through international partnerships, industry labs, and screenings that reach even displaced and war-affected communities, while amplifying Palestinian narratives on the global stage.