Melies JURY

Sylvestre Sbille is a Belgian writer, screenwriter and director from Namur. After studying art history and archeology at the “Université libre de Bruxelles”, he followed a formation as editor at the INSAS. He then worked in various positions on feature films. Today, he divides his time between documentary and fiction. Sylvestre made two documentaries and several shorts and feature films. He draws inspiration from great mythological stories to create small Walloon fables about unlikely people living on the margins of society. If you want to get a better picture of our guest, here are some details about him: his guilty pleasure is ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL’S, he laughs his ass off with GALAXY QUEST and he is terrified of BATMAN RETURNS (because of the penguin).

In 2001, Hans Herbots directed his first feature film, FALLING, based on the book “Vallen” by Anne Provoost, with Alice Krige and Jill Clayburgh in the main roles. In 2010, he directed HET GODDELIJKE MONSTER, a ten-part drama series for Flemish public television Eén, based on the trilogy of the same name by Tom Lanoye. The feature film THE TREATMENT, from 2013, was based on Mo Hayder’s bestseller. In early 2021, he co-directed 4 episodes of the series THE SERPENT for the BBC and Netflix. It was one of the most watched series on Netflix in the world that year. The series was shot in Bangkok and London, with Tahar Rahim, Jenna Coleman and Stacy Martin as lead parts. Last year Hans came to the BIFFF with his latest film, RITUAL. And this year he’s a member of our Méliès Jury.

Martha Canga Antonio, also known as Martha Da’ro, is a Flemish actress and singer with Angolan roots. Without any previous acting experience, she got selected to play the lead in Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah’s BLACK (2015). This debut performance was awarded with the Prize for Best Actress at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. She’s also known for her parts in ADORATION (2019), BAPTISTE (2019) and A GIRL FROM MOGADISHU (2019). In 2013 she joined the band $oul’Art as a singer and in 2018 she released her first solo single called ‘Summer Blues’. She also starred in ROOMIES, a TV series by Kato De Boeck and Flo Van Deuren for Één and VRT Max