Fascinated by cinema from a young age, Christophe Gans started out as a movie critic before becoming a dominant director of genre films. He took the international scene by storm in 1995 with the now cult CRYING FREEMAN. And with BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (2001), he created one of the most successful French movies ever. In 2006, he adapted the video game SILENT HILL into a movie. He came back in 2014 with BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, starring Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux. This year, he is not only returning to the big screen with RETURN TO SILENT HILL, but he is also chairing our international BIFFF jury! Thanks, Christophe!

Paco Plaza is a Spanish director and screenwriter, mostly known for the [REC] franchise, found footage movies set inside a building filled with possessed people, while a news reporter and her cameraman record the story for us.
He made a name for himself in horror cinema as early as 2002 with SECOND NAME, wrote and co-directed [REC] (2007) with Jaume Balaguero (a BIFFF regular, and a knight even!), and has been piling up the awards.
His movies had already made it to the BIFFF, but this is the first time Paco Plaza himself will be appearing, in the flesh! We can’t wait to WELCOME him.
FILMO: EL SEGUNDO NOMBRE (2002), REC (2007), REC 2 (2008), REC 3 GENESIS (2012), VERONICA (2017), LA ABUELA (2021), HERMANA MUERTE (2023)

Christopher Lambert is a French-American actor, producer and screenwriter. He began his career with supporting roles in French films and became internationally known for his role as Tarzan in GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (1984). He won the César for Best Actor for his role in Luc Besson’s debut feature SUBWAY (1985). But we know him best as Connor MacLeod in the fantasy adventure film HIGHLANDER (1986), Raiden in MORTAL KOMBAT (1995) and Methodius in GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE (2011).